My Garbage Chair

I’ve always loved the idea of finding great furniture in the dumpster (although, still not sure why people don’t list the items for free on their UsedEverywhere.com city site). For so many years I’ve seen chairs and stools and tables rescued from the curb and made into something spectacular. I’ve always been a fan of the people who pull over and take someone’s junk to make it useful again. I have just never felt comfortable doing that myself.

So, when I saw this chair on the top of a large pile of discarded household furnishings (someone moved out) I drove around the block to take a better look. Then I drove around again, wondering if I should stop and get it. Then I kept going and got almost home, but turned around and went back. I drove past reeeal slow. I felt like a stalker. I pulled off on a side street and told myself I was being ridiculous and garbage day was the next day and it would get crushed up for no good reason. So, I went back. I pulled into the driveway and took that chair and put it in my car. Of course neighbours were out raking and getting their mail and they totally stopped and looked at me (and in my head they were judging me something fierce) but I had my prize and I took it home and looked at it for a while. I am so glad I stopped!

 

The chair is a mid-century piece but it’s a knock off of a designer chair. Not the best quality. However, under the fabric that had been nailed to the legs, was the original cushion (orange. So perfect) and it was FREE. It was missing a leg support and the finish was cracking all over but these were easy fixes. I sanded it down all over, just a quick sand but I paid attention to the rougher spots. I got a 3/4″ dowel and cut it to size, glued the ends and put it between the legs where the old one was cut off. Those got a nail in each end. Then, I painted.

 

A paint that I find really useful for these kinds of projects is Tremclad. They have a paint that’s for wood and metal, and it comes in flat, gloss, and high gloss. I used the regular gloss because that is what I had at home already. It dries quickly and has a really great sheen on it. It is also water soluble so it’s easy for clean-up.

 

For the cushion, I used a remnant I had picked up at the textile store a few months ago. It cost me a whole $1. I put it right on top of the old cushion, as it was clean plus I like to keep old fabric underneath when I can for someone else to discover somewhere down the road. I always like finding the original fabric on something! Staple guns make this kind of job much easier. I use a hand powered one, not an air compressor or electric one. One day I would like to get a fancy staple gun, but for now my father-in-laws will do.

 

So, that is really all that it took to take a $1 chair from the garbage back from the brink and into the modern world. I really love this chair, and am glad it was an easy fix. Sometimes a coat of paint and a piece of printed cotton can really work wonders. I am definitely stopping to pick up treasures again.

UsedEverywhere.com is encouraging it’s users to snap pictures of discarded future-treasures and post the pictures to Twitter or Instagram with the hashtag #ShouldaUsedOttawa (#ShouldaUsedVictoria, #ShouldaUsedVancouver, or #ShouldaUsedRegina etc. – depends on the city you live in of course). It’s much easier to find free stuff on a UsedEverywhere.com site than driving around searching for unloved items that could already be damaged by the elements.

 

Has anyone else rescued something from the curb and put it to good use?

Top 5 Uses for Coconut Oil in Your Bathroom

Coconut oil is one of the most talked about oils to cook with but did you know it’s benefits for your skin, hair and teeth?  If this is the first time you’re hearing about coconut oil health benefits – it’s because of the fatty acid composition; the oil contains a high concentration of medium-chain saturated fatty acids like lauric acid. These are easily digested and fight bacteria, viruses, etc. To fully reap the benefits of coconut oil, select unrefined oil to bypass chemicals in the processing. Unrefined oil is processed by mechanically pressing the coconut meat soon after picking so it retains the compounds naturally present. Once you have selected an unrefined coconut oil – here are my favourite five uses for personal care:

Makeup Remover

Coconut oil magically melts away stubborn mascara and makeup. Add coconut oil to a dry cloth or Q-tip and remove makeup.

Facial Wash

When I ran out of store bought face wash last month I decided to try coconut oil to wash my face. I mix my coconut oil with a bit of baking soda to give it some abrasion then I apply with dry hands to my face and wash clean with water. I’m completely hooked and love how soft my face and lips feel after using! All store bought facial cleaners contain water and therefore require preservatives to ensure shelf life. Avoid these chemical preservatives with using this technique to wash and moisturize your face.

