Anti-Chemical Warfare

As my move-in day at the U draws nearer and nearer I have been frantically trying to back up the ‘natural’ in my URL with something blogable. Actually, that’s not quite why I spent my morning measuring washing soda and grating a rather stubborn bar of soap. You see, I decided that the best way for me to cut most of the chemicals from my day to day life is to make the cut as I go to college. I can start fresh, so to speak, and change my lifestyle into something that I want it to be.

This morning I measured, poured and blended several different  household cleaners from simple everyday items, everyone of which I was able to find either in my grocery store, or at a local fresh life. (Is that a chain? If not, just check out your local natural grocery store or, heck, I’ve seen essential oils at Wegmans and I bet they have the other more exotic ingredients there too. But, I digress.)

My Arsenal

Instead of boring your with each and every recipe I used I’ll list them  and, if you find one you want to try, just click on the picture, it’ll take you to the website I found it on.

Before we start, always use separate measuring and storage containers for these. Don’t use anything that will come in contact with your food. While these methods don’t use synthetic chemicals you don’t particularly want to be ingesting them. Trace amounts of these chemicals shouldn’t harm you but it’s better safe than sorry. also, I am neither a chemist nor a doctor. These are recipes that work for me. Don’t try them if you’re allergic to any of the ingredients and please, if you have a reaction that you’re uncomfortable with please seek a doctor.

Okay, now that that’s out of the way want to see what  I made?

Glass and Window Cleaner

I just used the recipe on the bottle for this one which is as follows; 1/2 tblsp. liquid detergent or soap, 3 tblsp. vinegar (it didn’t specify but I used white vinegar), 2 cups water. Mix and spray.

Toothpaste

I’ve been using this toothpaste for most of the summer now and I love it. It gets my mouth clean and it has stopped tasting yucky as the day progresses. For this recipe it’s backwards. Since you are putting the toothpaste in your mouth you want to make with the same utensils that you cook with and keep it separate from your other cleaners.

Dishwasher Detergent

I made a little less than half of a recipe because I didn’t have enough citric acid (AKA lemonade koolaid.)

I about killed my arm shaving a bar of soap that I found in the closet of the bathroom. I had meant to buy soap flakes but I forgot. I would highly recommend it. Shaving soap sucks, to be quiet frank. As if obsessive knitting didn’t raise my chances for carpal tunnel enough. 😉

Deodorant

This is the recipe that I’m most excited about. I’ve been wearing homemade deodorant (goodbye aluminum!) for a while and it works great but I still hated it. Why? It wouldn’t stay solid. The coconut oil would melt at room temperature. I ruined a favorite tee shirt because it had dripped and left oil spots so, today I dumped out what was left and went surfing for a new recipe. I found a blog post where a woman had had the same problem. The solution was so simple I wondered how I hadn’t thought of it. Beeswax. It keeps things from melting. I used it in lip balm to keep it solid last Christmas. I made up the recipe and it is still solid in my eighty some degree room (at least that’s what it feels like). I used it today and it worked just as well as the original recipe.

Are you going to try any of these out? If so or you have any questions leave a comment. I’ll get back to you as quick as I can.

Pro tip:

Have sticky residue left on your recycled bottles or jars? Soak a tissue (Yes, a tissue. For some reason it works best that way.) in nail polish remover and scrub away. It’ll take a while but it should remove all of the sticky residue.