Back to School Prep {Laundry}

When I asked on Instagram “What makes you stress about Back To School time?

The top answers were 

Laundry/Kids Clothes 

Dinner

Housekeeping 

Logistics 

Breakfast 

Lunch Prep

Getting Out The Door 

I’ve pretty much shared all I can right now on kids clothes, but I wanted to share how we do laundry when we are on the right track. 

I do 1-2 loads a day Monday-Thursday and sometimes a special load, or couch covers on Friday and NONE on the weekend. No one wants to put laundry away Sunday night! 

Obviously there is the occasional mishap when a uniform gets missed in the last dark load on Thursday and is needed on Monday, or someone is losing their mind over certain jeans. But typically our family of 6, with pretty small wardrobes ( I think anyway) can make this work and I feel less resentful about laundry if it’s not an issue on the weekend. 

I’m always down for hearing about new methods! Send em my way! 

Continue Reading ...

Laundry Room {Organizing Friday}

We shouldn't have much to organize in here, it's a tiny little room. But it has ended up a dumping spot for so much! Today I wanted to work on tidying it, making sure there isn't stuff in the cupboards that doesn't belong. Making sure we have the cleaning supplies organized, to save time later, being real about what we need for supplies. No room to store a ton of excess.

See, it wasn't horrible to start with

I do miss our laundry sorter, it was too tall, made the washer and dryer hit the cabinets :(

Maybe your laundry room is much bigger, or maybe it's just a closet. These are some other laundry rooms that have super organization!

This whole room is just GORGEOUS!

I love these cute little organizing ideas

And these are just so smart! 

I pinned them all, and a bunch more so I can check them out in more detail!

Find them HERE

So it didn't take too long but it's still waah waaa

I sure do not love the blank walls!

I don't know exactly what I want to do in here. I will have to plan a little.

Continue Reading ...

Organizing Friday {Week 8}

This week I worked on our TV stand. We haven't had one for long and I really am not a fan, but for this house, temporary as it may be, we needed something. It quickly became full of all sorts of random stuff. 

I took everything out and decided what would have a better place elsewhere, and what could just go for good. We really try not to keep any DVD, Video game, CD cases. They take up SO much room! The only exception is when we are pretty sure we will sell it later. We had accumulated a few things in cases, kids helped put them where they go and made some space.

I don't love the open glass windows and am on the hunt for some type of covering that I can talk hubby into.  If I could find a lacy kind of contact paper that might be my first choice.

I really like this one

other than that, it's all taken care of, everything in here has a place and was not just shoved in here because it was convenient. 

Now I have a BIG job ahead of me for the next week. It's the laundry area. It has been our garage catch all since we moved in and it's horribly messy and unorganized on top of that.  All I have done so far in there is try to contain all the soaps and stuff.

In a perfect world, we would have a nice matching set, in the real world, our dryer still works great and we got a deal on the red washer when we needed one. I am not about to blow money on a matching dryer right now and not going to paint it. I don't aim to make this area pretty by any means, but tidy and organized, that it has to be.

Continue Reading ...

Laundry Room Savings~No Coupons Required

I really meant to share each month for the whole year how we are doing with our goals, but life happens and honestly some months I didn't feel like we had made any progress or have any huge set backs, so I didn't share as much. One of our main goals is getting rid of consumer debt. We haven't made any huge progress the last couple months but I did want to share a little more about how we save money around the house. That saved money goes right to debt and can rapidly add up! I've shared some of these before, using them all together saved us quite a bit the last year!

We still don't use coupons, so keep reading to see if some of these might work for you too!

The first REAL frugal thing I ever did for us as a family was make our own laundry soap, I think this might be the go to for saving in the laundry area.

What am I doing now?

~if you use store bought soap, use a little less each time until you find the right balance to get clothes clean. For us this was just over half the recommended amount. Buying laundry soap every other month instead of every month meant a whole month of a payment to a credit card in 1 year. That 1 littttle teeny change gave us a month sooner of not owing Target anything!

~Keep that change from the dryer, cash it in the 1st and put it towards debt, maybe it's only $5, that is still $60 a year!

~We use these dryer balls! I swear they have made a big difference in the time it takes for the clothes to dry and clothes are SO soft!
 

Also safe for super sensitive skin! No icky chemicals! 

~Wash full, but not overfull, loads. Less loads=less energy and less $

~Do the quick wash or rapid wash on your machine for everyday laundry.
Save the long wash cycles for stained loads.

This one I am torn on, sometimes I do it one way and other times I do it totally opposite.

~Do all the laundry on 1 day and take advantage of the dryer being warm from the previous load
OR
~Do a load first thing every morning and let the dryer help warm the house up
They both have their pros and cons.

To help you get started on your laundry savings, I am giving away a pack of the Woolzies
Enter below through the 25th and share with your friends!
a Rafflecopter giveaway

Continue Reading ...

Organizing Friday

Well I didn't get to much organizing and I didn't take any pictures, but ours was needing some attention. Especially the cupboards since they hold all my craft supplies and fabric and stuff. 

I got it taken care of, it's not perfect but it's not a disaster either.  

I did find some inspirational laundry rooms though!

