DIYMason Jar Detergent Dispenser

Yesterday I walked you through the step by step process of making your very own Homemade Dishwasher Detergent! I broke down the cost revealing an unbeatable price tag of $2.23 a batch and only 03¢-05¢ a load. Today I’m going to show you a simple way to create a stylish, yet useful Mason Jar Dispenser for your new Homemade Dishwasher Detergent!

Materials Needed

Mason jar with lid

Morton Salt container

Cutting board & Cutting Utensil

Writing utensil and glue

A piece of decorative paper

1. Use your cutting utensil to remove the top of the salt container.

2. Place your Mason jar lid (not the ring) on your salt container’s top and draw around the lid.

3. Use your cutting utensil to cut along the circle you’ve drawn.

4. Next, take your piece of decorative paper (this is a piece of wrapping paper I had purchased at the Dollar Tree a while back) and draw around your cut out salt container top.

5. Cut out the circle you've drawn on your decorative paper. Place your salt container top ON your already cut decorative paper circle and trace along the inside of the salt container top’s opening.

6. Using your cutting utensil, cut along the lines you traced.

7. Gently remove the metal piece from your salt container’s top. Don’t break any parts because you are going to need them :)

8. Glue your decorative paper circle onto your salt container top and reattach metal piece.

9. Place your new decorative lid into your Mason Jar ring.

10. Enjoy your creative and stylish Mason Jar Detergent Dispenser!

Clear as mud????

Pretty sure I can come up with 100 uses for this kind of dispenser. And again, it cost me NOTHING because I already had everything on hand! I am loving these simple projects! Let me know how yours turn out! AND I’d love to see pictures! You can post them on my Facebook page here!!!

Homemade Dishwasher Detergent

Welcome to the 3^rd installment of homemade cleansers. I certainly hope you’re trying some of these out and I can’t wait to hear your results! If you haven't already, go check out my tutorials for Homemade Laundry Detergent and Homemade Fabric Softener/Dryer Sheets. Now, let’s get started, because well, if your family is anything like mine, you have plenty of dishes waiting to wash themselves!

Ingredients

1cp Arm & Hammer Washing Soda

1cp Borax

¼cp Kosher Salt

2 Envelopes Lemonade Kool-Aid

Price Breakdown

55oz Arm & Hammer Washing Soda- $3.24

76oz Borax- $6.46

48 oz Kosher Salt- $7.00

Lemonade Kool-Aid- 4/$1

The Washing Soda will make 6.875 batches of Detergent, costing 47¢/batch.

The Borax will make 9.5 batches of Detergent, costing 68¢/batch.

The Kosher Salt will make 12 batches of Detergent, costing 58¢/batch.

And of course, 2 Envelopes of Lemonade Kool-Aid will cost 50¢/batch,

Making our grand total $2.23 for approximately 2¼ cps of Dishwashing Detergent. This is enough for 36-72 loads of dirty, grimy dishes (depending on whether you use 1 or 2 tbsp in each load).

As I’ve shared previously, I decided years ago to purchase safer, cleaner products for my home. This included Dishwasher Detergent and I have been spending $7.89 for a 25 load bottle of Melaleuca’s Diamond Bride Dishwasher Detergent. Their bottle was costing me about 32¢ cents a load. Not so bad for not having to slave away over a sink full of suds and greasy dishes. However, if I can cut that cost, I will. And I have! My homemade Dishwasher Detergent only costs me 03¢-05¢ a load! WOW! That’s quite a savings! And I’m still using a safe and healthy product on our dishes. So, have I convinced you yet? Are you ready to save some money? Here are step by step instructions to make your own Homemade Dishwasher Detergent.

1. Gather your ingredients

Arm & Hammer Washing Soda

Borax

Kosher Salt

Lemonade Kool-Aid

2. Dump your ingredients into a medium size bowl

1cp Arm & Hammer Washing Soda

1cp Borax

¼cp Kosher Salt (this is supposed to reduce the effects of hard water)

2 Envelopes Lemonade Kool-Aid

3. Mix well

4. Store in sealed container

To save myself time on future batches, I printed the ingredients onto an address label and attached it to the back of my Mason Jar J

5. Use 1-2tbsp per load and enjoy clean dishes and saving money $-)

(For an extra cleaning boost, add ½ -1cp white vinegar to the bottom of your dishwasher before starting.)

