Ants in my dishwasher

No, I don’t have those. But I ran across a blog post somewhere that began with a girl pouring Kool-Aid in her dishwasher and ended with a very unfortunate ant infestation.

My guess is she tried a sub-par or incomplete version of this and something went horribly awry.

To avoid any risk of ants, and to avoid giving money to companies cranking out gratuitous, childhood-obesity-inducing products, I’ll skip the Kool-Aid, but I’m totally going to try that recipe. Tomorrow. Right after I whip up that batch of toothpaste. I swear.

(Note, some more googling reveals that the above-linked recipe might be geared toward advanced eco-home-makers and/or those who really like their dishes to be sparkling, and that you can probably get away with fewer ingredients.

Bare minimum = one part baking soda and one part Borax + vinegar for the rinsing agent. Suck on that, Jet-Dry.)

And is anyone else noticing that the ingredient-trend in our homemade cleaning products is becoming downright…obvious?

Update: I am not happy with how well the bare minimum works. I would say go for the full recipe if you’re going to try it!

Shake well before use.

Quick tip on making a baking soda “shampoo” rinse work for you: Don’t forget to shake the bottle  each morning before you apply! Otherwise, you could end up painstakingly pouring and massaging not much else besides…water…into your scalp. Results? Less than stellar.

I go on first and clean the hair.

It’s no secret that pregnancy does some FUNKY and semi-permanent things to a person’s body. One of the more lasting effects for me is that it turned my hair from a type that didn’t care what shampoo/conditioner combo you threw on it–it was always going to feel/behave/look the same and be generally shiny/silky/lovely into this sad, permanently dirty- and greasy-looking mop that just sucks up residue and refuses to feel truly clean or look nice, ever. It’s been a really awesome transition and I feel blessed.

Thus I read this post on going shampoo-free with GREAT interest when Larms sent it my way a few months ago. Basically you replace your shampoo with a baking soda wash and your conditioner with an apple cider vinegar wash. Given that my hair couldn’t get any worse, I was totally ready to try it. But first I felt I had to slog my way through the not one but TWO half-used bottles of shampoo (I was alternating between both in a sad attempt to mitigate the whole residue thing–didn’t really help) already in my shower so as not to be wasteful.

Well, the moment is here! I am now on Day Two of the Baking Soda Initiative. I followed the directions on the above-mentioned blog and am doing about 3 Tbsp. of baking soda in a bottle that holds 2 cups of water. I will be upfront–the experiment is highly unscientific right now. I’m still using up a giant tub o’ economy conditioner so I have yet to add the apple-cider vinegar conditioning treatment, and I haven’t had a hair cut in over 6 months (I know, I’m hideous), so the split-end situation is out of control completely and I’m not sure any haircare regimen would suffice. I’m going for a cut this Friday, however, so from that point I’ll be able to really start judging the progress!

From just these first two days, however, I must say that I’m impressed with the results. My hair is clean, soft, and might even seem a bit thicker/more lustrous than it did last week. I even got a compliment today (you know that type where people ask you if you got a hair cut but it’s really just that your hair is absurdly and inappropriately long) for the first time in months. So maybe that’s something! As of yet I am not suffering from any oily transition period, which I was worried about. All in all, I’d say thumbs up to baking soda so far. Am I missing my 2 minutes of luxurious suds and nice smells in the morning? A bit. But frankly, when your hair no longer feels “clean” after said suds and smells, it takes a lot of the pleasure out of the process.

I will of course keep you posted. And Larms…consider the gauntlet thrown! You know you want to push through that oily transition (cuz we all know it will smite you with a vengeance) while you’re out on maternity leave anyway!

And I’m sorry, but I have to leave you with a bit of Sandler again. Are there any of life’s mundanities that he can’t enhance for us in some important way?

Cautionary update: Don’t forget to shake the bottle each morning before washing!

Green baby steps

Holy crap, Olivemom has me all fired up to try that Charlie’s Soap once I finish off this industrial-size container of All!

I have to admit, I’m not very crunchy. So there’s not a lot of chemical-free stuff going on in our home already, and this is not a comprehensive strategic initiative whereby our home will be fully cleansed of all chemical products and we will never come into contact with a commercial cleaning product again. Sure, homemade furniture polish may be neat and store bought furniture polish may be chemical-laden, but to be honest, our furniture doesn’t see much polishing. It seemed it would make the most sense to figure out what we use most and work on those things.

