Best Bathroom/Kitchen Cleaner

I told you in my last post that I was going to be giving you recipes for homemade cleaners.  This is by far the most fantastic recipe I have for grout, and soap scum.  I am going to give you an alternative recipe too, but by far my favorite is the first one. It is well worth going to the health food store to have in stock the essential oils used.  Not only can you use them in homemade cleaners, but you can also add them to other recipes such as the body balms I have posted long ago.

1/2 cup baking soda
1/2 cup washing soda*
1/2 cup liquid castille soap**
25 drops tea tree essential oil
10 drops lemon essential oil
10 drops peppermint essential oil
2 tablespoon white vinegar

*Washing soda can be found in the laundry soap aisle of your grocery store.  It is usually located by laundry booster type products.

**Liquid castille soap can be bought at the health food store (usually Dr. Bronners is sold there).  A better option is Trader Joes brand.  Dr. Bronners brand has freakish literature on the label which I do not support!

All you do is mix all the ingredients together and store in an airtight container.  I find a Mason jar with the plastic lids they sell for Mason jars to work best.  To use, place a small amount of the cleaner on a toothbrush (for cleaning grout) or a sponge (for sinks).  Dampen it a little, and scrub away! It works and smells so good you will want to clean your bathroom every day!  O.K., maybe that's just me, but nonetheless it works great.

The alternative recipe is this:

1/4 cup baking soda
1/8 cup lemon juice
1/8 cup fine sea salt
2 tablespoons liquid castille soap or dish soap
enough white vinegar to make a paste

Mix and use just as the other.

Hand/Lip/Body Balm

One of the other benefits to the journaling I was telling you about is finding cool ideas for recipes and crafts you would of never found otherwise.  I was looking in a landscape magazine and came across an idea for making hand balm using herbs from your garden.  I do not have a very large garden (just strawberries), and it was late fall when I came across the idea, so I modified things and came up with this concoction.  Usually my hands in the winter are a mess.  I get dry cracked hands to the point of bleeding if I am not constantly putting lotion on them.  I really do not like the fact that my body is absorbing a bunch of stuff I cannot even pronounce!  This recipe has worked out very good for me.  I have been using it since mid November and I do not see myself using any other type of lotion.  It is especially good for elbows, knees, and heels.  Try it on your lips too!


The list of ingredients are as follows:  2 cups of olive oil, 1 1/4 cup of grated beeswax, 15-20 drops of essential oil of your choice (not necessary), 3-4 1/2 cup size heat resistant containers of your choice.

Pour the beeswax into the olive oil and heat on low.

As the beeswax is melting, add the essential oil of your choice.  I like to use tangerine because it is a good fragrance for your lips as well as your skin.  If you only want to make lip balm, peppermint is a good choice.  If you choose not to use any essential oil, the smell of the olive oil with a hint of honey will be what your balm smells like.

Once the beeswax is totally melted (it only takes about 5 minutes), pour the mixture back into the liquid measuring cup your olive oil was in.  This makes it easier to pour into your containers.

Now pour your mixture into the containers of your choice.  I used jelly jars and got 3 jars out of this batch.  Any small container that can take the heat of hot oil and beeswax will work.  It cools fairly quickly and is ready when you see that it is hardened and creamy looking (about an hour).

Some helpful tips:

You can find beeswax wherever candle supplies are sold.

You can find nice looking metal containers by candle making supplies, or heat resistant plastic containers by travel size accessories in the big box stores.

You can find a wide variety of essential oils at health food stores.

You can find chapstick type vessels online to pour your balm into.

Add slightly more beeswax for a firmer balm (more suitable for the above mentioned).

Add slightly more oil for a softer balm.