I'm going o'natural

 I don't mean stop shaving my legs and arm pits kind of natural so let me explain. However, before I do I need to do something...  

... Ok, I'm back. I just counted how many different cleaners I have. Between my bathroom and under my kitchen sink there are 10. Ten chemical, toxic, expensive, don't get on your skin or you have to call poison control, cleaners.  Why?!

There are so many natural cleaners and even disinfectants that we can make right at home. They cost next to nothing to make. You know what's in them and you wont need to wear rubber gloves that go to your elbows or a mask over your nose and mouth in order to use them! You can even add essential oils to make them smell however you want! You can't beat that if you ask me. With everyone being more health conscience and earth friendly there are new cleaners out on the market that are suppose to be more "green". But even those are silly if you think about it.

I've been doing some research tonight and I learned that tea tree oil is a natural disinfectant. (Well before scientific evidence was around The indigenous Bundjalung people of eastern Australia found the leaves from "tea trees" had healing powers for various ailments). I figured this oil would be quite expensive but I found that Walmart carries it and it's just under $5.00 for 2 oz. Most of the cleaning recipes I have found call for 15-30 drops of this oil per 16 oz spray bottle of cleaner. So, of course I was curious how many 'drops' are in an ounce, to my surprise the average is 600! By some quick calculations I figured one bottle of tea tree oil will last between 40 and 80 bottles worth of cleaner. Pretty darn good if you ask me!

I found a great website called, BlissTree.com with some great recipes. When I have time I'll look through more of their site, it looks like there's a lot of good stuff there.

We were planning a trip to Walmart tomorrow anyway but I'm going to add a few things to my list and make up some great cleaners when we get home. The kids will even be able to help! I'm hoping they will be a little more willing to help clean if they were involved in making the cleansers. (I know, I know, wishful thinking! haha).