Do you wash your reusable grocery bags?

Well, I kept meaning to, but just never got around to it.  Until today.  I was either really bored or really ambitious!  I remember reading a long time ago that the things were loaded with bacteria, but I guess we like to think we're cleaner than the next guy.  Welllll, maybe not.  I actually forgot to take a close-up pic of the dirt on the outside of the bags, but here's my jumbled mess hanging on a door hook.  I have about 10 of these babies and I really didn't realize just how acky they were until I inspected them better.

First, I removed the plastic inserts from the bottoms of each and cleaned them well with my homemade Schwindex.  Ugh!!  I had NO CLUE there was (what appears to be) dried blood on one of them! Blech!

I then washed the bags in hot water and bleach in the washing machine.  I used bleach because I wanted to kill any germs, not really caring if it changed the color of the bags (it didn't). It was easy to fit them all in the machine but I did find that I had to smash them down a few times because of air bubbles that were trapped inside.  The bags have somewhat of a water-proof quality to them, too.  When they were done, I dried them on low in the dryer for about 20 minutes.  They came out a little less stiff than they used to be, but I don't think that will matter much.  I put the inserts back in and folded them all.

Here's a quote I found online about reusable bags...
"There's no doubt they are a more eco-friendly choice than plastic, but reusable grocery bags have a shaky health history. In 2010, a study found that over half are contaminated with bacteria, some even with E. coli, because 97 percent of shoppers say they never wash their totes." 

I also found an article that said you should wash your bags EVERY time you use them, but that just seems silly to me.  Come on, people, it's not like I'm spilling blood in them every day.  Well, except for that one bag, ah-hem.  This same article said that bags should never be kept in the car because the warm temp was perfect for breeding bacteria.  Well, guess what?  I'm still keeping mine in my van, so ha! Breed away, little bacties!`I may actually wash them more often than once a year from now on though.

And one last little psycho-facto.  You see where I put our name on our bags with magic marker?  Why do I do that?  Am I worried that someone will steal my bags right out from under me at the bagging counter?  Nope!  Don't laugh...I used to be worried that the ladies at the registers would think they were new bags and that I was trying to sneak one by them, lol!  But I guess if I'm conscientious (one may substitute paranoid) enough to worry about that, I couldn't possibly be that bad, can I? 

Anyway, that's my little snippet about reusable grocery bags.  Do you wash yours?  Are you dying of E.coli?  :)  

Dryer sheets and why I'm mad at my husband for buying them!!!

You may remember that I've been attempting to lessen my family's dependence on paper products. They're expensive and wasteful, to be honest.  I guess I never really said anything about this, but since I've been making my own (insanely cheap) laundry soap and (semi-homemade) fabric softener, I  have dropped the dryer sheets altogether.  Sure, I know some people make their own and I have considered it myself, but I've found that we just don't need them anymore.  Our clothes are perfectly soft, really!  They have a very subtle, clean scent that I like.

Recently, my friend gave me some of her old clothes and they were obviously freshly washed.  (Thanks, Michelle!)  I was really surprised to find the smell over-powering!  I guess when you get used to a nice soft scent, you don't realize how strong the store-bought stuff smells.

When my husband came home with this box of dryer sheets, I immediately asked him to please return them to Aldi.  I'm mean like that.  His argument was that they were only $1.99, which is a fair price.  I agreed, BUT $1.99 is.........well, $1.99 more than I have been spending and frankly, they aren't necessary anymore.  In true hubby fashion, he waited a couple of days, then couldn't find his receipt! I'm sure Aldi's would gladly take them back; we're in the place 3 or 4 times a week.  Heck, we're on a first name basis with some of the employees!  I decided I didn't want my hubby to suffer the embarrassment of taking them back (yes, he finds this demoralizing), so I broke down and used them.  They actually smell really nice.  Strong, but nice.

So, in true cheap ass frugal fashion, I decided to cut them in half.  Like you really needed a picture for that, right?

My thinking was, if I'm going to use them, I'm going to make them go as far as possible.   A half sheet gives me a nice light scent at only 1 1/4c per load.  What do you do to save paper around your home?

Homemade Wrinkle Releaser

A couple of days ago, my husband had this big red bag in his hands.  I asked him what was in there and he said a couple of suit jackets.  He said he only wore them for about 15 minutes each.  (GONG!)  Helllooo!  Then why are they shoved in a bag? I ask.  He tells me he's taking them to the cleaners.  Uh, okayyyyy.  You wore them for 15 minutes and you're taking them to the cleaners.  Why?  Because they're all wrinkly from being in this bag.  OMG.  Really?!  I snatched that bag right outta his hands and decided to make some homemade wrinkle releaser.  That is, after carefully sniffing the suit jackets to be sure they weren't smelly.  They weren't.  So, here's what you'll need:

1C Water
1T of your favorite Fabric Softener
1 Small Spray Bottle complete with Mr. Yucky drawn on it so your son knows not to spray it in the dog's face.  Not that I ever have that problem.  My child is an angel, ah-hem.

Mix fabric softener and water together in spray bottle.

Give it a shake, then spray on wrinkly garment.  In this case, a suit jacket.

This is what it looked like before de-wrinklifying.  Yes, that's in the dictionary.

Look it up.  Hey, this looks like something a hobo would wear!

As you spray, run your hands down the garment 

to smooth it flat.  It will be all spotty like this.

Be SURE  your garment can get wet before doing this!

