Naturally Clean: Homemade Dishwasher Detergent

This is another thing that had been on my to-do list for a very long time. I found a recipe from The Eco-Friendly Family for a dishwasher detergent that doesn't contain Borax. Although I use Borax in my laundry detergent, there is a bit of a controversy surrounding it. Borax is listed as being hazardous but only if ingested in large amounts, so I feel more comfortable eliminating it altogether from food and eating surfaces.

To preface the recipe, let me tell you about my dishwasher. When we first moved into our current town home, the dishwasher quit working after 2 wash cycles. I called the landlords and twice they sent someone over to fix it to no avail. They decided to just install a new one. My dishwasher is a little over a year old and it never really cleaned dishes. You have to excessively pre rinse so that it doesn't throw food chunks all over your other dishes. I have to be careful where certain things are placed in the dishwasher or they won't get clean. In other words, we have a bottom of the barrel quality dishwasher. Oh yeah, and hard water on top of that. Some days I felt like I might've been better off just hand washing everything. I was using liquid Cascade for years and it did an alright job but it would leave these weird white spots all over things. Even with Jet Dry, and I eventually switched that out for white vinegar. I don't know if it was soap goo or hard water minerals or what. All I know is I didn't want whatever that was in my food.

I already had most of the ingredients for the detergent except the sea salt and the Lemi-Shine. I do a lot of cleaning with baking soda and I had the washing soda from making laundry detergent. The great thing about the Lemi-Shine and salt is that they soften your water if it's hard. After a week's worth of washes, not once had there been any weird white spots on anything. Sold! It does a good job at getting everything clean, too. Everything should be easily available at your local grocery or big box store.

12 oz container of Lemi-Shine (found with the dish detergents)
1 1/2 cups washing soda
1/2 cup baking soda
1/2 cup sea salt

Mix it all together and store in a dry container. Use 2 tablespoons per load. I like to use white vinegar in the Jet Dry dispenser.

The No 'Poo Method: Week 1

Day 1: Prepared all the info and supplies to begin the No 'Poo adventure.

Day 2: I washed my hair with a clarifying shampoo 3 times. After doing that, I was convinced that there was no way on earth this was going to work and debated just smothering my hair with my usual conditioner. My hair had the consistency of "been bleached one too many times and just got out of a chlorinated pool." Ew. There was no way spraying vinegar and water on it was going to do anything. I did it anyway. After a million rinses I dried off my hair and grabbed my hair pick. Shockingly, it went right through my hair easier than if I had used a mountain of conditioner. I seriously seriously couldn't believe it. I thought for sure this was going to be a one-day failure.

Day 3: I didn't notice anything out of the ordinary.

Day 4: My hair started to smell a little funky to me so I washed it with a mixture of baking soda and water and did the regular vinegar and water conditioner. Everything seemed to be fine. Still no problem combing out my hair.

Day 5: Still good.

Day 6: I was starting to get paranoid so I asked my husband to smell my head. Sure enough, I was smelling a bit "off." He suggested I use a bit of essential oils in the baking soda mixture. Brilliant! I also decided that adding a bit more baking soda might be a good idea. I mixed up 1 1/2 cups of water with 3 Tbsp baking soda and 5 drops of Tea Tree essential oil. I scrubbed my scalp extra long this time just to make sure. Afterwards I could still smell the Tea tree oil. It smells nice.

Day 7: I asked my husband to smell my head again and he said it didn't smell like anything at all. I'd consider that a success. Maybe this will be a winning combination.

Overall, my hair doesn't feel greasy or like straw. My scalp isn't itchy and doesn't feel dirty. My hair does feel a bit softer and less coarse, though. I think if I keep up with the essential oils, I won't have to be paranoid about smelly hair, either. I did read about putting essential oils on your brush, too. I may try that.

The No 'Poo Method: An Introduction

A few years ago I stumbled upon a web page about a way to keep your hair clean without shampoo or conditioner. It's called the no 'poo (no shampoo) method and it is a natural, chemical free way to keep your hair nice and clean.

Wait, you mean no shampoo? Like ever? Have you lost your mind?

