Resolved.

One of my new year's resolutions for 2012 was to make my own laundry detergent. I spent the year, off and on, looking for all the ingredients, which are not that easy to find.

Andy brought home an old container of borax from work, which was the first ingredient acquired.

Then in Cole's one day I spied washing soda and nearly shouted with joy.

But soap flakes completely eluded me. I looked in Bunnings. I looked at the grocery stores. And then, in November, I was marking essays written by my first-year sociology students. Early in the semester I made them write about the social problem they are most troubled by, and then after those essays were finished I told them to do something, anything, to make a change. One of the students had identified consumerism, and the constant need to be spending money, and her social change project was convincing some of her colleagues to do what she does and make her own laundry detergent (along with other anti-consumerist things, of course, but that's the one that stuck out at me). I excitedly read her final essay, in which she reflected on this, and wrote my burning question in the comments: Where do you get soap flakes?!

I shortly got an email back (it's nice to know that some people read my comments!) saying you can get Lux brand soap flakes at IGA. So I looked there, and there they were. The box was about $10, which made Andy raise his eyebrows, but I was determined.

A few days ago, I finally managed to get all three ingredients together (along with some essential oil) and make the damn laundry detergent. There are so many recipes on the internet, but they all made about 10 or 12 litres of detergent. Andy and I only do laundry once a week, or at most 5 times a month, so we have no need for giant buckets full of washing liquid. Even if you do washing a few times a week, this was easy enough to make that whipping up a batch every three or so months wouldn't really be an inconvenience. So I cut the recipe by 4, and put it together like so. It was super easy, and it will go far, so expensive ingredients really work out to be very cheap indeed.

All you need is:

1 cup of soap flakes - these can be bought pre-flaked, or you can grate a bar of soap yourself
1/4 cup of washing soda - not bicarb soda. We have soft water. If you have hard water, try 1/2 cup
1/4 cup of borax
a few drops of essential oil - we used ylang ylang
3 litres of hot water

In a saucepan, mix the soap flakes with a cup or two of hot water.

Cook it over medium-low heat until the soap flakes dissolve. Mine went kind of clumpy, because I didn't put much water in.

Add the washing soda and borax and mix this up. Somehow, adding dry ingredients made my soap go smoother and more liquidy, so I think magic might be involved.

Slowly add in the rest of the water.

If the soap goes lumpy and doesn't dissolve, like mine did, heat it over low heat until it does.

Put in a few drops of essential oil. My advice is to use something you love. Even this small batch will last us for maybe 8 or 10 months, so we're stuck with our smell for most of 2013 - luckily we both love ylang ylang.

Let it cool a bit, then pour into bottles. This part was very messy for me. My funnel is narrow, and clogged up with the thick gloopy soap. So instead I got a plastic cup and scooped soap into the bottles (because the saucepan was far too full to pour). I kind of got soap everywhere, but it is soap afterall, so it didn't take much effort to clean up.

Use about 1/4 cup per load. We've done a load of washing, and it seems to be just fine - not a revolution for my clothes or anything, but it seems just as good as the bought stuff. And considering that the box of soap flakes will probably last about 4 years, and the washing soda will last me decades, well, I think it is worth the savings!

Moving out cleaning

We've lived in our current flat for 4 years and 9 months. But the longest lease we were ever allowed to sign was 12 months. And since 2010, our employment/living situation has been a bit uncertain. So since we moved in, in 2007, we've always thought we would move out sort of soon. As a result, we avoided the sort of regular cleaning that you might do if you knew you were staying a while - why clean now, when we'll just have to do it at the end of our lease? I don't mean that we lived in a dump-hole. Our house was regularly tidy, and I always kept kitchen, bathroom, and living areas clean. I'm talking about the less-necessary cleaning -- getting dirt out of window tracks, cleaning windows, getting oil spots off garage floors...

Well, now we're at the end of our lease, and we had about 5 years of built-up dirt to clean up. We're fairly unwilling to spend money on cleaning products, though, especially since most are pretty terrible for health and the environment. But we do have a few nearly-empty bottles of things, and our natural cleaning products. And with these, plus a lot of elbow grease, we've been able to get everything pretty clean.

