Going Green

Or cheap. :)

Since we started cloth diapering, I've been introduced to a whole new world of DIY ways to use and live on less. I'm not that crunchy, but I'm trying to be better. Along with cloth diapering, we've gone 'old school' with a few other things and I've found that I prefer them to what we used to do...

1. I make our own laundry soap. I got the idea from a noticing that a lot of cloth diaper'ers made their own detergent by using equal parts borax, washing soda and Oxiclean. I tried that and it was awful. Maybe it was me just not knowing how to use it, but it brought the horrid ammonia to our house. I put off the idea of trying it again for regular laundry because of that, but my talented friend, Sharon inspired me again with this post. I figured it was worth a shot because I had a giant box of borax and washing soda that I needed to use up. I tired it and after a few loads, I was hooooked. I made another batch (this time I doubled it) last night and I absolutely love it. It's cheap, gets my clothes clean and I love that I don't have to run out to the store (or the neighbor's house because yes, that's happened) for laundry detergent. A batch of this lasts FOREVER and I still have my giant boxes of borax and washing soda.

2. We switched to bar soap. I'm not sure why in the last 10+ years I've never thought to use bar soap. I've got really dry, sensitive skin and anything with sulfates is a big no no for me. It's kind of annoying to look for body washes that don't have sulfates in them. I know of a few, but I go through them so fast and they can get a bit pricey. One day, while browsing the soap aisle of Wal-Mart, I thought I'd look at bar soap. I'd heard that Olay and Dove were good for sensitive skin, but I wanted to see if they had sulfates. They do not. Apparently that's the ingredient that makes liquid soap lather (or so says my sort of chemist husband) so bar soaps have no need for them. I decided to buy a box of Olay bars to try them out. I figured I'd just use my regular loofah, but was THRILLED to find that they had bar soap loofahs! (except mine's a pretty blue color and was only $2) It's great and I've been using the same bar of soap for over a month and it's only about half way gone. I'm not sure if that counts as 'crunchy' but a box of 6 was only $5-6 and it uses a lot less plastic packaging (i.e. none) and is going to last a LOT longer than a container of liquid soap would. We picked up Josh some 'manly' soap too and both of our loofahs hang from our shower caddy.

3. I've been using washcloths and cloth dish rags a lot more. Sure, paper towels and Clorox wipes are convenient and you can just toss them, but cloth rags clean SO much better. Don't get me wrong, I've always used cloth dish rags, but I hardly ever reach for disposable towels anymore. They just...suck. Even with cleaning solution on them, they don't clean as well as a simple wet rag. It seems like a simple, stupid change, but it really has helped and it's been nice to not buy paper towels as much.


Warning this one could be considered TMI and it's probably the 'hippiest' thing I do although, I think it's probably my favorite. If girly things and talking about periods freak you out, feel free to skip to number 5. :)

4. I started using a Diva Cup instead of tampons. I know, I know. That's weird. And pretty disgusting that I'm talking about it on my blog. But you know what? It's sort of been life changing. You heard that right, life changing and I feel like it needs to be shared. I first read about them on the cloth diapering board on babycenter. People talk a lot about 'mama cloth' (i.e. cloth pads. The thought of that makes me want to vomit and poke my eyeballs out and then vomit 8 more times) but a Diva Cup was something that intrigued me. Let's just say that it's amazing. No more running to the bathroom every 2 hours. No more worrying about be 'stocked' if I'm running out the door. Seriously, life changing. That's really all I can say about it. And a huge plus is that I've only bought one box of tampons since I started using it, so... in 9-10ish months? It's wonderful.

5. I've made and want to make more bath products. The only thing I've really made so far is a sugar scrub, but I've got recipes for bath bombs and even liquid soap that I want to try. The sugar scrub was suuuper easy (3 parts sugar (I would not recommend raw sugar. I've found that it's a teeny bit too abrasive. White, granulated sugar works much better..., one part olive oil and 10ish drops of an essential oil)  I use it every day in the shower and recently have even started using it on  my face at night. Remember my mention of SUPER dry skin? The olive oil works better than any moisturizer I've ever tried and the sugar is the perfect exfoliate. It doesn't clog pores and literally cost me pennies to make. Oh and it can be used as a lip scrub too. I've needed a lot less chapstick since I've started using it. I absolutely love it.

I guess that's about it. I need to get better at cooking from scratch cooking in general, but my pinterest boards are filled with yummy recipes I want to try. That counts for something, right? So these things along with downgrading our phones, couponing, getting a smaller satellite package, eating out less, etc have saved us some serious bucks. Which is good, because we've got to put our yard in this summer and we'd like to squeeze in a family vacation in before the girls turn 2.

Is there anything you do 'crunchy' or 'green' or 'cheap'? Every time I make the a switch like this, I think that it's funny how drastic it seems, but did our moms have Clorox wipes? Heck, a lot of our moms didn't even have disposable diapers available to them like we do today. People have been cleaning, eating and taking care of things these ways for hundreds if not thousands of years and all of the sudden they're a part of this 'Go Green" reform. It makes me smile a little bit.

So, what do you do?

p.s. The girls turn 18 months old on Thursday. Excuse me while I go shut myself in my room and cry.