Scrub-a-Dub-Dubbing... the "Duds"

Laundry. One of the most looming, never-ending, tedious chores to plague a mom day after day after day. We can't even forget about it when we leave home on vacation, because we find ourselves doing extra before leaving, then doing extra again upon arrival back home. Just how is it that the laundry seems not to just pile up, but multiply exponentially?

sigh. I do know why, it's the same way with meals whenever a body is trying to accomplish some task, however seemingly small, in addition to the daily maintenance tasks. When I get engrossed in some household or other project, meals are an annoyance. (You mean we have to eat again already?!)

Laundry is a big deal in our house because there are just so many of us. I have tried many coping techniques-- downsizing the number of clothes the children have to wear, making them wear the same outfit for a whole week (the boys seem to have no trouble with this one). Then there's the other extreme, giving up and buying everyone twenty pairs of socks and underwear, including Mom and Dad, in hopes this will surely keep us going till I get around to processing the last dirty batch.

I think our house digests laundry. It eats socks, especially any dress socks we try to keep at the ready for Sunday morning. No, it isn't the dryer that eats them, the whole house is in cahoots to work against my efforts. And not just the mates are consumed, so at least we would have singletons left. ( I thwarted that problem by buying all white socks of the same type, but a little different brand/style/size for each child.) My house eats socks, underwear, and clean pants, and leaves behind more stray shirts than I ever knew we had!

My new plan to tackle this problem is included in what I call my black bag project. It's my version of some of the FLYlady's concepts, tailored to our large, young family who has moved five times and increased by eight people in eleven years. Who on earth could have a clean house after all that, and more?!

But first, the laundry. As of a couple months ago, I finally began using homemade laundry detergent. I have a recipe from my sister in law, which I'll give you in a moment, but never had all the supplies to make it. In the meantime, I bought a chunk from the local family from whom we buy our (raw) milk and (organic, free-range) eggs. This I grated, dissolved in hot water on the stove, and poured into my empty vinegar bottles. When I use it, I just pour some in the washer, and put vinegar in the rinse cycle dispenser. If the clothes are unusually soiled, I'll add washing soda to the wash cycle as well. I have done this with playclothes that saw time in the woods, socks that (I didn't realize) were worn night and day for a week or more, and baby items (from the times I forgot to change the diaper soon enough) that I never did get rinsed out. I have been very pleased at how well the soil comes out many times, just through this process, although some of the baby things will sometimes still have a yellowish tinge and need another run through.

I do not use bleach, except on rare occasions when the girls' Sunday white socks or tights were worn a few too many times without shoes.

I have noticed that since using the homemade detergent, before which I too was using the free and clear commercial detergent, there is a marked difference in the end result. The clothes smell truly clean. Not 'fake' clean. And once you see the difference, you'll know what that means. Maybe like the difference between the days I wash my hair and put on clean clothes, thinking I'll skip a day of showering, and the days I just shower, even if I put on yesterday's clothes. Make sense?

Even if all the spots or smells don't always come out, when they do I know it's because they really came out, not because something is covering it up, faking me into thinking it's cleaner, when really it's not. And I read recently that even products which claim to be 'free' actually use some chemical to make them colorless and odorless. Isn't that unsettling? (I'll have to find that information again, if I can, for you to peruse.)

Without further blathering, here's the recipe I was given:

Laundry Detergent

3 pints (6 cups) hot water

1/3 bar Fels Naptha soap, grated*

1/2 cup Arm & Hammer washing soda (NOT baking soda)**

1/2 cup 20 Mule Team Borax**

1 quart hot water

Additional hot water to dilute

essential oil, optional, if desired

2 gallon capacity bucket for mixing

saucepan used for soapmaking***



In saucepan, mix grated Fels Naptha with the 3 pints of hot water and heat on low till dissolved. Stir in washing soda and borax. Stir over heat until thickened, remove from heat. Add one quart hot water to empty 2 gallon bucket, add soap mixture and mix well. Add additional hot water to fill bucket, and again mix well. ( At this point a few drops of your favorite essential oil may be added for fragrance, if desired.)

Set aside for 24 hours or until mixture thickens.

Use 1/2 cup mixture per load of laundry.



*I found this on the Ace Hardware website, but never got around to looking at the stores. It's not sold everywhere.

** I found these at Meijer, but none of our area Wal-marts have carried them.

*** I designated one of my older pans for this purpose, as once you've done this you shouldn't be cooking food in it anymore.

The "Poop" on Diapers

I really do detest these terms, and here at our house we've opted to use the real names for both anatomy and bodily functions. So bear with me (no pun intended). :)

I have used cloth diapers on and off over the course of ten plus years with eight children to date, and this is only my experience and preference. Someone else may think I am totally bonkers on my choices... but then, you may already think that anyway, eh? ;)

*** Having done it both ways, I prefer to use disposables for the first weeks. I just don't have the energy to change all those newborn-nursing-youknowwhat-didies at that point. And I have done it-- it's just not worth it to me anymore. LUVS are my favorite-- and the commercial is correct, in my opinion. "Live and learn, and then get LUVS." They work. And they work great. No leaks unless you really leave them on too long, and fewer of those "sitting in the car seat through the grocery shopping, up the back or up the front explosions, slap my forehead I wish I would've changed it once more before we headed home" situations.

