What To Do With Castile Soap

If you've been to a health store, you've probably seen Castile soap, most likely Dr. Bronner's. Castile soap is a soap made with natural oils and chemical reactions. The only chemicals involved in making Castile soap are sodium hydroxide and/or potassium hydroxide (commonly known as lye). Since these chemicals are all used up when they react to the oils, Castile soap is chemical free, non-toxic and eco-friendly. Not only is this soap completely safe and holistic, it has multiple uses outside the shower! 

All-purpose Cleaning

Since Castile soap is safe to use anywhere, it makes the perfect ingredient for all-purpose cleaner, in fact, my favorite DIY recipe for non-toxic cleaner includes Castile soap! Take a peek at the recipe below for making your own eco-friendly all-purpose cleaner. 

All Purpose Cleaner

1/2 cup vinegar
1 cup hot water
1/8 tsp Castile soap
optional (but recommended!) - 9 drops essential oil (Eucalyptus or Tea Tree oil is naturally antibacterial/antimicrobial)

Pour into a spray bottle and shake before each use

If you're not the DIY type, check out the Citrus All-Purpose Cleaner from Celadon Road. I discovered the Celadon Road all-natural cleaning line last year, and I've been using it ever since! I love it!

Mop It Up

Hardwood floor cleaner can be expensive and potentially toxic, depending on the brand, but if you have a little Castile soap and some hot water, say goodbye to spending your hard-earned money on cleaning supplies! For a three gallon bucket of hot water, just add half a cup of Castile soap and a mop for shiny floors (unless they're carpeted) and a clean, holistic space. 

Sop It Up

We mentioned above that using the Castile soap/hot water solution with a mop on carpet might not work, but you CAN make a carpet cleaner using the same ingredients! Instead of renting carpet cleaning gear or paying someone to do it for you, mix a cup of water and 1/4 cup of Castile soap in a blender until you get a foam consistency. Then use that to clean your carpet holistically, without toxins and without making a dent in your wallet.

Castile soap is often sold in the personal care aisle, so we know it's great for use as body wash, shampoo, pet shampoo and even for acne treatment, but its power goes far past that one room. Next time you're on the health aisle, remember all the amazing ways Castile soap can help you create a nurturing space, and pick up a bottle! 

by Anjie Cho

Non-Toxic Cleaning Products

No doubt the reasons for purchasing highly advertised and recommended cleaning products are almost all, if not entirely, based on the goal of keeping your home clean so that your family can live a long, healthy life. Unfortunately, purchasing these chemical agents most often accomplishes exactly the opposite effect, filling households with tainted air supply and ultimately resulting in a plethora of health issues including, but certainly not limited to, asthma, allergies, eye irritation and nausea.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has noted that indoor air quality (IAQ) can be anywhere from two to five times as polluted as the air we breathe outside. This is due to a range of factors including chemicals in decorating materials (like paint) and highly toxic cleaning agents. Store-bought cleaning products come with a laundry list of hard-to-pronounce chemicals, all of which you repeatedly release into your family’s internal atmosphere every time you use them to provide a “clean” environment. Fortunately, it’s perfectly possible to do away with these cleaning materials once and for all and still rest easy in a clean, non-toxic home. 

Switching to homemade, non-toxic cleaning supplies is as easy as looking up time-tested recipes online or in books and committing to using these substances in place of toxic agents. The best part? A healthier family isn’t the only positive outcome to making this change. Eliminating toxic cleaning supplies from your home is also a great way to ensure that children don’t accidentally come into contact with these harmful materials, whether snooping around in cabinets or lovingly offering “help” during cleaning times.

Aside from creating an all-around healthier living environment for you and your family, going green and non-toxic in the area of cleaning can save money by a long shot. Rather than paying per bottle for toxic concoctions, there are numerous ways to combine safe, cheap, regular household chemicals to create non-toxic cleaning supplies for your home, and many of these substances can be purchased for pennies on the dollar, especially in bulk. Not to mention many of these products also have other uses in the home, from laundry detergent to cooking to more.

On a global scale, reducing the use of toxic chemicals in your home also increases the quality of the outdoor environment as well as the amount of safe drinking water available to our population. When you use toxic cleaners, chemicals are released into the air, and though they most immediately pollute indoor air, they eventually make their way outdoors and, ultimately, into the ozone. Pouring chemicals into drains and washing them away results directly in pollution of the water supply we use for safe use and consumption, thereby reducing the already tiny 1% we have for use.

by Anjie Cho

Why Save Water?

If you live in this century, and let’s face it, you do, you’ve undoubtedly been encouraged to save water in any way possible to you. One obvious reason for preserving our water supply is that, contrary to popular belief, water is not a renewable resource. Our planet has a finite amount of water, and only 1% of this resource is even available for human consumption. In addition to this very obvious reason to be wary of water use, there are numerous other factors influencing the mission to reduce our nation’s, and our planet’s, use of this precious resource.

As previously mentioned, of the finite amount of water available to us on Earth, only a stunning 1% is potable, and this number is rapidly decreasing due to excessive pollutants and litter being dumped into our clean water supply almost daily. We absolutely cannot live without clean drinking water, and neither can any other species supported by Earth. Every living creature needs water, which means that even if we redirect our pollution into water sources that humans do not currently use, we are still actively killing various species of the animal kingdom, many of which are already endangered. Even for advocates of animal consumption, this is an issue. What will you eat if we eradicate all existing species? Inability to conserve our water for later use ultimately means extinction of all life on our planet.

Aside from keeping the entire planet alive, conservation of water is beneficial for that other green substance we love: money. Taking care to monitor your water usage and preserve as much as possible directly influences the amount of money we spend each month, each year on utility bills. These equations are simple. Many of us are charged based on water consumption, as we are with any other energy source. The fewer gallons we utilize, the less money we pay. As a side note, popular methods for conserving water can save thousands of gallons of water annually. Conserving water doesn’t just decrease water utility bills, though. It also directly affects the cost of other energy bills including gas. The fewer gallons of water you heat for various reasons, from showering to washing clothes to washing dishes, the less gas you use to heat this water, which results in immediately lower gas bills.

Other reasons for conserving water include reducing state and national funds (to which we contribute) spent on public structure aimed at keeping our water supply flowing and fresh, reducing expenditures on sewage and wastewater processes and even reduction of the occurrence of sinkholes in some states.

by Anjie Cho