If you make your own, please help! - Page 2

[angelcat]

I'm not a fan of natural cleaners (I clean houses, and find the natural stuff doesn't clean well).

However, I do make my own hand scrub, and bath salts.

For hand scrub I use a mix of sugar and olive oil (grapeseed oil works too). It is awesome. It works as a body scrub too.

Bath salts are just a mix of sea salt, Epsom Salt, whatever essential oil I want, and food colouring. (and of course, the food colouring is optional).

[hippiemum21580]

For my home, I use white vinegar and baking soda for everyting. To clean my counters, my bathrooms, my laundry, my dishes..... I use a cup of BS in my washer for laundry and a cup of vinegar in the bleach dispenser with a few drops of tea tree oil. Or lavender oil. For the dishwasher I just fill both cups with BS and dump a cup of WV in the bottom of the dishwasher. For handwashing I use the same two products, soaking them in the BS in water for a bit before to soften hardened on food. For my hair I use the no poo method and I do a treatment with honey that I leave on for 5 minutes a couple times a week to tame frizzies. For windows and other glass surfaces I use WV with lavender oil to offset the odor and diluted in water. I make a baby oil massage oil for my kiddos using lavender oil and olive oil. So, literally EVERYTHING and everyone in my home gets clean with baking soda, white vinegar , apple cider vinegar, lavender oil and tea tree oil and honey! Very cheap and my hoem is sparkling! (and thsi is comingfrom a person who has OCD and is pretty darn obsessive with cleanliness and disinfecting)

[Ruthla]

Here's how I do things:

Laundry: 7th generation laundry liquid, with powdered non-cholorine bleach added to some loads. For pre-treating stains, I use ivory bar soap (moistened, rubbed onto the stained spot before washing.) For really stubborn stains, I use the non-cholorine bleach, made into a liquid and applied with an old toothbrush. For hand washing, I use a few drops of laundry liquid.

Mirrors and windows: distilled vinegar diluted in water in a spray bottle. This bottle also works as a deodorizing spray in the bathroom (or wherever else it's needed.)

Dishes: 7th generation dish liquid for hand washing, and 7th generation powder for the dishwasher. I also use Bon Ami for stubborn baked-on stuff.

Stovetop: spray bottle of "all purpose cleaner" (dish soap and water). I also use this for countertops. I occasionaly use baking soda or Bon Ami for something really bad on the stove or counter.

Floors: mop with diluted dish soap or vinegar, or a mixture of the two.

Hand washing: bottle of liquid hand soap from Trader joe's.

Shower: assortment of bar soaps from Trader Joe's and/or health food store. I use the same thing on my face as my body.

Hair: the kids use suave coconut shampoo and conditioner (baby steps here, they grew up using commercial products, these at least are free of parabens and synthetic colors.)

I wash my hair with baking soda and rinse with vinegar.

1) wet hair
2) moisten some BS in my hand to make a paste
3) scrub my scalp with the BS paste
4) repeat steps 2 and 3 if needed
5) rinse hair
(I usually then wash my body with soap and then rinse before moving onto the next step)
6) pour a little vinegar into my pint sized wash cup, then fill with water and pour over my head. Then fill cup with plain water and rinse again.

I come out of the shower and use a rock crystal deodorant before I dry off, and I use coconut oil on my body while it's still damp, as a moisturizer. I also have some hand lotion from the HFS (Kiss My Face brand at the moment) if I feel I need more moisturizing during the day- plain coconut oil doesn't work well on dry skin.

DD1 has a collection of less natural stuff for her own personal use.

[Aliviasmom]

Here's a link to an article on cleaning products.

http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNew...leaners_070419

I haven't read it all, but this should help.

[FireWithin]

i have found that mi skin's condition, pimples, is connected with my diet. Something I refused to believe most of my life. I am currently gluten free (my and my nursing son's allergy), chocolate free (my son's allergy) and lower in sugar. When I have any of these( sugar in excess), my skin breaks out.

I have been able to reduce my face care to washing with only hot water in the morning using a wash cloth. The wash cloth is necessary for exfoliation. When my sugar consumption is low, my skin is glowing.

I would like to go back to using cvo again once a month, that would help with the clogged pores I have left.

[TinyBabyBean]

For general cleaning and mopping I use:
1 part vinegar
3 parts water
6 drops lavender oil
4-6 drops lemon oil

For glass and disinfecting:
half vinegar
half water
few drops lemon oil

For tooth cleaning:
6T baking soda
1T salt
few drops wintergreen or peppermint oil

For mouth rinse:
Hydrogen peroxide, your teeth will be white and gums super healthy too!

For face wash:
I don't. I use coconut oil or plain water only. It didn't make a real difference at first but now my skin is truly better. The soaping on a face causes grease spots as the skin tries to rebalance moisture. The only time I use soap is right around my mouth area if something got me really in need of soaping.

For body soap:
Ivory or a WAHM one, vegetable glycerine are best i believe

For shampoo:
I have a recipe that uses pure castile soap and chamomile tea but I am currently doing a no shampoo thing with my hair and I am in my third week. I am going to do half cider vinegar half water mix and leave on for an hour then rinse out next week. I may do that once a week or so.

For moisturizing purposes of any kind, including baby's bum:
coconut oil

For insect bites, acne, etc:
Tea tree oil (dilute with another oil if you would use it on a baby)

For fabric softener that isn't toxic:
half vinegar (or you can use even less vinegar like a fourth i believe)
half water
20 drops lavender oil
few drops lemon oil(optional)

For bathtubs:
sprinkle baking soda
mist with vinegar
watch the foam fizzies, then scrub! such fun and the kids love to see it!

