All Things Homemade

Several years ago I started down this path of making household and hygiene products myself. It's not about jumping on the DIY bandwagon for me, but a mix of several reasons: I like to save money; I like to reduce toxic chemicals in my life; many of my in-laws are allergic to perfumes and dyes, so making things myself saves me the headache of finding the right product at the right price; I have psoriasis in my hands, and occasionally get eczema in my elbow pits, and homemade products have been helpful in managing that. Here's what I can think of off the top of my head that I make myself, using a few simple ingredients.

 Laundry detergent
1 bar soap (Fels-Naptha is great and only $1 at Walmart in the laundry aisle)
1 cup borax (20-Mule Team is found in the laundry aisle. About $4 for 76 oz)
1 cup WASHING soda (Not baking soda. Found in the laundry aisle. About $2.50 for 55 oz.)

Grate the bar of soap using a cheese grater. The finer, the better. I even break up the shreds when I'm done and it turns into a powder. Add the borax and washing soda. Mix well. Store in an airtight container. Use 1 Tablespoon per load.

I don't know exactly how many loads this does, but I've got 4 kids ages 4 and under, and my last batch lasted me 4.5 months. Totaled around $1.50 and it took me about 10 minutes to make it. I reuse a Blue Bunny ice cream box to store this. I'm not gonna spend $10 for an airtight container! A double batch filled the carton.

Pre-wash spray
1 part liquid dish soap
2 parts hydrogen peroxide

Spray on the stain and rub or scrub in. Let it sit for an hour, then wash.

This one thrills me! I've got hard water, so there had been a ton of white mineral build up on my dishes. After using this, it has stripped all the mineral residue off, and no more accumulates! Yay for dishes without white crusties!
Dishwasher detergent
1/2 c washing soda
1/2 c borax
1/4 c citric acid (I bought mine online) + 1/4 c for hard water
1/4 c kosher salt (for scrubbing action)
1 tsp rice (to prevent caking)
Mix all together and use 1 T per load. Fill the rinse aid compartment with white vinegar.

*This recipe actually doesn't save me money, though it might when I have a water softener and don't have to use twice as much of the most expensive ingredient. I haven't done all the calculations. What has me sold on this homemade recipe is the effectiveness in removing and preventing mineral residue.

Cleaning supplies
For glass and mirrors, I use a microfiber cloth and a spray bottle of water. If the glass is particularly dirty, it can be half water, half vinegar.
Disinfectant spray--This amount fills a 28 oz spray bottle.
1.5 tsp washing soda
1.5 tsp Borax
3 T vinegar
3 c hot water
15-20 drops tea tree oil (optional)
Bleach spray--One part bleach, 3 parts water.

Veggie wash--grab a spray bottle (I reused mine from the last veggie spray I bought from the store) and fill it half with water, half white vinegar.




















Chapstick
*3 T beeswax pellets
1/4 cup sunflower, almond, or olive oil
2 T cocoa butter or coconut oil
1 pea size drop of lanolin
8 drops Vitamin E oil, or 4 tablets worth
15 drops peppermint oil
10 drops lavender oil
Mix all ingredients in a pan (or one cup metal measuring cup) to heat on the stove on medium heat. Use a medicine syringe to carefully fill the tubes. Seriously, be careful! Any sudden burst of pressure sends liquid flying, tubes falling, messes everywhere. This recipe says it makes a dozen, but for me it makes 20-24. I don't know why. Maybe the difference in tubes? Also, I've found that the 3 T beeswax makes a bit of a soft chapstick. It was melting in my pocket all summer, and worse when I'd leave one in the car. This time I made another batch, I used 5 T and it's been great. Had to get used to the harder consistency, but it doesn't melt all over on me. Next time I might try 4 T just to see what it's like in between, but so far I much prefer the 5 T adjustment.



















Lotion
1/2 c almond or olive oil
1/4 c coconut oil
1/4 c beeswax pellets
2 T shea or cocoa butter, optional
1 tsp vitamin E oil, optional
essential oils, optional

Combine all ingredients in a jar. Pour 2 cups of water in a pan. Put the jar in the pan and heat on the stove on medium high. Stir occasionally. When all ingredients are melted into one liquid, remove from the heat and let cool.
*A little goes a long way with this stuff! I use a dollop the size of my index fingernail. I tried mixing in some cabbage juice because that's really good for soft, healthy skin, but it didn't mix well and you can see it separated at the bottom of the jar. It was worth the experiment though.

Exfoliating sugar scrub & Moisturizing cream

Yay! Now I have all my homemade recipes in one place and I might actually start using my blog for myself so I don't have to look through pinterest every time to find a recipe:)

Coming soon: liquid hand soap, liquid dish soap, AND homemade soap...100% with ash and animal fat.

DIY Spice Rack

I always like bragging about my husband. He's freaking awesome.

Back in November (yeah, so I've had other things to do besides take pictures and blog), he made this spice rack for me. We couldn't find anything we liked online, but desperately wanted/needed to replace our spinning two-level bamboo rack. Being DIYers helps if you're compulsive savers/hoarders/scavengers. Okay, I wouldn't say we're hoarders, but we do save old things with the intentions of repurposing them.

Like this spice rack. It is composed of:

1 desk drawer

2 picture frames

1 Scrabble game

1 chicken broth container

Purchased:

white spray paint

1 8-ft 1x4 (he thinks. Remember, this was 2 months ago)

So The Husband took the bottom of the desk drawer to use for the back of the rack; cut the wood to size to make the top, bottom, sides and middle shelf; nailed on the frames and Scrabble tile racks; spray painted in white. The chicken broth container on top of the rack holds the rest of the Scrabble tiles for changing out messages.

And it's perfect for us. No more spices falling off every time we spin the rack, and everything fits! There's even room for more...which I'll probably fill soon. We like food that tastes good, and wide variety of flavors.