Family Cloth: Why You Shouldn't Be Squeamish

By now you probably know how much I enjoy frugality. It shows in my home, my eating style, my wardrobe, and now it's showing in my bathroom.

Family cloth. Do you know what it is? In case you don't: family cloth is what you use instead of toilet paper. It it reusable, washable cloth. I made ours out of the flannel receiving blankets we had used for our little one's home birth. I cut them into squares and sewed them - 192, in all. They look pretty and feel absolutely luxurious.

All-Natural Living - How's it Going?

A month ago, I made the decision to go all-natural and make my own hygiene and cleaning products. There have been a few bumps, a lot of nice surprises and changes, and overall, myself and my husband are loving it. Here are a few things we experiences that I thought would be worth sharing.

Deodorant: this was going well. For three weeks, there weren't any problems. I figured I was safe, but then my underarms turned really red. A couple days after I noticed this, when I was showering, skin came off in clumps. I'm serious. I did more research and read that baking soda can be too irritating for some people. I remembered reading this before, but I've never had sensitive skin, so I didn't think it would be a problem. I changed it up and now am using deodorant made up of equal parts cornstarch and coconut oil, with 2-3 drops of essential oil per 1/2 cup. I'll update this post when I've been using it awhile so you know how that's going.

It's also good to note that you should store your deodorant in a dark, cool place. I forgot to tell my husband this, and his deodorant melted all over our dresser. Despite the fact that we ended up with a nicely polished dresser, it wasn't the ideal situation. Store properly (in your fridge, if you keep your home warm - because coconut oil liquidates at 76 F) and you shouldn't have this problem. Additionally, essential oils can lose their potency in sunlight, so you want to avoid that all well.

Why I'm Going All-Natural

I've never been one of those people who is super worried about toxins in cleaning supplies and body-care supplies. It's not that I don't care; it's more that I've grown up without worrying about it and am simply used to what I can buy at the store. After getting married, I remember reading books and looking through blogs filled with ideas to keep house and self clean with natural and organic products a person could make at home. I started compiling a list of what I would need and realized it would be incredibly expensive to start up the process, so I put it aside and essentially forgot about it.

This idea re surged when I was looking up a better way to clean my oven top. I could mix a tablespoon each of salt, baking soda, water, and elbow grease, and it was as clean as I could ever get it with 409. I was so pleased, I spent a day looking for various cleaners and body-care products. I wanted to be able to buy limited ingredients for a variety of products.