Possibly. And for those of you who know me, I'm a former hair stylist...seriously. But I want to give it a real try.

Starting today, I'm going to try to do this for an entire month to see how it goes. I'll give a full report at the end of each week. And if I like it, I'll never use shampoo again!

I got lots of great information here.

The basic rundown of the no 'poo method is cleansing the hair with baking soda and water and then conditioning with vinegar and water. When we use shampoo, it strips our hair of the natural oils and then we need conditioner to replace them. The scalp notices the natural oils missing and kicks it into overdrive to make up for the lost oil, causing hair to become greasy. It seems to me that the only reason you need to use shampoo is because you used shampoo. Sounds kind of gimmicky to me. Baking soda is able to cleanse the hair and scalp without removing the natural oils so your hair can stay naturally conditioned. Not only does shampoo itself seem unnecessary but most shampoos on the market are full of things that you might want to think twice about putting on your body. I also read that this works wonders for curly hair, and having naturally curly hair, I am very interested to see if this holds true. There are a lot of products on the market that make all kinds of promises, and being a former hair dresser, I've quite literally tried almost all of them, but they never deliver. I know my fellow curly heads can attest to that. So here starts day one and come back next week to see how the first week went!

Product Review: Rubbermaid Reveal Mop

Before I start, I want to state that I was not asked or paid to write this by any person or company. I purchased this item on my own with my own money.


After the death of my Shark steam mop, (and by death, I mean explosion) I went to Home Depot looking for some sort of replacement. Not necessarily another steam mop, but something to quick clean the floors between scrubbings. The only thing that initially came to mind, and what first ended up in my cart, was the Swiffer and a pack of the wet wipes. I can't even begin to describe the knot that appeared in my stomach over this. I'm probably a bit more neurotic than your average person...ok a lot more, but the thought of those chemicals in my house left me feeling extremely uneasy. Not to mention all of the waste. My husband suggested finding a reusable cover for the Swiffer and just not using the bottle of spray chemicals that came with it. That sounded like a better idea and we were off to try and find something that would fit. Unfortunately, there weren't any appropriate options. I was still feeling a bit defeated when my husband pulled down a Rubbermaid Reveal Mop. After looking it over, I realized this was the perfect product for me. It is a spray mop with reusable cloth cleaning pads that velcro onto the bottom and an empty bottle to fill with whatever cleaning solution you prefer. Vinegar and water in my case! All my problems were solved at once! No waste and no chemicals!

The mop itself is self explanatory. Pull out the bottle and fill with cleaner, replace. The mop handle is a comfortable length and the spray handle is convenient and easy. The cloth pads are absorbent and were able to scrub away grime with ease. My toddler's food-throwing is no match for this thing. Afterwards, I threw the cloth pad in the wash with a load of towels and it came out nice and clean. It's extremely lightweight and can be stored anywhere you keep mops, brooms, etc.

I would most definitely recommend this product over any other mops on the market. I never did like Swiffers, anyway. I never felt like they really cleaned. The Reveal does.

Naturally Clean: Homemade Laundry Detergent

For the longest time, I've been wanting to make a homemade laundry detergent. I did some research and found out that most are made from just 3 ingredients. While the ratios can vary, it seems that you can just use equal parts grated castile soap, washing soda, and borax. I saw some recipes included baking soda. I didn't add any to mine but I might try that later. Although I used equal parts, you could always adjust the ingredients based on your own laundry needs.

Why bother? Well, most commercial laundry detergents contain ingredients that aren't biodegradable. Every ingredient in this soap is, and it's all natural. It's so gentle it can even be used for baby clothes. My son has sensitive skin and has had no adverse reactions. The other good reason? It's extremely cheap!

I tested this detergent for a little over a week and I've been very happy with the results. It leaves my laundry soft and smelling fresh. I used it on sheets, blankets, clothes, and towels. The only thing that I did not wash was my cloth diapers. I read that the castile soap can leave a film and cause repelling so I decided to keep using my Country Save for diapers. In the future, I may try it out on just flats and prefolds.