Vertical Blinds. Ours are vinyl, and were pretty dusty and a bit mouldy. We took each vinyl strip down, removed the plastic inserts, and soaked them in boiling water with a tiny bit of bleach (we got half a bottle of laundry bleach with a second-hand washing machine we bought once). When the water cooled, we scrubbed them with a sponge and then hung outside to dry. They look like new!

Curtains. These were already very faded, but had some water & dirt marks from open windows. We took them down and hand washed in some hot water and laundry detergent, and then carefully hung out to dry without getting wrinkles. They're still faded, and the stains didn't disappear, but it's good enough for us.

Oil spots. Luckily, there were some oil spots on the garage floor when we moved in, so the ones from Andy's car don't stand out so much. But, there was an obvious distinction between old and new oil spots. We had a bottle of floor cleaner (from god knows where) which claimed to cut through grease and grime. I squirted that onto the spots and scrubbed (and scrubbed) with a stiff brush. After rinsing and drying, all the spots look old and some are barely visible.

Carpet stains. We only had one - a cat puke stain, from when Nacho ate a shoelace, and we were a bit too busy and preoccupied to clean the carpet properly. I got this up with just a bit of bicarb soda and vinegar. First, I made a paste of bicarb soda and water, and scrubbed that into the carpet with a brush. Then we sprayed with vinegar water and let it fizz up. Blot with paper (or rags) and let dry over night. In the morning, it had dried and was a bit crusty, so I just used a dry brush to break up the crust, and then vacuumed. Be warned, though, that this will leave a clean spot in the middle of an otherwise kind of dingy carpet.

General cleaning. I made a mix of dish soap, vinegar, clove oil, and eucalyptus oil, and that has been a really effective all-purpose cleaner. This is going to be my go-to cleaning product from now on, I think. It cuts through soap scum in the shower, kills mould (from the clove oil), and disinfects (from the eucalyptus oil). Spray it on, let it sit a minute, and then wipe or scrub (depending on how dirty!). Leaves bathrooms shiny as, and gets regular smudginess of painted walls and doors.

Windows. This is hardly original, but vinegar + water sprayed on glass, and then wiped until perfectly dry with newspaper gets windows crystal clear. I do it with one wet newspaper, one dry newspaper, for maximum efficiency.

Outside tiles. Our pavers were covered with something green - moss? algae? I don't know what. But it happens every wet season, and our real estate has been cranky about it before. So we've gotten good at this one - all it takes is scrubbing. With a stiff brush. Scrubbing, scrubbing, scrubbing, and then washing the dirty residue away with water.

Kitchen bench top. Our counter top gets a bit dingy, so every few months (and especially now) I clear everything off of it, sprinkle dry bicarb soda all over, and scrub it in with a damp sponge. Pay particular attention to any stains (around our tea pot is a bad spot, and near the stove where turmeric-stained spoons get set on the counter). After it's all been scrubbed hard, spritz with vinegar, and then rinse off.

A few more things... Those gimmicky "magic erasers" work only sometimes, but where they were really effective for us was on greasy things - the inside of the oven-window, the top of the cabinet above the stove (which was surprisingly grotty!). Andy's parents washed down the walls, using a mop, with sugar soap, and then washed it off with methylated spirits + water. This made the walls look really good. Some bits of wall had caked on sticky tape - WD40 and a scour-y microfibre cloth got rid of this. Window tracks came clean with a rag stuffed down into the track with a pen cap.

Basically, it was mostly elbow grease and natural products, with a few chemical-y things thrown in that got our place sparkle-arkly.

Squeaky Clean

I was a bit misleading when I mentioned that I had some homemade cleaning products to share - they aren't products for cleaning houses, but rather for cleaning yourself.  Here's the thing: I've given up on shampoo, and soap.

In January, I was home alone and screwing around on the internet, and I followed a few random links and stumbled across some websites discussing the No Shampoo Method, and the Oil Cleanse Method.  I read up on them.  I was intrigued.  I did some research, finding out the best ways to take up these soap-free, super-cheap, and gentle self-care techniques.  I found lots, and lots, and LOTS of websites, blog posts, YouTube videos, and forum discussions.  And I discovered that the only thing that can be concluded is that you have to work out what is best for your skin & hair.  So here's how I do it, using these ingredients...

