Cleaning Recipes

As you get to know me, you will learn that I love being frugal and getting a great deal. So when my friend suggested that we try making laundry soap together I was excited to give it a try, but to be honest I was skeptical at the same time. My son has eczema and has reacted to a number of different laundry soaps that I have tried. We found that Tide free and clear has worked the best for him, and I did not want to be the cause of another reaction.

With 3 kids we have LOTS of laundry, and commercial laundry soap is not cheap! We have been making laundry soap for about a year and our family has had no problems with sensitive skin. It cleans our clothes really well and I love that it is inexpensive. The recipe we use is from the Duggar Family Website.

Liquid Laundry Soap

4 Cups – hot tap water

1 Fels-Naptha soap bar

1 Cup – Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda*

½ Cup Borax

Grate bar of soap and add to saucepan with water. Stir continually over medium-low heat until soap dissolves and is melted. It takes a bit to get all the soap to melt.

Fill a 5 gallon bucket half full of hot tap water. Add melted soap, washing soda and Borax. Stir well until all powder is dissolved. Fill bucket to top with more hot water. Stir, cover and let sit overnight to thicken, it will be a thick gel. Once it has set overnight I use a long hand drink mixer to stir the gel to a liquid consistency, but a long paint stick will work as well.

Stir and fill a clean used, laundry soap container half full with soap concentrate and then fill rest of way with water. Shake before each use since the soap has a tendency to gel as it sits.

Yield: Liquid soap recipe makes 10 gallons. Since you are mixing the concentrate 50/50 with water. I use about ¼ Cup per load (Approx. 640 loads). Add a bit more if the clothes are really soiled.

*Arm & Hammer “Super Washing Soda” is found in the laundry isle. Baking Soda and Arm & Hammer Detergent will NOT work – It must be sodium carbonate!!

Vinegar Downy Ball

Instead of commercial fabric softeners, I use a Downy Ball filled to the marked line with white vinegar in my washer. The vinegar works similar to commercial fabric softeners and it is a fraction of the cost. Our clothes don’t come out smelling like vinegar either. I love not using fabric sheets in my dryer! I buy vinegar at Costco in a large container.

All Purpose Cleaner with Lemon

2 Cup Water

2 Tbsp Lemon Juice

1/2 tsp Liquid Dish Soap

1 T Baking Soda

1 tsp Borax

Mix all ingredients into a spray bottle and shake. I use this cleaner mostly in the kitchen, but it works great in the bathroom as well. I reuse the spray bottles from commercial cleaners, just make sure to rinse out well.

Fruit and Veggie Cleaner

1 Cup Water

1 Cup White Distilled Vinegar

1 Tbsp baking soda

20 drops grapefruit seed extract

Mix all ingredients into a spray bottle and shake. Spray onto your fruit, leave on for 5 minutes and rinse off. I use a new spray bottle since you are spraying on food.

I would love to hear what your favorite cleaners are and any recipes that you have found to work really well.

Melting Art

It is still snowing, so we are making the most of it before spring hits! Remember the wonderful snowman the kids made in the kitchen a few weeks ago. We followed the same concept, but this time we decided to see what it would look like as the painted snow melted.

We used our art trays (found at IKEA in the kitchen section) with cooling racks set on top to contain the snow as it melted. Watercolor paper works great since the paper will become soaked as the snow melts. Pile the snow on to your paper and begin painting. I limited the kids to green, blue and purple so we did not end up will “muddy” images.

As the snow melts, the colors mingle together beautifully. We added salt to encourage the snow to melt faster. Partly because I love how salt creates great texture and sparkles with watercolors, but mostly we were impatient and wanted the snow to melt faster. After the kids finished we placed the trays on the radiators to aide in the melting process. I may have turned up the heat as well. I love radiators for drying art work and for warming my coat and mittens in the winter!

As the snow melted it starts to pool and run so make sure that the tray is deep enough to catch all the drips. I love how they turned out!

