Laundry Day Friday Favorites (and a Giveaway!)

Laundry has taken a big portion of my life (and has taken on many forms throughout).  When I was 12, my "big chore" was to take care of the entire family's laundry... which I pretty much continued to have until I moved out and went to college.  At that point, laundry turned into a once a week or however long I could stretch it sort of a thing.  There was the summer I spent doing laundry at a washboard and hanging my clothes to dry (as part of a missions training experience) and then there was the summer that I tried doing laundry by hand in a sink and hanging it out to dry in a very dusty part of Mexico only to learn that a laundromat was going to be a necessity if I planned on wearing clean clothes.

Now, my laundry is relegated to Mondays and I try hard to get it all done that day, although often it takes at least another day to complete.  I no longer try to wash clothes by hand and I don't have a laundry line so everything that can goes into my dryer.  But recently, I've run across a new "laundry experience" that I hadn't tried yet: making laundry detergent.  I'd seen several recipes- even one that was peppermint but most of them required a castile soap (which didn't seem cost effective).  I mean, unless you're highly allergic to all laundry detergents on the market, why would you take the time to make your own soap if it was going to cost you more and take more of your time?  But then, my friend Ginny posted her own recipe with affordable ingredients and it didn't require boiling or anything terribly daunting.  It was an opportune time, as I was about to run out of detergent again, so I decided to go for it!

Now, I'm not trying to go extreme here- I really feel like I've already been there done that.  (I'm not planning on switching to cloth diapers either- I'll watch and observe my sister closely with that first, thank you!)  But I feel like the time it takes me to make (in my case about a month's supply of) detergent (5 minutes) takes quite a bit less time than loading my two kids into the car, driving to the store and buying some.  Okay, I did have to shop for the ingredients to begin with, but I've made it twice about 1.5x what her recipe calls for and I have enough for another 3 rounds- so I'm shopping for ingredients once every 5 months instead of once a month.  And the savings is worth it... and after trying it for some time, I can say my clothes are clean (even though they no longer smell of all the perfumes that I might find in the other detergent I used to buy).  So, try it out if you want, if not, enjoy some of my Friday Favorites from Etsy:

Oh yes, did I mention a giveaway?  Here it is:

Once upon a time before I started my current job, I sold vintage items on Etsy.  (One of these days, I hope to do it again.)  Here's one of the items I meant to sell there before I realized I couldn't continue with the Etsy shop at this point in my life.  It's too cute to continue to tuck away for "one of these days" so, I'm offering it to one of you!  Keep your clothespins in it so they're always close by for hanging your laundry.  Or if (like me) you dry your clothes in a dryer, keep those matchless socks in here until the others show up again!

Three ways to enter:
1. Comment and tell me your nightmare laundry experience - Mine involves melted lipstick in the dryer... I wish it had only happened once, but alas! I'm a slow learner.
2. Follow me (or if you already do, that's good enough for me, too) and then comment telling me you do.
3. Share this giveaway post on facebook and then leave another comment letting me know you did so.

The contest will end next Wednesday, July 28! Good luck, and Happy Weekend!