Monday, August 19, 2013

Homemade Laundry Detergent Part 2

  As previously detailed in Homemade Laundry Detergent Part 1, I made my own laundry detergent using 2 bars of laundry soaps (2 different brands), Borax, and washing soda bought from Publix. I paid $8.55 plus 6% sales tax ($.51) for all the materials and I have Borax and washing soda left over. I stored the resulting soap in a 5 gallon bucket ($2.60 plus $1.28 for the lid, so $3.88) I bought from Lowe's. The bucket is not even close to being particularly full (it actually looks pretty empty), plus I actually took some of it out and put it in a plastic 2 quart jar so we wouldn't have to haul that huge bucket to the laundromat. I suspect that if I took one of those party ice cream pails, washed it, and dried it, then I could use that to hold almost the entire batch.

  Considering that one is only supposed to use 1tbsp per laundry load (2 tbsp for especially filthy loads) this should supply me for quite some time. In fact, there are 64 tablespoons in a quart so that one little jar should do at least 138 loads, and there is enough detergent left in the bucket for maybe another jar (slightly more) so this batch will do 276 loads for just over $9. That is 3.3 cents a load!

  When I look at prices for the detergent I used to use, All Free & Clear Small & Mighty and the size (50 oz size), the price is much, much higher. In fact, by doing a google shopping search, I found that the concentrated detergent is on average, about $5 and will do 32 loads. That is 15.6 cents a load, 4.7 times the cost of my homemade concoction. The Mighty Pacs fared even worse. A package of 48 "pacs" was listed at $16. That is 33.3 cents a load, a solid 10 times more expensive, plus those things are absolutely deadly to children and pets. Last time I bought detergent, I bought the 150 oz bottle, which is listed at $10. It says it will do 100 loads. That is 10 cents a load and roughly 3 times more expensive than my detergent. That is still the best price on the store bought detergent.

  Now, I need to go off on a tangent about laundry detergents. That "load" number that they mention on the front of the bottle is usually a lot more loads than you are actually going to get out of the bottle. The measuring cup has numbers and lines on it, and I think when they say load they mean to the first line. Legally, it could be less. They have no reason to tell you what measurement they are going by so for all we know, a load could constitute of a teaspoon of soap with them knowing you are fixing to use half a cup for each load. If you do use a commercially produced liquid laundry detergent, try using half of what you normally use. If that still gets your clothes clean, try halving it again. Experiment and figure out exactly how much soap you need to get your clothes clean and ignore their measurement. You will save tons of money.

  Another good money saving tip, especially if you need something easily portable or cannot lift the larger containers, is to buy 1 small container initially, and then buy the larger container and keep refilling the smaller container. You will get the best possible price on the detergent and still be able to handle the bottle. Plus, when using the measuring cap for the smaller bottle with non concentrated soap, you will use closer to the appropriate amount of soap and it will stretch more.

  On Friday Daddybeast dutifully went to laundry a day late (he was supposed to do it Thursday, instead he did it before he went to work on Friday). Our coin laundry has changed policy recently and even though the dryers used to be "free" they are not anymore. That's a shame but the lady who owns the place was hemorrhaging money through the dryers and I can understand the need to pay bills. That just means we'll be shopping around for a possibly cheaper laundromat in the future. It's nothing personal, but our laundry bill just went up a good $10 at least and we need to cut costs however possible.

  Anyhow, He did 3 baskets of clothing of varying sizes. These baskets included jeans, khaki pants, towels, work polo shirts, cotton t shirts, baby clothes, cloth diapers, socks, bras, underwear, baby blankets, and a few stuffed animals in a rainbow of colors. Standard laundry fare, though usually we cram at least one more basket into the cobalt and get it all done at once. I asked him how much detergent he used per load and he said, "well you didn't give me a measuring spoon and I couldn't remember how much you said so I just guessed." He probably used about 6 washers and 1/3 the container is gone. I'm not terribly pleased about the wastage, but the clothes are clean and I still have more detergent so we'll take what we've got and run with it.

