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. 

Another Procrastination Post (2 in one day!)

I'm a Stay-at-home-mom.  My job is to keep my kid alive, fed and if we're both lucky, happy.  Sometimes, this job that seems so simple gives me a run for my money.  There are days that go by and I'm not sure how it got to be 5pm or why either one of us is crying. It just happens.

But most days I don't cry.  

On normal days, 5pm hits and I take off like a mad woman making the house look presentable and getting dinner going so that when my husband gets home, it looks like we've had a productive day.  I don't know why I do this.  He doesn't care if we've been productive.  I have one of the most helpful husbands ever. He's glad to look at a few of the hundreds of pictures I've taken of our son that day and sit in a mess.  Please note that our mess is not dirty, it's just toys and dog hair. 

But, he does go to work every day so that I can stay home and raise our son while he is gone, so I feel like at least dinner has to be made every night when he gets home.

Today I used a crock-pot and took a much shorter nap than normal (Yes. I  nap every day).  So, I can play on the interwebz until he calls and says he's 2 minutes away.   

Also, that paper that I talked about earlier today? Still not done. I need to do my best work, which means I need to wait until the very.last.minute.