Easy Laundry Detergent Recipe

Sometime after we had our first baby, we realized how fast we were going through detergent. Every time we went to the store we were buying another jug. So I decided to try a homemade laundry detergent and was hooked!

At that time I was making a liquid detergent and it would make 10 gallons at one time!

It worked great for the 1 1/2 years we used it. I have since moved to a powder recipe and have to say I love it even more! The liquid recipe is pretty time consuming with melting down the bars of soap. So I decided to try a powder detergent recipe I haven't looked back since! 

There are no perfumes or dyes in this detergent and is safe for those with sensitive skin. However, this is not a good recipe for washing cloth diapers. The Fels Naptha can build up on the diapers and create repelling.

This recipe is a modified version of one I found online. I can't remember where I first saw the original recipe or I'd post a link. 

Homemade Laundry Detergent

3 bars Fels Naptha

1 box Baking Soda

1 box Washing Soda

1 box Borax

First, pour the baking soda, washing soda and borax into a large bucket. We bought a 5 gallon bucket at Lowes for around $3.

Covered Canvas and Framed Fabric

While preparing our house to sell, we took almost all of our family photos down and packed them safely away. I read that it is better to take down photos so that the potential buyers can see themselves living in the home and not focus on who is currently living there.

Unfortunately, that meant we had a lot of bare walls.

I didn't want to spend money on decor I might not use in the new house, so I had to do some brainstorming….and Pinterest browsing! 

This is what I decided to do for a quick and easy solution for our empty wall space….

I already had a 2 pack of 11"x14" canvases and the fabric was in my stash. Yep, another free-ish project! When I can make a project for free it just makes the finished product that much better!

Wooden Elephant Art

This project was inspired by a cute book our kids love us to read to them, "Kiss Kiss" by Margaret Wild. 

The book is actually about a baby hippo who leaves his mama to go play. As he is walking past his little jungle friends giving their mamas kisses, he realizes he forgot to "kiss kiss" his mama! 

It's a simple, yet adorable children's book about a baby and his need for his kisses.

Do I need to say more!

I chose to use elephants, because I loved the way they give kisses with their trunks. 

That's at least how I think a sweet mama elephant would kiss her baby! 

It didn't take much for me to put this together. I already had these scrap pieces of stained wood from an old jewelry box (it was large!) that fell apart.

The wood was still in great shape, and to my husbands demise I have kept it for projects like this.

All I needed was some small nails (found at the bottom of the tool box), a sawtooth hanger, scrap wood, a hammer, elephant clip art and coordinating scrapbook paper.

I wiped down the wood to clean of all the dust.