How To Get Rid Of Uninvited House-guests.

No I'm not talking about your in laws or in my case, MY parents. I'm talking about roaches. Or more generally those big roach looking things that southerners call water bugs. In general, the larger cockroaches do not bother me as long as they stay out of my house but, because of the drought we are currently experiencing in Central Georgia, several of these nuisances have taken up residence. So, in my fashion, I set out to find a way to get rid of the dreaded things naturally and at little cost to me. And thanks again to TipNut, I believe I have found the solution to my "bug" problem. You can find the original article here.

Roach Ball Recipe
White Flour
Boric Acid or Borax (although Boric Acid is a bit more effective)
Confectioner's Sugar
Water

The amounts for each of the things listed above are something you will have to figure out depending on how much coverage you need. To start, mix the Boric Acid and Flour in a 50/50 ratio. (I used half a cup of Borax and half a cup of flour.) I added in 1 tbsp of confectioner's sugar and just slowly added water until it formed a sticky dough. (Don't add to much water...You don't want to end up with a soupy mess.) Roll the dough into marble sized balls and place them EVERYWHERE. Especially the dark recesses where your uninvitees like to hang out. The trash can, the backs of cupboards, under furniture, etc. You can always add a bit of bacon grease to the mixture to make the roach balls a bit more "appealing". The original article said it should take about a month for the roaches to be gone so we will see how it goes. They also list a recipe for larger infestations, but since mine is limited to seeing one of the little freaks every now and then I didn't bother with it, but you can find it here as well.

Happy DIYing Everyone!!!

Whiter Whites and Brighter Brights.

So far I've mostly been doing posts on beauty recipes. (Don't ask me why because I'm so far from beauty conscience it isn't really funny) Now I figure it's time to move on to more household based things.

If you are like me you do A LOT of laundry. I firmly believe someone should come up with some form of birth control for laundry. Once it goes in the basket it begins to multiply almost instantly. So by the time I get around to doing it I have a pile that resembles a small mountain. As for the detergent we use...it's normally the cheapest liquid we can find. Lately we've been using Sun Ultra Concentrated Liquid Laundry Detergent (250 fl oz). And honestly, at 8 bucks a bottle it's not all that expensive compared to some brands I've seen on the shelves lately. Another good thing about it is, it doesn't break me or my children out like the more expensive brands of detergent. However, in my search for cutting corners and trimming costs, I've found that I can MAKE laundry detergent for much less than even what I pay for the brand I'm using now. 

Alright here's the math. (If you are like me and not a morning person you may wanna hold out on all this mathematical brilliancy until later in the day *lol*.)

Sun Ultra Concentrated Liquid Laundry Detergent - $7.97 (before taxes at Wal-Mart) - 250 fl. oz. bottle does 160 loads. (about 2 gallons)

Homemade Laundry Detergent - $8.30 (before taxes) - 576 fl.oz.does approximately 288 loads. (about 5 gallons) *the price on this depends on where you live and how much you have to pay for the ingredients*

Either way, you come out cheaper in the long run. It takes my family about 2-3 months to go through a 250 fl. oz. bottle of detergent. So let's say every 3 months you pay $8.00 for a store brand detergent. That would be $32.00 a year for that store brand. With the homemade detergent you would cut that in half to $16.00 a year.

Ok ok I'm so done with the math now that I've confused even myself. *LOL* Lets move on to the actual recipe. I found it on TipNut in their 10 Homemade Laundry Soap Detergent Recipes post. (FYI TipNut is another of my absolute FAVORITE websites for DIY things.) I used the first recipe in that list and doubled it.

Homemade Liquid Laundry Detergent *from TipNut*

2 quarts of water

4 cups bar soap (Ivory) *I read this as 4 BARS of soap but it came out fine as 1 grated bar = about 1 cup*

4 cups Borax

4 cups Washing Soda *washing NOT baking*

4 gallons of water

A clean 5 gallon bucket with a lid.

Put the 2 quarts of water in a large pan and bring it to a boil. Slowly add the grated bar soap and stir constantly until all the soap is added and melted. (When I say slowly add I mean it. I added it all at the same time and spent close to an hour stirring huge lumps of melting soap.) Pour the soapy water into your pail and add the borax and washing soda. Stir, stir and stir some more. Once you've got that all mixed up add your 4 gallons of water and, yep you guessed it, stir some more. I found that if you make sure the 4 gallons are warmish and you add it slowly it works better than trying to add it cold and all at one time. Then you're done. Put the lid on your bucket and sit it next to your washer.Let it sit for a day or so before you use it and always make sure to stir it well before adding it to your laundry. Use 1/4 cup per load of laundry. 

On a side note, you can always add some of your favorite essential oils to give the detergent the fragrance of your choice. I wouldn't go overboard with the EO's as I'm not sure if they can stain your clothes or not, but just add a few drops slowly until you get to the desired scent you are pushing for. Also, this detergent is not a sudsy, lathery detergent but that's ok so don't be alarmed when you notice it isn't sudsing up.

JB and I made our batch of detergent yesterday so I've not tried it yet but I expect great results. (I'm trying to use up what's left of my store bought detergent because I don't want to waste it.) So try out the recipe I've posted or head on over to TipNut. They even have a couple of recipes for powdered detergent for those of you that just don't like liquid detergent. If you are looking for even MORE money saving laundry tips be sure to check out Linsey Knerl's post 6 Sneaky Ways to Save Money on Laundry over at Financial Highway.

Happy DIYing Everyone!!!