Tooth Polish

Have you heard of oil pulling? It sounds complicated – don’t let that stop you. All you need is a spoon and coconut oil. Think of it as oil swishing! You put approx. 1 tablespoon of coconut oil on a spoon, put inside your mouth, wait for the oil to melt into liquid form, then swish through your mouth (mixed with saliva) for 20 minutes. Don’t swallow the oil, swish for 20 minutes and then spit into the toilet. I promise you’ll feel like you just got home from the dentist. I’ve incorporated oil pulling into my morning routine and love how it whitens my teeth and removes plaque. Other benefits with dental care is coconut oil facilitates absorption of calcium by the body, so it helps in getting strong teeth. Coconut oil also stops tooth decay and whitens teeth.

DIY Deodorant

Aluminum-based compounds are used as active ingredient in antiperspirants. So I set off to make my own deodorant many years ago expecting it to be difficult and expensive. I was wrong and have used this 3 part ingredient recipe every since.

Ingredients:

5-6 Tbsp Coconut oil
1/8 cup baking soda
1/4 cup + 2 tablespoons arrowroot powder or cornstarch

Combine equal portions of baking soda & arrowroot powder. Then slowly add coconut oil and work it in with a spoon until it maintains the substance you desire. I keep the ball of deodorant in a sealed jar, wrapped in parchment paper so I don’t get my hands sticky when applying. Store in a dark cool area of the bathroom so it won’t melt on hot, sunny days.

Hair Conditioner

Do you have dry ends or dry scalp? Coconut oil is one of the best natural nutrition for hair. Adding coconut oil to the ends of dry hair produces a beautiful shiny effect. It is effective in reducing the protein loss for hair and it’s my favourite part of maintaining long hair. After my hair is washed and dry, I add a quarter sized amount to my hand, rub into liquid form and add to hair ends. It can also be used as a slicker for fly away pieces of hair.  Also when your scalp gets itchy from dry skin – rub coconut oil into your scalp before bed. It will sooth itching and heal dry skin.

The best part of starting to incorporate coconut oil into your personal care regime is you’ll keep finding more ways to use it. It’s also very empowering to replace store bought products with ones you can make yourself because it ensures you know the ingredients you are applying to your family’s skin and body. A high quality unrefined coconut oil is pricey, but one jar goes a long way so the cost savings long-term are significant.

DIY Beds for Spring

Valentines day is supposed to be the symbolic day of Love. I, among many others, think that one day just isn’t enough. And no offense, February… you are kind of a stinky month. Do you know what gets me in the mood? SPRING.

Yes that’s right. I get spring fever. All the melting of snow and the bursting forth of flowers…well I’ll leave the imagery alone cause this is a PG blog but you get the drift.

I always feel romantic in springtime. I like spending as much time outdoors as I can. But when I come inside there’s got to be a continuation of that feeling. I like to buy hothouse bulbs, or cut tulips, or go to the woods and chop a few pussywillow brnaches down. I get cleaning out the dusty crammed corners of my kitchen. I want to move.

After all that moving is done, I am exhausted. Which brings me to bed. I also like to spend a lot of time in there. (Yes just sleeping).

A long time ago, people bedded down beside each other under and on top of furs. Eventually we moved on to bigger and better things, beds. Where they better? Well that is up for debate. I recently watched a program care of the BBC that spoke all about the history and anthropological niche of beds. It got me thinking: in society today, a bed is a real symbol of love. Whether it is carnal love or domestic bliss or even chasteness, beds are an important fixture in our homes. So I thought I’d look at a few examples of fantastic beds that might stir the fire inside you. And they are all things you can make!

First off, is this awesome LED panelled headboard. How cute is this? The directions are here if you want to know a bit more, but all I know is its sparkly and big and i like it!

LED lights create a fairytale look

Next is a romantic metal bed with swirls of chiffon. Now, this particular bed is a four poster canopy. But, if you made a frame as big as you wanted it out of either metal or wood, and attached it to you ceiling, you could definitely recreate this look with the bed that you already have. Soft yellows and whites are very dreamy (and springy!). There are even canopy frames that you can buy. Alternately you could do something a little simpler, like hang a circle over the bed for a neat and crafty look. Who doesn’t like being romanced behind closed curtains? I personally think I’d get a better sleep behind chiffon.

an easy to recreate look, if you’re crafty! not just for a doggy to enjoy!