So here's exactly what I ended up using but feel free to change it up or use different scents:

1 bar of Dr. Bronner's Hemp Tea Tree pure castile soap grated (~2 cups)
2 cups Arm and Hammer washing soda
2 cups Borax

I have an HE washer so I use one tablespoon per load. If you have a top loader, 2 tablespoons is recommended. I tested on hot, warm, and cold washes. It works well on hot and warm as is. If you are going to use it for cold washing, I recommend dissolving it in some warm water before adding it to your wash.

With this recipe you'll get about 96 HE loads or 48 conventional loads.

Naturally Clean: The Many Uses of Baking Soda

Baking soda is a great natural green cleaner and it has an almost endless number of uses. I mainly use it as a scrubbing agent and a carpet freshener. When it's paired with a 50/50 mix of vinegar and water, you can clean pretty much everything in your house. It's safe, non-toxic, environmentally friendly and DIRT CHEAP. You can even use baking soda and vinegar as shampoo and conditioner, respectively. (More on that in a week or two!)

Some of the other common uses of baking soda:

-toothpaste
-deodorant ingredient (homemade)
-acid/upset stomach relief
-deodorizer (household)
-moisture absorber (household)
-detox bath
-shampoo
-laundry booster
-face scrub


To use as a scrubbing agent, simply sprinkle a generous amount over the surface and scrub with a sponge. It's amazing how it cleans and gets rid of hard-to-remove gunk. It's especially great for stovetops, sinks, and bathtubs. I also use it in the toilet. It makes my surfaces shine. Take a look for yourself.

It even got out the coffee stains. I <3 this stuff.

To use as a carpet freshener simply sprinkle around your carpet and let it sit for about 30 minutes. Then vacuum normally. You could also add some essential oils to your baking soda before sprinkling it onto your carpet for added fragrance and freshness.

Naturally Clean: Cinnamon and Honey for Acne

I've always been concerned about the state of my skin. I've tried almost every face wash, mask, and spot treatment on the market, all to no avail. Since my pregnancy and birth of my son, my face has only gotten worse. Yeah, all those things I heard about glowing skin during pregnancy...lies! At least, for me it was. Ever since then, it has persisted. Hooray hormones.

I never even thought twice about buying face goo from the drug store and slapping it on my face in the hopes that it would perform some miracle. I also never bothered to read the ingredients. There's some pretty questionable things in a lot of skin care products and all of those questionable ingredients aren't going to just sit on the surface of your face. They are going to be absorbed into your body. Not to mention, they just plain don't work!

My sister started mixing honey and cinnamon and using it as a face mask. She insisted it was amazing and it got me curious to try it myself. At the time I first gave it a try, I had a mountain of a zit on my face. I mixed up the honey and cinnamon and smeared it all over my face and let it sit for about 15 minutes. I rinsed completely and let my face dry naturally. In a few minutes, I noticed results. I'm not even exaggerating when I say the zit had shrunk to about half its original size. Not only that, but I noticed my skin tightening and my pores were also noticeably smaller. I finally witnessed a real skin care miracle and it had been hiding in my kitchen the whole time.

Honey is naturally antibacterial. By leaving it on your face, the bacteria can't survive and dies. Cinnamon is anti-inflammatory and helps reduce the redness and swelling of acne. Here's how to make your own:

Make sure your honey is actually 100% honey. Check out your local farmer's market, bee farm, health food store, or organic section of your grocery store. Scoop a small amount into a bowl. Sprinkle generously with cinnamon and stir until you have a thick paste. You may need to add more cinnamon. Spread on affected areas or all over as a mask and let sit for 10-15 minutes. Gently wipe off or rinse with warm water. Let your face air dry. Apply a thin layer of coconut oil to replenish your skin's natural protectant and moisture. Repeat daily.

Flats and Handwashing Challenge: Why Am I Doing This?

Today is the first day of the Flats and Handwashing Challenge hosted by Dirty Diaper Laundry. I'll be participating this year and blogging about it every day this week.

Once upon a time, there were no such thing as disposable diapers. Everyone used cloth diapers before the invention of disposables. This week I will be using nothing but the very same diapers your grandma and great-grandma used, all without the use of my washing machine and dryer. Why on Earth would I do that? There are several reasons.

