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Laundry Day

As I washed a couple loads of laundry on Monday, it reminded me of my Grandma. She's now 89 and a home health aide helps her with laundry, but it's still done on Monday at her house as it's always been. I often long for my life to be as routine and rhythmic as my Grandma's.

It seems housewives all over used to follow these rhythms. When we lived in Iowa among the Amish, the best day to drive by their farms was Monday when their beautiful black and jewel-toned clothing hung on the clotheslines all over the community. I've always loved seeing wash hung out on clotheslines and the wash of the Amish is most colorful of all.

In the Little House on the Prairie books, Laura Ingalls Wilder wrote of the traditions her mother followed, in the following saying:

Wash on Monday
Iron on Tuesday
Mend on Wednesday
Churn on Thursday
Clean on Friday
Bake on Saturday
Rest on Sunday

Barbara M. Walker writes in her book, The Little House Cookbook, based on the frontier foods of Laura Ingalls Wilder's stories, "If you followed this plan, your house would be clean for Sunday sitting, with or without guests; your butter and baked goods would be fresh for Sunday dinner; and your best clothes and linens would be washed before any stains could set." Smart, isn't it?


Here's my recipe for laundry detergent. I don't know that it saves any money over just buying Tide or whatever, but I do know it doesn't smell of fragrance (which I can't tolerate) and it works really well.

I mix equal parts Borax and Washing Soda (NOT Baking Soda as in the photo--I messed up!) in a canister. I use 1/8 to 1/4 cup per load of that. Then I take my grater from Ikea and grate just a tiny bit of Dr. Bronner's Lavender Castille Soap into the powder mix (about 3 runs on the grater). I like Lavender, but you can use any scent. I do think the soap needs to be Castille, though, which is just from olive oil.

I also know this detergent is good for the environment. And I can use the same mix to scrub my sinks, tub, toilet, whatever, without the soap. (I use just plain borax in the toilet).
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Comments

Barb said…
I am so glad that you are going to be joining the Green Hour Challenges! We are all having a great time with our nature study and reading the book.

I am going to delete your link for now because you are linking to your blog in general and not to your specific post about the Green Hour Challenge. Everyone is posting their links so we can see what they do for their nature study.

Please come back to the challenge and post your link in Mr. Linky as soon as you make your blog entry.

Thanks
Barb-Harmony Art Mom
5:25 PM
World Wide Alternative said…
Fabulous post! Xxx
11:45 PM
denise said…
Nice. I have crazy allergies so cannot tolerate most laundry soaps - so I either use ecos or we also make our own. :)

I like the idea of the daily rhythms, and we try to do that with baking, crafting, errands...but laundry seems to come 5 days a week, and cleaning, well, 7! ;)
11:46 PM
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