This next bed is super easy and looks very beautiful. I like a simple, woodland fantasy look. Get a few big sticks from the woods, attach some twinkle lights, voila! You have a super awesome starry bed.

using a feature from nature with some twinkle lights

Next up is a good use of pallets. Now, do be careful as some pallets are treated with some pretty nasty chemicals. If your pallets are good to go, you can make a platform bed very easily. This example shows them in a raw wood form, but I have seen ones that are painted as well. I would probably seal the pallets, and maybe give them a sanding, just to make sure they wont snag your linens or your toes. But this would give you lots of room for candles and whatever else you’d want by a sexy bed.

pallets: usually untreated pine that’s very sturdy. Be careful with fire and wood, readers!

I could show you a million beds that are easy to make and are super awesome. However, I like to leave something to the imagination. What kind of things would you do to your bed if you could, to make it a little more sexy? Me, I’d make a whole bunch of pretty pillows and get some cool old vintage quilts to put on it for snuggling in.

Tea Cup Bird Feeders

Living on the West Coast has its advantages. For example it’s spring here while I know the majority of Canadians are still suffering winter’s fury.

And there are certain disadvantages. Like it hardly stops raining.

This year I wanted to welcome the season by making a bird feeder. I know, not so glamorous. But with all the rain I thought having little birds visiting me through the window would make me feel better about being stuck indoors.

As a kid I used to make pine cone bird feeder’s by spreading peanut butter on the cones and then rolling them through birdseed. I would then hang them on branches throughout my parent’s yard and then investigate every other day to see which mixtures and locations were popular.

But now I don’t have the luxury of trees. I have a covered balcony.

A quick browse through Pinterest showed me tea cup feeders are popular this year. I’ve never seen these before but I do happen to have quite the collection of tea cups. If you haven’t got a stash of tea cups on hand, you can find inexpensive vintage and gently used ones through your local UsedEverywhere.com site.

I thought about going all out and setting up a tea party for my bird friends but reason won out and I decided to do some testers before committing to the bit.

Here’s the recipe I used:

• Warm 1/3 cup of peanut butter and 1/3 cup of natural honey in a saucepan
• Mix in 2/3 cup of birdseed, sesame seeds, or other seeds, 1/3 cup of sunflower seeds, and 1/4 cup of flax seeds
• Press the mixture into desired dish
• Cool and serve

Although it was a bit messy the actual project only took about 15 minutes from start to finish. And if I wasn’t doing a test run of the stuff I would have thought ahead to make a bit for me…it is so tasty!

The birds in my neighbourhood will have to be crazy not to come by my deck for tea.

Unfortunately it was evening when I set out my project and although I could hear the birds in the bushes below I probably won’t see any until daylight.

I’m eager to see how this works and I’m in the market for bigger and better birdseed recipes so if you have one please pass it along!

3 Ways To Make Your Community Beautiful

Have you heard the quote “Magic is everywhere…you just need to look for it”? Discovering magic can happen in your own neighbourhood when a person spies something unique and unexpected nestled in nature. Memories are created and a sense of community pride is increased. The following three projects will not only make your neighbourhood more beautiful, but the lasting effects on how the community felt will remain for years. The projects are also low budget and mostly created from upcycled materials making them great for families to plan this spring.

Fairy Doors

Have you ever seen a tree knob created by nature on the outside of tree bark and instantly checked twice to see if it was real? That feeling of wonder can easily be handcrafted by a child and placed at the bottom of a special tree by making your own fairy door. It doesn’t matter if the cut around the door is made by a first-timer with a jig saw or the polished design of someone more professional – fairy doors evoke a strong emotion and always bring a squeal of delight when discovered. And when I say there is a little Peter Pan syndrome inside all of us, this video that was shared via George Stroumboulopoulos, will prove even grown-ups and teens see the magic.

This spring, select a few lucky trees along your favourite trail or yard and create fairy doors to live at the bottom. Measure out a perfect size that can be secured without too much difficulty in the nook of a tree, have your family decorate the door with weather resistant paint, and add a doorknob for the perfect finishing touch. Unless the fairy doors are going into a person’s yard, don’t invest too much money in the project because the chance of vandalism is high. But when a child wonders where the door has gone – you can reassure them that the magic of the fairy or gnome moved the door to a new home. Notes can be left for the fairies inside the tree or if the door doesn’t open, offerings from nature can be left outside for fairies to find; pinecones, flowers, feathers, acorns, etc.

