Pantry Organization

My pantry was out of control in need of a make over.  I could clean it all out and in 2 or 3 days it was a mess again.  I have a lot of stuff in there, and there just wasn't enough room. See all that stuff in the corners....It would take 5 minutes to get to it by the time I moved everything.  As you can see, when it got put away it got shoved somewhere else and things never seem to fit the same going back in.  HELP!
 I wanted 90% of the stuff in "A space" but only had 40% of my pantry that was "A space".  So.....my job was to make more "A space".   I called in reinforcement from my better half (doesn't hurt that he's very handy too!). 

My scary thrown in pantry!

Liquid Laundry Soap

I posted about my dry laundry soap, now for the one I started with originally.  I remember being very unsure of this when I first made it.  How could I make 5 gallons of laundry soap that would actually clean for under $5.00 when I would pay over $50.00 to buy an equal amount of "loads".  Just like the dry soap, you don't use near as much soap.  I use 1/4 cup (which is actually more than it calls for). 

***Warning, this post has picture overload***

 

So...Let's get started.

You will need (all found in the laundry detergent isle)

 1 bar of fels-Naptha soap

1 cup borax

1 cup arm and hammer washing soda

2 cups baking soda

and a 5 gallon bucket for mixing and storing

 

 

 

My Favorite Homemade Laundry Soap

 

I have been making homemade laundry soap for over 4 years now.  I should sit down and figure out how much I have saved over that time (I'm sure I would amaze even myself)!  When I started making it, it was on a "need to" basis to save money.  My husband had lost his job, and I was trying to save money everywhere I could.  My motto is, "Saving money on dumb stuff, so I can spend it on FUN stuff!"  My oldest child had suffered with eczema and the only detergent I could use was Tide.  I loved it, and loved the smell, but it was expensive.  I average 15+ loads of laundry a week so the soap goes fast!  I didn't know how this would affect Kaden, but I figured if I needed to, I would wash his clothes separate in tide.   I started out making liquid soap 5 gallons at a time for $7-$8.  (I will do a post on this later, I really like this for my darks).  I loved the soap, and it worked really well.  The one thing I really missed was the smell.  My favorite smell is "clean laundry" and it was missing that.  So I started adding part of a bottle of liquid tide to add the scent.  Then I started adding a scoop of oxi clean, and downy unstoppables to each load.  When my kids or hubby would do a load of laundry, they weren't as good at remembering to add all the extras.  So, I decided to try it out in a powder form and have it all in one mix.  (Wow that was a very long explanation on how my soap recipe came about!)