DIY Natural Cleaning Products, Ditch The Harsh Chemicals NOW 🌿

I think we forget sometimes that we are human. We're living, breathing beings, not separate from nature but deeply rooted in it. But the way we live today and how I've lived most of my life is so disconnected from nature. Things like just being surrounded by technology or wearing clothing that has so many synthetic materials in or washing stuff with artificial fragrances and harsh chemicals. This is all incredibly recent stuff in human existence really. Yeah and for most of history we lived in tune with the natural world using plants, minerals, ancestral knowledge to take care of our homes, our families, our bodies and I think it's time we remember those ways. Yeah I do too. I think there's something very powerful about learning sort of the lost ways, the traditional ways, not only because it's better for us but you save money, it's better for the environment, the whole world we live in. So today we're going to show you how we make our natural homemade cleaning products that we've recently been switching to. Amazing. So first of all should we show everyone how we make our natural multi-surface cleaning spray? Yeah I love this one just because it's so simple and people get to save money. This is the best thing about making your homemade cleaning products. The cost saving is incredible. This one in particular uses up any lemon scraps and just the whole sort of smell and it's not intoxicating when we use it. It feels clean in the air. I feel it's safer for us to breathe in, to live in. Definitely. What I like is when we use kitchen paper, using this is totally natural. I can put that kitchen paper in my compost heap and I'm not worried about any harsh chemicals ruining my compost. So that's why I love this. So to make it you'll need those lemon scraps, white distilled vinegar which we buy from our local zero waste store and a handful of pine needles or you can use any other antibacterial herb like rosemary or thyme. Start by filling a large jar about halfway with lemon peels and pine needles. Then pour in distilled vinegar until everything is completely covered. Seal the jar, tuck it away in a cupboard and let it infuse for about two weeks and give it a gentle shake every few days to help those natural oils release. And here's one we made two weeks ago. Oh wow, yes. You can almost see the colour that's been sort of leached out into the vinegar. Hopefully that's all the goodness. Well it definitely is all the goodness. It's like making a tincture really isn't it? Yep and now we should strain it into the spray bottle. Amazing. You can dilute it with water in a two to one ratio for gentler everyday cleaning. Oh, the smell. Wow. Remember only two, two thirds. You can use it on countertops, tiles, sinks and more. Just make sure to avoid stone surfaces like granite or marble as vinegar can erode them over time. And there we go. Simple as that. Look at that. Beautiful. You can label these up, you can get bottles like this, glass ones online and there we go. That will keep us going for a while and you can just get another batch on the go when you have lemons to use up. This one will blow your mind. A washing machine laundry liquid that's totally natural. It will save you money free from any artificial fragrances and harsh chemicals and cleans the clothes really good. It's all thanks to these incredible soap nuts aka soap berries and these are from a tree native to India and Nepal. We've actually just picked these up from our local zero waste store and they're amazing because they contain saponins which is like a natural plant-based soap and they've been using cleansing and cleaning for centuries. At the minute we're using these because we haven't got any local conkers which come out in autumn time but they also contain saponins, saponins, and we'll switch over to those once we have enough conkers. But this is, this is mind-blowing really isn't it? I love this one. Clothes are so important, so important to switch to natural materials. I've been doing it now for the last few years and when you've got natural clothing you don't want to wash it in unnatural harsh chemicals, artificial fragrances. So finding this and it can be used, you don't have to be peddling a washing machine, you can use it in your actual washing machine. It's just like natural, it's just natural laundry detergent. It's amazing and Teagan's got some hacks of how to make it smell incredible. So first of all we want to boil one cup of these crushed soap nuts with one and a half litres of water for about 30 to 40 minutes until the liquid has reduced down. Oh wow you can see the saponins already, those bubbles just from adding water, amazing. So whilst this is bubbling away should we show them the chopping board cleaner? Yeah good idea. So guys I have this whole issue around chopping boards, so much so actually I went to my mum and dad's house for dinner the other day, we both did, and my dad was using a plastic chopping board to prepare the food and although that may seem normal to most, to me it's kind of shocking especially since I've gifted my dad a wooden chopping board. Plastic chopping boards harbour bacteria especially if you've got sort of knife marks within it and that happens over time of using a plastic chopping board, plus that will leach microplastics into your food, it's incredibly bad and I do not know whose idea it was in the first place to start using plastic chopping boards. We should have stuck to wood the natural way because wood is actually naturally antimicrobial, it will kill the bacteria over time especially