Yarn Bombing

This activity is for the inner grandma in all of us; unless of course you know that knitting and crochet has become hip this year thanks to Pinterest inspiration and handmade love! Knitting is also a great activity to teach children and what could be more magical than making a sleeve for a tree in your yard, fence post, or pole. Yarn bombing is extremely beautiful – something about the bright, knit colours resting against nature that is very memorable. This photo and yarn bomb project was completed by Knitta.

Working with your city’s Art Council or Museum is a great idea if you want to expand yarn bombing into the community with kids. It will help ensure your project lasts since a pair of scissors can quickly bring this project down – but that is the key reason why it’s considered to be a harmless method of graffiti. A breathtaking example of yarn bombing actually happened in Vancouver March 2011 when the cherry tree behind Joy Kogawa’s (Vancouver author and poet) childhood home no longer blossomed. 50 crafters gathered together to change that and yarn bombed her tree with stunning knit bark and garlands of knit blossoms. The effect was stunning and I encourage you to read the entire article shared via Vancouver Cherry Blossom Festival Blog. Below is a picture from that article – notice how beautiful the knit blossoms look in nature?

Little Free Library

With so many parents trying to detach their children from electronics and re-introduce them to the love of reading, the time to build or use a Little Free Library is now. And with the growth of thousands more of these libraries popping up around the world, their popularity is easily understood. The concept is to approach a Girl and Boy Scout troop, carpenter, or artists and see if they would be willing to build some Libraries as a community service project. Ask neighbours and friends to contribute books. Keep them informed about what they can bring by leaving a note in your Library asking for a certain type of books. Real people sharing their love for special books is the best part of building a Free Library and I love this quote from the Little Free Library site “These aren’t just any old books, this is a carefully curated collection and the Library itself is a piece of neighborhood art!”

Check out the examples of finished community libraries from the Little Free Library Facebook page and you’ll see why they are so special and would really enhance community spirit!

 

From being involved in community projects with my family, I know the people creating projects get just as much fun and joy out of the planning, building, and crafting. Harness your own imagination and bring together a team of people committed to creating magic this spring.

Getting creative with furniture restoration

Something that I always try to be, whether it is fashion, housewares or furniture, is original. Having something different is fun, to me at least. Vintage clothing is usually fairly unique and different. You won’t have to worry about someone else showing up to the office party wearing the same dress as you! Awkward moment avoided!

I like thrifting. A lot. A lot a lot a lot. My house is a veritable treasure trove of weird and wonderful things. Nobody else has my candlesticks or place mats or chair covers. And I like that. It is fun to tailor your home to be something that is totally unique and awesome. And while it does take some time, your creativity and You-ness can really shine.

It is really easy to make furniture be a centrepiece of this identity. Its usually big, you probably actually use it, someone besides yourself will sit on a chair or couch. What are some things that you can do, you ask. Well, I am so glad that you want to know

Cushions: probably the easiest thing you can do is get cushions, or even make them, that either blend in to your style or contrast with it, depending on what you like. A simple throw cushion can take a boring beige chair from frumpy to fabulous in mere moments. And because cushions generally don’t cost too much, you can replace them whenever you want to mix it up a bit. I know some people that bring out new combinations of cushions with each season. While that is a bit much for me, it is a great way to refresh your living space. And if you sew, making cushions is super duper simple.

These chairs would look quite boring without some awesome bright cushions. Look at how they really pop against the neutral decor.

Paint: while I generally cringe at the idea of painting wood furniture, sometimes it needs to be done. A fresh coat of paint on a tired old plant stand can make your plant pop out of the woodwork so to speak. Have an old broken kitchen chair languishing in the basement? Pull it out, paint it, you have a new plant stand for indoors or out. You can paint a chair, couch legs, picture frames, really anything. You can even paint fabric (click here to see some instructions. It sounds like a lot of trouble but hey who am I to tell you what not to do). Paint is usually fairly inexpensive and if you go to your local home improvement store often you can troll for cheap mis-tint paint like I do.

sick of looking at your faded scratched wood table and chairs? look how cute this is!

