Baby Wipe Solution

So remember how a few months ago I posted about how I freaked out about all the chemicals in baby wipes and cut up a bunch of tshirts and decided to make my own? No, well Read this then.

I ran into a few problems with the wipes in the container. Turns out when the baby wipe companies put wipes into containers, they use a billion chemicals to make sure that they don't turn to mold or start to stink.

My wipes, however, do not have chemicals to prevent this, so we got some stinky wipes in the container.  I started making a wipe solution and putting it in a spray bottle.  I now spray my wipes (or my kid) with the solution. Problem solved.

Just wanted to give an update.

To remind you, my recipe:


Baby Wipe Solution

• 2 Table Spoons Burt's Bees Baby Shampoo and Body Wash
• 2 Tablespoons Liquid Coconut oil
• 3 cups Distilled Water

Bug Spray

Deet is totally bad for you.  Which really stinks, because it is awesome at keeping bugs away.  Pinterest has all these awesome recipes for DIY bug spray, so I thought I should probably try one out.  When I went to my local health food store, they were out of whatever oil it was that I needed, but they had a recipe for a natural one there, so I decided to try it.  It's super easy and cheap!

Natural Bug Spray

• 8oz Spray Bottle
• 6oz Water
• 2oz Witch Hazel 
• 30-50 drops Citronella (the more you use, the stronger the scent)

Boom, that easy.

The three of us sat outside and watched our neighbors set off fireworks the night before Memorial day.  There were tons of mosquitoes out, they were flying around us a ton, but none landed on us.  Not one bite.  Awesome!

The only downside to this solution is that with any type of natural solution, you're going to have to use more and reapply.  This didn't bother my 2.5 year old because it doesn't stink, stink, and isn't sticky.  But, if that's a huge pain to you, it may not be worth it.

I'm a fan, but even better was that my husband was a fan.  That makes it a win.

My Shower Cleaner

My shower cleaner is probably no different than many others who make their own shower cleaner.  There are actually so many of this exact same "recipe" on the web, that I couldn't even begin to guess or give credit to the person who I "took" the idea from. ha.  Anyways, if it was you, thanks.


Super easy, two ingredients.

Shower Cleaner

• 1 part Blue Dawn Dish Soap 
• 1 part distilled white vinegar

yep, that's it.   I make mine in a big bottle, so I don't have to make it as often. 

I spray the shower and tub, let the cleaner sit for a few minutes and then wipe it down with a sponge. If the tub really needs to be scrubbed, I throw some Baking Soda down, too.  Then rinse. I never worry about my 2.5 year old drinking bathtub water, hoping that I rinsed all of the cleaner down the drain well enough. Super easy. Super safe.

Soap scum and all other kid scum is gone. Perfect!

My All-Purpose Cleaner

When I first went crazy and threw away all of our household cleaners, my husband hated the fact that I used white vinegar for everything. 

My first all-purpose cleaner was just vinegar and water.  Simple, no junk.  Worked well, too.  I use this in my kitchen, bathroom, in the car, pretty much everywhere.

Now I use something that I am in love with!  Water, Tea Tee Oil, and Grapefruit Seed Extract.

Why Tea Tree Oil and Grape Fruit Seed Extract? Well, let me tell you.

Tea Tree Oil has antibacterial, anti-inflammatory, antiseptic, and anti-microbial properties. Tea Tree Oil is one of the strongest natural antiseptics (how awesome!). Tea Tree Oil is said to be 4-5 times stronger than household cleaners that have harsh chemicals. It's totally natural, meaning it's not bad for the environment, either. Win! 

Grapefruit Seed Extract is totally not necessary in this recipe as Tea Tree Oil does the trick.  However, I fell in love with Grapefruit seed extract with my son's cloth diapers and finding out how amazingly it kills yeast spores that even bleach doesn't touch. What an awesome, natural disinfectant! Grapefruit seed extract kills so much junk: Strep, Staph, Salmonella, E. Coli, Candida, Herpes, Influenza, parasites, and fungi. It's awesome for sterilizing things your kids put in their mouths--and you don't even have to worry about the chemicals that are left on the toys since this is not harmful!

Both Tea Tree Oil and Grapefruit Seed Extract go a long way. I get them both at my local health food store. I use a few drops here and there most every day. I am in love.  But mostly, I love them to clean cloth diapers and to clean my house!


