Do you ever get excited to do laundry?  Hmm.  For some reason, I’m having trouble hearing your kazoos and drum rolls.  Come on, people.  It’s LAUNDRY!  yeah!

Okay.  I confess I have only been excited about laundry once – the day I didn’t have to go to a laundromat because we finally saved up to get our own washer.  I really didn’t think I could get excited about dirty laundry ever again.  Seriously – laundry?  Yawn.  Gag.  Ehh.  And now… well now I might pull out a few kazoos for all of us.

Hilde filled me in on the greatness that is soap nuts.  Have you heard of them?  They’re often mentioned in the comments here on Making This Home, especially when I start talking about eco-savvy cleaning tricks (like chemical-free dusting, cleaning with vinegar, and all-around eco-cleaning tips).  I just didn’t know if I should take the plunge and try soapnuts.  I mean – cleaning my clothes with a pile of nut shells?  That really is nuts.

Or so I thought.

So here’s Hilde from right here in Germany, ready to give us the nitty gritty of all that is great about soap nuts because I imagine many of you are probably wondering about the little things as much as me.  She’s been using them for the last ten years!  So take it away, Hilde.  Tell us what you know:

I am a housewife in my mid-fifties  living in a village near Koblenz [in Germany] with my husband and sometimes one of my two grown-up sons. Since about twenty years, I have tried to live as eco-friendly as possible, which often means simply going back to the way we lived when I was a child (no car, cooking from scratch, having fewer clothes etc.).

Ten years ago, I started volunteering in a Fair Trade shop. Of course I had to be able to tell the customers about the things we sold, which was no problem with things like chocolate. But when we gor the soap nuts, my inner German housewife revolted. No way would I put some sticky brown lumps into my washing machine! But as I was the youngest of the volunteering ladies, I was chosen to try those lumps – and I never bought washing powder again.

Instead of a heavy container with a list of unpronounceable ingredients and some warning hints you get a drawstring bag made of unbleached cotton, containing three or four small cotton bags, a piece of paper and the soap nuts, or more accurately the empty shells. The piece of paper tells you what to do:

1. put between 3 and 5 half shells in one of the small bags
2. tie the bag tightly shut with the strings
3. put it into your washing mashine and wash as usual.
4. when the washing cycle is finished, take the nutshells out of the bag and put in in the compost

I have a front loader and usually chose the short cycle with 30 or 40°C (86 or 104°F), but I also have used the soap nuts at higher temperatures. The laundry was always clean, and very soft without using a fabric softener. If I have a load of whites only, I sometimes add a tablespoon of baking soda, but it isn´t really necessary. And since the laundry is without any fragrance, I sometimes add two drops of lavender oil directly on the bag for just the faintest hint of lavender.

And the costs? The price tag for my 1 kg bag says 12, 50 €.  One nut weighs about 1 g, which gives you about 300 loads from one bag of soap nuts, or one load for 4-5€ cents. And when the nuts are all used up, you get a reusable cotton bag!

Like I said.  Who knew laundry could be fun again?  I’m pretty sure you can find soap nuts at health food and organic grocery stores if you want to give ‘em a try.  Or have you tried them?  Loved ‘em?  Never heard of them?  Either way – I’d love to know your thoughts because as Hilde and I discussed between emails, really – who knew laundry could get so interesting?

Thank you a million times, Hilde.  And if you have any thoughts on laundry, now’s the time.  Please dish the dirt.  Air that dirty laundry.  We’d love to hear.

(Images both courtesy of Flickr)

I don’t know if its the new year , the economy, or just another one of those days when I start thinking, “Maybe I could do a little more for the big mamma earth.”  The more I think about greener choices, the more I realize how much they simplify my life.  I love a win-win.  That’s why I keep thinking, “Hmm… what more can I do?”

So if you’re hungry for little changes with big impacts, well here you go – 10 things you can do for the environment.

1.  Use greener, more natural cleaners.

2.  Reduce first.  Then reuse.  And then recycle.

3.  Try walking instead of driving for every errand that within a mile of your house.  It’s really relaxing, and your kids can come, too.

4.  Carry a rolled fabric bag in your purse (like one of these I quickly sewed myself) so you don’t have to turn to plastic or paper bags for various purchases.

5.  Call up catalogue companies and unsubscribe from their mailing lists if their catalogues just land in your trash/recycling pile.

6. Use the dishwasher more and wash by hand less.

7.  Avoid foods with extra packaging.  Even speak up to the department or store manager at your grocery store.

8.  Make water your go-to thirst quencher.

9.  Pick environmentally friendly laundry soap.

10.  When you feel chilled, drink something hot or bake something warm instead of turning up the heat.

What are your ideas for small adjustments that are a huge deal for our little round globe?

