Homemade Liquid Hand Soap

January 6, 2012 By 13 Comments

Have you looked at the price of liquid hand soap?  You may not think you’re paying much if you’re paying say, .99 for 6 oz in a pump bottle.  But if you buy a gallon’s worth of soap at that price you’re paying about $10 per gallon.

So, I played around in the kitchen last week and made some liquid hand soap of my own.  I used Walmart brand bath soap that was sort of a knock off of Dove, liquid glycerin and water.

You can buy liquid glycerin at hobby shops or drug stores. Its usually cheaper at places like Hobby Lobby. I found it in the soap crafting section.

The reason you want to use it, is that it causes the liquid soap to gel just a little. Otherwise its completely liquid.  If you don’t mind completely watery hand soap, just use the bar soap and water. That’s the kind of hand soap I used ot make back in the day when glycerin wasn’t as easy to find.  I saved my soap scraps and mixed them with warm water to dissolve. Ta-Da – liquid hand soap.

Well, this recipe is better, Its thick and creamy but still pourable.

You’ll need:

1 cup of grated soap, which is about 1 bar of bath soap

1o cups of warm water

1 tablespoon of liquid glycerin.

Other equipment you’ll need:

a grater

a large pot

a wooden spoon or spatula for stirring

a container for holding all the soap

a pump bottle for dispensing the soap

Instructions:

Grate the bar of soap. You need 1 cup of grated soap.

Heat 10 cups of water in a large stock pot.

Add the grated soap and glycerin to the water.

Stir til the soap is dissolved.

Allow to cool for about 10 hours.

The soap will slowly gel. Pour into glass jars or jugs to store.

That’s it!

Now the particulars…..

This  would be most economical if you regularly use an expensive brand of bar and hand soap like Tom’s, Mrs. Meyers, etc. You could use a bar of the bath soap to make a gallon of hand soap.

You can add small amounts of warm or hot water to make it less thick if you need to.

 

You can experiment with adding oils to make the soap more moisturizing.

 

Filed Under: Homekeeping, Homekeeping 101, Homemade Cleaners

Thanksgiving ~ Getting Organized

November 16, 2011 By 2 Comments

Getting organized to cook a large meal is essential. Getting yourself and your kitchen ready to cook that big meal is time saving and stress reducing.. Getting your house clean to the point that it satisfies you and gives you room to cook and show hospitality is also important.

Its time to get that Thanksgiving menu planned and all your recipes organized. Even if you will not be hosting Thanksgiving in your home, you can start thinking about what you might want to prepare to take to the meal in another home. These first couple of weeks of November are a great time to do lots of thinking, planning and organizing.

Now that you have that done, you can look in your pantry and cabinets to see if you have what you need to prepare and serve those delicious recipes. Check through all your cooking pans and pots and make sure you have everything you need. Do you need to purchase something? Borrow something? It’s not a good thing to need a spring form pan at the last minute.

Look through your serving dishes too. Do you have everything needed to serve your meal? Do you have all the utensils and glassware you need? Serving spoons? Plates? Dessert plates?

Now is also the time to start cleaning your house, deep clean the bathrooms and kitchen especially. Its the week to get your guest room ready and do all the heavy cleaning that you want to have done by TG. For help in keeping yourself on track this week with your cleaning, check out the Fast And Furious Fall Cleaning Series. Its not just for Fall, you can use it all year long!

For more help, check out the Thanksgiving Planner.  It is filled with detailed help on planning, cleaning, cooking and has all new recipes and devotionals for you.

Filed Under: Fast And Furious Fall Cleaning, Homekeeping, Homekeeping 101

Get Control Of The Laundry

November 14, 2011 By 4 Comments

The laundry can be really wild and woolly here.  Its probably that way at your house too. It just gets out of control so easily. Stains that won’t come out, mold or mildewy smells, ring around the collar… they all rear their ugly heads even after the clothes have been washed sometimes.

I’ve found a few ways to conquer the wild laundry. It starts with my arsenal of chemicals.  Yeah, that doesn’t sound too good.  It starts with my cleaning products.

Bleach -
Ah, bleach. What did we ever do without you? I heart bleach. I don’t go crazy with it, but there are simply some things  I would never have been able to get clean without it. It kills mold and mildew and if I am sure to rinse it out of your clothing well, it doesn’t usually make any of us itch or break out.

Borax -
If you can’t use bleach for some reason, Borax works almost as well at getting out mildew or mold smells. Good stuff.  I always keep it on hand but its for making homemade laundry soap.

Homemade Laundry Soap -
I don’t always get this made when I need it so I sometimes purchase commercial soap. You can find my recipe here. I am working on another, creamy recipe and will post that when I get time! Homemade soap doesn’t suds. I’ve made it with coconut oil and that will suds, but its expensive.  Homemade soap is actually soap, not detergent. It works extremely well and is very inexpensive to make. The key to success with homemade soap, and not causing your whites to be gray or dingy is to rinse it out WELL.

Stain Removers -
I keep Lestoil on hand for greasy stains. If you put it in an old dish soap bottle or other squeeze bottle, you can direct it onto stains. My husband can be messy eater, and he works with grease and oil at work so he gets greasy. Lestoil works.
Fels Naptha is great for stains, but its easier to use the Lestoil because its liquid. Fels van be wet and then rubbed onto stains before washing.  I don’t use commercial stain removers any more. They are extremely expensive and I have bleached too many spots on clothes using it.

