Nina's Soap

Since I started to declutter my house, I started to do laundry more often. I started to clean my house daily instead of the weekends only. I work outside of home but I believe cleaning my house should be a daily work as well. Before I did many loads of laundry at the end of the week. I still do sometimes. But more often than not, I do laundry throughout the week. I have different types of items to wash and proceed differently:

Bathroom Hand Wipes: One or two laundry /week

I cut and sowed wipes out of flour sacks, bamboo, and hemp fabrics. I used these wipes in the bathroom to wipe hands. I like these wipes and I sell them in my online store. They look neat when folded. I stored mine in a bucket on the bathroom counter for single use. I don’t buy paper towel any longer. The used wipes are left on the counter.

When I go in the bathroom I quickly use one wipe to wipe my hands and to wipe down the faucet. Then I gather all the used wipes left on the counter to wipe water on the counter and put them in a grocery bag located on the floor in the bathroom by the door.

When using the wipes that I sowed, I did launder them twice a week since I didn’t have a lot of them to go through the week.

When I decluttered my kids’ clothes (clothes they wore as infants), I sent a lot of outfits to the thrift store but I kept many cotton outfits as well.

Infant’s clothes usually are 100% cotton t-shirt type fabric. I wondered what I should do with them. I taught about a blanket made out of pieces of these clothes. Then I decided to cut wipes out of them to increase my stock of wipes in the bathroom. I cut them in pieces and use them now in the bathroom to wipe hands. The wipes I sell online look more elegant in the bathroom than the rainbow wipes from baby clothes. So I didn’t like the idea of mixing them together. Therefore, I put away the flour sacks, bamboo, and hemp wipes. These are good if you want to display elegant bathroom for guest but I prefer to put them away and upcycle my kids baby clothes for now. Plus we go through a lot of wipes a day especially when the kids are at home. When the kids have colds, they used the wipes from the bathroom to blow their nose and put them in the bag on the floor. They don’t put these on the counter.

When I am getting close to run out of clean wipes, I grab the grocery bag from the bathroom floor and take it to the laundry room. I wash the wipes on small cycle, hot water with my homemade laundry detergent. I dry them in the dryer. These wipes are smaller than the wipes that I sowed, so it is time consuming to hang them dry outside. I have not even tried. As I continued to purge my house, I have collected cotton t-shirts, t-shirt type bedsheet with holes in them. I will cut them into wipes. This time I would make them a little bigger and then it would be possible to hang them to dry outside.  I usually purchase bedsheet made from t-shirt fabric. Wipes out of t-shirt materials don’t fray and there is no need to sow the edges.

After the wipes are dried, I don’t fold them. I just take a grocery bag to the dryer and fill it with the wipes. I kept the clean wipes in my linen closet. I fill up the container in the bathroom with more clean wipes. I leave a grocery bag on the floor inside out so that the ink on the bag doesn’t stain my floor when the floor is damp from cleaning the bathroom. I toss the bag when I dump the dirty wipes in the laundry machine. As the container runs out of wipes, more is added until the grocery bag in the linen closet is empty. The grocery bag that keeps the clean wipes is reused as it is only used to store clean wipes. I recently decluttered the bottom floor of my linen closet and changed few things. I left one bag of toilet papers and removed the big bag out of there to the basement where the toilet papers are stored. We purchase toilet papers in big bags that contain small bags. That gave me space to put a 5-gallon bucket in there to now store the wipes in it. I washed the wipes once or twice a week. I just pay attention on what I have left of clean wipes.

Bathroom Rags: One laundry/week

I turned my husband old towels into rags, some for the kitchen and some for the bathroom.  I took his worn out socks and added them to the bathroom rags. I use the socks to wash the sink, toilet, and tub. I use the towels to wipe the sink, counter, floor, toilet, shower door… I clean my bathroom daily and I would write a post on that. I put a grocery bag on the floor by the toilet and put the dirty rags in it.

I keep the clean rags in a cabinet under the sink. When I out of clean rags I take the grocery bag full of dirty bathroom rags to the basement and wash them on hot water and toss the bag. I either dry the rags in the dryer or outside. When they are dry, I sort to have the socks rags separated from the towel rags. I fold the towel rags and store both towels and socks separately in the cabinet. It is easier for me to grab 2 towel rags from the cabinet and 3 socks rags on the shelf right under the towels to do my morning bathroom cleaning. I like to fold my towel rags because I cut regular size bath towels in two. It is easier to put them away folded as the space where I store them is not wide. I have just enough rags for the daily cleaning for one week. All of them fill one grocery bag. When I go in the bathroom any time of the day, I can easily spot the grocery bag that hold the dirty rags and if the bag is full I know I am running out of clean rags in the cabinet. When in the morning, I get rags to clean, I can easily tell if I have enough for other morning or not.  I wash my bathroom rags once a week.

