Detergent, deodorant, vegetable broth, dishwasher tabs or cotton pads : We’re used to buying most of our everyday products at the store. Yet you can make many of them yourself without much effort. It’s usually cheaper and you know exactly what’s in it. So you have a clearer mind for online gambling with bitcoin.
Doing it yourself instead of buying it is fun, usually costs less than ready-made products and also leaves less packaging waste. And in this way we can counteract the fact that corporations live only from producing completely superfluous things with an enormous expenditure of resources. Anyone can do it: Here are 16 things you don’t have to buy – but can simply make yourself.
1. Make it yourself instead of buying it: Detergent
Homemade detergent can not only protect the environment and health, but also your wallet. The ingredients for your DIY detergent: curd soap, bile soap and washing soda. Optionally, you can add citric acid for very chalky water and an essential fragrance (e.g. grapefruit).
Did you know? Theoretically, you can also make detergent from natural materials, such as ivy or chestnuts. Both natural products contain saponins, which have a similar effect to the surfactants contained in conventional detergents. In high quantities, however, the substance is toxic to fish. Since relatively few people wash with ivy or chestnuts so far, the danger is currently low.
2. Make dishwasher tabs yourself instead of buying them
To make dishwasher tabs yourself, you don’t need a chemistry lab, just the following ingredients: (household) baking soda, citric acid, soda ash, special salt, water and – if you want – essential oils for the scent. Also, keep an ice cube mold handy for the right shape.
The tabs also save packaging, are free of questionable ingredients, and when you run out, you can just make new ones. Depending on the brand, this is also much cheaper in the long run than always buying new packs.
3. Upcycled baby wipes
Many conventional baby wipes contain problematic ingredients.
You can easily make your own wet wipes from old fabric scraps, bed sheets or towels. Dipped in coconut oil, they clean the baby’s bottom – and are upcycled at the same time. Another plus: The homemade wet wipes are washable and therefore reusable.
4. Make your own deodorant without aluminum
Aluminum salts, parabens, synthetic fragrances – if you don’t trust conventional deodorants, you can make your own deodorant with just a few ingredients and without much prior knowledge. In principle, you only need baking soda, water and essential oil.
5. Make cleaning agents yourself instead of buying them
Aggressive chemical cleaners and cupboards full of cleaning agents are not necessary: With simple home remedies such as vinegar, citric acid, soda and baking soda, you can replace almost all cleaning agents. You’ll save plastic waste and money – and protect your health and the environment at the same time.
6. Cosmetic pads and cleaning cloths
Also welcome guests in the shopping cart: cotton pads and cleaning cloths. Why not make both yourself? Cotton clothes that are no longer wearable become useful cleaning rags in seconds.
The towel is totally discolored, half of the dishtowels have been lying unused in the cupboard for years? Perfect, because now they are given their new purpose as a cosmetic pad. Using a glass, measure the size of your homemade makeup removal pads and cut circular pieces from the fabric using your glass template. Double up the fabric and sew it together either by hand or with a sewing machine. Finished.
Don’t throw away your cleaning clothes and DIY cosmetic pads, wash them regularly. Therefore, when choosing fabrics and crochet thread, make sure that they are washable at 60 °C.
7. Make cosmetics yourself
Beautiful, soft skin – that’s what peelings from drugstores and supermarkets promise. But many cosmetic products contain microplastics that are harmful to the environment. It’s not difficult to make your own peeling. We have three simple recipes using coffee grounds, sea salt and sugar.
You can also make a nourishing lip balm just as quickly. The vitamin-rich balm consists of coconut oil, which many already know from the kitchen, and shea butter. Beeswax beads are used to give consistency to the self-stirred lip balm.
8. Make cough ointment and cough syrup yourself
The pharmaceutical industry makes us believe that we need their medicines for every little ache. Not infrequently, their ingredients are as questionable as their effectiveness.
Yet there are plenty of well-tolerated and effective home remedies. Ribwort, for example, is a real all-round talent: the wild herb has an antibacterial and anti-inflammatory effect and boosts the immune system. Perfect, therefore, to make not only cough tea from the leaves, but also an ointment from ribwort. You can use this as a cold ointment for coughs or to rub on insect bites, itching, small wounds, burns and even neurodermatitis.
