This week I thought I'd share some laundry tips.  I'm sure you've heard some of them before but maybe some are new. 

1. Make your own laundry detergent.  It will cut the cost by at least half per load.  Here is the recipe I use.  1 cup of  Fels Naptha soap grated, ½ cup Borax, ½ cup Arm –n- Hammer Washing Soap  mix together and use 1 ½ tbsp. per load.

2. To get your socks super white boil them in water with a slice of lemon.

3. I wash all my clothes except whites in cold water.  The clothes come just as clean and I don’t have to worry about shrinkage or stains being set in.  Sometimes we miss treating a stain and if you wash it in hot water it sets it if you wash it in cold you get another chance to get it out.

4. I try to always dry my blankets, towels, jeans, and other heavy material clothes on the clothesline.  I wash these loads first so that if I have to use the dryer it is for the lighter weight fabrics that dry quicker.

5. When I could use fabric softner, I would use half the amount of liquid it said to use and they still smelled great.  They were also soft.  When I used dryer sheets I would cut them in thirds and they were still effective.  You can also use the used dryer sheets to dust with.  They work just like a swiffer duster.  Now I use ½ cup of white distilled vinegar in my downy ball.  Granted there is no fragrance but the clothes do come out softer than with no fabric softner.  The vinegar helps breakdown any soap residue left in the clothes so they rinse cleaner.  The residue is what makes clothes stiff.

You can find other great tips at Biblical Womanhood.