It's Laundry Day! With Borax

Actually, around here everyday is laundry day!

I have two young children, a baby on the way, a farming husband (think lots of mud, grease & dirt!), we have a cat & dog, I clean with rags, cloth diaper and even make a mess or two myself.

I think my washer just might be my most prized appliance in the house, I really couldn't be without it. We recently had to replace our front loader, when it gave up the ghost, and settled on a top loader. No, it isn't my Mom's top loader. It is energy efficient with a revamped middle agitator that is easier on our clothes, but does the scrubbing we need. To span the great divide of needs between farm clothing to cloth diapers, with delicates in between, I couldn't be happier.

Unfortunately, no new-fangled washer can help me with our water issues. We have well water. Though, I do enjoy the taste for drinking, it has a nasty habit of leaving spots on our dishes, rings around our tubs and sediment in our clothing. Hard water contains calcium and magnesium. I have noticed the biggest signs in our cloth diapers. After moving I had to "strip" them more often and found they didn't absorb like they should. Hard water can make your laundry detergent less effective.

What has helped me has been simplifying my laundry routine. I use a very simple pure and clear detergent that doesn't leave any residue or oils and I add just a 1/2 cup of Borax to my laundry.

Borax? Yes, another thing your mom or grandmother might be more familiar with. You might remember that I have used it for science experiments (Alien Snot) and have talked about using it around the house to clean the bathroom, etc. It is also a great help with battling against our hard water.

Borax is sodium tetraborate. It naturally occurs when seasonal lakes evaporate and is a 100% natural mineral from the earth. Nothing has to be added to it. It is just washed, dried and boxed up for sale. This is one reason why it is such a frugal choice!

When I was showing white racing homers (pigeons), we would add a little to the bathwater to get stains out of their feathers. It helped to get the birds beautiful and white again.

Sometimes simple is the best solution and Borax is a simple product that has made a place for itself in my home. It isn't expensive and goes a long way to make my whites come out whiter and all of the stains of our lives be forgotten from our clothes.

Would you like to try Borax for yourself? As a Purex Insider I have 3 coupons to give away to 2 lucky readers here at Adventures in All Things Food. See details below. If you are like me, the messes in the kitchen alone will give you cause to try out this stain fighter.

Also be sure to enter the Fresh Year, Fresh Laundry Contest going on right now with Borax on Facebook. You could win a Grand Prize of $1,500 or FREE Borax.

Giveaway Time!!

Comment below for entry. Sorry, I am not using Rafflecopter due to the service down times I have experienced in the past. Entry is simple: Tell me why you want to try Borax, or tell me about how many loads of laundry you do a week. Just leave a relevant comment & way to contact you.

*Extra entry - tweet the following daily for one extra entry a day. Leave your link in the comment section below:

I want to try #Borax to boost the ___ loads of laundry I do weekly! from @notimeMom  #AdvinFoodBoraxContest (ends 2/14) http://bit.ly/TSVKTq

That's it! Good luck.

This giveaway will end 2/14/2013 at midnight PST and winners will be notified by email. You must respond to the email to claim your coupon. If you do not respond within 48 hours, a new winner will be selected.

*Disclaimer - Borax provided a free sample of their product for this post. My participation is voluntary and my opinions and experiences are my own.