Solar Drying and Laundry Soap

Current clothes line

My desire to move toward a greener lifestyle and pay off a huge student loan motivate me to consider many frugalities and efficiencies. One of my favorite frugalities is my clothes line. I get real satisfaction marching out to that line to display all my clean wet clothes to the sun, the neighbors, and even the world.

We had a sturdy, functional, four strand line in the house of my childhood. In my early married life there was a clothes lines behind our garage apartment. Before our daughter was born, my parents gave us an avocado green clothes dryer. After we built our current house, my husband made a clothes line that went around a pulley. I could stand on my deck, hang the clothes and pull the line to send them swinging across the yard. Very clever the husband is. Now I have a single strand clothes line that is just adequate for one load. I will request more yardage now that the days are warming up.

Six Gallons Laundry Soap

My most favorite combination is my solar dryer and my homemade laundry detergent. I enjoy making my own detergent. It costs me about five bucks to make a huge vat (six gallons) of laundry soap. It is easy to do and I like the way it works and smells. It probably isn't as wonderful as some of the Tide types, but it washes my Goodwill clothing just fine. I love it, and if I want things whiter I add bleach. If you want to try it there are lots of recipes on-line. I think I started with a recipe from the Simple Dollar blog and keep tweaking it each time I concoct another batch. Makes doing laundry cheaper, greener and more self reliant- to quote the Martha, “Good Things”.