Savings Sunday - Organizing/Cleaning

Hello, and welcome to another Savings Sunday!  Today I will be writing about some money saving tips in regards to cleaning and organizing the house.

Organizing - Reuse the containers your food comes in.  I've been saving and reusing the plastic containers from berries, organic greens, etc.  I use them to package cookies as gifts, for the kids toys to sort them (great because they are see through) and for organizing dried goods in my pantry.  Keeps things contained and easy to find, giving me more space to put my potatoes.  :)

Cleansers - Another way to save money is to use vinegar and baking soda for just about everything.  Clean your kitchen sink with it instead of buying other cleansers.  Clean your oven by making a paste of baking soda and water and smearing it on the inside, then let it sit for an hour or two and wipe it all out.  You can get the racks clean by soaking them in the tub with one cup of dishwasher detergent (apparently there are recipes to make this as well) and really really hot water (put an old towel down on the bottom of the tub first to prevent scratching).  You can clean windows with vinegar and newspapers rather than Windex.  Really, if you look around online you will find so many things you can use these two items on... instead of buying cleaners.  And, they are non toxic and food grade, so you don't have to worry about the kids... as much...

Another tip on baking soda - If you can purchase it bulk at the grocery store (think Costco, or the giant box in the baking aisle of your local supermarket), you will get a better bang for your buck, but the best soda for your dollar can be found at feed plants.  Yes... for cattle.  It is not the same quality as the stuff you get in the store (hasn't been processed and 'cleaned' to the same degree as it's for use in cattle feed, so I wouldn't recommend it for baking as the quality is down), but you'll pay WAY less.  I only figured this out recently (you'd figure I'd have caught on with our own cattle feed purchases over the last 6 years of doing the bookwork, but for some reason I was clueless on this.  Probably because it is called Sodium Bicarbonate on the forms and although I knew that name was Baking Soda, I didn't really make the connection until I saw the bags this week with the little arm and hammer symbol on them).  Same thing with Epsom Salts.  If you can get them from the feed company and have the storage space (remember, these things cost much less per 100 grams, but you're getting a 25kg bag), you can save a lot (again, the Epsom salts aren't perfectly 'clean' in that there might be a stone or two in there per cup of salts, but for a bath it doesn't really matter).  I would be cautious however as some feed companies will charge more per bag (or may not sell it to you) if they know it is for household use instead of for feed.  Lucky us, living on a farm! 

Laundry detergent - if you are like me you will have found that this is a pricey item in your house.  I found out that I can make my own for much cheaper.  I buy the soap bars in the laundry aisle for $1 a bar, grate them, and then put in 1/2 a tablespoon each of grated soap, borax, and washing soda into my dry soap compartment of the he washer.  I have only been doing this about a month, and so far so good.  I found a recipe for melting the soap and making a 'sauce' from this which is supposed to be better for keeping soap residues off the clothes, and I may give that a try with the second bar of soap when the time comes.  For now, this works great. 

Washing cloth diapers - For my diapers I use 1/2 tablespoon of washing soda with 1/2 tablespoon of baking soda in the dry soap compartment.  No soap residue on the diapers.  To strip them I use a large bucket and put them in with a bunch of boiling water.  Yeah.  And a small scoop of washing soda.  Or lemon juice.  Not both together though.  Then I 'rinse and repeat' until the water is clear.  Then I throw them in the machine again for good measure.  To 'bleach' them, I use the sun.  Oh, but don't put your snappi covers in the boiling water as it could potentially melt the snaps.  I put my covers in once it was cool enough that I could stick my arm in there.