My husband has accused me of becoming more "crunchy" lately... meaning that I'm spending more time finding natural alternatives to things that we would normally buy a mix of chemicals to do.
It started last summer, when a friend posted something on Facebook about making her own dishwasher detergent. Not only was it environmentally friendly, but it was so much cheaper than buying those tabs. I wrote about this before. I also make my own laundry detergent and cleaning products out of things like baking soda, vinegar, etc. When someone is really sick and I want to disinfect, I do break out the bleach wipes, but I've noticed that the smell bothers me so much now that I'm used to clean smelling like nothing. Glad I made the switch because clearly there is some kind of negative effect, and my wallet like the cheaper alternative as well.
I read an interesting article on a local woman who makes her own bug spray and sunscreen using natural ingredients, and I think that this might be my next task. Having a history of sun cancer, I have to wear sunscreen every day, and it does make you wonder what all of those chemicals do to your body--am I actually causing more damage? If those chemicals hurt me, imagine what it could do to my kids. I did a Pinterest search to find out different recipes, and have a few that I'm going to look at making. Being cheap and lazy (and also wanting something that will work well) limits the choices of things I will try.
One choice involves about a bazillion essential oils, which means I have to find them somewhere. I hate running from store to store figuring out where to find weird things, and I'd rather shop from my couch. Which means I will end up paying lots on amazon for all of those. Thinking that isn't the winner.
Choice #2 seems like there are less oils and more things that are easy to find at a store--like coconut oil, cocoa butter, and aloe vera gel. Might be a winner, and will probably be good for the pocket as well.
This is the winner for my homemade bug spray. Our yard gets pretty buggy at night, and we have a week at camp at the end of June coming up. I actually used the Off botanicals lotion last summer, and it worked well, so I'm hoping that this concoction will do a good job keeping my little girl from having a back full of bug bites at the end of camp week.
What "crunchy" things are you using in your home or with your kids?
