Sickness still prevails in my household...I heard the ominous croup cough this morning (Help me!!!...makes me think of an Italian movie I watched in class where a little boy sets the local movie theatre on fire accidentally and runs home shouting Aiuto Mama...Help mom!...bittersweet moments interest me...yep I am a little weird). So, handwashing is a primary concern right now. I have tried so many soap ideas in my green and clean quest. Long, long ago I succombed to the anti-bacterial craze. I now am enlightened (note sarcasm here, enlightened does not describe this tired mama). I tried bar soap for awhile as it is greener taking less energy to make and package since no plastic bottle is needed. Bar soap is apparently finicky, so I became frustrated...you see, my family either seems to wash our hands too much some days resulting in a wet and slimy bar or too little and it dries out and is not thorough in the handwashing job. Then, I remembered a blogger talking about making her own foaming hand soap using castille soap. Of course, I did not remember which blog. Castille is not made from pretoleum...yipee...and I own it already to make cleaning products. So, it fits many of my aspirations found on my home page including green, homemade, healthy, frugal, and my favorite easy to do.
Recipes on the internet focus on using liquid soap...which has ingredients I want to minimize in my family's life. So, I began experimenting...and the little scientist in me smiled (and screamed to get out ;). I have a leftover foaming pump that once held baby soap...even more frugal and green. It is not made in America so the size is smaller. It is a 5 fluid ounce container and it appears with some internet research that 7.5 ounces is normal. For my container I found that 1 Tablespoon works but is less soapy. My preference is 1.5 Tablespoons as 1 pump is enough unless your hands are really dirty. This means that the castille soap should be 10-15% of the total volume of the dispenser. This means that I recommend for a 7.5 ounce container 1.5 - 2 Tablespoons of Castille soap and then fill almost to the top with tap water. The leftover space allows you to shake to mix.
If you have a dispenser of another size, take its size in fluid ounces and double that number. Then multiply by .10 and .15 which gives you the range of castille soap in Tablespoons that tends to work...for me and my pump at least.
Castille soap comes in scents so this last time I purchased Lavendar, which is a relaxing and mild smell perfect for cleaning products and hand soap.
Next goal is to figure out dishwashing liquid using castille soap. For now we use Seventh Generation which is a decent and easy to find option.
The compromise: 30 seconds to make hand soap and missed opportunity to kill all the bacteria that threatens to enter my home.....ooooooo
The Sweet Reward: It's cheap, easy, foamy soap is fun, green, smells good, and you aren't contributing to the Superbugs, who may just become our next Overlord.
How do you bow down to a bacteria?
T
I started doing this about a year ago after snagging an old, almost-empty foaming pump from my parents' house. However, my approach is not nearly so scientific -- I just squirt in a little castille soap, and then top off with water (I would estimate that it is ~10% soap, perhaps a bit less). A few months ago, I acquired a second pump (same source as the first), so we could have one in the kitchen and one in the bathroom :)
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