All Purpose Cleaner
Makes about 2 cups

Ingredients:

• 16oz Water
• 10-15 drops of Tea Tree Oil
• 5-10 drops Grapefuit Seed Extract
• Optional: Add in some essential oils that do not stain or leave marks if you do not like the smell of Tea Tree oil.  I think it's a pleasant smell and does not stink around for too terribly long. 

That's it.  You'll love it, I promise.

Sneaky Companies.

I should start this post out by saying that I'm only a half-freak when it comes to chemicals.  For some reason I hate fabric softener (seriously, it's not good for you), but I can eat McDonald's (seriously, that's really not good for you either).  I have started paying closer attention to what is in everything we bring into the house.  My husband thinks I'm crazy, but I think a bit of him knows that this is a good thing.  Anyways...

I'm not a fan of buying something that I think is not toxic for my kid and then finding out that it has horrible chemicals in it. Part of this is my fault for not doing better research before buying things.  I trust the labels that I'm reading.  Well, I used to. 

I bought some BabyGantics brand shampoo, sunscreen, hand sanitizer, counter top cleaner, etc.  Look at that website, it's green (to make it look natural? The home page says this when you first go there, "You don't want to build a bubble around your baby...but is a safe, healthy environment too much to ask for? Hint: we don't think so". 

Then I read this article by the Environmental Working Group. It's from 2012, I had plenty of time to get myself informed. Why didn't I? I don't know. Yes, it is for the cleaning products, but what is in the rest of my products from that company that they aren't telling us about?

Click on consumer guides at the top of the web page. You can type in any product you're wondering about and it will tell you the grade the product was given and then tell you why.  There are ton's of categories: baby-safe bottles and formula, sunscreen guide 2013, good food on a tight budget, back to school, EWG's guide to BPA, healthy home tips, guide to produce pesticides, and the EWG's guide to healthy cleaning are just a few.    Better to know than to not know, right? right.

I have found out that my beloved Borax, which is in my home made laundry detergent and my cloth diaper detergent is more than terrible! It got an "F"! Crap! I know lots of DIY household cleaners are made with Borax, they even just changed the box they had for years to a more "green" and natural looking box. fail.

I'm off to find some new recipes for my laundry and cloth diaper detergent. It's amazing what all of these chemicals affect in a body...amazing and terrible.


Just wanted to let you all know that there is an easy and quick way to get informed about the products you're using daily. 

Cloth Diaper Detergent

We have super hard water.  Cloth diapers are high maintenance.  These two things do not mix well.  However, after doing a lot of research, I found a good cloth diaper DIY recipe.

Previously, I spent about $18 on Rockin' Green.  I really liked the detergent, but hated how much it cost. I will keep some in the house for times when I need to strip (aka, super duper clean) the cloth diapers.  When you use Rockin' Green for stripping diapers, it's called "Rock A Soak".  I did it, I liked it. I'll write about it later.  Anyways, $18 for 45 loads of diapers was not a good deal. Especially since I throw a load of diapers in the wash each night before bed!

My recipe that I settled on includes Borax, Washing Soda, and Oxy Clean.  These three things mixed together is a magic combination that should work wonders!  The Borax breaks down into hydrogen peroxide when it hits the water, this makes an awesome cleaner.  Washing Soda is great for making hard water soft and is a good degreaser.  Oxy Clean becomes  Sodium Carbonate and Hydrogen Peroxide.  This helps remove stains, soften water, degrease, and cleans amazingly!

The Recipe
1 cup Borax
1/2 cup Washing Soda
1/2 cup Oxy Clean

I made a huge batch (filled up a 7.7 quart plastic container with a locking lid) but made it by the exact recipe a few times.  This let me mix the ingredients together very well.  I also opened a window, turned on the ceiling fan, and protected myself with gloves and a mask since the borax and washing soda aren't the greatest thing to have on skin or in lungs.  (however, both are totally safe to have on your clothes!)

I use 2 Tablespoons of the detergent for each load of laundry. Holy cow, this will last for-eeev-veer!

My washing routine goes like this:
1. hot rinse, no soap.
2. hot cycle, 2Tbsp of detergent. I also add 15 drops of both Grapefruit Seed Extract and Tea Tree Oil to help disinfect.
3. hot rinse to make sure all of the detergent is out of the diapers.

I hang the diapers up to dry.

I used so many different resources, I don't remember them all.  However, Fractured Fairy Tales is who really made this make sense to me!