Transfer Printing

We made a fun discovery today. Rubbing alcohol works to transfer drawings. It is a super simple technique, but kids think it is magical.

The kids drew pictures onto plain computer paper with water soluble markers. Then made a background for their drawing to be transferred to. For the background we used watercolor paper and watercolors, but regular paper works as well.

Tape your background image to your surface and place your drawing face down on top. Paint a small amount of the rubbing alcohol onto the backside of the drawing then gently rub with a spoon to encourage the image to transfer to the watercolor paper. Taping the paper will help the image not to wiggle and result in a crisper finished product.

Your transfer will be a mirror image of the original drawing, so be careful using words. You could paint with water instead of rubbing alcohol, although that would would result in a blurry, blended image.

The rubbing alcohol transfers are also a bit fuzzy around the edges, but I love how the prints turned out.

Stamping Dice

My kids love to stamp anything and everything. Today they decided a simple Stamping Dice Activity, which became a great lesson in early math.

We make our own stamp pads, which is really simple. All you need is felt, a plastic plate or lid, acrylic paint and salt. Cut the felt into a circle to fit the bottom of your plate. Squeeze a small amount of acrylic paint onto the plate, sprinkle with a bit of salt and stir. The salt will make the acrylic more fluid and easier to stamp with. Don’t use to much salt or it will become too runny. Lay the felt over the paint and let it absorb into the felt.

Quick, easy prep and your stamp pad is ready to go. It is also reusable, which I love. Just simply rinse the felt out lay flat to dry. You can use tempera paint as well, I just like acrylics.

We made the plus, minus and equals signs by cutting up foam stickers to the right shape. Foam stickers work great because they have depth and are already sticky. We stuck the foam math signs onto dice and started stamping.

We also worked with the little ones on number sequencing. I love when the kids can learn while playing.

If you don’t want to miss out on any of the fun we are having at Housing A Forest, make sure to follow us on Pinterest, Facebook, Google + and Twitter.

Shamrock Crystals

How to make Borax Crystals

This is something you HAVE to try! The end result is amazing and they sparkle beautifully in the sun. I have seen a number of blogs around Christmas time that use borax crystals as ornaments, but we are now March and I am just getting around to making them so we made Shamrocks. I am tempted to make shapes for every season!

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How to make Shamrock Crystals

Borax
boiling water
a wide mouth glass mason jar
green and white pipe cleaners
string
a pencil
food coloring.

Borax can be found in the laundry isle. It is natural, but that does not mean it is safe. Borax should not me inhaled or ingested, so be careful.

Instructions for making the crystals

First, twist your pipe cleaner into the desired shape. I set out a few templates of shamrocks (printed off the internet) for the kids to look at.

You will need 3 cups of boiling water per mason jar, 1/2 cup of Borax for each jar. The more saturated your solution is, the larger your crystals will be. Stir until all the borax is dissolved and the solution is clear, add food coloring if you desire.

Tie a string around the tail of the shamrock and tie the other end to a pencil. Gently lower the shamrock into the solution making sure that it is not touching any sides or the bottom. Set the jar in a safe spot that will not be disturbed. We let ours sit overnight and the kids were amazed to find the pipe cleaners were transformed into crystal-encrusted decorations. Gently cut off the string and display in your window.

Shamrock Crystal Sun Catcher

These crystals are so simple to make. Kaleb loves to experiment so this was the perfect project for him. I loved that he added his twist on the experiment by coloring one pipe cleaner with markers to see what would happen. Next time I will encourage him to use sharpies instead of washable markers.

St. Patrick’s Day Craft

These shamrock crystals were so easy to make. I am not convinced that the food coloring changed the crystal color by much. The color that you see is the pipe cleaner showing through. I love them and the sparkle beautifully in the sun. These would be fun to make with the kids and give as gifts for grandparents, teachers, neighbors and anyone special. Just change the shape of the pipe cleaner to suit the occasion.