And this is what it looks like afterward.  Well, mostly.

I got sick of waiting for it to dry.  It looks saggy because

I kept pulling on it and running my hands down it.

It ended up looking good and smelling even better!  Bonus!

I used only about 1/4 of the bottle.  I'm guessing it cost me less than a dime to do both garments.

Now, that's a LOT cheaper than buying the store-bought stuff and a heckuva lot cheaper than the cleaners!

Stretching your fabric softener

Here's a handy dandy way to stretch your fabric softener, but still get that lovely scent you know and love.
You'll need:

Ingredients:
2C of your favorite Fab Softener
4C White Vinegar
4C+ Tap Water
A large, empty old Fab Softener bottle

Start by pouring your fabric softener into the empty bottle.  Not to be confused with stool softener, although I could use some of that.  I know, I'm gross.  The time away did nothing for my demented sense of humor, lol!  Try not to look at the crusty state of my bottle.  I said DON'T look!  Thank you!

Next, pour in your vinegar.  Did you know that if you wanted to, you could JUST use vinegar to soften your clothes?  Yup, it's true!  It does smell a little vinegary when you take the clothes out of the washer when you choose that option.  But I promise you, all vinegar-laden underwear smell nice and fresh when done in the dryer.  It's true!

And lastly, add in your water.  Depending on the size of your container, you may need to add more.  I want to think I had to add another 4C to fill it to the top.  

Now, pop on the lid tightly and give it a gently back and forth shake to mix the ingredients together.  

Notes: 

The good news about this stuff is that you only need about 1/2 a capful for the whole load, maybe even less.  It is watery, but that's okay.  When I had our washer repaired, the technician told me that he hates the commercial fabric softeners because they are wayyyy too thick and they contain a lot of FAT/OIL!  Fat and oil?!?!?  Yup!  You should have seen how disgusting that was under the fabric softener thingy when he took it apart.  It was white (which is the leftover fatty stuff once the good smelly part washes away), with a bunch of black mold under there (which is the fatty part going RANCID!!!)  Ewwwww!!!  SSSooooooo disgusting!  He suggested that when I use commercial fabric softener, to water it down 50/50.  I had been doing that, but I knew I could do it even cheaper, hence this recipe.  Now, you will see online where some people suggest using cheap hair conditioner instead of fabric softener. Don't do it.  It never emulsifies with the other ingredients, no matter how much you shake that baby.  It just floats around in little chunks.  With this recipe, I haven't even had to shake the bottle before pouring.  Comes out great every time.   Costs a fraction of what it used to and clothes still feel and smell great!

Homemade Laundry Detergent

I guess I'm not sure if I should call this homemade since all three products come already made.  I just slapped them together.  It's a heck of a lot cheaper than the store-bought detergent, I'll tell you that.  Wanna know more?

Here's what you'll need to make it...

1 Bar Washing Soap (Lirio, Zote, Fels Naptha)
2C Super Washing Soda (Not baking soda)
2C Borax

Start by grating your soap into a large bowl.  You want it fine so it will dissolve in the wash.
UPDATE: Don't bother grating it.  After making this several times, it is much easier to cut the bar of soap into julienned strips!  Just throw them in your food processor with 1/4C of Borax or Washing Soda and let her rip!  The powder helps to break the soap down into tiny little dots and it doesn't clog up your processor.  I use a small processor like below and I get it done in three small batches!

A couple of minutes in, decide that it's going to be too time-consuming

and switch to a larger grater.

I saw a recipe online (of which there are many!) that said you need 

to use half as much washing soda and Borax as there are soap shavings.

So, I measured my soap shavings when they were larger.  It came

to 5 1/2C, but I thought they might not dissolve.

So I put them in a small food processor to chop more finely.
So much for time-saving, LOL!

See the difference in size after chopping?

I figured I'd better re-measure since there was an obvious difference.

It now came to about 4 Cups.

Feeling better about the size, I added 2 cups of Washing Soda.

And 2 cups of Borax.  Note: I felt the need to cover my nose/mouth.

This powder is so fine and it just floats in the air.  I tend to be sensitive
to these types of things and I could feel it in  my sinuses big time and
my lungs mildly.  Next time, I'll wear a painters mask or something.

Using a plastic or metal spoon (not wood) so it doesn't 

absorb odors, stir the mixture well.

It will look like this when you're done.  Now, I didn't measure,

but I'm going to assume there is 8 cups in here.  Seems logical.

Eureka!  I knew I kept this dish tab container for something!

 The best part is that it has this nice flip-top lid!

 I added a spare Tablespoon measure to 

use each time I wash.   Use 1T per load.

Notes:

I was surprised at the odd smell of the Lirio soap.  It smelled really pretty in the package, but really odd when I was grating it.  I think I'll try a different kind next time.

But that could be awhile because this 8C of detergent comes to 128 Tablespoons, which means 128 Loads!

I used 67c worth of Borax, 64c worth of Washing Soda, and 1.09 for the Lirio.  That means this whole batch costs $2.40!  Divide that by 128 loads and you have 1.875 CENTS per load!  My old store bought Gain costs about 40 cents a load!  That is a 95% savings!  That's crazy!!!

I just tried this tonight and I'm surprised at how soft the clothes are.  I am still finishing up my old bottle of fabric softener, so I still used that.  Maybe it's my imagination.  The good news...that weird smell from the Lirio...gone.  Clothes just smell clean!  Thank goodness!

{Printer Friendly Version}