I am loving summery breakfast bowls. This one was spectacular.
- strawberries
- blueberries
- Ezekiel english muffin
- pour, poke + spread eggs
These eggs were insanely delicious. I’m obsessed with the farm fresh and I cooked 6 at once, for 3 of us eating them. They came out super fluffy, thick and full of flavor. Love.
Want clean clothes, the natural way, without paying an arm + a leg??
It’s so easy you won’t believe it.
I saw this idea on HEAB’s blog a week or so ago, and thought it was genius. I am so very excited about it.
DIY Laundry Detergent
- 1c baking soda
- 1c super washing soda
- 1c borax
- 1.5 bars of dr. bronners pure-castile soap
- Grate the soap boars with a cheese grater or similar, so it’s all in big flakes.
- Mix with the other ingredients.
- Use 2T per load of laundry
This makes about 4-5c, which equals 32 – 40 loads of laundry.
Yes, I used the cheese grater. The soap cleaned it really well 
Why is this DIY detergent so awesome?
- Easy on your clothing.
- No harsh chemicals, non-toxic.
- Environmentally friendly.
- Easy on your washing machine + pipes.
- Cheap.
Borax = $3.99 [Target]
Washing Soda = $3.99 [Ace Hardwear]
Baking Soda = $1.99 [Target]
Castile Soap = varies bt/n $2-5 [Trader Joes has this soap for $2 – At Whole Foods it’s $4.50 – At Vitacost.com it’s $2.50]
While it might seem a little pricey initially, you can use the Borax, Washing Soda, and Baking Soda numerous times. The boxes are quite large. You can probably get about 8 batches from the borax + washing soda.
This is approximate, but if you calculate it out, 1 batch costs ~$6 – 7 [depends on where you get the castile soap]
= ~.20/load
I find it really gratifying to make things like this myself.
Here are a few photos from our night at Red Rocks Amphitheatre. It was a gorgeous night and we had so much fun!
Dinosaur Ridge Mountain…see it?
These photos do not do Red Rocks justice. It was stunning. Like nothing I’ve ever seen before!
A lot of you left comments questioning the climbing without ropes and helmets. We were bouldering, which is very different from rope/sport climbing. Bouldering is kind of just as it sounds. You climb on boulders, usually around 10-15’ high. We use very thick, heavy duty mats, called crash pads in case someone falls. Also, whenever anyone climbs you have at least one spotter. If you’re not safe about it, with spotters + crash pads, it can definitely be dangerous. However, we are very careful and do not attempt anything above our skill level. Just wanted to clear that up!
Off to bed!
Ashley
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I love making my own cleaning supplies!! I often just use baking soda for my clothes and they come out great, I’ll totally have to give this a try. I’m sure the Bronner’s is an awesome addition.
Those mountains are beautiful!!! Looks like so much fun.
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I love that you make your own cleaning stuff, that’s so cool!
Those pictures/views are outstanding too – but bouldering sounds scary!
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Love the photos from Red Rock Ampitheater! That place looks amazing
Enjoy the visitors and a late congratulations on Chris’s job, really happy for you two 
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I was just at Red Rocks this week for the first time in a long. I had forgotten how beautiful it was! I hope your night there was as perfect as ours. Looks like it!
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Once I’m back in a country where you can buy baking soda, I’m making your laundry detergent! In Germany, you can only buy the stuff at pharmacies and in small quantities. Red Rock Ampitheater is such a beautiful place. I have many photos circa 13 year old photographer from there!
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Isn’t Red Rocks a sweet place? Easily my fav place that I’ve ever been to see a concert. The acoustics are fantastic, and I love having the light of Denver stretching out in front of you while you bask in the music. It’s definitely a must-see place in CO. If you like that red rock stuff, you should check out Garden of the Gods in Colo Springs if you’re ever down in that area. It’s an amazing place to hike, run, rockclimb, and frolic in Vibrams perhaps….lol. The red rocks there are crazy beautiful.
