Going green to save some green; Step two

Lately I have been searching for any means possible to save some money around the house. My first step was switching the baby to cloth diapers. After a month of using cloth, I am so happy we did it! The money savings on diapers is insane, but that's for another post :)

So the latest installment in my going green to save some green adventure is my soaps and cleaning products. We use them daily; we clean our clothes, bodies, counters, dishes, and more with them. In the short run, all these costs separately can be small potatoes, but over the course of a year that can add up to an huge amount of money! So, for now, I am starting small. The first thing I am replacing is our laundry detergent. Now for any loyal readers of Megan's blog, this will look familiar, but for me it's the logical place to start.

So, the initial plan is when our giant jug of Costco Ecos detergent runs out I will be switching to soap nuts. That's right, nuts. They are actually more of a dehydrated berry, but I digress. They are mother nature's cleaner. Throw a few in the wash in lieu of detergent, a few drops of essential oil for scent, and boom, all natural detergent. Now, there are a bunch of ways to make your own detergent that I found while doing my research that are cheap and easy and save you loads of money (click here to see some). I ultimately I settled on soap nuts BECAUSE they are natural, and therefore, cloth diaper safe. All the other detergents I was finding recipes for we're not CD safe because the ingredients would build up in the diapers and then we would have a very leaky problem.

It wasn't until I started looking for the best ways to store my soap nuts that I found recipes for making all kinds of home cleaners out of, you guessed it, the very same soap nuts I was already planning on buying. I can make kitchen cleaner, dish washer detergent, BATHROOM cleaner! All I have to do is buy a bulk bag of these babies off amazon (look at that price tag) (that's 720 loads of laundry at about 4.5 cents a load) and keep them around my house.

So after I make switch in the laundry I plan to go big (because I am already at home ;)). I will be switching our dish washing detergent, hand soap, and multi surface cleaner for the kitchen and bathroom counters. Stay turned for updates and photos!

Want to learn more about soap nuts? Here you go!