In the current case of our (yesterday) six month old, I haven't switched to cloth yet. It is just not on the priority list.


***If and when I end up going to cloth with a child... (the one before this baby didn't use them till we started potty learning, maybe 18mo? I don't remember, I was expecting another one.)...my favorite cloth diapers are Barefoot Baby prefolds. They are thick, thirsty, and versatile. Yes, that means I use diaper pins, but there is no velcro in the laundry to stick, and I can custom-fold them according to size and gender to put the absorbency where I need it to be. Oh, and they can't take them off as easily at inopportune times. We had one of those, and had to watch out after a nap if it was too quiet in the crib. :}

These flat diapers with extra layers down the middle are also wonderful for burp cloths (that actually absorb the fluid, rather than let it sit in a puddle on the surface, like birdseye cotton does... ewwww. I like to use ONE burp cloth and know it will last me at least half the day, rather than constantly changing for a new one.) I use the term burp cloth loosely, as I have for a long time given up after the first few weeks on keeping one on my shoulder. My husband has finally *almost* learned not to hug me on that shoulder. Instead, I keep it handy for right after a feeding, and to mop up in-between gurgles, or whatever.

They are wonderful during potty learning time, as they can be quickly tossed over a puddle, and it is absorbed almost without effort. Gotta love that. Also good folded in thirds as a diaper doubler, and to pad carseats or high chairs with potty-learning-toddlers, just in case. I keep one in the carseat during that stage, and if there's an accident, I simply replace the diaper.


***On laundering diapers, I have done the diaper pail soaking and the bleach in the past, but once I learned I didn't have to do that, it simplified the process SO much more. Barefoot Baby also has instructions for this.

Here's what I do. I have a nylon drawstring bag ( I keep one to use and one to wash-- the largest SimpleSac from Barefoot Baby) which I keep inside a trash can for this purpose. (I use a slim Rubbermaid one with the step-open lid.) Soiled diapers are rinsed well in the toilet first, while wet ones are tossed in as is. When I was using commercial detergent, I used the wash cycle, then an extra rinse, to make sure all the detergent came out. I have since switched to homemade laundry detergent. When it's time to wash, I put them all on a prerinse with vinegar, then launder on the longest "whites" cycle on hot wash/cold rinse. I put detergent in the wash cycle and put more vinegar in the dispenser cup. It really cuts the strong acid of the urine. Then, ideally, out on the clothesline they go. Nothing satisfies me quite like seeing all those nice, identical, flat diapers hanging out to sun and dry. When my husband or I don't have time, they go in the dryer, which I like to do every now and then anyway as they 'quilt' more that way.

I love the smell and feel of clean diapers just in from the line. And as far as stains? Well, they are diapers, you know. :)


***I used Gerber plastic rubber pants with my first one or two, and it didn't take long for me to hate them. I didn't use bleach, I didn't put them in the dryer, and still after a while they cracked and the elastic deteriorated.

I also tried wool pants, but realized how silly it is to think something that is so "breathable" wouldn't also leak something awful. Guess which one is more important to me.

I was thrilled when I found Bumkins Whisper Wraps. I use the pull-on kind, and I fell in love with them right away. They are very lightweight, they don't "crunch" when they move, and they don't deteriorate so quickly. Waterproof nylon with lycra waist and leg gatherings, which are more leakproof than elastic.

Oh, and they last forever. I bought several pair for our second child, and although I have since purchased more in more sizes, I still have and use the original ones. ( And we are on our eighth child!)

p.s. You may want to check out Bumkins bibs too. They too are awesome. I have used these for several years and they are still going strong, even though I had to sew new velcro on some of the older ones when it stopped sticking. I can wash them in the dishwater (not to be confused with dishwasher) or throw them in the laundry. We hang them on the curtain rod above the sink, and they dry very quickly-- even better out on the line.


***With regard to nighttime diapering, we decided several children ago that it was not worth the discomfort to the child or the parent to cloth diaper at night. We went to cloth for day, disposable for night. Fast forward to this fall, when we found ourselves with five children (of eight!) needing nighttime wetness protection. We decided GoodNites (tried others, these were the only ones that worked all night long) were getting too expensive, so we let the new baby and the two year old have their disposable diapers, and for the other three we invested in cloth waterproof nighttime pants. We got ours through OneStepAhead, and each child wears this with a doubler (see Barefoot Baby) inside and a pair of Whisper pants on the outside. In the morning they are to put them in the bathtub, and one of us parents rinses the worst of the urine out before running them in the washing machine.

We also use these soaker pads on the beds, from the time they are potty learning (especially at naptime) till they can consistently stay dry through the night.

Since then the two year old started on this nighttime routine as well, and is in the midst of potty learning, so we only have ONE child in disposable diapers. THAT is a first.


***Regarding potty learning itself, that is a topic for another post.