When it comes to homemade recipes, I love to find simple ones that are just a matter of mixing a couple of things together. In fact every summer I celebrate some of these recipes with my annual DIY For Dummies List of things you can make with just 2 ingredients.Read More
DIY No Borax Laundry Detergent {copycat Molly Suds}
Homemade laundry detergents and soaps have always been intriguing to me. Since the early days of this blog I’ve always had some recipe or another that I’m using. I go through streaks where I don’t use the homemade stuff quite as much, but I usually always have a batch availableRead More
Trial Size Homemade Laundry Soap
One of the things I really liked about my homemade laundry soap recipe was that I could make it in a big batch with no measuring. Once the bar soap was grated, it was just a matter of opening boxes or containers, dumping the contents and stirring everything together. OnceRead More
Help For Stains That Went Through The Dryer
One of life’s more challenging laundry dilemmas is how to get out a greasy stain that’s been through the washer and dryer already. Is there any hope? Is it a lost cause? When it comes to laundry stains I often feel like it’s worth experimenting a little bit. You’re inRead More
DIY No-Grate Powdered Laundry Soap
Life gets busy. We all have weeks when we feel too busy for homemade, and last week was one of those weeks for me. And my busy week also happened to coincide with my big batch of powdered homemade laundry soap running out. I was even kind of feeling too busyRead More
Make Your Own Dryer Softener Sheets
Winter is the time of year when the clothing coming out of our dryer sure seems to be filled with a lot more static. Maybe it’s because winter air is more dry, or maybe it’s that there are more fleeces and sweaters and other static-prone items in the washloads. WhateverRead More
Why I’m Still Using Homemade Laundry Soap
One of the homemade recipes I was most curious about when I started trying DIY recipes for this blog was homemade laundry soap. I’ll also admit that it was one of the recipes I was most scared about trying too! I thought it would be great to save money withRead More
Can You Microwave Fels Naphtha Soap?
Exactly two years ago today I wrote a post about how to microwave Ivory soap for your homemade laundry soap mixtures. Putting the Ivory soap in the microwave made it puff up and once it cooled, it could easily be crumbled into a powdery consistency, saving you the time andRead More
Can You Use Homemade Laundry Soap In HE Washers?
I get asked questions often here at The Make Your Own Zone, but one of the more frequent questions I get is about the homemade powdered laundry soap, and more specifically, if it can be used in high efficiency washing machines (usually abbreviated as HE washing machines). Because thisRead More
Homemade Laundry Soap: The Update
I think people fall into two groups when it comes to homemade laundry soap. One group is pretty much freaked out by the idea and says “Thanks but no thanks. Why would I want to make my own laundry soap?”. The other group thinks it sounds like an adventurous money-savingRead More
Can You Mix Dawn Dish Soap With Bleach??
I must be in a laundry state of mind lately because today’s post is once again about a laundry question I’ve been thinking about. Last week I was researching some unexpected homemade stain removers and that got me thinking about another homemade laundry product – my homemade no-grate laundry soapRead More
Unexpected Helpers for Laundry Stains
Sometimes I take a little breather and stop and think a bit about why I like finding ways to make my own stuff. And when I think about it, one word always keeps popping up that’s important to me: Resourceful. I love to be resourceful! Homemade solutions are oftenRead More
Reduce Static Cling With DIY Dryer Balls
How do you deal with static cling? Are you in the habit of just tossing a dryer sheet into your dryer? I was too but maybe that wasn’t such a good idea. Apparently dryer sheets contain lots of unhealthy chemicals (you can check out this article) and in fact muchRead More
Homemade Stain Remover – Success Story #3
This isn’t the first time I’ve written a follow up story about my favorite homemade stain remover recipe. Or the second time. It is in fact the third time. I just can’t help myself. And that’s because once again I have a pretty impressive story about this spot removerRead More
What To Do About Clumpy Hard Borax And Washing Soda
When I started to make my own cleaning products and make my own laundry products a few years back, most of the ingredients I needed were pretty familiar to me. All that is except for a couple that kept popping up in a whole lot of recipes – borax andRead More
Homemade Laundry Soap made with Dawn
Making your own laundry soap isn’t hard, but you do have to set aside a little time. And it’s not the time it takes to measure or mix anything either. That’s the quick part. It’s the time for that pesky part of the chore known as “The Grating Of TheRead More
Homemade Liquid Fabric Softener Recipes
Are you tired of the amount of money you spend buying liquid fabric softener? Well, there’s a solution. Save money and Make Your Own! When I started researching how to make fabric softener, I soon discovered that the magic ingredient (once again) is white distilled vinegar, a wonderful ingredientRead More
Homemade Laundry Soap – with Microwaved Ivory!
Today I used my microwave to make another batch of my homemade powdered laundry soap. What ?? Why would I be using the microwave ?? It turns out the microwave can be an interesting method to replace the “grating of the Ivory soap” process. And if you’ve ever made aRead More
Peroxide and Dawn Stain Remover – Another Success Story
I’m still kind of surprised that two simple ingredients like Dawn dish soap and hydrogen peroxide can do such amazing things when it comes to laundry stains. I was doing my happy dance a few weeks ago when this mixture got rid of a wine stain on a woolRead More
Homemade Stain Remover – Another Success Story
I love a challenge. And this week I had another challenge thanks to Hungry Son. He came to me with one of his sweaters (a sweater with wool in it that needs handwashing by the way). “Ummm, Mom, do you think you can get this spot out of myRead More