Whether you’re looking for ways to give your monthly household budget a boost, offer your family safer products to use, or struggling to find the right product on the store shelves, DIY homemade products may be the solution. It’s easy and efficient to replace many common household products with just a few simple ingredients. Try these ideas.
Six Products You Can Make At Home Yourself
1. Laundry Detergent
Ever been to the doctor with a skin rash? If so, you already know the first question they ask is if you changed laundry detergent or soap, right? It’s called contact dermatitis, and it can develop even after years of exposure to the same chemical agent.
Commercial laundry soaps are full of such agents. Why put your skin through that when homemade laundry detergent is as simple as three ingredients, three minutes of your time, and about three pennies per load?
2. Hand Sanitizer
Our homes get all sorts of visitors, and household members bring everything they’ve touched at school, work, and play right in the front door with them. Say, “welcome” with a homemade bottle of sanitizer at your home’s entryway. All you need to make hand sanitizer is isopropyl alcohol (99% rubbing alcohol) and aloe vera gel. It stores easily in a pump or squirt bottle.
If you want some extra germ-fighting power and a nice aromatic scent to your hand sanitizer, then you can always add peppermint, orange, eucalyptus or lemongrass essential oil.
3. Hand Soap
Ever purchased hand soap only to discover it dries your hands out or leaves a funky residue or odor? It’s so easy to make your own hand soap. Plus, you avoid paying big money for ‘antiseptic’ soaps that are contributing to antibiotic-resistance strains of bacteria with harmful chemicals. Instead of paying dollars per tiny bottle of hand soap, homemade hand soaps can be made by the gallons for the same cost.
4. Toothpaste
Commercial toothpaste, especially the whitening varieties, can cost you up to $15 per tube. Many brands leave an odd taste and contain artificial colors and ingredients that have become questionable by health experts. For example, recent studies have linked the whitening agent titanium dioxide to stomach health issues. Make your own baking soda and sea salt toothpaste. Add a little clove and peppermint essential oil for breath-fighting power.
Store the toothpaste in a lidded container with a small scoop to disperse. You can easily make 10 or more batches of this homemade toothpaste for the cost of one name-brand whitening toothpaste.
5. Body And Face Scrub
Homemade scrub is great for the face and body to relieve dry skin, acne, and exfoliate dead skin cells before shaving. It’s a fraction of what fancy brands with pink bows will cost you, and you know there’s no artificial dyes and colors in the finished product.
6. Surface Cleaning Agent
Allergies, skin sensitivities, unpleasant smells, exorbitant costs, and the health risks of synthetic chemicals are all common complaints about the agents used to clean the surfaces of your home. Plus, some chemicals are only designed for either hard surfaces or fabric surfaces, which makes your cleaning supply closet an expensive array of chemicals that may be dangerous to mix.
Solve the problem with a cleaning agent that’s safe to use on any surface – from your coffee maker and refrigerator to your windows and countertops. It costs just a few dollars to make in bulk, and it is a natural disinfectant. It’s called white vinegar, and you can doctor the smell up with essential oils. If you have a surface that’s particularly dirty, you can add the grit of a little salt or baking soda to your mixture.
Ready, Set, Go Replace Commercial Household Products With DIY
Use the above six ideas as a springboard to make your home safer, cheaper, and solve the endless battle of finding the right product for all your needs. By making common homemade products at home, you know they were made with the love and care your home deserves, and who doesn’t like to save a dime along the way?