Clothespin Woes No More

If you walk into our backyard and look on the ground under our clothesline, you may think you've come upon a clothespin graveyard and feel badly that you didn't bring flowers.

It can be very windy at our house.  This is great for drying clothes on the line quickly but it means certain death for cheap clothespins.  Over the past few years I've actually been on a mini quest to find better clothespins. Almost every new store I enter (fortunately or unfortunately there aren't that many) I check out their clothespins.  Years ago, I bought some Martha Stewart clothespins.  They worked okay but as our family grew I needed more.  All I could find were small, China-made clothespins that didn't measure up. I had to make sure that I used the MS ones to hang up jeans and sweatshirts because the cheap ones would just slide apart, literally snapping under the pressure.  A couple years ago I even asked my mother in law to check around for me.  They live very near a large Amish community.  The Amish line dry their clothes so they must have access to decent clothespins, right?  She found me some (Thank you, Mom!) and they proved to be better than the cheapo ones, but only about as good as the ones from Martha Stewart.

The ones that I have that I LOVE are those that I inherited from my grandmothers.  Now, those clothespins mean business and I love their soft, worn edges that make me feel close to the women who used them weekly.  Unfortunately, I don't have that many of them.

So, last year when my blogging friend, Herrick Kimball, announced that he was starting his own clothespin business, Classic American Clothespins, I was SO excited.  He kindly gifted me the very first kit of clothespins- a great honor, indeed!

The kit came with everything we needed to put together 25 serious clothespins, including one pre-put-together clothespin.

I couldn't resist and immediately lined Kimball's clothespin up beside some of my others and compared them:

 The one on the left is either a Martha Stewart clothespin or one of the ones my mother-in-law found for me.  The two wimps in the middle are the cheap, China made ones (no offense, China).  The one on the right is Kimball's.  Notice the HUGE difference- both in size of clothespin over all and the sheer toughness of that spring.

Above are my grandmothers' clothespins with Kimball's in the center.  Look at those old beauties.  I'm planning on passing Kimball's clothespins down to my girls and hope by then they've developed the soft edges that come from years of loving use.

Back to the kit- Sam helped me lightly sand the wooden pieces with the sand paper and nail file that came in the kit.

On another day, I sat outside in the warm sun and applied a coat of linseed oil to protect them.  I love how it brought out the beautiful grain the clothespin pieces.

Sam and Jamey assembled the clothespins once they were dry.  We were so pleased with the quality of these clothespins and I couldn't wait to use them.

I've really been enjoying them this spring.  They are preforming just as I knew they would.  In fact, I've pulled out all the cheap clothespins from my clothespin bag to save them for crafts- they are not fit for laundry.  My bag is now full of the semi-decent ones, my grandmothers' clothespins and Kimaball's.  I find myself feeling around for my Classic American Clothespins though- they are my new first choice and easy to find in the bag because of their size.

Very well done, indeed.  

Read more about Kimball's clothespins here.

How is your relationship with your clothespins (not everyone will understand this question ;-))? Which ones are your favorites? 

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Have You Taken the Plunge?

It's been eight months since we've been using the homemade laundry detergent that I posted about here.  We are super pleased with it and I can safely say that I'm never going back to buying laundry detergent.  I still pre-treat nasty potential stains and soak really soiled clothes, but I did that when I used commercial detergent, too.

If you haven't tried it yet, here's some encouragement.  I just discovered that a friend of mine made a YouTube video of the process using the recipe we use.  Tim shows that it's really as easy as it sounds. 

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Homemade Laundry Soap: It's About Time

Sometimes I shy away from projects.  Not because I think they will be too much work or too expensive but because I just can't handle thinking about one more thing.  That's what happened when I first considered making my own laundry soap a couple years ago.  Sometimes, not getting into one more thing is really smart.  Sometimes, it's not smart.  Waiting to start making my own laundry soap?  Turns out, not so smart.

It was a friend from church who jolted me to my senses by giving Jamey and I a couple gallons of her homemade laundry soap.  We used it and it worked great.  She also passed along her recipe and told us how cheap it was to make it.  I finally realized the silliness of my ways and pledged to make my own batch when my store-bought detergent ran out.

