Soapin' Your New Year is Great!

It's a fresh clean start of a year. I like to give the house a thorough clean, but am not a fan of harsh chemicals affecting our lungs, skin and septic!

This past year we made a change. We create our own household cleansers.

We still use bleach and potent stuff for really grimy jobs- not 100% purists, but definitely transitioning to healthier practices over the bulk of things.

We've been making and using these DIYs for almost a year now, and they are wonderful! Less single-use plastic in our lives is also a plus. Simple ingredients we can actually pronounce like castile soap, coconut, baking soda and vinegar.

These DIYs have been an incredible form of aromatherapy. Customizable scents for each season and mood. In October, a dear friend gave us this pumpkin pie blend, and then for Christmas, we switched to peppermint candy cane- the company raved!

Important.

1. Look for food/therapeutic grade essential oils only, not fragrances, which are synthetically based. Check out this post from WebMD about how to use safely.

2. Use glass bottles. Non-diluted essential oil and vinegar don't mix well in plastics. We as a household have been moving away from single-use plastic anyway, swapping to glass, silicon and ceramic containers instead.

Do these expire? I would think so, but am no biochemist. We typically use a batch up swiftly, within a month or two. You may have to play with the ratios, so these amounts will get you started and you can tweak to your preference.

Here's the link to Scandish Home's cleaners episode. She shows how at the 3.15 time stamp in the video.

I love her. Lots of creative cleaning and home-making inspiration. Have you ever night cleaned with a you tube star? lol! Click on the video pic or use the URL here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x3xBFOE-rVQ

Hand Soap

• 1 C distilled/clean water, non-hard water

• A tsp to a TBS of dish soap to preference

• 10-15 drops of preferred essential oil

This is a great standard hand soap but works well as a foaming soap too

All Purpose Spray

• 1 and a half C distilled/clean water, non-hard water

• 1/2 tsp to TBS dish soap to preference

• 10-15 drops of essential oils

Glass Cleaner

50% water

50% vinegar

or swap vinegar with 50% rubbing alcohol

The Plastics Question

Our gradual move away from single use plastics....Why?

URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hQhnIgff7BM

Good Reads:

The Plastic Problem Isn't Your Fault-You Can Be a Part of the Solution

https://www.npr.org/2021/07/12/1015296355/zero-waste-single-use-plastic-trash-recycle

Tips to use less plastic:

http://www.greeneducationfoundation.org/nationalgreenweeksub/waste-reduction-tips/tips-to-use-less-plastic.html

Enjoy!

Warmly,