(Images for Making This Home – both from back home in the Rocky Mountains)

About this time each year, our family likes to sit down and write thank you letters.  There’s so much to be thankful for, and we really like to reach out to friends and family.  But you know us.  Just like most holiday traditions, we’ve brought a green twist to our thank you card writing.  Yep.  We completely skip the pen and paper.

We send personal digital thank yous.  And since a picture is worth a thousand words, we’ve taken to candid photos of ourselves actually using the gifts that person has given us.

Check out this tutorial for making your own digital thank you notes.  (It seems we get just as many thank yous back from people who get the digital pictures of us loving our gifts as we send out. Gotta love it.)

(Image from last Christmas because you know – some family members check this blog at work far before they get home to read email)

Raise your hand if you use a dusting spray.

My hand would have been up, WAY UP a couple of years ago.  The aerosol dusting spray can and I were best friends forever.  My sister is probably nodding her head as she reads this.  We shared a bedroom and not once did she have to dust.  I was all over it.  And the spray was all over our room.

But then I stopped.  Not dusting.  Just spraying dusting spray.

Martin and I were gathering cleaning supplies here in Germany several years ago, and I needed to find dusting spray.  ”No one uses that stuff here,” Martin told me.

I ignored him like all new wives do when their husbands offer cleaning advice.  How else would Germans dust?

I kept looking for spray.  We finally found some… and get this – the bottles were completely covered in dust!  No one was buying them.

Now I use a damp rag to dust everything.

I’m skipping the nasty spray bottle and fancy equipment, and I’m finding better success than I ever thought possible.  I’ll never reach for the bottle again.

The key is to wring out the rags really well so they’re just slightly damp.  That way you won’t leave water behind and damage your wood or leave water marks.  When they get really dusty, I rinse out my rag in the sink.  (Sometimes I have to use two rags.)  My rags are nothing but an old towel that I ripped up.

I’ve heard of people doing chemical-free dusting with microfiber cloths.  I haven’t ever seen something like that in Germany, and I like having one less cleaning thing to squeeze under the sink since old towels serve so many purposes.

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I’m not sure how surprised I was this last summer when we were moving some of my old furniture – you know, the furniture I dusted until the cows came home as a kid.  The wood was all kind of greasy.  It felt like dirty hair.  The grease was my dusting spray.

For more green cleaning tips, check out these posts: Green cleaning, Avoiding a moldy washing machine, Repurposing cleaners you don’t use, and Removing water stains.

So what do you say?  What are some tricks you’ve learned about keeping the house dust-free?

First Image from Flickr)

Brrr.  Autumn weather officially blew right into Berlin this weekend.  How about where you live?  Is it getting chilly?

Now seems like the perfect time to revisit and revise a popular post from last year:  How to Lower Utility Bills Even if You Rent.  (Thanks to Jesscyn who suggested it on Twitter)  So here it is – a new and revised version for all of you who hate paying higher power bills than you really, truly need to.  I’ve done my best to adapt to tips for both European and American homes.

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1. Buy a programable thermostat.  No sense paying for heating a house you’re not even in during the day.  Take down the manual thermostat (we did this at every rental we’ve spent a winter in over in the US to save money), and put up a programable thermostat.  It’s super easy, and then you don’t have to worry about turning the heat down at night or during the week if you’re always out at the same time each day.  We huge fans of this thermostat.

Our power company even offered a rebate for installing it, so we filled out a quick form and got a full rebate a few weeks later.

Total time:  15 minutes. Total cost: $0

2. Check your air filter if you have forced air.  If your home is heated by forced air, check the filter.  Some landlords do this.  If yours doesn’t, you’d better hurry and do it.  A clogged filter drastically decreases the efficiency of the heat that makes it into your ducts.  Might as well get the heat you’re paying for into the house, right?

Total time: less than 5 minutes.  Total cost: $3

3. Open south-facing curtains.  During bright sunny days, you can snatch up free heat from the sun if you open your curtains on the south side of your house.  Nothing beats passive solar heat in the winter.

Total time: 1 minute  Total cost: $0

4.  Invest in thick curtains.  For all of your other windows and those south-facing windows at night and on stormy days, make sure you invest in thick curtains.  Feel the air in front of the window on cold days.  Now imagine putting up a shield of thick fabric to keep that cold air from circulating throughout your house.