Cloth diapering is a valid option. Regardless of how much or how little money you make, there are ways to make cloth diapering work for your family. It's just a matter of trying it out and seeing what works for you. With using flats and handwashing them, the goal is to show that you can still cloth diaper even if you don't have a washing machine, dryer, or much money. Flats are the least expensive cloth diapering option. Sometimes they are even free. Buy flat diapers, use flour sack towels, cut up t-shirts from Goodwill. Almost any absorbent material can be turned into a diaper. You just need a waterproof cover and it's all good. There are many families out there struggling to afford disposable diapers and sometimes having to make the decision between that and food. Imagine never having to buy diapers again.

How prepared are you? Power outages, natural disasters, zombie apocalypses (hey you never know!) can happen any time. What if there is a diaper shortage. And if there was, wouldn't it be nice to have one less thing to worry about? Having cloth diapers on hand and a way to hand wash them will put you way ahead of the rest. I want to show all you preppers, survivalists, and potential homesteaders that flats are the way to go! They are the least bulky, the easiest to wash, the quickest to dry, and the most diverse diaper to have around. The diverse part is particularly good if you have more than one child in diapers. The same flat diaper can be customized to fit children of varying sizes.

Those are really the main points of my decision to do this. Although I've got something to prove and I want to make this work, I will be reporting my findings along the way with honesty. As much as I love cloth diapers and want everyone to give them a try, I'm not going to sugarcoat the reality of it. You sometimes do have to touch poop. But then again, that just comes with the territory of parenthood.

Naturally Clean: The Power of Vinegar

I've written about this before on my previous collaboration blog but I'm going to do it again. I'd like to do a mini series about green cleaning/chemical-free living and I'm going to start with the most basic thing to use: white distilled vinegar. We've all seen the millions of posts about making your own cleaners on Pinterest, and that is awesome. I'm here to tell you that if you haven't already tried them, you are missing out! I use a 50/50 mix of vinegar and water in a large spray bottle to clean EVERYTHING in my house. Every surface in the bathroom and kitchen, windows, mirrors, floors. The only thing I wouldn't recommend using it on is finished wood.

Cleaning with natural cleaners is something that is very important to me and I take it very seriously. A lot of the chemicals used in everyday household cleaning can cause a plethora of ailments including cancer. Women who work in the home were found to have a 54% increased risk for cancer than women who work outside of the home. Coming from a direct line of stay-at-home moms who are also breast cancer survivors, I want to lessen my odds in any way I can.

Vinegar is antibacterial, antifungal, kills mold, and absorbs odors. It really is the most perfect cleaner out there. You also have no worries about children or pets getting under the sink or being poisoned.

Now to get real with you. It cleans extremely well and I am very particular when it comes to dealing with germs and dirty surfaces. My stuff gets clean. Clean enough that I feel comfortable letting my child eat off his high chair tray after being wiped down with vinegar. (hey, I'd rather that than some toxic chemical...vinegar is food!) It does require some extra elbow grease but that's no big deal in my book. I will admit that a few weeks ago I ended up cleaning some glass in the house with some leftover Windex and holy heck. My eyes burned, my throat got sore, my lungs hurt. That was enough to really give me the final push over the edge to say no to cleaning chemicals forever.

Some of the benefits of natural cleaning are better health for you and your family, better health for the environment, and more money in your pocket, which everyone can appreciate.

Stay tuned for more natural cleaning tips in the following weeks.

DIY: Stay-dry Cloth Diaper Liners

We have been cloth diapering since my son was a few weeks old. It's had its ups and downs and we've learned a lot along the way. With pocket diapers and other modern diapers, wetness isn't an issue, but we were using prefolds and covers and every time he got slightly damp, he screamed in discomfort. This wouldn't really have been a problem except he was peeing every half hour, it seemed. I desperately searched for some way to alleviate his discomfort for a little while longer and discovered stay-dry liners. I purchased a 6 pack for more money than I should have paid. And since they are one use before they need washed, 6 just wasn't enough. I did some research and found that blizzard fleece works just the same way. It allows liquid to pass through and keeps baby's skin separated from the wet diaper. It's quite remarkable how the top stays completely dry while the diaper is soaking wet underneath.