I buy dishsoap at the health food store because I haven't mastered making that yet. I will be making my own laundry soap soon.

[smeisnotapirate]

Also, if you have wood floors or a piano (any finished wood), use 1 part EV olive oil (the fruitiest, lightest you can find) to one part lemon juice. Smells amazing, and the color you get is phenomenal! It also keeps dust away. Warning: small children and dogs WILL want to lick your piano.

I also use the no-poo Curly Girl method with Giovanni leave-in conditioner for afterwards.

[Alvenchrst]

Originally Posted by papschmitty

I'm taking baby steps too : but here are some of my favorites:

DEODORANT
I used Funk Butter by Oyin and loved it but felt that they charged too much for shipping. Now, I make my own thanks to an MDC mama. The recipe is as follows:

1 Tbs shea butter
1 Tbs coconut oil (I warm it up to make it liquid)
1 Tbs baking soda
1 Tbs cornstarch
Several drops of EO (the original recipe called for lavender but that gives me a headache so I use sweet orange and it smells very nice)

Mix it all together in a small bowl. Use a fork to work out any lumps. Pour into a 2 ounce container (I use the tin that my Funk Butter came in). Allow it to firm up (I put it in the fridge for about 10 minutes to speed this along). Apply to pits and viola!

This recipe works great. My DH has yet to have a stinky day using this stuff!


ALL PURPOSE CLEANER
I use a modified version of a recipe from Clean House Clean Planet (an excellent book with tons of recipes).

32 oz spray bottle
30 oz purified water
3 Tbs Dr. Bronner's liquid castille soap
50 drops tea tree oil (I think)

Mix all ingredients together, spray on desired surface, wipe clean.

I use this instead of vinegar since DH can't stand the smell. I've also read that the acidity in vinegar can actually pit natural surfaces like granite, marble, and tile grout. The TTO ican the above recipe gives in a nice antiseptic quality. The original recipe called for more soap but I found that it was leaving too much soapy residue to I cut it back. If you have hard water, it's best to use purified water with this recipe as the minerals can inhibit the cleaning action of soap. I use this to clean my kitchen, bathroom, and almost anything else that needs a good wipe down!

MIRROR/WINDOW CLEANER
Again, another recipe from Clean House Clean Planet:

Spray bottle
Club Soda

Pour club soda into spray bottle. Spray on desired surface and wipe clean with a lint-free towel.

That's it! It works great and it's cheap! I use microfiber towels to clean. I bought a big pack on sale at Target from the automotive section which was waaaay cheaper that buying the towels that are marketed for actual cleaning.

ABRASIVE CLEANER
Baking soda

I use this to scrub my toilet bowl, bath tub, and kitchen sink. You have to rinse well. If you find that you're still getting a white haze, rinse with vinegar.

FACIAL CLEANER
I second the previous suggestions for honey. You can start with regular if you can't get your hands on raw. I found a farmer at our local farmer's market who sells raw honey and just buy it there. We just keep it in a squeeze bottle in the shower and wash like you would with soap. I also keep a glass spice shaker bottle of baking soda for exfolliation which I use about eveyr 3 days. I squeeze some honey into the palm of my hand, shake in some baking soda, gently scrub and rinse. Even my DH who's a "man's man" and certainly not crunchy swears by this method (though it did take some convincing to get him to try it).

LAUNDRY
I haven't gotten around to making my own but have been really pleased with Charlie's Soap. It's natural, cheap, and it works. I completely ditched dryer sheets and instead use distilled white vinegar in the fabric softener tray of our washer. If you don't have a tray in your washer, just use the Downy ball. DH doesn't notice the vinegar smell on anything but our towels but a couple drops of EO took care of the problem. FWIW, I can NEVER smell it but my DH has a crazy sense of smell.

HAND SOAP
I purchased a container of Target brand foaming hand soap, poured out the contents, cleaned it, and then made my own soap with the following recipe:

4/5 purified water
1/5 Dr. Bronner's liquid soap

Mix and use.

I just eyeballed it, there were no exact measurements. I have found that the soap tends to settle at the bottom of the container over time but will remix just fine with a little gentle agitation.

MAKEUP
I switched over to mineral makeup. There's co-ops for Sheer Miracles mineral makeup here on MDC fairly regularly. I've been pretty happy with their product so far. I remove my eye makeup with organic coconut oil and, on the rare occasion that I wear foundation, I just wash with honey. I don't put coconut oil anywhere else on my face because it makes me break out. I'm still looking for a good natural facial moisutizer with SPF in it.

DISHWASHER
I have yet to find a homemade recipe that works. Most of the natural commercial brands don't work that well IMO. I think I've heard the best things about Ecover, but only the tablets.

That's all I can think of off the top of my head. As far as cleaning goes, I found Clean House Clean Planet to be the most helpful. Everything else I learned here on MDC! It's so easy to get overwhelmed. Try to just take one thing at a time. Good luck!

AWESOME POST!!!! thank you, and can i just say that I totally agree with the funk butter shipping being too much. It was very frustrating to pay more for shipping than i did for the funk butter and I know it could easily be shipped the same method for less since it's such a small item, grrrr. I am STILL waiting for it to come, but am going to try making my own once the FB runs out.