How to Naturally Unclog Drains

On a bottle of Draino: Only use in a well ventilated area. Meaning do not breath this stuff in as its toxic to your health. Hmm... This is not something I want to subject me or my family to. Nope, no way!

I've been growing my hair for the last 2 years and have noticed that our bathtub drains are clogging up.

It must be a mixture of shampoo, bodywash and hair. (Can't wait to start no-poo shampoo... for a later post). I used to only have to do this once a year and now its every 4 months... Two bathroom sinks and a bathtub... I used to buy Draino in the past but I couldn't bring myself to buy it until I tried a natural alternative.

And would you believe it? It's our very favourite two products in our home here! Baking soda and Vinegar! Cheap, but extremely effective, natural and non-toxic to the environment. 

How to Unclog Drains:

1. First grab a funnel or if you don't have one make one out of paper. Pour 1/4 cup baking soda down the drain. Make sure it is pushed down as far as it can go.

2. Pour 1/4 cup white vinegar down the drain and cover quickly with a plug. It fuzzes up pretty fast. 

I left it for an hour came back to it and all the hair was lifted up so I could easily grab it out. I repeated the steps and have a perfectly draining bathtub and sinks! You can use this for your kitchen sink too! I only had to do it once for my kitchen sink and do not do it as regularly.

Happy Natural, Thrifty, Healthy living friends!

DIY Natural Pet Stain Remover

We have a little pup. When we leave him for too long at home or if he is just extra anxious he goes to the bathroom on our carpet. First of all I cannot wait to have hardwood instead of carpet. This will solve most of our home pet problems when this gets changed over... Until then, we have carpet and a pet to clean up after!

This last one was a poop. It wasn't hard either. TMI? Sorry...

I got most of it off with a cloth... but the brown smelly colour was still there.

I know baking soda rids pups smells. I use it weekly before I vacuum the carpet. So I figured I would sprinkle some of that on. Then I remembered a grass stain that our little cookie had on her shirt. I took it off with baking soda and vinegar... just let it sit there for an hour.

I tried this on the carpet. Let it sit for 2 hours (for extra mess removal hoping with my fingers crossed) and wiped the area up. Don't let the mixture sit for longer then that as it will bleach the carpet. The smell and brown stain was gone! Phew! I can officially stop buying pet stain removers that are so costly and cannot be good to breath in due to the extra smells they add.

Pet Stain and Smell Remover:
Baking soda
Vinegar

Happy natural thrifty living!

Homemade Laundry Detergent

We go through laundry detergent like its going out of style.
We are out again, today, and I couldn't bring myself to buy a bottle of overly smelly detergent that costs $12 every time...
We have tried quite a few different types. At first it was the ones on sale. Then I learnt about all the toxic crap that is in the regular brands. So we tried a couple more natural ones. But they are even more expensive and some are not telling the complete truth about the bad chemicals. Just because it says natural does not mean it is!

Sooo off to Google I searched and searched. I remember bookmarking natural DIY laundry detergents a couple months ago waiting for the day that ours ran out. Hmm... Most of the detergents have Borax in them... That doesn't sound very healthy does it?? Natural of less evils? Maybe...

Grist Explains it here.

Anywhoooo I decided to go Borax free! Here is the recipe.

DIY HOMEMADE LAUNDRY DETERGENT
3 cups Baking Soda        $3.25 (for a GIANT container!)
3 cups Washing Soda     $6.59 (I used 1/8 of it)
1.5 bars Dr. Bonner's Castile Soap (peppermint scent) $2.67 each

Off to the store I went for my real natural products.

I walked down the laundry detergent isle today looking for washing soda and Castile soap and had to breath shallowly... There are sooo many smells that are supposed to be "fresh" in the laundry detergent section. There are soo many harmful chemicals in the fabric softeners that get used every day not to mention its toxic to our environment. Don't use them!

I found both of them at London Drugs and always have a giant container of baking soda at home for all my cleaning and baking needs :-)

After mixing up a batch I gotta say I was dieing to try it out! Its in a sealable container that has a 1/8 cup scoop sitting in it just waiting to be used. I put smelly cloths that I cleaned up my pups pee with... I know... Gross! Grass stained and mudded up jeans and some other randoms. I washed on cold as normal (energy saving of course), put in 1/8 cup vinegar into the fabric softener section (as normal) and let my HE machine do its thing! I opened the door to clean smelling clothes. No abnormal smell of perfume, just clean smelling clothing! Oooohhhhh Happy Days!

Plus with this amount of detergent it should last our family of three 10 months!

Did you read these things?!?!
Its Cheap!
Its Healthy!
Its Natural!
Its Environmentally friendly!
It's MUCH Easier then you think to make!


Happy Natural DIY Living!

How to clean an oven naturally... after a much needed clean!

Thats right, its time to clean the oven. Its getting cold out and no one wants to go outside in the rain. Why not clean your oven? BEFORE it starts on fire... Thats right, I said fire...

My girly friend came over the other night with pizza. It was this giant pizza, with tomatoes spinach and lots of cheese! (I know, not part of my healthy choices)... anyways... I heated up the oven and we started our much needed girly chat at the table in the kitchen.

