I mentioned on Friday that the healthy living ebook sale had been extended through the weekend, and quite a few of you took advantage of the opportunity to snag this awesome collection of books (and sweet free gifts!) for just $29. The extension of the sale is almost over; it officially ends at 8pm EST tonight. So if you haven’t got yours yet, you still have a few hours. I’ve loved hearing from some of you who have purchased the package and are as excited about the books as I am. Apartment Gardening by Jami Leigh is a great resource for all of you who have said how much you’d love to have a garden but are limited by not having a yard. And I’m loving all the cookbooks! If you’ve already purchased your book bundle, enjoy some cozy reading time now that the evenings start so early.
Today I’m sharing a really simple, really frugal (free!) solution that I came up with for our laundry room. I’ve written before about how much I love soap nuts. For the past three years, I’ve been washing all of our laundry with them. Easy, all natural, they work, and our clothes come off the line smelling like nothing at all – which is just the way I like it. I boil a handful of soap nuts in water on the stove for about half an hour in order to make liquid laundry soap. I scoop out the soap nuts and store the liquid in recycled glass jars. But instead of just composting the soap nuts right away, I put them into little fabric bags (the bags come with the bulk soap nuts) and toss them in with my diaper loads. They usually last three or four more washes before they’re all the way broken down and ready for the compost bin. That means that I always have a little pile of fabric bags full of soap nuts sitting on top of my washing machine. The spin cycle would shake them onto the floor, or they’d get bumped and knocked down between the washer and the wall… in short, my pile method wasn’t working.
I have a little nook in my laundry room where we store the laundry basket, trash can, and stuff like the broom and mop (it’s the space where a dryer would go, but we’re dryer-free around here). It’s out of the way, and you don’t see it when you walk into the room unless you go around the corner. So I can put whatever I want there. I wanted wall-mounted storage for my soap nuts bags, but I didn’t want to pay for anything. So I raided the recycling bin and found an empty vinegar jug. Two minutes with a utility knife and I had this:
I just nailed it to the wall, and it’s working great. My soap nuts bags go straight in there when I pull the diapers out of the washer, and it keeps them contained and off the floor. I like having the top of the washing machine clear of clutter, and this helps. It was free, it took just a couple minutes to go from idea to done, and it works – what more could I want?
The Money Mail says
One DIY project I did was to cut open a milk carton and plat a tree in it. Simple and effective
Sophia Thent says
Ingenuity! Maybe I could use my garden bags like this.
Anne Marie Maltbie says
I was actually more interested in what you had to say about the soap nuts than the DIY organizer, although that is very cool. I’m interested in giving soap nuts a try myself but don’t know where to start. Where do you get yours?
frugalbabe says
I’ve been using soap nuts for more than three years now, and I love them. The current bag I have came from NaturOli, and it’s probably the best qualify soap nuts I’ve purchased yet. But I’ve also bought good soap nuts from Greener Living Products. I just boil six cups of water and 12 soap nuts and let them simmer for half an hour. Then I strain out the nuts and put the liquid in a jar in my laundry room. I put 1/4 cup of it in with each load of laundry, and it works great. I love that our laundry comes out smelling like nothing at all, and has no chemical whiteners, brighteners, scents or softeners on it. Instead, it’s clean! Have fun with soap nuts!