Hair
I haven't used shampoo since January.  Instead, I wash my hair with a bicarb soda (baking soda) paste, and 'condition' with apple cider vinegar.  Some  people seem to use heaps more water than bicarb, and pour it over their hair.  I tried that, but prefer a runny paste.  I fill up a little container with bicarb...

And then add an equal amount of water (give or take a bit).  Then I stir and stir, until it is a smooth paste.

Then, once a week, I take a big scoop of this paste and massage it into my head.  I try to keep it to the roots, because it makes the ends of my hair a bit dry.  I rub it in, and leave it on for about a minute, and then rinse.  Be sure to rinse thoroughly - I've gotten out of the shower a few times and found a super white patch on my scalp.

I also keep a little jar of apple cider vinegar in the shower, next to a small plastic cup.  After all the bicarb paste is rinsed out of my hair, I tip 1 to 2 Tablespoons of vinegar into the little cup, and then fill it up with water.

Then, I dip my hair into the cup, to make sure the ends get their fair share of the vinegar.  After that, I tip the rest of the vinegar water over my hair.  Again, rinse thoroughly.  I like to end with a quick blast of cold water - it may be ineffective, but in my head it makes my hair shinier.

Once I get out of the shower, I towel-dry my hair and dab a bit of coconut oil on the ends.  All of this works best, for me, if I wash my hair in the afternoon or evening.  Then I let it air dry, and sleep on it.  For some reason, this gives me smooth, shiny, and easy to work with hair.  If I wash it in the morning, it goes a bit fuzzy.

As I mentioned above, I only need to do this once a week.  On the other days, I keep my hair dry for my morning shower, and rinse with plain water for my afternoon or evening shower.  My hair only smells like vinegar until it dries on the first day - after that, it's fine.  And it doesn't get sweaty or greasy, even though I ride to and from uni each day.  My hair is still as soft as it was when I was washing with shampoo, so I'm happy to save heaps and heaps of money by using cheap kitchen supplies!

Face
The Oil Cleanse method is based on the notion that "like dissolves like", which may or may not be scientifically true.  In any case, it involves using oil to clean your face, and surprisingly, it works really well.

I mix my oils in a plastic bottle, which lasts for a few months.  About 1/4 to 1/3 of the bottle gets filled with Castor Oil (which is available from the chemist - but behind the counter).  I put a few drops of eucalyptus oil, for its antibacterial qualities.  Then I top up the bottle with olive oil.  The ratio of castor to olive oil depends on your skin type.  If you have very dry skin, you can go up to half-half, but if your skin is on the oily side you should use more olive oil.

So, every evening, I pull back my hair and get maybe a teaspoon, at the most, of oil in my palm.  Then, for 5 or 10 minutes, I rub it all over my face.  It's great for dissolving makeup, and I can literally feel my pores unclogging while I rub.  After a few minutes, I rinse.  With the hottest water I can stand, I rinse and rinse with a cloth, rubbing the oil off.  It takes a few rinses, and it's not finished until your face feels un-oily.  Then I dry my face.  I still use moisturiser after I'm finished - some people on the internet said they don't need to, but my skin gets too dry without it.  I do this at night, and in the mornings I just rinse my face with plain water and then moisturise before putting on makeup.

Why bother?
To be honest, I had no problem with the facial cleanser and shampoos I was using before I started these homemade options in January.  I was buying from Plant Essentials, which makes its products right here in Townsville, using certified organic plant ingredients.  And they're not even that expensive.  In fact, I still use their moisturisers and make up, because I truly love that shop.

But, (and this is an indication of my supreme laziness), I was home alone in January and the thought of going in to the city when I was running low on shampoo was unappealing.  So I decided to try out these methods I had read about.  And it turns out I like them.  Neither method has revolutionised the quality of my skin or hair - some people on the internet seem to suggest it has for them, but for me, I haven't noticed much difference at all compared to soap and shampoo.   Except, of course, for the price difference.  Bicarb soda, apple cider vinegar, and oil are cheap, and since you don't use much, it really is very cost effective. The results look something like this:

So there you have it - my cheaper-than-chips, easy-pants homemade self-cleaning products.  If you're interested and I haven't answered your questions, let me know in the comments - or do some googling, since there is a boatload of information on the interwebs.

