* ditch and switch – part 2

Since that last post was getting a bit wordy, I broke up the recipes into two posts. After we got the hang of how EASY it is to make our own stuff, we jumped into the ‘hardest’ and ‘most tedious’ of the items – the tub scrub. I call it the ‘hardest’ and ‘most tedious’ because you need to mix it in a bowl first. <insert eye roll emoji here>

To make the tub scrub you’ll first need a glass bowl, or at least a non-plastic bowl, and a wooden, silicone, or metal mixing item. This recipe uses citrus fresh which includes lemon oil. Lemon oil will destroy certain kinds of plastic and pull some of the petrochemicals out of the plastics and release these into your scrub, and no one wants chemicals in their stuff…..yuk.

* 1 cup baking soda
* 1/8 – 1/4 cup Thieves cleaner
* 15 drops of citrus fresh or lemon oil

In your non-plastic bowl, combine the thieves cleaner and the oils first. Slowly add in the baking soda, mixing as you go along. The end result should be a well incorporated paste, similar to a peanut butter consistency. If the scrub is too thick, add a bit of water – 1 teaspoon at a time – or additional thieves cleaner. Store the scrub in a oil safe jar and use as needed.

I use this on my bathtub, my glass stove top, and on the inside of my oven door to get rid of the grime.

[side note: I’ll be doing a quick video tutorial on how to make this scrub and will update the post when the video is ready.
UPDATE: See the video here]

Now we were on a roll; conversation was flowing, sharing was happening, and laughing ensued. We learned that when making this next cleaner, it would be helpful to have a funnel for the water and vinegar so as to not make a holy mess on the counter like I did in the class. No one wants to clean up a 1/4 cup of vinegar from the floor when you have company over.

This daily shower spray is so fresh smelling that I’ve started to use this combination of oils in a room spray for the bathroom also.

The recipe starts with an oil safe spray bottle; glass, stainless steel or oil safe plastic. Combine the below ingredients into your bottle and shake every time before using. Spray down the area after each shower and hopefully, like in my house, you’ll have less guck to clean when it comes time.

* 1.5 cups water
* 1/4 cup white vinegar ( i like to use Heinz cleaning vinegar (#afflink) which has a 6% acidity, but OTC white vinegar will work really well also)
* 5 drops of lemon essential oil
* 5 drops of citrus fresh essential oil
*4 drops of juniper essential oil
* 3 drops of tea tree essential oil
* 2 drops of thieves essential oil

The last item we make was our all-purpose thieves cleaner spray. The concentration in the recipe is perfect for counter tops, light cleaning on the stove top, sinks and tables – even wooden tables.

If you want to bump up the disinfecting/cleaning power of this, increase the amount of thieves cleaner to one tablespoon, and you’ll have a good everyday cleaner to wipe down bathrooms.

In an 8 oz spray bottle add 1 teaspoon of thieves cleaner, top with water and gently shake. Thats it. Easy peasy, lemon-gecko-squeezy – as the PJ Masks character likes to say!