How to Clean the Microwave- without commercial cleaners

The microwave is pretty much my least favorite thing to clean. Such an odd angle to scrub at and everything seem SO stuck on there! The solution is pretty easy honestly, but it works so well!

Step one: Use your vinegar/water spray and wipe down the whole inside, getting the loose stuff out first.

Step two: Put some baking soda in a bowl and add in just enough water to make a paste out of it. It doesn't take that much water at all.

Step three: Spread the paste all over the inside of the microwave. I used a plastic baggy over my hand to do it because I couldn't find my cleaning gloves and I didn't want the paste to irritate my skin. Let this sit for a minute or so, longer if the mess is really bad, lol.

Step four: Get a wet rag and wipe the paste off, using a bit of pressure and a little bit of elbow grease. It should come up without too much effort.

I just did this and was amazed at how easily all the gunk came off of the top of the microwave! I used the left over paste to make it super easy to clean off the rotating glass circle thing... not sure what that thing is called, haha!

Happy cleaning!

A complete rundown of the products I use

Last month on payday, I made my list of things I needed, in order to make the things listed below. A trip to the commissary/grocery store, the local natural food store, and the dollar store got me everything. I will admit, the initial investment when you buy the Essential Oils and carrier oils seems pretty hefty, but these will last for quite some time. The EOs are in tiny bottles, but you use them usually in quantities of drops at a time. I bought my spray bottles at the dollar store, and they are of pretty nice quality! I made a day of it and mixed everything that afternoon. Gave away all of my old products and haven't really had to give any of it a second thought!

*signifies a hyperlinked phrase:)

Health & Beauty

Face Wash: I have this split between two small bottles. One stays in the shower, one stays on my counter. I also just bought regular unsalted almonds and put them through my food processor.
-3 oz honey (cleanses)
-4 oz finely ground almonds (gentle exfoliant)
-2 oz apple cider vinegar (toner)
-2 oz water
-6 drops Lavender Essential Oils (anti-aging and anti-acne)

Face Lotion: Apricot Kernel Oil after washing my face. Extra Virgin Coconut Oil any other time.

Makeup: Making the switch to *Everyday Minerals

Lip balm: Currently Burt's Bees Medicated Lip Balm. May try Everyday Minerals's lip balm. Also Goat Milk Stuff(link below) sells a balm I might also try.

Body Lotion: EV Coconut Oil. I've never really been a regular body lotion user, because I hate the feel of lotion, but I love how coconut oil makes my skin feel!

Deodorant: Instructions from *this blog. Super easy, though is quite the work out, haha. Works really well.

Toothpaste: Currently not crunchy! Thinking about using just plain baking soda once the tube I have runs out. I'm open to suggestions, lol. Prefer homemade and simple, over organic store bought products.

Body Wash: For now I use Nature's Gate Organics- Lavender & Aloe. Probably going to switch to *goat milk soap in the very near future, for McKaleigh, too, and probably as our hand soap.

Wash/Condition Hair: Refer to any of *my no 'poo blogs.

Hair spray: I use the water and sugar recipe from *this blog. And, yes, it really does work!

Household

All Purpose Cleaner: The bigger the spray bottle, the more EO you need to use.

-1 part water

-1 part white vinegar

-20-30 drops of EO (I used lemon)

Disinfectant: Smells great! Love using it.

-2 cups water

-1/4 cup white vinegar

-1/4 tsp Lavender EO

-1/4 tsp Tea Tree Oil

Carpet cleaner(spot cleaning): Spray the following combo, let sit for a few minutes. Follow up with a sponge or brush and soapy water. Works every time:). This spray can also be used when cleaning your veggies.

-1 part water

-1 part white vinegar

Toilet bowl cleaner: I sprinkle 1/4 cup of baking soda all over the inside of the toilet, and follow with 1 cup of vinegar. Let fizz for awhile and follow with just the toilet brush.

Dishwasher detergent: Love this one! Have it in a container and just scoop it in. Recipe says to use 1 tbsp per load, but I fill my detergent cup.

