Chemical-Free Deodorant

The baby was going to be here any day, we had $40 in the bank to make it another week until pay day, there was next to no gas in my car to even make it to the hospital, and we were out of deodorant.

On occasion when I see we are running low on a particular item I tell myself, "When we run out of this I'll just make some here at home." The time was now - actually the time was about 2 days earlier but I continued to use that teeny amount of remaining deodorant barely sticking out of the container.

After checking Pinterest for chemical-free, home-made deoderant I put together a recipe that I felt good about.

Just a couple of days before my husband told me that although he agrees with and supports my efforts to save the environment he was hoping I could stop keeping quite so many of the glass jars that were ever so slightly, taking over out kitchen. This was a good project to use one of my most recently saved glass containers.

I chose this jar because it has a  mouth wide enough that my husband or I could dip our hand in with relative ease when we were running low.

Here's my recipe:
1/2 c baking soda
1/2 c corn starch
10 tbsp organic coconut oil

20 drops of tea tree oil

Combine these ingredients and mix.

Word to the wise - this is a lot easier to thoroughly mix in a nice sized bowl. I started by using a spoon but got better results once I just dove right in and used my hands.

Once it's all thoroughly mixed put it in your chosen container and store someplace cool.

Because of the coconut oil I don't recommend storing this anyplace super warm or even hot unless you want runny deodorant.

How well does it work? So far so good! I'm pretty happy.

Pintesting - Chemical-Free - Flea Spray

I have no idea what these fleas are on. There may be less of them but any of them is really unacceptable. My husband decided it was time to try a flea bath on the dog again and I decided to try out a chemical-free flea spray.

Todays pintest comes via this pin and the information found here.

The more common oils for repelling insects, including fleas, are:
-       Lavender
-       Citronella
-       Peppermint
-       Eucalyptus
-       Cedar
-       Lemongrass

I currently had peppermint and Eucalyptus.

Flea, tick and mosquito spray for dogs:
In a 32 ounce spray bottle filled with distilled water, add 10 drops of one of the oils listed above.  Shake the bottle well and mist your dog every day.  You can also spray this mixture on their bedding, around doorways and along baseboards to repel fleas.
This makes a good bug spray for people, too.

It was true, a lot of recipes for chemical-free bug sprays contained similar ingredients to some of those for flea sprays. So I took a cue from one of the sites that said using a mixture of oils usually provides better protection from bugs and used Peppermint, Eucalyptus, and Tee tree oil.

My spray bottle was around 18 ounces and I didn't have distilled water. I used purified water. I put 5 - 6 drops of each oil in the bottle and shook it.

Once again we play the waiting game.

Pintesting - Chemical Free Cleaning Let's Kill Some Mold!!

Mold is a problem I have run into more often than I would care to over the last few years. We ran into it the last place we lived and we've run into it a few times in the current place we are.

The places that we have these issues are in our bathroom over the shower area,

 and in the laundry room in a few spots.

Typically if you call your landlord or leasing office and complain about mold they send someone out to spray or wipe the area with bleach. In the past we have done this as well because using bleach really does work, but we now no longer keep bleach in our home.

Today's pintest comes from the information you can read right on this pin.

I purchased my spray bottle at my nearest Jo-Ann Fabrics (and I of course made sure to use a coupon.)

The tea tree oil I purchased  via Amazon.

For each cup of water you use, add one teaspoon of tea tree oil. This bottle held nearly 3 cups of water so I used 3 teaspoons of tea tree oil.

Instead of trying my very hardest to neatly pour the water into my spray bottle I used one of the funnels that come with a flask.

I noticed an immediate difference when I sprayed the wall but didn't get the full effect until I wiped the surface as well.

I wasn't going to be able to get back behind our makeshift pantry so it looked as if this would have to be a job for my husband.

I didn't notice a lot of change in the bathroom but I felt maybe that area would need to be wiped as well so once again I was going to have to wait for my tall husband to come home to give it a try.Wiping did indeed help.

This is definitely a pin worth trying. Especially for those who are either to live chemical free lives or even pregnant women who shouldn't be cleaning with harsh chemicals.