Our local (non-chain) grocery store carries all three of the ingredients, but they were out of the bar laundry soap for over a month, so I had to order it on Amazon (with my trusty swagbucks).  Last week, I set to work mixing it up even though my head felt like a bowling ball (I really hate colds.  I'm all better now.).  It was so easy and satisfying that it lightened my mood.  And it took all of 20 minutes to whip up.  Doing the math to determine the cost per load?  Well, that almost made me sing.

Do you want to know how cheap it is?  Well, it is my pleasure to tell you.

The Fels-Naptha bar cost $4.20 shipped from Amazon.  The box of washing soda (55 ounces) cost $3.35.  The box of borax (76 ounces) cost $4.45.  For this recipe, you'll use the whole laundry bar, but only 1 cup of the washing soda and only 1/2 cup borax.  When all the math is done (Jamey checked it for me), the 10 gallons of laundry soap cost $4.91.  The amount you use for a front loading machine and a top loading machine differs slightly.

Drum roll, please...

If you have a top loading machine (like me), you will use 5/8 of a cup per load.  If this is you, this 10 gallons of detergent will give you 256 loads of clean laundry at a cost of $4.91 which comes out to less than $0.02 per load.


If you have a front loading machine, you will use 1/4 cup per load.  If this is you, this 10 gallons of detergent will give you 640 loads of clean laundry at a cost of $4.91 which comes out to less than $0.008 (yes, less than a cent) per load.

Go on, do a happy laundry dance.  I'll wait.

Thank you, Jennifer, for giving me the jump start I needed (and free detergent)! :-)

Homemade Laundry Soap (recipe from Jennifer)
This recipe makes 5 gallons of concentrate which equals 10 gallons of ready-to-use laundry detergent.

1 five gallon bucket
a long handled spoon
an empty (used) laundry detergent container (or juice or vinegar container, clean)
hot tap water
1 Fels-Naptha Laundry Soap Bar
1 cup washing soda
1/2 cup borax

Grate the laundry soap bar (I used my cheese grater) and add it to a medium sauce pot along with 4 cups of water.  Heat over medium high heat while stirring occasionally until the soap has melted completely.  While it's melting, fill your five gallon bucket half full with hot tap water.  Once the bar soap has melted, add it to the bucket along with the baking soda and borax.  Stir it well until everything has dissolved.  Add hot tap water to fill the bucket and stir again.  Cover tightly with the lid and let sit overnight to thicken.  Stir well (it will gel and separate a bit).  You just made concentrate.

When you're ready to use it, stir the detergent well, then fill your empty detergent container half full with the concentrate.  Fill the rest of the container with water.  Shake before each use.  Use 1/4 cup per load for a front loading machine and 5/8 cup per load for a top loading machine.

For an update after 8 months of using this detergent and a great how-to video on how to make it, go here.

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Laundry Day

I've been so preoccupied with storing up every morsel of food for winter that I can get my hands on that my family had begun to suffer (run-on sentence, maybe?). This morning, I put Sadie's last pair of clean underwear on her. Sam put on his last clean shirt (and he has LOTS of great hand-me-down shirts) and Jamey had to wear a dark blue undershirt to work because he had no white ones. Not tooooo bad. At least they had clothes to wear. Laundry was what got pushed back and out of my cluttered up mind these past (two, maybe three...) weeks.

I actually really enjoy hanging up wash, but four loads is a bit much for one day. And, there are two loads of sheets waiting to be done tomorrow. I'm not sure why I enjoy it so much, but I do. Maybe because it reminds me of my mom. Or because on a hot, breezy day like today it dries faster out than it would in a dryer. We do have a dryer, but it's only used in emergencies.

I thought, in light of it being laundry day, I'd get a break from the kitchen. But, alas, dinner needed making and what I had on hand led to tabouli and...

...potato salad (the latter fairly labor intensive/made with white and blue potatoes). We ate the tabouli with flat bread and had fresh peaches and leftover peach pie as well.

Back in the kitchen for more canning tomorrow. Somehow it didn't feel much like a break.

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