-1 cup Borax (find in laundry aisle)

-1 cup baking soda

-1/4 cup salt (I used sea salt)

-1/4 cup citric acid (2 unsweetened lemonade kool aid packets work)

I use a lot of tips from *this site. They have tips and methods for literally any household cleaning situation you can think of!

One month no 'poo-versary:)

It's been one month since I decided to go no 'poo!

So one revelation has come to me... I grew up in an area in Iowa where your water was hard, unless you had a water softener. Well, apparently in Georgia, the water ISN'T hard! I just assumed water was hard every where, unless it was softened, haha!

I'm now only using my old wash routine of baking soda and apple cider vinegar on Sundays. Two or three other times a week, I use an acidic rinse. So far I've used diluted apple cider vinegar, and cranberry juice (not together, lol.) I'm also going to give applesauce a try.

No 'poo can be a big process of trial and error. Figuring out what ratios of baking soda to water and apple cider vinegar to water work for you. Or if these don't do well for you, figuring out which of the plethora of options will work for you.

For troubleshooting, I'll again post the blog that I refer to. Info: Shampoo Free.

Toys, toys, toys

Ugh! So the newest itch I've gotten surrounds my daughter's toys.

They are ALL plastic! Plastic, that I am now learning, may not be all that safe.

Most of them are light up toys or just plain noisy. Which I am now learning is really not great for her development.

So what's a mom to do?

Well I'm sure as heck not just going to keep things this way. I'm going to sell all of her toys! And then use that money to buy her simple wooden toys that will let her use her imagination, and help in her cognitive development. The first to go will be anything using batteries! Eventually, I would like to be mostly plastic and battery free in toy land. One step at a time, though. We'll get there, soon enough.

One thing I really want to do for her, as she gets a bit older, is to give her a HUGE dress up wardrobe. I always loved playing dress up when I was little, but never really had the resources, so that is one thing that will definitely be happening in this house:). Who needs noisy light up toys, when you're pretending to be a doctor/nurse/astronaut/princess?

Update on my lack of 'poo;)

I have changed things up a bit. I'm now attempting to completely forgo my hair touching water between my bi-weekly rinses. I've been doing a lot more reading around and have a very good reason as to why. I have hard water! So when I get my hair wet and put nothing in it, mineral deposits build up on my hair, yuck! If I do need to do something with my hair between washes I will probably just take a shower and use some sort of acidic rinse to prevent any buildup (probably apple cider vinegar,) but leave out the baking soda. Right now I'm trying to get my hair used to only being washed twice a week, because eventually it will slow down the oil production and will no longer look like a greasy mess;) haha!

It's really not that bad now though! I washed Sunday, accidentally used a bit too much oil, so I did a water only rinse yesterday (before learning the mineral deposit thing.) Today it was a tiny bit greasy, but just powdering a bit of cornstarch in there for a minute and brushing it out, has my hair looking like new... well almost new, lol. My ponytail is my new best friend:). And my boar bristle brush does wonders for my hair, too.

Twice a day I brush my hair out really well with my regular hairbrush. Then I go over my whole head with the boar bristle brush several times. After that, I flip my head over and brush out the back of my hair several times. Once I flip back up my hair is poofy and huge, haha! This is just to help the sebum (natural oils from your scalp) move from my scalp out to the ends of my hair. So once I'm done doing this I use my regular brush over it once more.

Around the house I HAVE to keep my hair up, or else I am constantly playing with it, making it much greasier than it'd be if I could just leave it be, haha. I use scrunchies though, so it's relatively easy to go from being up all day, to wearing it down if I want to.

Anyways, just thought I'd share:). I feel like I learn new things everyday!

All about no 'pooing

I'm sitting here trying to think of just one topic to write about. It's kind of hard to pick just one, so maybe this will just be a little update about everything:). On second thought, I may just dive more deeply into explaining "no 'poo."

