Making laundry powder

Every few weeks I spend 15 minutes or so making my own laundry detergent.

Here is how I do it.

1 bar (125g) grated laundry soap ( I use Sunlight and an old grater kept just for this purpose)
250g of borax
250g of washing soda

Mix all of the ingredients thoroughly.

Store in a plastic container with a lid. I use an old ice-cream container with a flip lid.

I use 2 tablespoons of the laundry powder for each wash. You will notice that there are no suds during washing, but this is perfectly fine.

I have noticed since using this that my clothes are cleaned just as well as with commercial bought laundry detergent powders. In fact I love this powder more because it doesn’t seem to fade my clothing.

Fresias- one of my simple pleasures

A simple pleasure that I am emjoying today..

These delicate looking flowers are growing everywhere at the moment. They have such a beautiful fragrance and always herald the beginning of spring.

I see them everywhere at the moment on my daily run. I have brought these into my house and they are on my kitchen bench so that I can enjoy their fragrance and beauty as I prepare food and clean up in my kitchen.

Bringing a simple pleasure into my day!

Decluttering Update #6-Decluttering the “School Shelf”

Decluttering the “School Shelf”. The school shelf’s purpose in life is to hold my daughter’s school bag, some stationery for homework and her homework books. It had recently become so much more….

This was a decluttering job that I have been procrastinating over for a few weeks now.

It’s just a shelf, I tell myself . One shelf. So why the procrastination?

Here’s why…..take a look at the BEFORE photo….

So I needed a strategy so that I didn’t get bogged down too much. I seemed to get overwhelmed if the decluttering session is too big.  So I decided to set a time limit.

I set the oven timer for 20 minutes.

I took everything out from the shelf and put  it on the dining table.

I sorted each piece into these groupings:

1. School shelf
2. Toss ( straight into garbage bag)

3. Put away ( items that belong somewhere else in the house)

4. Donate  (only one item- a recorder)

Then I put all of the items that belonged on the School Shelf. These are only the school bag, box of stationery items for homework tasks ( pens, pencils, sharpeners, erasers, rulers glue etc.) and a tray for homework books.

“AFTER” PHOTO

It took a little longer than 20 minutes, and I need to put the “Put Away” things away tomorrow morning during some decluttering time. But the results are so encouraging.

Now all we* have to do is to keep it like this!

* meaning my daughter!

Wild life in my courtyard garden

There seems to be quite a few of these little fellas in my courtyard garden.

This spider is called a St Andrews Cross Spider.
Take a look at its beautiful web below. If you click on the image, you will be able to see the detail of the web much better.

Growing tomatoes without trying too hard

Last year I tried to grow tomatoes in pots without much success.

This year, take a look at these little ones! I have about 10 healthy tomato plants of a few different varieties. They are over 1 metre tall.

They grew all by themselves. That’s right, i mean that they REALLY grew all by themselves.
I didn’t even have to plant them. I didn’t visit the plant nursery to purchase the seedlings. I didn’t even buy any seeds.
So how did they grow? Surely they didn’t just plant themselves?

Well yes, as a matter of fact, they sprouted themselves, self-sown in the compost that I have made using my compost system, and then Mr Techno had dug the compost back into the soil.

I have watered them occasionally, and staked them up.
When I think of all the hard work which I put into my largely unsuccessful attempt last year to grow tomatoes in pots, and then this year these guys just show up!
They are just starting to change colour, so we will be savouring them soon.

Take a look at the photo directly above and can you see the larger tomato? It is about the size of a man’s fist. Well I took this photo yesterday, and this morning, I went outside to have a look at it and it was GONE! I thought that is must have fallen off the plant, but no, it is nowhere to be seen.

I suspect that a possum has discovered it during the night and has taken it away for a little midnight feast.

Changing to a greener life….

I have made a lot of changes in my life in order to live more sustainably. I also am on a journey, and that there are many more changes that I intend to make, or don’t know about yet, but I will change along the way! The changes have come over a period of time, but they are now ingrained in my lifestyle now.

One of my favourite bloggers, Laura over at Move to Portugal, has posted about some of the changes she has made to her life.

Inspired by Laura’s post , I have been reflecting on some of the changes that I have made to my life over time in order to live a more green, sustainable life.

1. make most meals from scratch

2. make husband, daughter and my lunch to take to work or school.

3. take stainless steel coffees rather than takeaway cups

4. line dry my laundry when the weather is suitable

5. make my own laundry detergent

6. bake my own bread with a bread maker instead of supermarket bought bread

7. make my own yoghurt with yoghurt maker

8. make our own pizzas instead of takeaway pizza

9. limit eating out at restaurants to special occasions instead of once or twice a week

10. stopped drinking wine/alcohol ( decrease bottles!!)

11. borrow books from the library instead of purchasing

12. books that I really love and want to keep, I purchase second hand

13. sewing clothes for my family

14. sewing furnishings for my family, eg curtains, napkins, tablecloths

15. passing on things we no longer need to others who need or will use them.

16. sourcing shoes and clothing from a designer consignment shop instead of purchasing new.

17. significantly reducing the amount of new clothing and shoes purchased, (instead sourcing quality second-hand from good local sources).

18. repairing items instead of replacing  when broken, eg tyre puncture, dishwasher, clothing hems, buttons, zippers etc.

19. clean with bicarb soda and vinegar

20. use cloth dishcloths for dishes instead of disposable cloths

21. Use microfibre cleaning cloths instead of disposable cleaning cloths.

Glass jars for food storage

I have been intending to change my food storage in my pantry from plastic to glass.

It is amazing how the “universe” provides what I am searching for. Or maybe my eyes are just open.

I was out running on the weekend, and saw a huge garage sale being held by my local Scout group.

I found a box of large glass jars with lids for $10. These are jars that formerly held instant coffee.

They are now washed, labelled and now they store my flour, sugar, and other baking ingredients, as well as a variety of dried beans.

I am intending to resuse the plastic containers for my sewing and craft supplies.

Making the most of space in your home……

Mr Techno happy with his work bringing the bookcases downstairs!

We live in a townhome. This was a concious decision about 3 and a half years ago to move from a large McMansion in the ‘burbs a long way from facilities, to living in a towhome in more vibrant community, close to all facilities and great public transport.

One of the things that I am focussing on is making better use of the space we have in our smaller home. I have found as we are changing our lifestyle, our needs have change in how we use our space.

And so to the “study” space.

Until recently we used one of the bedrooms as our study and had our books and computers in that room. However, we also had an alcove dowstairs, just off the lounge room, which never really had an identity and was basically unused space.

So after feeling energised after a decluttering spell, I enlisted the help of my husband and we moved the bookcases, desk and computer down to the alcove.

I love this new space! Now we can all be together downstairs in the evening. We have headphones for the computer, so that my daughter can watch a DVD downstairs while we are watching a movie in the lounge room, and yet we are all in the same space. Or I can blog on the weekend, and still be part of the rest of the family life happening downstairs.

This has also freed up the room upstairs ( formerly the study) to reflect our changing lifestyle, as I have set it up as my sewing and creative space. I will blog about this in a later post.

It also has a sofa bed in it for the occasions that we have guests.

This makeover has made a lot of difference. And it was a no cost endeavour, it was only our time. We used all the things we already had but in a different way, after considering how we wanted our home to reflect our lifestyle.

I will be sorting through our books over time, and putting the books that we love and use on our bookcase, and moving the ones we no longer need to new homes.