6. Help me find a recipe for Homemade Dishsoap :) 

7. Be sure and click here to learn how to make this handy dandy Mason Jar Detergent dispenser!!!!

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Homemade Fabric Softener & Dryer Sheets

You’re back!! I’m so excited! Yesterday I shared with you how to make your own Homemade Laundry Detergent, and I promised you I’d be back today with another tutorial. Today’s lesson- Making Homemade Fabric Softener & Dryer Sheets. This might be the easiest tutorial EVER! Again, I only needed three ingredients (if water counts as an ingredient), and I didn’t even have to search the grocery store for them, because they were already sitting on my shelf! And I’ll bet they’re sitting on yours too!

Ingredients

6 cups Water

3 cups White Vinegar

2 cups Hair Conditioner

Price Breakdown

Water- FREE :)

1 Gallon White Vinegar- $2.56

1 22.5oz Bottle Hair Conditioner (any brand/scent)- $1.46

At 3 cups per batch, a gallon of White Vinegar will make 5.333 batches of Detergent, costing 48¢/batch.

Using 2 cups per batch, the conditioner will make 1.4 batches of Detergent, costing $1.04/batch. 

You do the math. Our Homemade Fabric softener/Dryer Sheets cost a measly $1.52 a batch! You can use this in your washing machine as Fabric Softener. If you do, come back and let me know how you like it, since I’ve only used it as a dryer sheet (successfully, by the way).

Here are step by step instructions to make your own Homemade Dryer Sheets.

1. Gather your ingredients/materials:

White Vinegar

Hair Conditioner

Large Bowl and stirring spoon

Measuring Cup

Gloves

Rags

2. Put all the ingredients into your large bowl:

6 cups Water

3 cups White Vinegar

2 cups Hair Conditioner

3. Mix well.

4. Soak rags in mixture. Rather than purchasing rags, I cut an old towel into 12 pieces, and only soaked 6 of them.

5. After they are completely submerged, wring out well. This is where your cloves come in handy.

6. Pour your remaining softener into a spray bottle.

I had quite a bit leftover after wringing out my rags, so I also stored some in empty bottles for soaking more rags in later. (Again, I'm super cheap and just used old bottles that were lying around. We're cutting costs here, remember.)

7. Let your soaked rags air dry. If you have other rags to use, keep them handy for spraying. (I wasn’t sure if I would prefer to have my rags soaked or to spray them before tossing into the dryer, so I kept 6 rags out for spraying later.)

8. Be sure to mark which rags are ready to use and which need to be spritzed. Now the fun starts- how many loads can you get out of one rag? I’ve been using the same rag for three days! Let me know how it works for you!

To save myself time on future batches, I printed the ingredients onto an address label and attached it to the back of my spray bottle J

9. Figure out how to figure out how much this stuff costs and then let me know! For the last few years I’ve been buying Melaleuca’s MelaSoft Dryer Sheets for $5.69 a box, and I’m dying to know how much money I’m saving!

10. Now click HERE and learn how to make Homemade Dishwasher Detergent!!!!

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Homemade Laundry Detergent

So I’ve been on a DIY/Make My Own cleansers kick lately, and since I’ve neglected my blog and all of you for so long, I’m kind of hoping a couple of handy homemade tutorials will grant me some grace; even just a little.

I've been looking at Homemade Laundry Detergent recipes for some time now. It's just been one of the many things I WANT to do, but neglect to make a priority. And I have to admit, it all felt a little overwhelming and out of my league. But alas, took the plung and purchased the ingredients. YEP, 3 whole ingredients! Wow, that was hard!

Ingredients:

¼ cp Arm & Hammer Washing Soda

2tbsp Borax

¼ Bar Fels Naptha Soap

Price Breakdown

55oz Arm & Hammer Washing Soda- $3.24

76oz Borax- $6.46

Fels Naptha Soap- 97¢

At ¼ cp per batch, the Washing Soda will make 27.5 batches of Detergent, costing 12¢/batch.

At 2tbsp per batch, the Borax will make 76 batches of Detergent, costing 9¢/batch.

