The Battle of Laundry Deep

I'm pretty bad at laundry. I don't enjoy it, I'm lazy with it...there - suprisingly -always seems to be more, and didn't I just do a ton of laundry...last week?

Motivating myself to do it is always hard, but then actually doing it well has taken trial and error. What do I mean? In general, we like tidy and not gross, and I'm not too picky on a day to day basis - what I am very picky about what I use to clean. I'm totally brand-loyal once I find something I like, and it's taken me three and a half years of marriage to figure out what I like to use when cleaning our clothes.

When we were first married, I went to the laundromat (out of necessity). Then, we had a washer/dryer in the basement of the house we lived in during B's internship. Then a full washer/dryer in the kitchen of our studio (aka extra counter space). Now a washer/dryer in a closet off the bathroom - and the washer needs to hook up to the bathroom sink to clean. Okay, so I've figure out the machinery...mostly.

But I wasn't sure WHAT to use to clean, and what actually worked. I've tried a lot of stuff - everything unscented (I'm highly allergic to artifical scents) and still I wasn't really satisfied (too much filler = more waste, extra ingredients I didn't like going into the water supply, didn't work well for what it was, etc).

So after much trial and error and reading and experimenting, I think I've finally figured out what to use when cleaning our clothes. And I'm telling you all because if you've been a tormeted laundry-cleaner, perhaps this can help you.

So - I wash our clothes in Charlie's Soap Powder. It smells like clean, and doesn't make me sneeze. I bought it for cloth diapers and now use it on everything. I use BioKleen Bac-Out for stain removal (on all stains really - clothes, carpet, etc - it's great) and for the time being, OxiClean Free oxygen bleach for soaking really bad stains. I also use a downy ball filled with vinegar for a softener...no more dryer sheets (you can also just pour in vinegar during the rinse cycle, but I tend to forget this step once I've got it going).

Finally, I decided to stop using our dryer for most clothes drying. It doesn't have a heat setting - just a timer and on/off. I feel like it's set on SuperNova Heat...I dried some of Bobby's nicer shirts in there, and they all shrunk. (See? Not good at laundry). So once I realized I was hanging all our pants and shirts on hangers after washing a load of laundry, I bought a new drying rack. It takes up a huge piece of real estate (unfolded), but fits over a load easily. I'm really liking using it. No more unfortunately short sleeves and pantlegs. And that, my friends, is a good thing.

Larriland Farms!

Today I went with my friends Lindsay and Lise to Larriland Farms in Maryland. Lindsay is an expert of the 'U-Pick' farm circuit in the area, and she says Larriland is the best. It was my first summer fruit picking foray, and I had a marvelous time! For twenty dollars I got ten pounds of fresh peaches and five (or six?) pounds of blackberries. I'm planning on making a few desserts, and freezing the rest for the winter.

It was such a peaceful time. I was happy that I had the energy to actually get out into the orchard and the brambles to find the best fruit. It was fun to sample the blackberriers - they are beautiful - they look like tiny little pearls, and even better to get to know Lindsay and Lise more on the drive there and back (about an hour).

It's so fun to get out of the city and into the country. The drive there is so green and we passed horse farms and other beautiful places on our way. I am definitely planning on going back in the fall for squash and apples (and maybe the second week in September for raspberries! : ).

Small Ways to Save

Bobby and I are newly married (1 and half years this week!), fresh out of college (just over a year), and 'making it' on our own. We both work now but will shortly be down to one income, when I stay home to raise Baby J #1 (first baby mention on the blog!). This arrangement is a priority in our lives, and I have enjoyed becoming better equipped to make it a feasible reality. I've been doing my own course of study in crash-course homemaking: learning how to cook and shop smart, do laundry well, keep us clothed, find a good shoe repair guy, keep the house clean, practice hospitality, pay bills, balance a checkbook, and all the other millions of tasks that go into managing a home.

Luckily many of my friends are in similar situations: looking to thrive on one decent income in a two-income economy. That means I have plenty of conversation partners (and allies!) in our decision making processes. Yes, Ashley and I go out to breakfast sometime, but lots of times we'll have tea at one of our houses. It's fun to go out to eat but better to have someone over. I also have plenty of insider information on thrift stores, garage sales, and the "Moms on the Hill" online group, where my friend Kate scored a whole nursery of gently used Pottery Barn Furniture for substantially less than retail.

However, it can get overwhelming - especially grocery/coupon bargain hunters. I'm not opposed to these kinds of things, and think if someone doesn't mind putting in the effort, that's a great thing for their household. I just don't have much interest in purusing the internet for the best deal on a food item. That's pretty much why I go to Trader Joe's. I trust their manufacturing processes, and their product is cheaper than most other places. I found myself getting sucked into a lot of frugal home-making blogs, a lot of which had great information, but overall made me feel stressed at what I wasn't doing to save some money here or there (one lady feeds her family of 5 on like $60.00 a week....sorry, not happening) that I've stopped reading them.

The best tips I've picked up and continue to do are the following:

1) Shop sales and discount stores. We have gone to the last two Nordstrom Men's Sales, and got Bobby new shirts and pants. Super high quality, will last a long time, and up to fifty percent off regular price. Stores like Ross, Marshalls and TJ Maxx have great deals on shoes, clothes, and kitchen stuff.
2) Costco for clothes and other items. Love getting some new jeans at Costco for $16.00! We also pick up a few staples there, and I buy things like sponges and dish soap - when I buy 124 oz. of dish soap for $7.00 I've found a good deal.
3) Make my own household cleansers. Better for you, and cheaper. My favorite is mixing equal parts vinegar and water for an all-purpose cleaner, and 1/4 castile soap to 3/4 water for a good kitchen spray. Also, microwaving half a lemon practically cleans the microwave for you. For a good tile/bathroom scrub, mix equal parts borax to baking soda and add enough hot water to make a paste. Then use that to scrub your bathroom. You can also use castile soap added to a bucket of hot water to mop the floor.
4) Cloth napkins and reusable cleaning rags. Cuts down the cost of disposable napkins and paper towels, and it looks nicer too!
5) Garage sales, Craigslist, thrift stores, curb shopping, library book sales, and used book stores (the last two are particularly helpful for us!). We just went to a thrift store to drop off some stuff and I picked up a nice fall coat and a wool cardigan. Bobby got a Jos. A Bank blazer. That was all under twenty bucks. Score!
6) CVS. Discounts I do look for are in CVS: If you have an extra care card you can get sweet deals: they offer different products each week that have an "extra bucks" reward. So if you spend $20 dollars on Aveeno products, you get $10 extra bucks. Extra bucks function as a gift certificate for the next time you shop at CVS. One of my friends always manages to get $35 dollars of merchandise for $2. I'm not that good, but it is a helpful way to save!
7) We're enrolled in BofA's "Keep the Change" program. That means every time we use our debit card, it rounds up to the next dollar amount and tranfers that to our savings (so you spend $2.20, it transfers 80 cents to your savings). The first three months after you enroll, BofA doubles whatever you've saved, and then matches 10% forward. We've already saved a couple hundred dollars this way. I also do an automatic $25.00 transfer on Mondays from our checking to savings, in addition to our regular savings deposits. It's small enough to not make a dent in our budgeting, but over time it adds up!

Anyways, these are some thoughts on how I attempt to "look well to to the ways of my household," as the Proverbs 31 woman does.