Fabric: it isn’t that hard to make slipcovers, if you know your way around a sewing machine. You can pick any fabric you’d like, and if you can’t sew it, you can have someone else do it. This way you are reusing your existing furniture but giving it new life. Dining chairs are easy to redo, and you can really let your creativity shine here. I am currently fixing an old chair up and using a cable knit sweater for the cushion! You could sew together old doilies and layer that over a contrasting fabric for a really cool effect. The possibilities are really endless when it comes to chair bottoms. I change mine all the time. I think my husband believes I have some commitment issues!

look at this great refinishing project! see how to do it here

Using things that aren’t intended for that purpose: an old barrel with a cushion on top becomes a fabulous chair. An old door mounted on the wall becomes a headboard for your bed. An old office credenza becomes hallway storage. Old fabric remnants can be framed and hung for a cool and vintage look. An old dining table can be an office desk. There are so many things you can use in different ways, just thinking about it makes me excited. If you want some inspiration click here and have a Re-Imagining Weekend; fun for the whole family!

an old ladder hangs down for a great small space reuse pot rack

What sorts of creative things have you done in your home? Let us know!

 

Something Old, Something Borrowed, Something Green: How to Plan a Beautiful Eco-Friendly Wedding

The average cost of a Canadian wedding today is $24,000. $24,000! No wonder so many fathers are angry when their daughters announce they’re getting married. Even though most couples actually pay for their own weddings these days, that is still a huge bill to begin a new marriage with. But if you don’t want to start your honeymoon in debt, what are the options? Well, since this is the UsedEverywhere blog, of course you can throw a beautiful, eco-friendly wedding for a fraction of the usual cost!

My fiance and I had a tiny wedding budget thanks to two years of ongoing renovations on our fixer-upper. Over a year and a half of wedding planning, we found out that when you go green, you save green, even in weddings. We learned where to save big money and where to go green … and that the two usually went hand-in-hand. Elegant does not have to mean expensive, and neither does eco-friendly. We planned a gorgeous, “green” wedding for all our family and friends, and saving the planet was just a bonus.

In planning the wedding, Rolf and I turned to the same resources as we had been using in our ongoing renovations: the knowledge and help of our friends and family; online classified websites such as UsedOttawa.com for cheap and free materials; and Google. For 1/8th the cost of a standard wedding, $3,000, we got married last summer in a sweet, vintage wedding with one hundred of our closest friends. And partied our asses off.

In upcoming posts in this blog series on throwing a low-budget but beautiful wedding, I’ll go over all the aspects of planning a wedding, showing you where we saved money, what the green options are, and what not to DIY! Over the coming weeks I’ll cover all the wedding planning essentials:

The venue.

The invitations.

The rings.

The flowers.

Photography.

The dress! And other wedding clothes.

The food.

Centrepieces and wedding favours.

Wedding cakes and cake toppers.

If you’re out west this weekend, UsedVancouver.com is proudly sponsoring The Original Bridal Swap. Bridal Swap connects past brides and brides-to-be in a fun atmosphere so they can buy and sell gently used wedding items.

Soap Stars: Castile.

I’ve had a little theme of late with natural cleaning products. As I’ve mentioned before, there’s a reason my house smells like fish and chips at least once a week and no, it’s not because I’m addicted to succulent pieces of battered cod – though I could be. It’s because I use vinegar and baking soda to clean everything! Here is a link to my natural cleaning product article.

One of the comments on a recent blog of mine was in regard to making a natural dish soap. What a challenge! Yep, there are a lot of recipes on the web – there’s a lot of everything on the web, but do they work?

Last week, my fellow Used blogger Lisa, showed us a mighty fine and mighty thrifty recipe for natural laundry detergent. I’ll be gathering the ingredients for this this week and am very excited to save some money on laundry! But what about dish soap?

When I began looking for natural recipes for dish soap, there was one common denominator and that was castile soap. I’ve used Dr. Bronner’s tea tree castile soap for years. It was recommended for a skin problem I was having which cleared up within a few weeks of using it, but I use it for everything, including dish soap when I’ve run out of store bought.

What is Castile Soap and Why Use it?

Castile soap is made from plant based oils mixed with an alkili. It is gentle on you and the environment because it’s biodegradable and free from harsh cleansers, oleochemicals, artificial foaming agents, petrochemicals and/or chemical anti-bacterial agents.