I looked over at the oven and smoke was coming out of the elements. My thought, "this cannot be good." Seconds later smoke was billowing out of the sides of the door of the oven... "Ok, definitely NOT good!" I opened the oven to see how bad the damage was and flames flew out at me! (I am skipping the ridiculous conversation my friend and I had or the amount of time we let the fire continue) I quickly closed the oven door, grabbed my giant container of baking soda (and I mean GIANT) and emptied it into the oven covering the flames. Surprisingly, it wasn't enough to put the fire out so I grabbed my extra large container of flour, and started scooping handfuls of it throwing it in the oven... Blast! What a MESS!!! Yes, we do have a fire extinguisher... but I was told it makes a real mess... I don't think it can be messier then this...

Baking soda and flour was EVERYWHERE!

The worst part, We didn't even get to put our pizza in the oven to cook... and my goodness were we both sooooooo hungry!!!

 Until I realized I have a mini oven. We sliced up the pizza and put a couple slices in there at a time... The first round. Burnt. Black on the bottom...

 Anyways... back to my oven. I told you this whole using the oven and cooking was new to me and now I realize how dirty it gets when you use it so often. The oven fire was caused from my first homemade turkey! I left it for 3 days dreading the day I will clean it up. Not only because it was a HUGE mess but I was told and researched how bad using an oven cleaner was for your health... Did you know they suggest a mask and opening all windows and doors and the use of a fan while using oven cleaner? Yikes. Oven cleaner is NOT good stuff... Good to know. It is also soooo expensive. At my grocery store it cost $20... much too much for a part-time worker! Especially when I can do the same job using non-toxic chemicals for free! Yay to being Thrifty!

So I looked up what our people of the past used to clean the ovens. Good ol' arm and hammer baking soda, white vinegar and lemon! Best inventions ever! I obviously had to pick some more up as I used my other stuff in the fire...
I first took a rag and wiped up the stuff that created the fire. Turkey grease from Thanksgiving!
Then I dusted the baking soda all over the oven.
Next I grabbed an old spray bottle and poured vinegar in it. I sprayed the vinegar all over the baking soda and let it fuzz and sit for 2 hours. This loosened up the grime I couldn't remove with the rag. 2 hours later I grabbed my scrubby that has no metals and scrubbed the heck outta the oven. It really wasn't that much work! My trusty natural cleaners did most of the work!

 I took a pic of my oven door half cleaned. I just wanted to show you how it just came off with a little elbow grease. Look how dirty this oven is...

I tackled this next... 

Yay a  clean oven door! By the way, did you know your oven door comes off of most models? I didn't until I accidentally almost pulled it off... Good to know.

 This is my cleanish oven! I know there is still grime on it but it looks worse in the picture then in real life. Promise!

And from  now on I am using this tinfoil liner I bought from the dollar store (but I am sure you could lay tinfoil down...

I put the door back on, cut the lemon in half covered them in water and baked it in the oven at 350 degrees for 20 min. The leftover grease comes off with a rag after the oven cools enough for you to wipe.
And your home is left with that scrump citrus smell!

Does your clothing Smell?

Lately my clothes have been stinking up my house. No not because I am smelly!!!! Common. My washing machine is making everything stink and it is progressively getting worse... The stink is kinda damp moldish smell... The bottom line is that my clothes stink.

I thought this new fangled front loading washer was going to save hydro, water, and cleaning products and clean itself?! Apparently not...

So I grabbed my washer manual out of my over stuffed filing cabinet and opened it to "so your clothes smell like damp mold huh?" page, I guess you are supposed to wipe down the lip of the washer after every cycle. Uh, I thought this thing was supposed to clean itself was my only response. Yes I said it out loud... I continued reading... You need to drain this little thing that opens when you turn it. Its filled with stinky water that doesn't drain. You need to do that once a week? Oh, also once a month you are supposed to run a tub clean... and you need to purchase a very expensive very specific cleaner once a month to have a clean washing machine. Pardon? All I read was time consuming and expensive. Blast.

So out I went to buy some tub cleaner thinking this is the part where my washing machine cleans itself. It cost $20 and I am supposed to do it once a week until my washer is clean and then every month... Uh oh. This might start costing... I used it anyways as I was slightly desperate and a little frustrated. I did a load of laundry and clothes still smelled! I don't know about you but some of these stinky clothing I actually like!

Nothing a little googling couldn't fix!

I started with draining that gross little plug at the bottom of the washer. They were right, freaking smelly water came out of it! So drain that thing! Next, grab that baking soda that is sitting in your fridge and mix 4 tbsp with 3 cups of warm water. Take a rag and wash the inside and around the lip of the washer. By lip I mean that rubber trap that harbours gunk. Yay homemade/natural things that does not cost a penny! Next, do an empty load on hot with vinegar in the bleach spot. Fill to the max line (about 1/4 cup). 

Now its time to de-stinkify your towels/clothing! Put any clothing in (I do not separate anything...Don't judge) In the detergent section put in whatever you use. And in the bleach section put in vinegar until you hit the max line. Wait for the load to be finished and your clothing will smell like amazing laundry soap. Not vinegar, I promise!

Stink be gone!!!!!

I now wash my clothing with vinegar once a month for a week. Vinegar? Yeah I know strange...  but there is no vinegar smell! Just great smelling clothing! I also keep my washer door open to air dry and keep the mould out. Finally I wipe the inside of the door and outside of the lip with a dry rag. This keeps everything just that much cleaner. 

Huzzah! I just saved on chemical cleaner again! I am saving the environment from this junk and saving my pocket of money! Success! I am back to loving my washing machine all over again. It looks and smells brand new again!