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Red Rocks looks absolutely gorgeous! And so does that egg… I’m going to try your method
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I totally want to make my own laundry soap!!!! That is awesome! Just another reason for my family to call me “Earth Mother” – hahahah!!
That has got to be the most stunning backdrop for any concert I’ve ever seen!
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Those eggs look so good
Nothing better than farm fresh eggs!
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your homemade cleaning stuff looks excellent, i really fancy giving it a go! the pics from red rocks looks really good.
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Wow – it looks absolutely GORGEOUS! I wish I lived near scenery like that.
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I’m going to have to try my eggs that way! Yum. I love Red Rocks! Haven’t been in years – looks like a great weekend.
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I want to try out that detergent recipe. I’ve been buying the Method stuff from Target in an attempt to use less chemicals but it’s expensive!
I’ve seen String Cheese Incident in concert before. Albeit, not at a pretty of a place as Red Rocks.
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red rocks is so fun…we shot an engagement session there last year and some of my favorite photos EVER are from there
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I love Red Rocks
I went to the Sting concert there and it was UNREAL! So glad to find another CO bloggie 
~Alyssa
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I love seeing the homemade products!
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I love Red Rocks! I think it is just one of the most beautiful places ever!
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Have you tried that laundry soap in a front load washer? Just curious how it would work…any thoughts or suggestions before I go out and make my own laundry soap?
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Those pictures are awesome, looks like you had a fun time! Is that the only kind of soap that this laundry detergent would work with? Just curious!
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last year I was suppose to go to Red Rocks for a concert but I couldn’t. My sister went..she said it was awesome!! It looks so beautiful!
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When making your own soap, be careful with suds if you have an HE washer (front load, or the top load HE washers – all are plainly marked). Suds will do a LOT of damage to the inner workings of these machines.
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I love going to concerts at red rocks! I was just there in July for SCI! Isthat the show you were at? It was so much fun! On the detergent… What does it smell like? Could you add anything to it to make it smell better? I’d like to make some but my boyfriend is weird about scents! Didn’t know if you had tried adding a scent or had any advice on adding a scent.
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Ashley Reply:
December 11th, 2010 at 8:49 am
Yes!! We went to SCI! It’s smells like peppermint from the castile soap. Sometimes I use half lavender, half peppermint.
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[...] your own: Clothes detergent I was so excited when I found this post by Ashley a few weeks back. I love making my own cleaning [...]
[...] – all-natural home and body care (I made my own laundry detergent!) [...]
I make my own soap this way too! Fun tip for not busting up your knuckles – use a food processor. It makes the soap much finer so it dissolves more quickly in cooler water. Also, I only use about 1T for most loads and they come out perfectly clean. For the really dirty stuff I put in a bit more. I love homemade stuff, thanks for getting more people on the bandwagon!
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Ashley Reply:
October 2nd, 2011 at 10:06 am
Definitely a great idea!! I thought of that after making it a few times…haha. I actually had to stop using it because it was fading some of our clothes with a pinkish tone….super annoyed about that!
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michelle Reply:
October 18th, 2011 at 2:29 pm
Ashley- do you mean you had to use less than 2TBS for your laundry because it was causing your clothes to fade?
I used the shred tool in my food processor and gave the product to a friend. She thinks the soap was in too long of chunks to really dissolve unless hot water was used. I’m thinking I might use the shred tool and then the actual food processing blade…has anyone else felt it didn’t completely dissolve in the water?
Thanks!!
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Ashley Reply:
October 19th, 2011 at 9:21 am
I never had any problems with the soap dissolving, but you can definitely just process it with the blade to turn into a full powder. The fading issue is really weird…I had to unfortunately stop using it. Weird thing is, it happened to Chris’s clothes way more than mine….? I think it was another commenter that said she only uses 1T per load. Sounds like a good option!