Some first baby steps were replacing our dish liquid, dishwasher detergent, and all-purpose kitchen cleaner with Seventh Generation (BTW, combining the coupons from the  website with Target prices makes it about the same price – if not a bit less – than traditional products.). I know this probably doesn’t count as OFFICIALLY chemical-free, and I have some other steps in mind here eventually, but figured the least I could do was switch to Seventh Generation for now, sheesh.

I also just ordered a big ol’ package of old-skool bar castille soap to replace the antibacterial stuff, which is especially evil if you have a septic tank like we do. I’m assuming the other ladies at work won’t mind when a giant container of Bath & Body Works antibacterial hand soap appears in our office bathroom.

(side note: does anyone else remember that it used to actually be standard to use bar soap for bathroom hand-washing? I plan to put a note by the bar of soap in our bathroom that “it worked fine in the 80s, people!”)

As far as things I’ve been doing-longer term, like Olivemom I also use the Crystal/salt-type deodorant…until being pregnant apparently made my BO into a horrible demon-stench that even it could not keep up with (that, or it combined with my new pregnancy-BO to create some ungodly heretofore-unmatched foul reaction in my underarms!). But I plan to switch back once this little hormone-bomb has left the premises.

And about a year or so ago I stopped buying bubble bath and salt products and decided to just buy big ol’ bags of epsom salts for bath-taking. It’s all you need! (I’m also notorious for telling my husband that whatever’s wrong with him, either a hot compress or a soak in salt water will fix it).  It doesn’t smell fancy or anything, but you can throw in a few drops of essential oil if you feel so inclined. Voila, bath salts! Not very impressive as far as chemical-free efforts, but it IS simple and frugal and does not involve whatchamacallit-laureth-sulfates.

My daughter’s butt smells like roses.

As promised, I am here today to share with you the very few aspects of my household that would currently pass the chemical-free test. And they truly are few at the moment! (Really, I can’t tell you how excited I am about using my current supplies up as fast as possible in order to speed the process. Suddenly I’ve become religiously responsible about random things like swishing with mouthwash and applying cuticle cream at night, which makes me realize an unintended consequence of this project will be a huge upgrade in my general hygienic presentation. This is probably a good thing, as it is becoming less and less legitimate to claim, “NEW MOM!” when confronted with the deterioration of my beauty regimen, which, incidentally, was never that stellar to begin with.)

So first things first. Two chemical-free choices I made long ago:

1) I have not used traditional deodorant/antiperspirant in many years in favor of the trusty Crystal. The aluminum-laden antiperspirants never actually kept me from sweating anyway and always destroyed my clothes. So this is way better, since it will also give me a lot less breast cancer. (I will admit, though…when I have a very important reason to remain sweat-free, I will break out the aluminum-shock-inducing Certain Dri. I’m not sure any amount of threat to my health would be enough to make me give this up in clutch situations. For instance, at my best friend’s wedding in which the bridesmaids stood up front in 90 degree afternoon sunlight for the entire 30 minute ceremony, I was the only maid who remained bone-dry where it counted. I will cling to the idea that using this just a few times a year can’t be as bad as using the milder-but-still-aluminum-filled basic stuff every day.)

2) We clean kitchen surfaces (floors, counters, etc.) with just vinegar and water.

The other two earth- and human-friendly products in our house arrived around the same time as the Olive last year:

3) To wash her cloth diapers, we started buying Charlie’s Soap. I cannot say that this is chemical-free, but it is biodegradable and non-toxic which seem like nearly-equivalent measures to me in terms of health/environment. I thought at first we would just use it for the diapers, but then I quickly expanded it to her clothes, and now it’s the only laundry detergent/stain remover we use for all our wash. The little graphs under the Research section of their website will blow your mind (and ensure you never purchase Tide again!):

Yes, that is indeed a chart demonstrating that a) Tide will make your children burn…BURN! and b) Charlie’s Soap can actually make your children…FLAME RETARDANT? Just, wow. Also, Tide and the like actually ADD WEIGHT to your clothes over time from so much residue! Crazytown.

4) For the little lady’s delicate bum, we use cloth wipes and witch-hazel. I didn’t originally intend to go entirely disposable-wipe-free, but as I’ve realized that wipes can leave quite a bit of sticky film and a strong chemical smell, I’ve slowly moved toward exclusively using this stuff at home:

And yes, it does indeed leave her tush smelling as fresh and clean as a bunch of roses.