Love the open shelves and bead board!

source

And I LOVE these floors and what they did with the wall! 

source

I love the pull out drying rack and how simple this is!

source

And I love everything about this, those cabinets are amazing!

BHG

And the same for this one! SO pretty!

Country Home

I did THIS post well over a year ago, and I still haven't figured out a window covering! I am SOO hoping I can get it done this weekend, especially since I just went through my fabric stash. I know what I want to use and I know where it is, just have to make sure I have enough of it!

Continue Reading ...

Friday!

Thank Goodness we made it to Friday! Today was the first day of vacation for our kids. I am so excited to NOT have to taxi everyone someplace this week. Enjoying the time at home with the kids! 

Today I took care of the Laundry Room. It was messy with piles of clothes for a couple friends and some goodwill stuff. Once nap time is over we are off to Goodwill.

Before

And SO much better now!

And we have added this cute little thing to help the kids remember their chores for the day! Now if only I could remember to write on it everyday!

I need to stop waiting until the laundry room is FULL of stuff before I make the trip to Goodwill, but it's so easy to put all the extra in there!

Continue Reading ...

~Saving Money~

The new year is fast approaching..  and I am NOT ready! One of our goals for the year is reducing/eliminating our debt. We have been following the Dave Ramsey plan (although I haven't been very good lately) and it is working, slowly but surely. We could probably do it a little faster if I were working outside the home, but neither my husband or I think putting the kids in daycare for me to work is worth the financial benefit and the loss of being with the kids all day would be very hard on all of us, just not worth it right now.  So I do my best to save in ways I can, and no not just clipping coupons! Thought I would share them over the next couple weeks as some of us prep for new years resolutions! I've posted about some of those ways before but some are new and I don't want anyone to miss the old ones either!

So I'll start with the first way I started making a change at home to save money. It was Homemade Laundry Soap, that was my first time making it and I messed it up so it doesn't look right. That was almost 2 years ago and I have only had to make 1 batch since and that was just recently. I think that the 10 Gallons lasts me about 18 months!! Which is amazing considering the cost for making it the first time was

Bucket $6 (I think), Zote Soap $1, Washing Soda $3, Borax $3

Total of $13 for the first time supplies (the borax, washing soda and bucket will be re-used) I try to gage a savings by per use, per pound or ounce, whatever I can break it down to. I do an average of 5 loads a week for 18 months is about 78 weeks, 78 weeks worth of loads is 390 loads!! Compared to the tide HE, Free and clear that gets 64 loads for $14. The price per load for tide is about 22 cents a load. For the homemade (also for the He and unscented) is 3 cents per load, the first batch! The second batch when you don't have to buy the bucket or washing soda or borax is only an extra dollar for zote, the price for those loads is less then a penny per load!

I figured the 3 year savings (2 batches) is HUGE since the average is just over a penny per load. If I used tide for those 780 loads in 3 years it would have cost us $171!! I could easily pay off my Gymboree credit card with that! So even though it was really a very small change for us, over time it will REALLY save, and it requires no more effort than loading the tide bottle in and out of the grocery cart and car every month. 

The recipe is on the original post, but remember I messed it up, so yours SHOULDN'T look like that, It should look like this!

Continue Reading ...

~Homemade Laundry Soap, My Weekend Project~

I feel like part of my job as a housewife is to make sure we aren't wasting money on things, if I can make it, I will, rather than buy it. I also have a mini obsession with the Duggars, you know "17 kids and counting" I loved their book, it was full of great tips and recipe's and it was very inspirational.. That many kids and debt free, Wow! Michelle ( the wife ) is SO organized and thrifty! Well I am no where close to THAT thrifty but I am willing to try one of her money saving tricks. Homemade Laundry Soap! Saw the recipe in the book then found it online.. Here it is.

Homemade Liquid Laundry Soap-
Front or top load machine


4 Cups Hot Tap Water
1 Bar Laundry soap ( Zote )
1 Cup Washing Soda
1/2 Cup Borax




Directions - Grate bar of soap and add to saucepan with water. Stir continually over medium-low heat until soap dissolves and is melted. -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.
*The Chopped (way to soft to grate, in my opinion) Zote Soap*

*Water and soap mixture before melting*

*Melting the soap and water mixture double boiler style..*

Fill bucket to top with more hot water. Stir, cover and let sit overnight to thicken.

-Stir and fill a used, clean, laundry soap dispenser half full with soap and then fill rest of way with water. Shake before each use. (will gel) -Top Load Machine- 5/8 Cup per load (Approx. 180 loads) -Front Load Machines- ¼ Cup per load (Approx. 640 loads)

I see the number 640 loads YOWSA! I usually buy HE tide Free and Clear for $13 for 36 loads so that was $0.36 PER load!With this method I will only be paying $0.02 per load! Next time I make it ( when I don't have to buy the bucket, or Borax, OR washing soda ( you don't need much ) I will get 10 loads for $.02. All I will have to buy is the Bar of soap, Just over $1! That is totally amazing to me! And I feel good that I won't be wasting the plastic Tide containers any longer!Hope this inspires some of you Wifey's to try it, it doesn't smell much and was fairly simple. The hardest part was grating the soap.. And I used a double boiler method because I didn't want to put the soap in my cooking pot.

Continue Reading ...