Using ¼ bar per batch, the Fels Naptha will make 4 batches of Detergent, costing 24¢/batch.

Our grand total comes out to be an astounding 45¢/batch!!! And wait, it gets even more ridiculous because at ¼ cp per load (for HE machines), this batch makes enough Detergent to do approximately 176.442 loads of laundry!!!

Because I decided years ago to purchase safer, cleaner products for my home, I have been spending $16.99 for a 96 load bottle of Melaleuca’s MelaPower Laundry Detergent for my HE washing machine. Their bottle was costing me about 18¢ a load. However, my Homemade Laundry Detergent is only costing me 002¢ a load! IS THIS EVEN POSSIBLE? Why yes, yes it is! According to Google (and Google knows EVERYTHING), the average American family does about 400 loads of laundry per year. At 15¢ a load, this would cost $60 a year. However, at 002¢ a load, you will spend only $1.00 a year on laundry detergent. Did you catch that?! $1.00 a year on laundry detergent!!! So, have I convinced you yet? Are you ready to save some money? Here are step by step instructions to make your own Homemade Laundry Detergent.

1. Gather your ingredients/materials:

Arm & Hammer Washing Soda

Borax

Bar of Fels Naptha Soap

Cutting board, knife, & grater

Sauce pan & stirring spoon

Large bucket (with lid if possible)

2. Divide your Fels Naptha into 4 equal parts

3. Grate 1/4^th of the bar and store the remaining 3/4^th in an air tight container.

Put your grated soap and 1 cup of water in a medium pan, cooking on medium heat. Stir constantly until the soap is completely melted. You don’t want any chunks left behind.

4. Pour 10 cups of water into your large bucket.

Add your melted Fels Naptha, ¼ cp Arm & Hammer Washing Soda, and 2tbsp Borax to the water. After mixing well, add another 10 cups of water to your large bucket mixture.

5. Cover with lid (or clear wrap if your container doesn’t have a lid, like mine), and let it sit overnight.

6. The next day it will be thick and have a jello consistency. Stir well to soften mixture and allow pouring into containers. It will be clumpy but mix as well as possible.

7. Fill containers half full and fill the rest of the way with water. (I used my old Melaleuca containers because after all, going out and buying new containers would destroy my $1/year laundry budget. And believe me, the hubby is rather happy with the new Detergent price tag.)

To save myself time on future batches, I also printed the ingredients onto an address label and attached it to the back of my containers J

8. Give your bottle a good shake and go start a load! Use ¼ cup for HE machines and 5/8 cup for regular washers.

9. Enjoy fresh, clean clothes, an abundance of cash, and a happy hubby.

10. Now go here and learn how to make Homemade Softner and Dryer Sheets!!!! 

(Disclaimer- I’m NOT a photographer. Photos are strictly for tutorial purposes and NOT for enjoyment.)

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Five Minute Friday- Story

Most weeks I read my dear friend Tresta’s Five Minute Friday write up and am incredibly blessed. How does she do that in five minutes!? Well, this morning I too took the plunge. Five Minutes? I’ll give it a shot. I can ramble for five minutes! Today’s writing prompt- Story-

GO

We ALL have a story. We are ALL living a story. As I lay in bed last night, I reflect on the day’s visit with my wonderful friends at the lake, the great scare we had as our dear friend and her two boys almost got swept away in the tides that have their own story.  I reflected on the life I’ve lived with these wonderful women and their children- years and years of growing and learning, failing and learning some more, receiving grace, offering grace, learning, always learning. And I see that STORY taking shape. I know someday there will be not only a precise beginning, but a clear climax and an ending. Today I look at my life and think- where are we going… what am I doing? But in the midst of the story, you can’t actually SEE the story can you. While I LIVE the story day in and day out, I cannot fathom where I am in my story or what the outcome will be.  I long for those days of ‘knowing.’ I want to reach into the past and take them back. We knew we would have nap time and we would have snack, and we would watch a 30 minute Veggie Tale. We KNEW! Now, I don’t know what’s happening in my story and it makes life HARD. The unknown is hard.

STOP

And I find I had so much more to say and five minutes goes by far too quickly! Thanks for the prompt Lisa-Jo, and for your faithful five minutes, Tresta!

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