No 'poo is going wonderfully. Being a stay at home mom, I never really got too dirty or sweaty, so I didn't shower daily, or even every other day. I would shower about every three days or so. Well now with going no 'poo I've found that if I just jump in the shower every morning to rinse my hair out and do a quick scrub down, I feel great! My hair looks great, and I feel refreshed and ready for the start of the day. After my hair is done going through the detox phase, I may go back to showering every other day, but for now, I'm enjoying this routine.

If I don't shower daily, my hair does get quite greasy, because of the awful detox period, and my hair getting rid of the years of buildup from my old shampoos and conditioners. If I shower everyday though, you can't even tell that I'm not using shampoo or conditioner! Right now I'm trying to keep my washing routine to twice a week, Sunday and Thursday.

In case you haven't read earlier blogs, the actual wash routine is as follows.

• I put 1 tbsp of baking soda into a cup. In the shower I fill my small cup with water and scrub that into my hair. I let it sit for at least a minute, usually while I'm washing my body, then rinse.
• Then I take my other cup that is half filled with apple cider vinegar and fill it the rest of the way in the shower. (Note: I used to pre-mix my ACV and water, before my shower, but it was just way too cold, haha!)I pour this all over my hair and let that soak for at least a minute, usually a bit longer, like you would with conditioner. This is usually while I'm washing my face and doing any shaving that I might need to do.
• After I've let it sit I rinse my hair VERY thoroughly. I let the water run over my hair for almost as long as I let the vinegar sit in my hair. I use my hands to press the water through my hair, and press my hands along my scalp as well. I do this to prevent any of the vinegar from remaining in my hair, and I never have a vinegar smell after my hair has dried.
• Also, in each step I massage my scalp very thoroughly, like enough that I can feel my scalp move a bit with my fingers. When I don't do my wash routine I also massage thoroughly in the shower and help the natural oils move from the scalp down through to the rest of my hair.

There are a lot of good sites out there to help in learning about no 'pooing and why you should do it. Today I found an amazing site that I'm going to start using as a reference guide. Here's a link in case you're interested.

Honestly my hair looks better than it has EVER looked before. And this is without even using styling products. My hair is softer, silkier, and has more body. I've never been happy with my hair. Even on past "good hair days" it still was never all that great to me. Now I LOVE my hair, and I think it looks fabulous:).

No 'pooing might be "green" and "crunchy" but that's really not even why I decided to try it. I tried it out because I wasn't happy with my hair and I wanted a change. The green/crunchy part is just a plus.

Going green/crunchy...

I am now entering my second phase for going green and crunchy!

Phase one was eliminating paper products and using primarily cloth. I still have TP on hand for guests, and paper towels on hand for especially gross cleanups, but for the most part, I'm all cloth! I also started "no 'pooing" during this phase, although that technically fits in better with phase two.

Phase two is switching to all/mostly homemade cleaners and health and beauty products. I bought white vinegar, apple cider vinegar, baking soda, cornstarch, witch hazel, chamomile tea, borax, honey, and I think I am forgetting a few things I've already purchased. I still need to get essential oils and some containers. With these products I will make an all purpose cleaner, disinfectant, window cleaner, other various household cleaners that I'm forgetting at the moment, face wash, deodorant, and will wash and condition my hair. I'm still trying to figure out what to do with most of my old stuff.

Phase three is partially started, but that's when I'll focus more on food. Right now I've been focusing more on just avoiding processed foods. Eventually I'd like to buy more organic, and even grow some of my own food. Who knows what the phases after that will be, but this is what I have set out for now!

I'm really loving these changes and it's not as hard as it might seem. Just do things slowly. You don't just wake up one morning and you're all green/crunchy. It has to start with one thing at a time.

For me the starter was cloth diapers(still use a sposie here and there.)
From cloth diapers, I went to cloth wipes.
From cloth wipes, I went to cloth household.
Not sure how, but from cloth household, I went no-poo, haha.
And that's where we are now, with the homemade products!

It's definitely a process, and the more I educate myself on the dangers of the products being consumed by the average American, the more I want to actively do something. Not buying their products is the first step.