Kitchen Rags: One laundry/week

I have a container by the fridge where I keep rags made out of old clothes, bath towels, socks, old bamboo and hemp diapers. I cloth diapers my kids. I used disposable diapers for my first child during her first year. And I switched to cloth diapers and never look back. All three kids used the same diapers. Now that my youngest one is putty trained, I sorted through the diaper bin and kept what is in good shape and added the worn out cloth diapers to my kitchen rags. I even add some of the flat diapers to my stash of mom’s reusable pads. I made the change when I started to cloth diaper my kids. I didn’t purchase any specific reusable pad. I purchased bamboo and hemp fabrics to sow diapers for the kids and kept the leftovers for myself. It saved me so much money. That is another topic for another day. So I never tried any other reusable pad to recommend it.

We use rags from that container to wipe the floor and the kitchen. My kids spill water on the floor often and they just grab a rag and wipe it. Used rags are kept on the floor by the basement door.

When I go home in the evening, I grab them and hang them above the laundry machine. I have a rode above the machine and I put some hangers there. Throughout the day I would grab rags from the floor on my way to the basement and lay on the hangers. I put many rags on one hanger. I have hangers there for kitchen towels as well. The rags are used multiple times if they are used on water spills. If the kids use a rag to wipe liquid food, they toss it in the basement so no one can reuse it. When I use a rag to wipe something I don’t want the wipe to be reused, I take it straight to the basement and hang it up.

However, kids tend to grab new rags more often and I end up with a pile of rags on the floor to move in the basement. I don’t have a lid on the container that holds the clean rags. It is easy for me to see when it is low in supply. I then grab any used rags from the floor and wash the kitchen rags on hot water. I either dry in the dryer or hang outside to dry. When they are dry, I just put them in the container without folding. I have enough rags to fit 5-gallon size bucket. I picked it up at a grocery store in the baking department for free and washed it in the tub. I have collected few of them to use throughout the house. I just called the baking department and requested it. I wash the rags once a week.

Kitchen Towels: One laundry a week

I have a bowl on my counter in the kitchen that holds towels we use on dishes. I have sown towels out of bamboo and hemp fabrics. They are very absorbent. I sowed towels and wipes out of flour sacks as well. I sell them online. I used unbleached organic bamboo and hemp fleece to sow the towels.  Because they are unbleached, the fabric releases a lot of lint.  They are so absorbent that if we don’t like to wash dishes by hand and wipe them, you might change your mind once you try these towels. The challenge is they leave lint in the dish and I tend to rinse a dish before using it. So I pulled the bamboo and hemp towels out of the pile and added them to my bathroom wipes. I have face towels that I purchased at Walmart to add to my flour sack wipes to wipe my dishes and I like them. I still have old dish towels my husband had before we met but I like these small towels better. I purchased white to match my flour sack wipes. I use them to wash dishes and to wipe them. I have cotton socks unused that I repurposed to use to wash dishes. These are together in the bowl. I have a 5-gallon size bucket in my pantry to hold all the clean dish wipes and dish rags.

I fill the bowl on the counter as needed.

Wet towels are set aside on the counter by the microwave where we don’t wipe dishes making it easy for people to know they are not to be reused.

I take these used towels on my way to the basement and hang them on the hanger above the washing machine.

My kids use the dish wipes to wrap their spoon or fork in their lunch bags. I replace socks or wipes I used to wash dishes every few hours. I wash dishes by hand. I taught my girls to wash their dishes by hands. I have dish washer but decided not to use it. We just wash dishes as we use them. I don’t like dirty dishes in my sink. When I am not at home, dish rags not to be reused are kept behind the kitchen faucet. A new dish rag is laid between the two sinks. On my way to the basement, I just grab dirty dish rags from behind the faucet, and by the microwave and hang above the laundry machine.

When I am low on clean dish towels, I do the laundry. I repurposed baby burping blankets to cover my kids’ eating table.

They change it often. I add the dirty ones to the kitchen towels. I have a table in the dinning room that I cover with a fabric. When it is time to wash kitchen towels, I add the fabric as well. I first rinse everything with cold water and medium. Then I wash on hot water on medium with my homemade laundry detergent. I either hang outside to dry or dry in the dryer. When they are dry, I fold them. I put the baby blankets in a kitchen draw.

I put the fabric back on the table.

I put the dish wipes in the 5-gallon bucket in the pantry.

I like to fold the wipes because they fit better in the bucket and look neat. I wash dish wipes once a week.

Kids clothes: Two laundry a week

My kids (two girls and a boy) have few clothes. The girls have each 5 outfits (5 tops and 5 pants and shorts or less) for school, 5 outfits (5 tops and 3-5 bottoms) for home, and 3 dresses for church. The boy has 5 shirts and 3 pants and shorts for home and 3outfits for church. They all have one sweater for school and church, one for home. I have a bucket in our hallway where the kids drop their dirty clothes.

I have a bigger bucket on the floor by the laundry machine.

