Fixin' Things and Such

This is a huge THANK YOU to the one and only Papa Bear!  Although it would have been easier for you to just do things for Jen and I you insisted we do it ourselves after you explained or gave a little demonstration.  We did a little workin' in your basement workshop growing up and learned how to use the tools even if we didn't really want to.

 Because of your insistence that we learn to do it ourselves I sanded and painted our kitchen cabinets and added pulls to them (they didn't have any before).  I also can find a stud in the wall for hanging photos or all my Disney medals.  Added bonus for the curtain rod being level.  It took longer to hang, but all that measuring, finding and marking was worth having something beautiful to look at that I am proud to say I did all by myself.

 When the shower knob decided to crack and break on the inside I was able to replace it.  My sleeve might we a little wet, but I learned to shut the water off the next time.  I've also been able to trouble shoot if the toilet is running and can usually fix that on my own too!

 Thanks Papa Bear for all those little lessons on how to fix stuff while growing up and making me do it myself so I would remember.  We are so lucky and even better is there is still a lot for me to learn (like this winter I learned about how to change the spark plug in the snow blower--even if you did it for me since my fingers would have froze off).

Laundry Detergent

 I finally used up almost all of the detergent that I made way back in August.  I still have about 1/4 of a peanut container full though.  The ingredients above are all you need (3 bars of the soap) and it makes this much stuff:

I skipped the unstoppables this time since I didn't really notice the scent last time.  After I use the rest of the "old batch" I will fill the 3rd peanut container and be ready to wash for another 9ish months or so.  We have had 4 or 5 loads a week with the cold weather and all my extra running gear so that should go back down to 2-3 a week when the weather warms up.

What are some DIY things that you use at your house that are money savers?

Laundry Detergent

I read my sisters blog and checked out her friend Christy's blog.  She had made her own laundry detergent.  I thought I would give it a whirl myself and found that it was really easy.  I gathered the materials:

You do need 3 bars of Fels Naptha soap and a grater.  I followed Christy's directions and then put the contents into large zip-top bags with the rest that I would scoop out of going into a plastic container with a screw top left over from peanuts.  So far the detergent works great and all the supplies were just over $20.  It makes a lot of detergent and you only need 2 "coffee scoops" for a full load of laundry.  It seems like I have barely dented what I made but I've done countless loads of laundry.  Compare the amount of laundry to what you get out of a huge $18 thing of Tide that does 78 loads and we are totally on the winning end of cost effectiveness.  I really like the clean smell it leaves on our clothes.