''Get cash immediately"...

...''Quit your job and be your own boss now'', just some of the wide sweeping statements that we are bombarded with through the media. While the content of the statements vary, the message is still the same, drastic, immediate action must happen in order to see results. While big changes are good, they don't have to be huge, they don't have to be instant and you don't need to have results straight away. I am finding this especially true with our lifestyle shift. While we may not be making huge changes, we will make a difference.

I am reading the book 'Eco-Friendly Families' and a statistic in the book jumped out at me concerning this 'small steps' logic. It reported that if every household in the United States were to change a blown light bulb to an energy efficient bulb their effect would be enormous, preventing greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to that from 800,000 cars and save enough energy to light 2.5 million homes for an entire year. Now if that isn't an incentive to make small changes I don't know what is.

And so here is our small change, making our own laundry powder.

Grate up some Velvet laundry soap

2 cups worth

Add 1 cup of Washing Soda

1 Cup of Borax

And we're done - easy peasy


We put a wash on and were really impressed with the result. Clothes smell lovely, they don't have that overly chemical waft about them, and they smell clean, in a simple gentle way.

EDIT: As quite a few people have shown interest in making this laundry powder i thought it might be worth adding some information a reader has pointed out. If you use your laundry water as grey water, that is, if the water from your washing runs off into your garden, DO NOT add the Borax. I had read Borax is no good for plants and a reader confirmed this, so simply use the grated soap and washing soda minus the Borax. We often use the grey water for our garden and will be making up a Borax free batch.

NOTE: You only need to use 2 tablespoons per load.

Today marked the last day with Luke at home, he is back to the daily grind tomorrow. I will really miss his help, darling Lila  is having a rough time with her molars and has been super grizzly. Usually when she is like this and it's just her and I we head to the shops to distract her and of course I usually make a feel good  purchase of chocolate or something along those lines. Perhaps instead of walking the shops I should endeavour to create more moments like this

''Lila, this is a leaf''