If you’re lucky enough to live in a house with modern, efficient windows, thick curtains aren’t as important.  But if you’re a renter or live in an older home, chances are your windows aren’t quite good at insulating all by themselves.  I sewed some floor length curtains for our first apartment so they could be easily adaptable to our future homes.

Total time: 90 minutes  Total cost: $50 – $100

5.  Check the seals on your windows.  This means two things:

- pulling out the calking gun to close up gaps along the window frames, inside and out.  If you think it’s necessary to do the whole frame, wait for a windy or cold day and and run your hand along the frame to feel the air.

Total time:  10 minutes per window  Total cost: $7 for a caulking gun and caulk

- replacing rubber seals between windows and their frames.  This project just popped up on our to-do list.  You can call someone from your window supplier or local glass shop about getting the seals redone, or you can DIY.

Total time:  couple hours per window  Total cost: varies depending on seal type and quality

6. Replace the light bulbs you use the most.  I think everyone talks about this idea all the time.  But how well do you understand light bulbs?  Martin put together a great lightbulb guide to clear things up.  For years, he’s been swapping out our light bulbs for more efficient ones.  We even snagged a handful of free CFLs from our power company in the US.  As of a few days ago, conventional light bulbs are no longer available in the European Union.  And it makes sense.  Power costs 3x as much as it does in the US.

Total time: 2 minutes per fixture.  Total cost savings: $6 per bulb each year

7. Open the vents.  You’d be surprised by how many people complain how cold rooms are… only to discover that the vents in that room are all closed.  Take a few minutes to make sure that they are open.  If you don’t need a particular room to get as much heat (like your bedroom), close the vents a little.  This picture is from a forced air system.  It’s the same idea with radiators on your hot water heating system.

Total time: 10 seconds.  Total cost: nadda

8. Close the door.  German homes feel strange.  When you walk into the entry of a home, you’re greeted by a series of doors.  Every room in the house – from the bathroom to the living room is shut off by a door.  As strange as it feels, the idea is brilliant.  Germans close doors and lower heat in rooms they don’t use.  Consider closing the door to guest bedrooms and extra spaces in your home.  Close the vents or leave them cracked just slightly to keep the room heated a little.

Total time: 5 seconds.  Total cost: nadda

9.  Wear slippers.  If you have a no-shoe policy in your house like us, chances are that your feet are going to get cold, especially if you have forced air heat or live on a “slab on grade” (i.e. have concrete slabs as foundation under your flooring).  Wear slippers and try to keep a few pairs available for your guests.

Total time: 10 seconds.  Total cost: $10/pair

10. Get an energy audit.  Call your local power company and ask about their energy audit program.  It’s free in most communities!  A couple of guys will come to your house, ask you about energy use in your house, perform a few tests, and help you come up with ideas for improvements.  Then they load you up with free stuff.  We’re talking gobs of CFL light bulbs, low-flow shower heads, blankets for your water heater…

Total time: 2 hours.  Total cost: free

11. Insulate your house.  Don’t hesitate to shimmy up to the attic area and see how much insulation is up there.  You know how we lose most of our body heat through our heads?  Hot air rises, so it’s the exact same in homes.  Get that attic well insulated.

Consider insulating walls.  Local companies can blow in insulation by poking holes into the walls.  (Obviously, this tip is irrelevant to most European homes, which have solid walls.)  Landlords might hesitate to add these upgrades.  Sell them on the idea by finding out if your power company offers rebates and… well talk to the homeowner instead of the property manager if it’s something you really want.

Total time: amount needed to line up necessary work.  Total cost: several hundred dollars

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I love it when being green means saving money.  Or saving money means being green.  It’s all good.  Have any pointers we can all add to this list and save a little as utilities go up and the economy goes down?

In the mood for saving more money?  Check out our list of ways we save money at home and tips we follow for affording life in Europe.

(images by Katie for Making This Home)

When we arrived in Germany two weeks ago, I found an email in my inbox from a sincere man offering to give one of you a anti-stink agent for your washing machine in a little giveaway on Making This Home.  Apparently you just pour his product in your machine and go.  I considered his proposal.  But in the end, I said no.  The idea seemed a bit silly.

After all, our washing machine never smells musky or moldy because of one simple trick:

We leave the door cracked for a few hours after we’re finished using our washing machine.

Later when we walk by, we just close the door.  The moisture still in the machine from washing our clothes has dried, so we won’t be growing anything or getting any disgusting smells.  No molds and mildews.  No money down the drain.  And best of all – no chemicals.

Have any of you had bad experiences with smells in your washing machines?  Or maybe you have a few tricks for avoiding odors in other places at home.  Please share one and all.

(Image courtesy of Flickr)