 So now that a few days have gone by and everyone has had a chance to wear the freshly washed clothing, I will detail the results under the following categories: Cleanliness, Texture, Smell, and Adverse Reactions. The testers are Daddybeast, Mommy (me!), Bunnyworm, Wafflecat, The Diva, and Bjorn.

  The first thing I observed about the clothing upon folding it the day after it was washed (I worked Friday and I was too exhausted to fold clothes after work) was that there was no residue on the clothing. I checked some of Daddybeasts work polos and there were no deodorant stains. Any standard food stains were successfully washed away (standard being things that do not typically stain). Bunnyworm's eating shirts were clean and free of most stains--she did eat blueberries one day and there are faint hints of purple from them. Still, that is why I dedicate a few shirts to her eating. They can get ruined while her other clothes stay nice, and even then, she only wears them in public or when it's cold. Otherwise we strip her down. I did not initially notice anything out of the ordinary on my clothing until this morning. I found a sliver of fells naptha soap on my shirt. I haven't been able to find any other slivers, so maybe that was a particularly large chunk from the load. The cats beds and the towel they sleep on occasionally came clean despite Wafflecat peeing on one of the beds and Bjorn throwing up on just about everything. All in all, I'm very satisfied with the cleanliness of the clothes after using the detergent.

  As I was folding the clothes I noted the texture or feel of the clothes. Most of my towels came out fluffy and soft, the exception being the aforementioned cat towel Bjorn horked up on. It was a gift from my Gramma. She basically handed me a stack of stiff rough bleachstained towels and said I could have them if I thought I could use them. My towels are much nicer than them, but I figured I could use them to clean up messes and dry the cats after their baths. Anyhow, the towel was stiff and nasty before I washed it, and it was still stiff afterwards so next time I wash it, I'm going to add some vinegar to the load to soften it up and get the detergent build up out of it (Gramma always uses "extra detergent for extra cleaning" which just makes the clothes crunchy and uncomfortable, but you do. not. tell. Gramma. how. to. do. laundry.) The bluejeans and khakis were smooth and felt normal. T shirts also felt normal, as did Daddybeast's work shirts. Socks were soft. Stuffed animals were intact and fluffy. Bras were soft and satiny just like they're supposed to be. So no problems with the texture of the clothing were caused by the detergent despite way too much detergent being used in each load.

  I have a very sensitive sense of smell and there are some smells that I cannot stand. Cat urine is one of them, as is left over deodorant smell. We had both of these in our laundry. The cat urine smell is gone from the cat bed (for now, until Wafflecat does it again). Daddybeast's work shirts had a very faint trace of his deodorant smell in them, but ultimately it was not strong enough to make me feel the clothes need to be washed again. In fact, the All detergent we have used in the past doesn't get the smell all the way out either. Only pretreating with vinegar seems to work. Other than that, the clothes smelled like tap water. It's different from the All free and clear, which has no smell at all. I don't dislike the smell I guess, but it isn't what I was expecting. I'm wondering if maybe next time I whip up a batch of soap I should add a bar of Dr. Bronner's Lavender Castile Soap and ditch the Fells Naptha bar. The castile soap is much more expensive (about $2 more) but if it makes the laundry smell better, by all means and I've used it on Bunnyworm in the past and it doesn't bother her. It's surprising because the zote soap I used has a very very strong lemony smell, but that smell doesn't make it through the wash. So ultimately, I wasn't impressed with the smell, but it wasn't offensive to me.

  Bunnyworm is allergic to Cheer brand laundry detergent (it's the brand the laundromat sells). My mother is allergic to Tide brand and I've never used it. Because Bunnyworm has shown a reaction to at least one laundry detergent, I was worried the homemade detergent would give her hives like the Cheer did. The first night she slept in and sweated in freshly laundered pajamas. The next day she wore the clothes all day long. Not one bump or red welt. The same has happened with me and Daddybeast. Bjorn has allergies (we aren't sure to what, but he always does better AFTER he has a bath) and it didn't bother him or any of the other cats. None of the clothing was discolored as far as I can tell. So, no adverse effects from using the detergent.