I ended up getting the blizzard fleece from Jo-Ann Fabrics. I purchased half a yard of the white and I had a 50% off coupon. The price per liner ended up being a few cents. I ended up getting about 16 13"x 5.5" liners out of the half a yard. Way better than what I initially paid for the 6. I surged around the edges but that isn't necessary. It will just help them last longer. You could just zigzag stitch or do nothing at all.

Here you can see how nicely the size fits over a prefold in a diaper cover. The size also allows for bigger babies since there is a few inches tucked in.

Pocket Diapers

The previous type of cloth diapers I discussed were prefolds and covers. Prefolds have been around for quite a while and may seem old fashioned to many. This week I'm going to discuss one of the main types of modern cloth diapers. Pockets! There are so many great things about pocket diapers and a few draw backs that I'll go over.

First of all, pocket diapers can get pretty darn cute. They come in a variety of prints and colors from all different brands.

You get to choose your own absorbency. If you are using the diaper for nap time (like I do), you can add extra soakers into the diaper pocket.

I have NEVER ever ever had a poop blowout with one. Curious now??

They come in aplix (velcro) or snaps.

There are "one-size" varieties that you can use from birth to potty training. Oh the savings!!! Below is the same brand of diaper on the smallest setting (about 8 lbs) and on the largest setting (about 35 lbs)

The only real downside I can think of with these types are the repelling that happens if you get buildup on the material. It happens every couple of months with mine since we have hard water. All you need to do is strip them in the wash and they are back to new. Stay tuned for my washing routines.

DIY: Reusable Sandwich/Snack Bag

I've been wanting to make a reusable sandwich bag for a long time now. Not only will you save on plastic bags, your lunch will look a whole lot cuter. It took me a while to finally sit down and make one. I was mulling over the course of action to take for the entire week. There are quite a few different ways to make these and to be honest, I just winged this. I am happy with the way it turned out and I learned many lessons along the way. I will share what I learned with you so that you can bypass the learning curve.

I started with a color coordinating PUL fabric and regular fabric. Any woven cotton should be fine. My fabric is a printed duck canvas I found in the scrap bin at Hobby Lobby and the PUL can be found in the Babyville section at your local Jo-Ann Fabrics. You don't really need the PUL if you can't find it or don't want it. The purpose of it is to make your bag waterproof. If you are only planning to use your bag for sandwiches or snacks you shouldn't need it. Things like fruit or veggies, you might want to consider adding it.

To make mine sandwich-sized, I cut 7" by 17.5" rectangles, but you could make any size you want.

The next step is to place your fabrics color/print side together and pin around the edges. This is the first place I encountered a problem. I first tried to sew with PUL side down. Unfortunately, the white side of the PUL is a plastic. It stuck to my sewing machine and bunched. Luckily I caught it before it did any damage to the material. Then I tried it reverse, with the PUL up and the canvas down. Still not quite good. I don't have a walking foot, so I used a rolling foot. It still wasn't super, but it worked a bit better. So, if you are going to use the PUL, i'd recommend using a walking foot, or just skip the PUL altogether.

Sew about a quarter inch or less around the entire perimeter leaving about a 2-3 inch gap on one of the long sides. This is where you will be turning your fabric right side out again. When you are done, flip right side out and push the corners out gently with a pencil or chopstick or something shaped like that.

This is the next point where I made a mistake. I forgot to sew on the velcro. This made the very last step of my bag extremely difficult. But put it on NOW! Sew a strip of the loop side to the bottom of the print side, leaving about 1/4" from the edge. Flip your bag and sew a strip of the hook side to the opposite bottom on the PUL side, leaving 1/4" as well. 

Now fold PUL sides together to make your bag shape, leaving the flap where the velcro is. Fold in the bit you left unsewn and top stitch down the sides of the bag.

Now you have a sandwich bag! Just add a sandwich!

To clean your bag, simply toss it in the washing machine with any load. Turn it inside out and connect the velcro. I would recommend letting it air dry but you can also put it in the dryer on low.