Why use it? Because it’s gentle enough to use on you and yet effective enough to use on your rugs, kitchen floor, bathroom tiles, etc.

In fact recently I read an article on Dr. Bronner’s castile soap in a celebrity magazine! Even Lady Gaga and Gwynth Paltrow love Dr. Bronner’s so it must at least be effective on putrid meat smells whilst still being a vegan option.

What can it be used for?

What can’t it be used for?

• Shampoo – when mixed with water in a 1:3 part ratio
• Dishwasher detergent – as is
• Body wash – 2:1 castile to water
• Toothpaste – I’m not going to try this but many sources assure me it is far better for your teeth – I’ll have to trust you on that one!
• Veggie wash – just mix 1:2 ratio soap to water, but in a squeezy bottle and squirt your veggies
• Carpet cleaner – 1/4 cup soap with 1 cup water, put in blender and blend until you have a stiff foam – voila!
• Dishsoap – see my recipe below

 Homemade Dish Soap Recipe:

This is the recipe I have seen on a multitude of sites. I don’t usually write about anything I haven’t tried myself, that’s my number one blogging rule… but today I am breaking it and I vow to try this recipe in the next couple of weeks and report back. This is for you Mark Johnston, thanks for reading my blog!

• 1 ¾ cups boiling water
• 1 Tbsp borax
• 1 Tbsp grated bar soap (use castile bar soap, homemade soap, Ivory, or whichever natural bar you prefer)
• 15-20 drops essential oils, optional (find 100% pure essential oils here)

Directions: 

1. Heat water to boiling.
2. Combine borax and grated bar soap in a medium bowl. Pour hot water over the mixture. Whisk until soap is completely melted.
3. Allow mixture to cool on the countertop for 6-8 hours, stirring occasionally. Dish soap will gel upon standing.
4. Transfer to a squirt bottle, and add essential oils (if using). Shake well to combine.

If you try this before I do, please let me know!

Homemade Laundry Detergent

Fellow UsedEverywhere blogger Amber recently shared some of her top tips for cleaning your home without toxic chemicals. The natural cleaning methods she recommends are not only healthier for you and your family because they don’t contain toxic chemicals, but also better for the environment for the same reason.

As it turns out, homemade cleaning products are much cheaper, too. When you buy cleaning products from the store, you’re paying for the dozens of chemicals that go into every bottle, plus the research that went into developing those chemicals. Add in the cost of the fancy packaging, and the marketing campaigns and advertisements that get you to buy the cleaners in the first place. Chemicals are expensive!

True confession time: I don’t do that much housecleaning, so switching to homemade cleaning products isn’t actually going to save me much money. But my husband and I generate a lot of laundry somehow, so using store-bought laundry detergent is one area of our lives where we were literally pouring money down the drain, along with a lot of chemicals. That is why we switched to homemade laundry detergent three years ago and have never gone back.

Homemade laundry detergent is quick and easy to make – it takes only three ingredients compared to the three dozen listed on the back of a box of Tide. It is low-sudsing, so it is perfectly safe to use in both HE front-loaders and standard washing machines. Homemade laundry detergent performs just as well as any store-bought detergent ever did for me: it works in both cold and hot water, it lifts stains, keeps whites white, and takes Rolf’s shirts from funktastic to fresh as a daisy. All without dozens of toxic chemicals, and for pennies a load. With all these points in favour of homemade laundry detergent, I feel like a chump for ever using store-bought detergent!

If you’re ready to shake off the chains of the store-bought laundry detergent industry, here’s how you do it.

Homemade Laundry Detergent – Powder

You can find the ingredients in the laundry or cleaning aisle of most Wal-Marts and large grocery stores such as Loblaws / Real Canadian Superstore.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup borax
• 1 cup washing soda (not to be confused with baking soda!)
• 1 bar laundry soap (e.g. Sunlight, Fels Naptha, Zote, or you can even use regular body soap like Ivory)

Directions:

Finely grate the bar of laundry soap with a cheese grater, blender, or food processor. Mix the grated soap with the borax and the washing soda. Store in an airtight container such as a jar or plastic tub. This detergent is very concentrated, so you only need to use 1 tbsp of powdered detergent per load of laundry (use 2-3 tbsps for heavily soiled or stinky loads).