Overall, I have to say I am very pleased with the results of my homemade detergent. It got the clothes clean, they weren't crunchy and nasty (except the one thing that was already crunchy and nasty), there wasn't much of a smell, no one is allergic to it, and it didn't discolor my clothes. Now if I can train Daddybeast to use the proper amount of detergent, we will save tons of cash which was the point of this experiment.

Monday, August 12, 2013

Homemade Laundry Detergent Part 1

So. I name this "homemade laundry detergent part 1" in the optimistic hope that eventually there will be a part 2. Only time will tell.

Two weeks ago Daddybeast did laundry at the local (well, semi-local, it's a few miles away and there are others that are closer but I digress) laundromat. We live in a tiny 1 bedroom apartment. We don't have washer/dryer hookups and that's really not a big deal--we have a dishwasher. In my first apartment I did not have a dishwasher. I had a sink full of dirty dishes. I hate doing dishes. I hate doing dishes a lot.

Anyhow.

We don't have a washer/dryer because there's nowhere to put it and because of that, we go to the coin laundry that offers "free dryers" (fuck yeah!). Now, free dryers is relative. The owner basically looks at what washer you used and puts a certain number of quarters (there is a chart) in the dryer for the type of washer you used. It usually doesn't get the clothes all the way dry, but it helps and it's more than other places do. The place is pretty nice too. There are tables and chairs, those little laundry carts, folding tables, drink machine, food machine, 2 video games, and a bathroom. It's always awfully hot in there because of the dryers but in the winter it's not too bad.

Back to the Daddybeast. He did laundry last weekend and then came home and told me, "The next time you go with your mom to Sam's club, please get another big thing of All. We ran out and I had to use the cleaning vinegar to get some of the clothes clean. I know Bunnyworm is allergic to the stuff they sell there so I didn't get any of that." (Bunnyworm is allergic to Cheer brand laundry detergent). So yeah. The clothes were "clean" for a given value of clean. I discovered on Sunday just how clean the clothes were. There were 2 new pairs of blue jeans my mom had bought for me and they still reeked of the chemicals they process those things in. And I got a rash from wearing them and sweating in them at work all day. I did not have any issues with any of the other clothes (and the vinegar dissolved the deodorant stains on Daddybeast's work shirts).

I have seen a lot of recipes for laundry soap and some of them (the liquid ones in particular) looked like huge pains in the ass. I settled on this recipe from DIY Natural for my first attempt because 3 ingredients? I can do that.

Today I took my mom to Publix and since I was there I went ahead and got me some Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda 55oz ($3.19), 20 Mule Team Borax 76oz ($3.19), and a bar of Fells Naptha soap 5.5oz ($1.19). I already had a bar of White Zote Soap 14.1oz that I have had for years and I have no idea how much I paid for it (I bought a bunch years ago to wash my clothes in the bathtub--a NIGHTMARE).

So. I got my large cloth diaper washing bowl (I still wash those by hand most of the time) and my fine grater and I sat down and got to grating. And grating. And then? More grating. I probably will not be able to move either arm in the morning. That's a lot of grating. I've read of a method where you can zap the soap in the microwave and it makes it puffy then you can drop that mess in the blender. I've read that putting the bar in the freezer for a while makes it easier to grate. I didn't try either. I just sat there and grated the fells naptha bar first. The smell is strong, but the soap is pretty waxy so it comes off in chunky curly peels (make sure you use a fine grater--otherwise you might wind up with left over soap on your clothes--I've read of people complaining about this. If you don't have a fine grater, you can put one of the other dry ingredients and the soap in a blender and chop it finer to prevent chunky soap residue). It didn't give me or my asthma any trouble. I measured out my cup of Borax and my cup of Washing Soda and mixed it. It looked sad and alone. It wasn't much in the bottom of the large bowl.

I wish I'd just sat down and congratulated myself. I might not have strained my arms as much as I have. But I didn't leave well enough alone.