Fabric Softener – I really like Classic Downy. But they’ve messed with it so much over the years that its not the same. So I just choose to use white vinegar. The vinegar rinses out of the clothes, doesn’t leave a smell and makes the clothes very soft. However…..
In the winter time, I use dryer sheets. I cut the sheets into thirds and use 1/3 of a sheet for each load. That small piece of a dryer sheet is enough to keep static out of the clothes. And its not enough to leave much of a smell.

You can also use white vinegar for a rinse aide.  Vinegar will help the fabrics release the detergent or soap you used to wash. Getting rid of all the soap or detergent is crucial to good results after washing. Once vinegar opens up the fibers of the fabric, the fabric feels softer, too. Vinegar is cheap and won’t leave an odor after its rinsed out.

Other things I need for doing laundry:

A few good soaking pans – I use my large stainless steel canning pans. I have some plastic ones too. I soak a lot of clothes to remove stains. I also hand-wash a lot of clothes like lingerie, delicate blouses, etc.

A Drying Rack - I am rack-less right now but I am looking at one to purchase. I don’t care for the wooden ones that are free-standing, they get black and weak pretty quickly. I like wooden ones that are attached to the wall, but where in the world would I hang one in this house? So the search continues. Right now I hang a lot of clothes on clothes-hangers in the bathroom and outdoors.

A Clothes Dryer – Mine belonged to the country music star, Mel Tillis. Seriously. It was purchased at his yard sale many years ago. That’s odd to you? I guess its one of the perks of living near Nashville, Tennessee. We’re all just neighbors here. I can still hear sequins tossing around in the vent.

A good, hot dryer is an essential. I guess you could survive without one, I’ve gone long periods of time without one.   Did you know that you can actually kill germs on towels and other clothing by running them through a very hot dryer? You don’t want to over-do it but a good dryer that has a temperature control is a real essential, especially if you have children.

So that’s what laundry essentials are to me.  I can clean most anything with these items.  I’ve had some really bad stains in the years past. Things like tar or rumen fluid (don’t ask just google it). For those stains I’ve had to purchase some commercial solvents. What are your laundry essentials?

Next time ….. “How To Manage The Sheer Volume of Laundry!”

Filed Under: Homekeeping, Homekeeping 101

Getting Control Of Meal Planning

August 25, 2011 By 4 Comments

Planning weekly meals is the key to saving time, money and lowering stress. You can plan as many days ahead as you like. Years ago when my husband was paid only once a month I did once a month meal planning, but even planning a week ahead will help tremendously.  

When the weekly meals are planned, there is no guess work. I know what needs to be made, defrosted, whipped up or baked. It also keeps me from over spending at the grocery store. When I stick with my list I know exactly what I need.

Here are a few tips and ideas to help you plan two weeks worth of  meals and keep them economical.

Create a master list of all the meals your family enjoys:

Step 1:  Pull out all your recipes and cookbooks and locate your favorites.

Step 2: Check your calendar and see if there are any special occasions, birthdays, known eating out times, etc.

Step 3: Ask your family what their favorites are and add them to your list.

 

Make your grocery lists and plan your meals

Step 1: Make a shopping list. List all your meats together, all your dairy together, vegetables together, etc. List all the ingredients in all your meals and then mark off the ingredients you already have on hand. Or if you’re able to remember, just don’t list the items you have on hand.

Step 2: Plan your meals together strategically so that you can make some extra and use it the next day. For example, one day you might have mashed potatoes. Make a few servings extra and use it the next day for the topping on a Shepherd’s Pie.

You don’t need a special form or anything for making your meal plans, a sheet of notebook paper will do,  but a blank calendar is a great help. Here is a calendar that is really helpful from Donna Young. 

Here is an example of one week of my meal plans. We eat out once a week usually, on Sunday. so I’ve included that info in my plans.

My grocery list includes the meat and some canned items as well as items I need for making yogurt and cream of tomato soup.

Week 1
Monday
Breakfast – yogurt, fruit, granola
Lunch – apples, peanut butter
Dinner – Chicken and Wild Rice soup, homemade bread, salad

Tuesday
Breakfast – baked oatmeal, fresh fruit
Lunch – cheese, apples, cup of chicken soup
Dinner – roast, vegetables, rolls, peach cobbler

Wednesday
Breakfast – bacon and eggs, toast
Lunch – Soup and crackers, apples, peanut butter
Dinner – Roast beef hash, salad, rolls

Thursday
Breakfast – Muffins, tea, jam
Lunch -  Dutch Baby Pancake, cheese
Dinner – Cumin-Coconut Chicken, rice, salad

Friday
Breakfast – eggs, bacon, toast
Lunch – flat bread, bean spread, cheese
Dinner – Chili 4 Ways: pasta, cheese, sour cream, onion

Saturday
Breakfast – waffles, fruit
Lunch -chef salad
Dinner – Ham and potato soup, yeast rolls

Sunday
Breakfast – donuts
Lunch – eat out
Dinner – Breakfast for Dinner; eggs, bacon, biscuits, sliced tomato

 

So… do you make a meal plan?  If you do, is it very helpful to you?

Filed Under: Homekeeping, Homekeeping 101, Menu Planning and Menus
« Older Posts