It’s time to freshen up the air around us and DIY household and personal care products are the perfect place to start.
After all, it’s never fun to have people turn up their nose at you because they smell you before they see you. Even if it was the best workout ever, it’s just that little bit embarrassing to know that people are keeping more than an arm’s distance because your presence assaults their senses.
This, of course, is because the days are longer (and hotter) and people are more active. Add to that a house that is just now opening up after being closed for Winter and the strange, smelly funk of Spring returns to homes around the world.
A smelly funk which people then try to combat with products that introduce another odor – that ‘clean, fresh scent’ of synthetic fragrance which pollutes the air far more than skunky socks your children left sitting on the living room floor or the musty pillows in your guest room.
Many of these mass produced products are detrimental both to our bodies and to the Earth. These man-made fragrances also aggravate people’s allergies and can be a trigger for painful migraines.
Being a mindful maker means not only thinking about what and how we’re producing handmade items to sell, but also where we can improve the world around us in simple ways with the skills we have.
Since Earth Day is just weeks away, I am reminded to look for easy ways to protect the planet and one of the first places to start is with the household cleaning and personal care products we use to clear the air.
So why not try to make your own and begin with 3 easy to make DIY household and personal care products?
Make These DIY Household And Personal Care Products
Air Freshener
How many childhood comforts do you have tied to specific scents?
Maybe it was coming home from school to a kitchen smelling like fresh-baked cookies, or when your mother’s fruity perfume lingered after a comforting hug, or the way your grandpa smelled like mint because he always seemed to be just finishing a Brach’s peppermint candy.
There are ways to create a soothing scent for your home without purchasing something that makes your nose wish it stayed congested from all the Spring pollen.
At least one of these recipes for DIY air fresheners is sure to help recreate some of those comforts as well as start a whole new set of fond associations:
- Smashed Peas And Carrots Easy Baking Soda Air Freshener
- The Prairie Homestead – 10 Homemade Air Freshener Recipes
- DIY Natural Home Deodorizers And Air Freshener
Eco-friendly Dryer Sheets
Hanging clothes on a drying rack or clipping them on a line to dry are methods used worldwide. This is the ultimate in ‘leave no trace’ cleaning, but not realistic for a lot of people.
Enter the clothes dryer.
This glorious invention produces dry, freshly fluffed, ready-to-wear clothing in no time. The challenge, however, is that the high heat often helps your favorite workout shirt hold on to the very odors you were trying to wash away. Sure, the stay away for a while, but the minute you break even the smallest of a sweat your family is back to using the clothes pins for their noses.
So someone set the clothes dryer up on a date with scented dryer sheets. And they fell in love.
But theirs is a toxic relationship.
No good comes of pumping all those chemicals out into the air and atmosphere, especially when there is a DIY non-synthetic option.
So if you don’t want to part with your dryer sheets, but still want to do your part to take care of the planet, take a peek at these posts to determine which DIY approach to eco-friendly dryer sheets is best for you:
- Turby & John Easy To Make Eco-Friendly Dryer Sheets (this was the first post I found years ago)
- SF Gate DIY Eco-Friendly Dryer Sheets
- Make Your Own: Eco-Friendly Dryer Sheets
DIY Deodorant
And last but not least, if making eco-friendly dryer sheets and DIY air fresheners don’t have you breaking a sweat, why not have a go at making your own deodorant?
Share the Goods: What products do you use that are kind to the environment (and your sinuses) this time of year to make sure your workout gear doesn’t ‘pollute’ the atmosphere?
7 Fun Ways To Celebrate Earth Day | Goods Giving Back
Friday 22nd of April 2016
[…] Along with personal care products, you can banish Spring’s smelly funk by making your own air fresheners and dryer sheets. […]