Oh no.

I grated the bar of Zote Soap.

It is NOT smooth and waxy. It is dry and powdery and if you breathe it, you will sneeze a lot. If you have asthma it might just give you an asthma attack. After two hits on my rescue inhaler, a shower, and snorting hot water in the shower to clear my sinuses (it hurt, but it worked) I was able to breathe again. So. Yeah. Wear a dust mask if your soap is dry. If in doubt, just wear a dust mask.

Also, there is a lot more zote soap in a bar than there is soap in a fells naptha bar. Almost 3 times as much. And the soap is harder so you get less scraped off with each pass. It took forever. Daddybeast would not get near the stuff. He walked into the room I was working in and said "holy crap that stuff smells strong" and walked out.

Wafflecat and The Diva and stupid Bjorn all walked up to see what I was doing (and maybe try to climb into the bowl). Wafflecat stopped dead about 3 feet from the bowl, squinted up his eyes, his ears went back, and he slunk away. The Diva sniffed the side of the bowl, sneezed, and walked away, foofy tail out and up *foof*. Stupid Bjorn tried to jump into the bowl (he is so stupid).

 Anyhow, I made the stuff. Thursday Daddybeast will go up to the coin laundry and we will see how this stuff works. He will probably go ahead and put vinegar in with the wash simply because that gets the deodorant smell out of the clothes (not to mention the cat pee smell out of anything Wafflecat decides to pee on. Damn cat pees on everything.)

So. Here is what I used to make my laundry detergent.

1 bar Fells Naptha Laundry Soap
1 bar White Zote Soap
4 cups Borax
4 cups Washing Soda

Grate the soap. Add the Borax and the Washing Soda, stir vigorously. You might want to blend or process the soap and a bit of the washing soda if you have large clumps of soap. It will make it very uniform. I didn't so I will have to make sure I stir the stuff before I use it.

Store this stuff in an airtight container. I used a 5 gallon bucket from Lowe's. It filled the bucket maybe 1/3 the way full so a 2 gallon bucket might work just as well. Another container that might work out is one of those party sized ice cream containers. In fact, next time we have one, I'm going to save it and wash it so we can store some of the detergent in it and we won't have to drag that 5 gallon bucket around.

As for using the detergent, from what I've read this stuff is really concentrated. 1 tbsp should be sufficient for most loads, with 2 or 3 tbsp for heavily soiled or very large loads. If you are concerned about using a dry detergent you can mix your tbsp or so with a warm glass of water to start it dissolving. If you are able to, let the washer start filling with water before you add your detergent and then add the clothes.

Adding vinegar to your wash would be done when you would normally add fabric softener. There is a place for the stuff in the washers at the laundromat but I usually just add it to the clothes before the start of the cycle (the washers lock after they start).

Anyhow, Thursday Daddybeast will be going to the coin laundry and testing out the detergent. I will hopefully follow up with a part 2 to discuss how well things go.

Saturday, August 3, 2013

It's No Longer Just Bunnyworms and Wafflecats

We have had some additions to our family.
Diva and Bjorn
It was never my intention to have more furbabies. These guys were a surprise.

See, my brother rescued a cat two years or so ago. She was undernourished and all messed up, and has a BB lodged in her face just under her right eye. He named her Kelly. He patched her up and got her healthy. She's a really sweet cat. She's got fur like none I've ever really experienced. It's thick and chunky but it's not long, but longer than short. Then there is her round face. Her tail isn't foofy but it's got that same thick fur.
Kelly. I've always been partial to calico cats.
My brother is a bit slow (mentally handicapped) and he doesn't understand some things, and some things he understands wrong, but he loves animals and always has. He has had a cat named Melissa (she is NOT a nice cat. Not a nice cat at all.) for several years.

So he took in this bedraggled abandoned hurt kitty and fed her, loved her, bonded with her.

