The comfy! Another update

Two months using toilet cloth and counting.

Something very interesting happened when we moved to our own apartment. It took a week to get our new washer and dryer installed, so during that time I used toilet paper full time again. The interesting part is that I missed my cloth. The paper was shredding and I had to worry about if there were little bits of paper stuck to my hoohoo and the whole thing just felt very awkward.

I'm not why/how this happened, or how it's even possible, but now after two months of weekly washings my cloth wipes seem... dryer? Definitely more absorbent. This wasn't freshly purchased cloth that needed a few washings to prep and be fully absorbent. These were old t-shirts that were in fairly regular rotation for 2 or 3 years.

It has occurred to me that it may possibly also be the laundry detergent switch. Without all the random stuff commercial detergent has in it, not using 'real' fabric softener, and discontinuing my use of dryer sheets maybe the fabric has finally been stripped of all the detergent and chemical build up of being in regular rotation for several years?

Anyway, I just wanted to say that it took two months but I think I'm finally 100% converted. I prefer my cloth over toilet paper. Not to mention how miraculous it is to finally be in our own apartment where I can set my cloth out in a cute little basket somewhere it's easy for me to grab and toss it in a special pail next to the toilet after I use it!

Here's what happens when you don't follow directions

Everyone and everything I read warned me this would happen. I don't know what I was thinking. A brain fart? A complete lapse in judgment? Laziness? "It will never happen to me" naivete?

My dishwasher detergent is a big fat lump of rock, basically. Now I have to take a knife or something to it and chisel it back into powder format.

For future batches, perhaps I will actually follow directions and fill up an ice cube tray with my mixture. I'll let it harden overnight and have those nifty cubes of detergent just like the commercial brands.

Besides having to chisel out a tablespoon of detergent every time I wash a load of dishes, the detergent is still working fairly well. It leaves a yucky film in the concave dips on the bottoms of our glasses. I'm not sure if that's the detergents fault or the dishwasher's though. I don't have the desire nor the willpower to mix up a different recipe, but I may still try using vinegar in my rinse aid compartment now that I YouTubed how to use the darn thing. Doh.

Unpaper towels

I ordered just 10 unpaper towels to try. My goal is to replace all of our disposable paper products with their washable cloth cousins to save money. Why pay for things you intend to throw away?

There are only two of us, so I feel we don't go through quite as much paper towel as some people, but we do use them for a LOT of things. Small spills, to cover things that may splatter in the microwave, as napkins, and occasionally as coasters for sweating glasses. I got a great deal on some beautiful glass coasters at Ross, so hopefully that shouldn't be a problem anymore. But similar to toilet cloth, switching to cloth for something I have traditionally used paper for has felt very strange and a lot perverse. It's just WRONG.

I got over wiping down counters with unpaper towels pretty fast. That's not so bad.

Using unpaper towels as napkins has been a bigger challenge. I had to put away the one roll of paper towel we have in the house just to keep myself from automatically grabbing them. I have to repeat to myself, over and over again, "It's okay to stain them." I think I will also revisit the idea of buying pretty cloth napkins for when we have company or a nice meal, but that can certainly wait.

Hopefully it doesn't take as long to adjust to these as it did to adjust to toilet cloth but I'm extremely proud that one more paper product is being removed from daily use in our household.

Line drying

For my first three months in Texas, I wasn't allowed to line dry any of my clothes due to some stinky homeowner's association rules. Now I'm into my own apartment and the same problem plagues me. No clotheslines on the balcony. At least in this case, it's my home and I'll do what I want to. Here are some solutions I've come up with:

Clothes carousel: I purchased this one. So far I've had great luck drying toilet cloth, wash cloths, and unpaper towels on it. I don't think it's suitable for drying much heavier items; it feels rather flimsy. For now, I've been hanging this in our very warm walk-in closet to dry and it's worked just fine.

Drying rack: I'm looking for a collapsible rack that I can store in my laundry room (which is accessed from my balcony) when not in use, and then set up outside on the balcony when I am using it. Since this will be put away when not in use, I think I'm less likely to get busted for drying my clothes outside. I could use this to dry heavier items like shirts, thicker diapers like all-in-ones or pockets, hand towels, etc. I'm not sure that jeans and towels would work since I wouldn't want anything to touch the ground. The struggle I've had in choosing a drying rack to purchase is that I want it's bars to be thin enough that I can clothespin things to it and make sure they don't blow away!

Retractable clothesline: My laundry room is very tiny so this is an idea I am less confident in now that I have seen in person just how small it is. However, one idea I had was to string a clothesline across the laundry room itself, preferably a retractable one to minimize the chance of killing myself on accident. The laundry room is separate from the apartment and therefore not air conditioned so it is very, very hot in there which I think would work well for drying heavy items like towels and jeans. But now, seeing how little room there is, even if I did do it, I think I might have room for 2 items to be hung up, so that's kind of silly. I'll keep thinking about this and see if I can come up with a good solution.

Glass cleaner

I tried my multipurpose cleaner on the bathroom mirror and I'm not the happiest with it. It looks fine close up but from far away, you see lots of little streaks. I could try wiping with newspaper and see if that helps. Otherwise, I think I'm going to make a separate cleaner just for cleaning glass since I found an interesting recipe:

Glass Cleaner

1/4c rubbing alcohol

1/4c white vinegar

1T corn starch

2c water

Bread: Not so good

After spending a few days activating and feeding my starter, I made my first loaf. It came out of the oven looking VERY strange. I suppose the bottom and sides looked the way they should but the top still just looked like dough, though it was hard as a rock.

In a fit of rage, I threw the loaf away before cutting into it to see if it was also dense and hard on the inside. If that were the case, I could assume my yeast didn't rise properly. Aside from that, I'm at a loss trying to think of things that may have gone wrong.

The dough never really got as big in the pan as I felt it should have. It did get very cold in the apartment overnight, maybe that injured my yeast? Maybe somehow the recipe got messed up when I halved it? I don't see how that's possible but I suppose...

So I'm looking at different recipes and things like that, trying to figure out what I could change up. One thing that's extremely frustrating is that all of these recipes call for sourdough starter as well as commercial packaged yeast. If I wanted to use commercial yeast, why would I be putting so much time and effort into sourdough? Gah!

This is a common theme

It's amazing how the recipes I find for homemade things consistently are made of the same basic ingredients. Borax, baking soda, washing soda, vinegar, maybe some essential oil for a little kick.

Now that I'm in my own place with my own dishwasher to do with as I please, I threw together some homemade detergent for the dishwasher. It's starts with the same base as my laundry detergent.

1 cup washing soda

1 cup Borax

And then gets a little complicated in order to soften the water and prevent those pesky water spots.

1/2 cup kosher salt

1/2 cup citric acid

Citric acid may be found in your local gardening or canning section. I bought a 7.5oz jar of it by Ball in my canning supplies area.

I was told to use vinegar in my rinse aid dispenser but I didn't feel like it. I buy vinegar by the gallon and I can't imagine trying to pour into that tiny slot from my gallon jug, haha. Right now our drinking glasses are Missing In Action so I would have only noticed very obvious spots on my dishes... perhaps I should check my silverware again. Anyway, I might have to reevaluate my technique and recipe once I have my glasses back, since those are the real devils when it comes to water spots.