Trying to Clean With The Diva

Finally, school is back in session! We had a small blizzard and so school has been canceled for the last week, which just happened to be directly after Christmas break. I love my daughter to death, but I am so glad to have her out of the house for a few hours and have it basically to myself. Do you have any idea how cleaning with a 5 year old under foot goes? Yeah... It doesn't. Everything took at the least 3 times as long as it normally does, and you couldn't even tell I had done anything within 2 hours. This morning I did all of the dishes, cleaned my stove, set out dinner, AND wiped down all of my counters - it took me about thirty minutes total. And 5 hours later it's still clean. Now, I just need the motivation to clean the rest of my house.

Surely, I can't be the only parent ever happy just to see their child go to school? I miss her right now, but it's nice to not have The Diva here talking my ear off about a million things per second and going through all of the things I just put away. I thought so many things would change from when she was a nosey two year old to now. Hahaha! The only thing that's really changed is the amount of things she can reach now. She still tries to " help clean" and ends up making a bigger mess for me. She still asks a hundred questions. She still follows behind me and goes through or takes out the stuff I put away. She's still easily distracted. She still can't sit still long enough to watch a whole movie so I can clean in 'peace'.

However, she's also still my baby girl and one of the loves of my life. She'll only be 5 for a little while longer. One day I'll wake up and she'll be graduating high school. Or getting married. Or have moved far away to chase her dreams. So, for now, I'll enjoy her messing up the house and annoying me to death on some days. She has to learn new things somehow, right? I only have a certain amount of unknown time with her, so I may as well make the most of it.

Thief Thursday, Laundry Detergent Pods

Today, I'm going to show you how to make amazing laundry detergent pods! The Diva and I made a batch three weeks ago, and I love it! My laundry smells amazing, I don't have to measure my detergent, I know exactly what chemicals I'm wearing, and it's SO cheap to make!

You can find the original recipe here, but I tweaked it in a way that made a smaller batch than what she had posted.

Ingredients needed:

- 1 1/4 c. Borax

- 1 c. Super Washing Soda

- 3/4 c. Powdered OxyClean

- 1/4 Bar of Laundry Soap

- 1 c. Baking Soda

- 1 1/2 - 2 c. Purex Crystals Fabric Softener

We, also, used the following:

- Ice Tray

- Tablespoon

- Large Bowl

- Small Bowl

- Blender

- Microwave

- Plate

- Whisk

First thing we did was cut the bar of soap into fourths and microwave one of the pieces. Weput it in for 45 seconds, let it cool, tthen another 45 seconds. Above is what our soap looked like when it emerged from the microwave. It felt like Styrofoam. LET IT COOL AND HARDEN! If you don't, the next step won't be as easy or work to well: crumble the soap in a large bowl and add the rest of the ingredients. 

So, this is what it looks like if you don't wait. We didn't at first and so we got big chunks. But, after we let the soap harden, it crumbled nicely. But, since you want it to be as fine as possible, we cheated and put ours in our Ninja Blender. 

Much better, is it not? Perfect powder substance. This is where the original poster stopped, but I wanted the pods so I could just toss the detergent in without measuring, so I went even further. 

In a small bowl, we then added water a teaspoon at a time until we got this consistency. It's not quite wet, but is damp enough to mold it. 

And, we did mold them - into our pods. We put a tablespoon full of our mixture into each cube of the ice tray. Then, we popped them into the freezer for about an hour. You really don't need to put them in the freezer, but I wanted them to take shape quicker so I could take them out of the trays and test them out. 

Beautiful, aren't they? The Diva and I are so proud of ourselves. I use two pods for my large loads, and one for my small loads. When it comes to my medium loads, I determine the number on how dirty my laundry is. The above picture is only one container full of our pods. I have two and a half more already in the cabinet from this one batch.We love these and will continue to make them as long as possible. They work wonders on stains. 

Clean Pillows

Good morning, world! I hope everybody's day is going well. Mine is, but I just woke up. I got a much needed 10 hours of sleep last night. Can't remember the last time that happened. Not to mention that The Husband surprised me with some Yoohoo and I'm eating Lucky Charms. You just can't beat a morning like this, I tell you what.

With packing and moving, I've been trying to ensure everything is clean beforehand so I don't have to clean it while I'm trying to set up the new house. Some things I noticed I've never cleaned that were really disgusting looking? My pillows. I wash my pillowcases at least once a month, but I've never paid attention to the pillows themselves.

8 months of not washing our pillows looks pretty gross doesn't it? I searched online, but only found  instructions that contain bleach, which I really didn't want to do.

This is what I did do, though:
1.) Put two pillows in my washing machine, on their sides, so that it would keep the balance (I have a top loader not a front loader).
2.) Poured in a capfull of our liquid laundry detergent and sprinkled  approximately 1/4 cup of borax on the pillows.
3.) Turned the water temperature to the hottest it would go and turned my washer on.
4.) During the rise cycle, I added a few tablespoons of white vinegar to help sanitize the pillows.
5.) Ran an extra rinse cycle to get rid of the vinegar smell.
6.) Popped my pillows in the dryer (with my wool dryer balls I made here).

Really made a difference, didn't it? It's kind of hard to see just how much of a difference washing them actually made, but I didn't want to edit the picture any. You can tell there's no more yellow or sweat spots, though.  I'm definitely going to start washing my pillows every 4-6 months to try to ensure they never look that gross again.