Homemade Laundry Detergent – Liquid

The liquid version of homemade laundry detergent takes more work, but it still requires only three ingredients and is just as cheap. I made the liquid version for two years because I had always used liquid store-bought detergents, and because my HE front-loading washing machine had a liquid dispenser. Turns out you can just remove the liquid-dispensing cup from the washing machine and use powder instead. The powder works just as well as the liquid for me, so I’ve switched because it’s easier to make. If you just plain prefer liquid detergents, here’s how you make the homemade version.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup borax
• 1 cup washing soda
• 1 bar laundry soap
• large bucket with lid

Directions:

Grate the bar of laundry soap into a large pot. Add 6 cups of water and heat on low or medium, stirring occasionally, until all the soap is melted – avoid boiling as this produces a lot of foam. In a large bucket, mix the borax and the washing soda with 10 Litres (or 40 cups or 2.5 gallons) of very hot water and stir well. Add the hot soapy water from the stove and stir until everything is thoroughly mixed. Let stand overnight. When it cools, it will turn into a solid gelatinous mass – break it up and stir it with a large wooden spoon until it becomes a smooth, thick, liquidy mixture. Use 1 cup per load.

COST ANALYSIS

Each of the recipes above makes enough for 50 loads of laundry. The cost breakdown is:

Borax (2kg box / 10 cups): $4.99 ÷ 10 cups = $0.50 per batch
Washing Soda (3kg box / 15 cups): $4.99 ÷ 15 cups = $0.33 per batch
Sunlight Laundry Bar Soap: $1.25 each

At a total cost of $2.08 per batch, which makes enough for 50 loads of laundry, that’s about four cents a load. See you in the borax aisle!

DIY Cleaning Products

Last year I interviewed Helen, owner of Green Wheel Cleaners, who talked to me about what toxins to avoid in the cleaning aisles of the supermarket. She made mention of the term “greenwashing” which is basically brands throwing the words “all natural” and “green” and “safe” on their products when in fact, the product is anything but.

The best way to avoid toxins in your cleaning products is to quite simply make your own or use what you already have in your cupboards. If that invites eye rolls and thoughts of ‘like I have the time’ my advice is to hit up Google and investigate local soap makers, health focused stores and green cleaners who retail natural, non harmful products.

Check out my top tips for alternative cleaners and cleaning tips:

• Odorous Oven – Often your self cleaning oven leaves a terrible stench. If that’s the case, load a baking tray with orange peel and bake at 350 degrees to clear fumes. Also opt for no self clean and instead use a baking soda vinegar mix.
• Baking Soda & Vinegar – There is a reason my home smells like a fish n chip shop at least once a week and that is because I swear by baking soda and vinegar for lots of kid based mishaps. For pee and vomit, a baking soda and vinegar paste is going to cut through any odour and will also lift stains. This combo makes a great oven and bath cleaner as the baking soda’s gritty texture really gets into the dirt.
• Shower curtains – Rather than having to use a cleaner on mildew build up, prior to hanging your shower curtains, soak them in a salt water solution.
• Green bathtub – Do you have an old bath tub that has a weird green or blue rim? So this might not be green but a turpentine and salt solution is going to lift that colour straight off!
• Lemons – Lemons are all purpose cleaners! Polish brass, clean your bath taps, rub into your cutting boards and let stand overnight for a great way to kill germs and remove stains. Use a lemon and water solution in a spray bottle for your windows and shower doors, it will do wonders on your mineral build up.
• Blocked Drains – Pour baking soda down your drain and follow with lemon juice to get rid of minor blockages.
• More Lemons -What can’t a lemon do?! Leave a quarter lemon on a saucer in your fridge to kill odours, change weekly. Boil lemon slices in your kettle then let sit overnight to help remove mineral build up. Dab lemon juice on clothing stains and let sit for 24 hours before washing your garment, the stain should lift. And heck, once you’ve used your lemons to clean your home, you can use some on your hair and skin too. Lemon juice makes a great hair shine product and when mixed with sugar works as a facial exfoliant (not for sensitive skin).
• Salt – A lot like baking soda, salt can clean up a whole lot. Mix with cinnamon for a brilliant way to clean oven spills, mix with vinegar to remove hard stains and my favourite – mix with olive oil for an excellent scrub to use on cast iron pans and is also a hardworking carpet cleaner.