And now by request, I will share my home cleaning recipes with you all. I would love to hear if any of you have any different recipes that you love as well! Some of these I will just type out the recipe and some of them it will be easier to just give you the link to see it yourself. I hope you guys can try some of these and you like them! Many of these recipes will call for Borax and Washing Soda. Borax can be found in a box near all the laundry detergents at your local grocery store. Washing Soda can be hard to find, but I found it a year ago at my local Harris teeter again near the laundry detergents. I also use a lot of Dr. Bronner's castile soaps. It's a vegetable based soap that you can use for shampoo, toothpaste, body-wash, dishes, surface cleaning, degreaser, laundry, basically anything in your house. You can buy a bottle of it and water it down (a lot!) to make it go a long way. I use the almond liquid Dr. Bronner's in all my hand soap pumps in our bathrooms watered down and it smells soooo good! We also use the peppermint and almond liquids in our bath for shampoo and for body wash. Keep in mind that these soaps are going to get rid of residues left from your old shampoos/body-washes, so you will sometimes need a little transition time where your body makes the right amount of oils for you hair and such. It sounds gross, but after your body adjusts you will find your skin and hair looking the healthiest it's ever been and you will notice that you don't need to condition or wash as much anymore. Also, I know there is a lot these days where people feel the need to have everything be super antibacterial and all that jazz. If you want your cleaners to be antibacterial you can add Tea Tree Oil to your soaps and cleaners. It's an essential oil that is a naturally occurring antibacterial agent, but it can be put into all your cleaners, soaps, and shampoos and still be safe to use. Anyways, here are the recipes:
Dish washing detergent for hand washing:
In an olive oil cruet I have a cup of Dr. Bronner's liquid castile soap (the citrus scent) and 1-2 cups of water. It does a great job and I love the scent. Make sure you rinse well in hot water as it can sometimes leave a residue if you don't rinse well.
Dish washing detergent for the dish washer:
I found this recipe somewhere online, but I can't find it now to give a reference. I think it's a standard recipe.
In a bowl mix together:
1 cup Borax
1 cup Washing Soda (soda ash)
1/2 cup Salt
1/2 cup citric acid
use 1 tbsp of this mixture and fill your rinse aid with white vinegar. We have really hard water so I will sometimes have a little residue, but overall I am in love with this recipe! For the citric acid, you can use packets of Kool-Aid lemonade with no sugar added.
Peppermint Laundry Soap:
I'm just going to give the link to this one in the hopes that once you go to this woman's blog you will spend hours going through her archives and then become addicted to her blog like me.
Peppermint Shampoo:
1 cup Dr. Bronner's peppermint liquid castile soap
1 cup distilled water
1 tbsp. Jojoba oil
mix together in a bottle and use on hair like normal. Castile soaps don't suds up like you are probably used to, so concentrate mostly on your roots and then rinse. Use a conditioner if you need to.
Baking Soda/ACV No-Poo method:
keep a container of baking soda, a bottle of apple cider vinegar, and a 16 oz cup in your bathtub. In the shower mix 1-2 tbsp of baking soda to 1-2 cups water from your shower. Mix thoroughly in the cup and then pour over your head concentrating on the roots. Rub it into your scalp and let it sit for a minute before rinsing. After your shower spray hair down with 2 tbsp of vinegar mixed with 1 cup of water as a detangler. One of my Charlotte Mommies friends told me she keeps it in a spray bottle with a stick of cinnamon in it. I used this method for about a week before switching back to Dr. Bronner's because I think the baking soda wasn't reacting with my hard water very well. I think I'm going to give it another try, but maybe research a little more.
All Surface/Everything cleaner:
I keep two spray bottles of cleaner. In the kitchen I mostly use vinegar and water to clean the counters/table/placemats/anything that needs cleaning. It has a salad or easter egg smell to it when you are cleaning with it, but it goes away as soon as it dries I promise. All over the house I use Almond Dr. Bronner's liquid soap mixed with water in a spray bottle for dusting/cleaning/getting Ryder's finger prints off the coffee table. It smells sooooooo good. It'll really make you happy you're cleaning. Well maybe not, but at least it'll smell good and clean well and it's non toxic so I don't have to worry about Ryder touching things or putting her mouth on them after I have cleaned them.
Floors:
I just use a mixture of vinegar and water for the floors, but here is what I think I'm going to try next. I have a swiffer wet jet thing already and I have some old hand towels I use as the little pads on the bottom, so I think I'm going to try to hack my old wet jet bottle and put vinegar and water in it. Here's a link to the website describing how to do it, but again, I haven't tried this one yet. how to hack your swiffer If you read down into the comments people go on to list easier ways of doing this by just cutting the cap or drilling a hole in the bottom and closing it with a cork. It's a great idea as a money saver.
If you just want to use a regular mop and bucket, mix 1/2 cup of white distilled vinegar with a gallon of water.
If you just want to use a regular mop and bucket, mix 1/2 cup of white distilled vinegar with a gallon of water.
So I think that's it, but if I've forgotten something please let me know!
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