The Tropical Vegan Home - De-cluttering the hallway closet

One of the (many) things I don't like about renting is the lack of good storage space in our unit.  We have a store room for big stuff, like empty luggage, but since we don't own our place, we can't do things like build cupboard/shelving units into the walls, like I would like to.  And since we're in a unit, there isn't heaps of space for furniture like cupboards/shelving units.  And we don't like buying things, generally - partially because we don't like to spend money, and partially because we know we won't live here forever, so it seems silly to buy lots of heavy stuff that we will need to move.

But we've lived in the same place for almost 4 years now, so we've managed to accumulate lots of stuff that needs storing, even though we haven't accumulated any place to store it.  The result of this is that our hallway cupboard has become a catch-all - it is a pantry, a tool box, a craft cabinet, a place to stash cleaning supplies and cat food and anything else that we can't find a home for.  It looked like this:

The top shelf was mainly tools, some craft supplies, and some food.

One level down was a medicine cabinet, of sorts - sun screen, panadol, insect repellent, bandages, etc. And our main 'pantry' items.  And our cookbooks.

Below that was gardening stuff, paperwork, and some more food.

Second from the bottom was linens and cat stuff.

And on the bottom we had the vacuum cleaner, dive gear, and some electronic stuff.

And don't be fooled by my simplified descriptions - there was lots, lots more than this on each and every shelf.  It was a mess.  And, it was a cockroach heaven.  When I had first moved over here, I had the North American mentality that cockroaches are an indication of a filthy lifestyle.  Eventually I realised that they are just part of life in the tropics, and there is little you can do about them, really.  But that doesn't mean I want to make their lives easier by giving them a comfy mess to live in!  And anyways, clutter gives me the heebie-jeebies.  So, I set about fixing the problem.

First, I took out all the paperwork, and filed away things that needed filing.

Then I took out everything from the closet.  I got rid of a fair chunk of stuff, but it was pretty amazing to see just how much stuff we've managed to amass - especially considering that when I moved over here, all of my belongings fit into two suitcases.  This is just the food, and just the food from the hallway closet.  You see, we have a tendency to buy food en masse when it's on special, and we pay no mind to such trivial matters as expiry dates.

We also have a giant plastic box hidden behind the dining table that stores extra bags of flour and spices and so on.

When the cupboard was empty, I cleaned and cleaned every shelf.  I cleaned with bicarb soda, and with vinegar.  Then I wiped with eucalyptus oil, which is a disinfectant and hopefully a cockroach deterrent.  Then Nacho had a final check to make sure everything was sorted as I started putting things back.

Except instead of putting things all willy-nilly, like we had done before, this time there was a method to my madness.  I'll shamefully admit that I even mapped out every shelf on paper to make sure that things fitted properly.  With a bit of careful planning, I could squeeze all of the food, booze and cookbooks onto a single shelf - instead of spread across three or four.

Finally, a few hours later, I had everything that was going back put away.  A lot of stuff was re-homed to more appropriate places, like craft stuff in my craft box in the other room.  A lot of stuff was thrown out, or set aside to be donated.  What went back in, then, was the cream of the crop.  On the top, I put the tools and electronic stuff - Andy uses those more than me, so the fact that I can't really see the shelf isn't such an issue.  I also moved our filing system to the front of the top shelf, because that's easy enough for me to grab.  Below that is all of our food, and then the next shelf down has garden and random household stuff (extra toilet paper, candles, etc).  And our medicine cabinet supplies - with plenty of room to grow.  Further down, linens, office supplies, and cat stuff.  The bottom shelf changed the least - it still houses the vacuum cleaner and Andy's dive gear (which I hadn't yet replaced when this photo was taken).

It's still not perfect, and I still long for the day when I can build a shelf into a wall without forsaking my bond, but at least now I can find the things I am looking for!