But he did not fix her. Nooooo he did not.
Oops
The first time I met Kelly, I asked him if she had been spayed and he said he was not sure because she was an adult when he found her (or she found him, which I think is more likely). He said he'd had her for over a year and she had never had a litter so he thought she had been. He was wrong. The second time I saw her (he was living at my grandmother's house at this point) she had that classic "swallowed a basketball" look that pregnant cats have. I told him, "Luis, your cat is pregnant." He disagreed with me. He said she was just fat because she ate all the time.

Now, I grew up with kittens and cats and dogs and rabbits and iguanas and snakes and birds and fish--you name it. My gramma always had a menagerie of animals--usually belonging to one of her 7 kids or her 11 grandchildren. Except Precious, the iguana (named after Gollum), whom she had back in the 90s. Precious was her baby. She loved and doted on that thing. Anyhow, I know when an animal is pregnant. I've been there for the birth of kittens. I've seen (and heard!) cats mating. Like I said, my gramma had all these animals belonging to everyone else at her house--people who didn't spay or neuter their pets.

I told him, "Luis, I can feel heads when I touch her belly." He told me they were parasites (in a way he was right. Hahahaha! Cats.) He told me she's gotten big like this several times before and then lost all the weight suddenly. Now, my theories as to what happened there are that she either raised litters of kittens in someone else's house (she's an indoor/outdoor cat), raised the kittens in the wild, had a miscarriage (she was in pretty rough health for a while), had kittens that were sickly and abandoned them (sad!), or that she had the kittens and that bitch Melissa killed them. Like I said, Melissa is NOT A NICE CAT. I've had the hardest time keeping her from mauling Bunnyworm. Anyhow, I told him that when the kittens were born, I had a home for one of the orange ones if there were any orange ones.

A friend of mine had wanted a fluffy orange kitten for the longest time. A little bit less than a month later I received a phone call from my brother telling me that Kelly had given birth to a litter of 6 kittens--3 gray, 2 orange, 1 black and white. I went up to my grammas right before Easter to see her and honestly, the kittens.
KITTIES!!!!!
He wasn't sure when they had been born but that they were about a week old. (They look older than that to me). Bunnyworm was thrilled to death about the kittens and we had to keep her away from them so she wouldn't hurt them.

About a month and a half later, Luis called me and told me, "They are ready, can you please come get them?"

Now, I was only planning on getting the fluffy orange one and taking it to my friend, but somehow I wound up taking ALL of them.

We planned on going up there to get them on both me and Daddybeast's day off from work. A day before that Luis called me crying hysterically. One of the kittens had gotten outside and gotten lost in the tall grass in the rain and had died. That was the black and white one, while another one had also gotten out but he'd managed to find that one (one of the orange ones).

So, we were going to pick up 5 kittens and Kelly, who I had insisted on taking so I could get her spayed. They were NOT HAPPY in the car for the hour we drove home.

We bought a wire kennel to keep the kittens in initially (we were not sure how Wafflecat was going to handle invaders plus Kelly had to stop nursing so we could get her spayed) and to keep Kelly in either while she was in heat so she would not sneak out, or after her surgery to keep her contained. That was where the kittens spent their first few days in my apartment.
From the left-female, male, male, female, male.
My friend came and picked up the fluffy orange one that night. She was so excited. I went out and I bought collars for the other 4 in different colors-Purple, Red, Blue, Pink so we could refer to the kittens by the color of their collar instead of naming them or trying to describe them. They were slowly let out into the bathroom where the kennel was initially, and then for short periods of time. Eventually we let them outside to see the back porch. Waffles was very interested in the kittens. The orange kittens (including the long haired one that showed interest in him before my friend came to get him) were they only ones not scared of him and Kelly would not let him near her or the kittens (it was very ugly).

Eventually, Waffles bonded with one of the kittens (Blue collar) who looked *JUST LIKE HIM*.

I should add that Waffles had been neutered about a year prior to this picture.
The matching collars were not a coincidence.
 A few days went passed and my friend gave me a call. She was allergic to the fluffy orange kitten and it was not working out. She couldn't breathe when he was around so she was going to have to bring him back. She brought him back and he was overjoyed to be reunited with his mom and siblings.

