Laundry, Mountains and Mountains of laundry!!!

So I was climbing mt. washmore the other day (flyladyism) and decided that there has GOT to be a way to save money. I'm not cheap, I'm frugal. ;) Well, I made laundry soap the other day and it's amazing, it's super easy, my clothes are clean and it cost me approximately 2 pennies a load to use!

I grated 3 bars of soap. (used ivory but am going to use something else next time. I like the scent of yardley's lavendar
2 cup washing soada (found at kroger)
2 cups borax (in the laundry aisle)
lavendar essential oil (because I LOVE the smell)

my mistake was I tried to melt the soap in water on the stove which did NOT work, and then add it and the other powders to a 5 gallon bucket and filled it with water. yay, liquid laundry soap, right? WRONG! it congealed... sort of... and I have to stir it every time I use it, so after doing some research, I found it's better to keep it in powder form and use a tablespoon at a time, so when my bucket-o-suds is done, (at this rate should be the middle of june!)I will make more but keep it in powder form.

What I will do differently: I'm going to finely grate the soap on the littlest form on my grater, (using a different soap) keep it strictly powder and possibly put it all in a blender to make a superfine powder. The good thing about it is not only do I only need a tablespoon per load, it takes up SO MUCH LESS space in my laundry room.

If you're worried about it not getting as clean as commercial cleansers, let me assure you that I have NO problem with it, and my husband is in the army with all the dirt and grime that domes along with his job, and I have 2 children ages 3 and 5 and they also come along with a certain amount of dirt, and the clothes come out smelling clean and fresh every time. I don't even pre-treat.

once my dryer sheets are used up, I will be using a homemade fabric softener, though I have to say with the borax and the washing soda, my clothes come out pretty soft anyway.

Well, off to tackle the monster that my dirty laundry has become. I just wish I had an outdoor clothes line to dry them on. sigh.