Guess what this is for!

   This post contains Affiliate Links.

      My daughter is so excited to start her next 'homesteading' project! Can you guess what this big bad boy is for? Yup! She is going to do her own laundry the old fashioned way!

     I really can't imagine a kid being excited about doing their own laundry. Especially, doing her own laundry by hand. She is 10. She should be crossing her arms and looking at me like, 'Seriously Mom?' But no, my kid is excited!
     I have been running out of cool, original ideas to do to go along with homesteading the old fashioned way. We have been reading 'Little House In The Big Woods' and are enjoying hearing about them preserving all of the meats and food for the winter. (But we are not at that level yet.) We were going to make corn cob dolls, and saved all of the corn husks to make a doll. However, when they dried, they curled up. (Going to have to do some more research on how to do it properly.)  We don't have the means to make bullets, or the skills to play the fiddle. She has made butter numerous times with me,  AND in public school, with heavy whipping cream. If we make fresh butter again, it's going to be from fresh cream from a cow or goat. I don't have access to either of those at this time, as well.... 
    So I was sitting at work, racking my brains for the next project, when I thought, "Ask Mrs. C!" Mrs. C is my boss and quite the educator herself with nearly 40 years experience! She thought for a minute and first came up with the same tried and true homesteading skills lessons most use. When I told her about the corn cob doll, she understood I was looking for something different. Her face lite up as she said, "I have my mother's wash board." WAHOOO!!!! 
    Later that night, I asked my daughter if she knew how people used to wash their clothes before washing machines. "I don't know what they are called, but you do this with them," she said moving her hands up and down in a scrubbing motion. "And you use one of those silver tub things!" 
"Yes, you scrub them on a wash board that is inside of a wash tub. Guess who has a wash board?"
      My daughter's eyes grew big. "Who?" 
     "Mrs. Carolyn, and she is going to let us borrow it."
      My daughter clapped her hands and squealed. "Do I get to make my own soap, too?"
     "If you want to!"
     "I do!' 
     Joyously, she danced around singing a happy tune of 'I get to wash my own clothes!' Until suddenly, she was right beside me, wide eyed and asking, "How much are we going to SAVE?"  This kid cracks me up! :)

UPDATE: This ended up being a 3 part series, with this being the first part. It's Washing Day is the second post and explains why we did not make our own laundry detergent. The third post is Washing Clothes The Old Fashioned Way where she finally gets to wash her own clothes. Make sure to read them all to get the whole story! 

Do you have a favorite DIY Laundry Detergent Recipe? We would love to hear about it!

Disclosure: I am Amazon Affiliate and may receive a small compensation for including links on my blog. Buying through my links is not necessary, just appreciated. Amazon does not charge extra for linked items recommended by their affiliates.  I only recommend products that I use and trust OR plan on using in the future. Please buy responsibly and do your own product research before buying anything online.