He did not have a collar for a while, then I got a green camouflage one for him.

Mothers day was approaching and Daddybeast offered me a choice. I could either have a Ninja kitchen system or the fluffy orange kitten that had been brought back. I chose the orange kitten and we named him Bjorn (bear). I still think I made the better choice.

One of Daddybeast's coworkers was looking to replace a cat she had just lost. I convinced her to take 2. She took the Pink collard gray girl and named her Shay, and the blue collard short haired orange boy (I liked his collar better than the green one, so I switched collars to Bjorn) whom she named Tigger.

So we were down to 3 kittens.

It was at this point that I noticed that Kelly was gaining weight and bulking up. She had not been outside at all since I'd brought her home and spent a lot of time hiding in my bathroom. She was pregnant again and i was not about to abort those kittens so we took her back to Luis. I was happy to see her go. She's a really sweet cat, but she hated Wafflecat and even though he was almost twice as big as her, he was terrified of her. She was constantly attacking and ambushing him and even cut up his face. Luis cried and cuddled her when we took her back. I informed him that he would need to talk to my mom about fixing her because after 2 months of taking care of 4 extra cats (and having to get Bjorn sorted out) I was not going to be able to afford to get her spayed.

I do not know what happened to that litter because I went back by there about a week ago and she was very pregnant. She might have miscarried. Either way, a new litter will be coming soon and I've already informed him that no one I know wants a cat.

Anyhow, with the departure of their mother (they were at least 3 months old by this point) they all became really needy and attached themselves to Wafflecat. He was pretty decent about it too. He got rough periodically, but ultimately he just wanted to play. Red (the gray and white boy) started trying to nurse on him and Bjorn followed suit. The purple kitten never did, but did hang out with him a lot.

Wafflecat is a BOY CAT
 Wafflecat and Bjorn get along very well. They spend a lot of time together.
Cat heart!
Wafflecat initially did not like Diva. Diva is an instigator and a troublemaker. She used to initiate play and then cry when she started to lose, then Kelly would come in and beat his ass. They've started to bond now that she's recovered from her spay.
Ain't nothing like a heap o' cats
Now, we wound up keeping Diva because well, I like her and she loves me (as much as a cat can love a person). She's Daddybeast's favorite too. We got Diva and Bjorn spayed and neutered using Project Catsnips. They did a fantastic job. They were fixed, got all their shots (rabies, 4 in 1, feline leukemia), both have been microchipped, dewormed, and we got 3 months of revolution per cat for fleas (not that they've ever had any). It set us back about $360. Very cheap.

As much as I loved Red we could not keep him. 4 cats is too much for a 1 bedroom apartment. Way too much. I asked around and even tried to persuade my mom to take him. He's a beautiful cat.
He is spotted. He's also got brown on his ears, face and a bit on his tummy. My guess is that someone in the neighborhood owned an unaltered male Bengal cat. Diva and Bjorn show signs of it too.
We took him back to my brother last week. Luis decided he is going to keep him and name him "Speedy". I am not fond of the name, but that's his decision. RED was the least socialized kitten so I spent the most time taming him. He was practically feral when I brought him home and he mauled me several times. He would hiss at me whenever I got close to him. By the time he left, he was sleeping next to me every chance he got. He does not like being picked up and probably never will, but he likes being close and he likes being petted and loved. Very sweet cat.

So yes, we have 2 new furbabies. Bjorn loves EVERYONE and will jump on your chest and lick you until your face is raw. He's a purrbeast. He's also got allergies and I bathe him once a week to keep those in check. He does not like it at all.
They all have tags like this.
Diva is the kind of cat that will reach up and trip you as you step over her. She's also very affectionate and might just turn into my favorite. She's also the smartest (Bjorn is the dumbest cat I have ever seen). She's also stunningly beautiful.
and she knows it.
Still, even with all of this sweetness and posing and cuddlyness, cats are still pretty evil.
We bite.