Have You Lost Your Chemical-Conditioning? Make Your Own Cleaning Supplies.

This past year has been a real learning experience for me.  I thought I was eco-friendly before, buying all-natural cleaning supplies, natural shampoos and deodorants... and now, a year later, here I MAKING my own products.  So if I was green then, what am I now?  Good question.  I'd like to say sustainable.

For most of my life, if I ran out of dishwasher detergent, laundry soap, bathroom cleaner, deodorant, shampoo etc., life would go on hold until I ran to the store to buy some more.  It never crossed my mind that I should make it myself.  In fact, because of the chemicals used in most of these products, there is no way I COULD make them myself.  It wasn't until I became aware of the dangers in those chemical-based products and started using all natural products, that I realised that these ingredients are actually ones I could get my hands on, and I could make myself. 

Talk about enlightening!  Talk about liberating!  Talk about sustainable!  I don't actually HAVE to run to the store as soon as I run out of something.  I can actually make it myself, and chances are, I will even have the ingredients in my own kitchen or laundry room already!  The clouds have cleared.  I see the light. 

I have been cleaning for some time now with baking soda and vinegar-water.  They work perfectly.  They don't kill every last bit of bacteria in the house but I am OK with that.  Bacteria isn't always a bad thing.  But it did take me a while to let go of my 7th Generation cleaners and head to my cupboard for the baking soda.  Chemical conditioning, I call it. 

For a few months now I have been washing my hair with baking soda-water and rinsing with apple cider vinegar-water.  Fantastic results.  Chemical-free, cheap, safe and available.  I had read about doing it for literally YEARS but I couldn't put down the shampoo bottle.  Because I was chemically-conditioned to  that chemicals work better.  But they don't.  My hair is shinier, healthier, and much less dry than it has ever been in my entire life. 

Today I ran out of dishwasher detergent.  Today I looked up how to make my own.  Today I realised that I can easily make my own from ingredients I already have.  Salt.  Baking Soda.  Borax.  Vinegar. 

Next I ran out of laundry detergent.  I looked that up too and have discovered how to make my own.  I did pick up a few ingredients for this one... washing soda (cheap!!!) and pure glycerin soap (also cheap!).   And tomorrow, when I wake up, I am making my own laundry detergent. 

Up next will be deodorant.  I fell in love with an all-natural, baking soda-based locally-made deodorant that I picked up at a farmer's market last summer.  It worked so well I bought some for my husband.  We put it to the test on hot summer days.  It worked perfectly for both of us.  No aluminium. No preservatives.  No color, or chemicals.  I could keep supporting the local supplier, but once I read the ingredients, I thought "I could make this!"  The ingredients are great and I already have them in my cupboards.  I can MAKE my own deodorant!

I feel as though a whole new world has been opened up before me.  What an opportunity!  I don't need the chemicals.  I don't need the preservatives.  I don't need the beauty isle at the store.  I can make my own from basic ingredients that most stores carry.  And I can feel good about using the products because I can actually pronounce the ingredients.  My family is safe from unknown, harmful chemicals.  No longer do I have to buy the all natural but expensive supplies.  I can make my own.  Have you lost your chemical-conditioning yet?  Come try it with me!

This post has been linked to Common Sense Homesteading's Living Well #27,  Frugal Days, Sustainable Ways #13,  Homesteading Trading Post Link Up and The Prairie Homestead's Homestead Barnhop #48.