if you're looking after the wood chopping board, plus they look beautiful, this is natural materials that we should be cooking with, our food is natural most of the time these days and so should our utensils and our appliances especially something that comes into contact with the food so much like a chopping board. Now I used to just clean my wooden chopping boards just with a spray, a natural spray and wipe them clean and then I'd olive oil them after to nourish the wood but Teagan's introduced me to the most amazing deep clean for chopping boards, how do you do it? Well I would only do this about once a week like you say for a deep clean but I use about one tablespoon of bicarbonate of soda for this size of board. Just sprinkled over the top? Sprinkle over the top and then a sprinkle or a pinch of sea salt and then I cut a lemon in half and use that half of the lemon to scrub all over the board and you'll see the citric acid of the lemon and the bicarbonate of soda reacting together, it'll give a dental fizz and that does the heavy lifting of the cleaning really and deodorizes the board to get rid of any stubborn garlic onion smells. Do you smell the onion coming off? I do yeah we must eat a lot because I can smell it quite strongly to be honest and that's why sometimes when I cut into a strawberry or some banana or something like that it tastes a bit like garlic sometimes. I should have been doing this a long time ago, this is amazing. After T's finished deep cleaning with the lemon she rinses off the board and gives it one final wipe with our natural antibacterial spray, it's left to dry then I rub in some beautiful olive oil to nourish the wood. Wow look at that shine and it's brought the wood back to life hasn't it? Yeah. Looks so nice and nourishing you can see all the grain it's popping again. Smells a lot better that's for sure. Smells great. All right let's check on this laundry detergent, oh it's reduced down quite a bit there nice and it smells quite good too. No it doesn't, it smells awful I think it does anyway. Don't be put off by the smell because we can mask it with essential oils. Yeah and actually the clothes come out smelling incredible after T's added some of those oils but it doesn't smell too bad to me. So the next step is to strain this, let it cool and then you add the essential oils. Yeah. What are you adding today because the last batch was incredible when I put my top on it smelled so good. Well the last batch I used rosemary and geranium essential oils but we've run out of geranium so we'll use rosemary and lavender instead. Nice okay. So when this gets mixed around in the washing machine all the soapiness will come out. Just mixing it here you won't see so much soapiness because it's just so much of it but you only need to add about a cup is it to the washing machine? Half a cup to a cup depending on your load. Okay and yeah as it's in the washing machine it gets actually soapy just like any shop-bought laundry detergent. It's amazing this is a revelation just with something so natural as soap nuts and as I said you can use conkers too if you live here in the UK collect your conkers and you can make it in the same way with the outer coating of the conker. Yeah. It's incredible. But I'd recommend doubling this amount. Oh yeah of course. So that you have more and it lasts longer. And the important thing with this bottle it up and store it in the fridge because it's there's no preservatives in it it's not going to keep as long as the shop-bought stuff so keep it in the fridge next to your washing machine and you know if you wash clothes often like we seem to do you'll go through it quite quickly and it won't go bad or anything like that but this for me is a revelation I thank you so much for introducing it to me and making it because we've got a little one on the way and we don't want our baby especially when we're washing so much of their clothes we don't want the baby wearing anything that's been washed in anything harsh at all baby skin is so soft and fresh and new into the world actually maybe we should treat our own skin just like we would a baby skin well yeah I have super sensitive skin so this is great on my skin definitely this laundry liquid is great for general washes but if you have stubborn stains or bad odors that you need to remove from clothing or any materials that you're adding into your washing machine then add something like bicarbonate of soda or castile soap to help give it extra strength see thank you so much for sharing your amazing knowledge and also the impact you've had on my life since you've been here making the home and more of a natural place so it's amazing to to learn these skills and guys if you have any extra tips or any other recipes that we can incorporate because we're just learning this stuff we're trying to live a more natural life and the more information that's out there this could be a good community just in the comment section just share your your thoughts and one thing we forgot to mention actually with this natural surface multi-cleaner you can just add a shot of vodka or high strength alcohol to the mix and it creates a really good glass cleaner too and it's street free oh yeah it's street free no streets just because of that extra alcohol so thank you so much for watching if you want to support the channel please order a copy of my book for all the homesteading recipes not these recipes but just general amazing food and herbal remedies and fermentation and all that good stuff so i'll see you soon we'll see them soon and thank you again my beautiful beautiful partner in crime