When the bucket in the hall way in full, the kids drop the content in the bucket by the laundry machine. When the bucket by the laundry machine is full, I do a full load of laundry for the kids. The bucket in the basement is bigger than the one in the hallway but can only accommodate two to three days’ worth of clothes. Because of the number of clothes the kids have, they run out of clothes easily. Because the bucket in the basement can only hold the number of clothes the kids have, they let me when they run out of clothes or I spot it first at a glance to my bucket in the laundry room. I wash all their clothes together. I started to be more cautious when I purchase clothes for them. I like to purchase cold color clothes so that I can wash all together. I teach them how to do laundry and sometimes I would tell my 6 years old to do their laundry. I would tell her to turn the machine on cold water, large, and add the homemade detergent. Then she would add the clothes in the machine and close. Once the laundry is done, I transfer the clothes to the dryer and dry them. I put the dry clothes in a container and take it to the girls’ room. Then I ask them to put their clothes away.

Even my 3 years old put his clothes away.

I don’t ask them to fold unless they want to.

After sorting through new clothes. the clear totes are the girls’ school totes. The pink tote on the right has their new clothes. The pink tote on the left has my home clothes.

Home clothes’ tote before clean laundry is put away.

They have few clothes to put away because I wash their clothes every 2-3 days. And it is easy now for them to put their clothes away.

My Husband Clothes: One laundry a week

I have done his laundry in the past when we lived in an apartment. When we rented a duplex and the washing machine came with the place, I asked him to do his own laundry. He has been doing it ever since.  He washes his home, work clothes, socks, and undergarments together and dry them in the dryer.

My clothes: One laundry a week but 1 to 2 loads.

I wash all my clothes at the end of my week day. I try to wash everything together as one load. But sometimes depending on the work outfits, I might separate some color and do a second load or wash on delicate. Then I would dry them all in the dryer. Once dry, I put my clean clothes in a bucket and bring upstairs to fold. I put home clothes in my home tote and my work outfits are rolled in one of the outfits I just washed and store in my work tote. I only hang in my closet 5 outfits that I would wear for the week. When I do laundry, I put away the clothes I took out that week and put away and took another 5 outfits out for the following week. After I decluttered my summer wardrobe, I have 10 outfits (4 dresses, 2 dress suits, 1 skirt suit, 1 skirt, 2 camisoles) and 3 cardigans in the totes. Some dresses don’t have sleeves. I wear the cardigans on them and on the camisoles. Having 10 outfits, I wear the same thing every other week. I wear dresses and skirt in summer and pants in winter. I would declutter my winter work wardrobe later this year. I have posted an article on how I decluttered my wardrobe.

Linen: One laundry a week

First let me say this. My boy and I don’t use bath towels. I purchased cloth wipes to use with the cloth diapers. If I would recommend a new mom that is looking into cloth diapering, I would said it saves money to purchase a bamboo fleece fabric and cut your own wipes. They are soft and absorbent. The edges don’t need to be sowed.  I used these wipes that I purchased. They are made out of cotton. If I found the website I purchased them from I would put the link below. These wipes replaced bibs in my house. I wiped baby bottom, baby drools, Finally, I used them to wash and wipe my baby. Before long, I ditched my towel and used one wipe to wash my face during shower and I used the same to wipe my body when I done in the shower. When the kids have cold, they would use it to blow their nose and toss them in the dirty diaper container. Now that I don’t have dirty diaper container around, I advise them to use bathroom wipes to blow their nose. But sometimes they go to these wipes. My son and I still use these wipes to wipe our body after shower.  They dry quickly on the hanger compared to towels. They don’t take much room in the laundry machine.  If you wonder how I get out of the bathroom, I have a bamboo flannel fabric. I purchased the fabric to sow a bed sheet and a blanket for the kids when they were baby and used the leftover to wrap myself after I used the wipe to dry myself. Bamboo is very absorbent not as much as hemp but more than cotton, so any excess water on my body is automatically dried.  I like bamboo fabric but I like hemp even better. Because of the high demand of wipes in my house when the kids where very little, I sowed bamboo and hemp wipes to added to my cotton wipes I purchased. The bamboo and hemp wipes are my favorite. Hemp wipes scrub my face very well. Bamboo is softer.

Once a week I grab all the bath towels, wipes and bedsheets and wash them in hot water. Then I dry them in the dryer. When they are dry, I empty the dryer into a bucket and carry upstairs. I hang the towels and wipes and put the bed sheets back on the beds. Most beds have only one bedsheet. Sometimes, I do more than one load to wash blankets. Each bed has two blankets. We don’t use comforters anymore. They are not easy to wash and dry.  We use two blankets in winter time and one blanket in summer time. The girls like to use a flannel fabric in addition to the one blanket in summer time. So I let them. As they are worn out, the number would decrease as I don’t purchase more.

When a kid wet his/her bed, I wash the bedsheet and blanket for that bed in one or two loads. Sometimes, it is the time to throw in the machine another blanket or bedsheet that didn’t get washed recently.

Livingroom Blanket: Laundry Once in a while

We keep some light blankets in the living room to cover the couches and to cover ourselves with.

Old bed sheet flat–queen size–T-shirt sheet

I wash them may be once or twice in a quarter. I should probably wash them more often but that what works for me right now. We have two baby mattresses in the living room.

I wash the sheet when I wash our bedsheets. But not every week.

As you can see, I do a lot of laundry in my house for a family of 5. Trying to do all that over the weekends won’t work for me. Therefore, I do my laundry throughout the week as needs arise. That is 9-10 loads a week.