Non-Toxic Solutions

...... for non toxic living

For cleaning, instead of using a scouring powder or smelly spray, use baking soda. It's nontoxic and cleans just about any grunge. If you leave a bit behind as you clean the tub, it'll just make the water feel softer... baking soda is what those fizzy 'bath bombs' are primarily made of.

To unclog a drain, pour baking soda down the drain, then follow it with vinegar. Let it sit for about 15 minutes and then run hot water. It's not as effective as Drano, but it's a lot safer. You can repeat it before hauling out the serious shit.

If you don't want to use commercial deodorant and the alternative ones are irritating, you can pat on baking soda with a powder puff after you've completely dried off. If you're still damp, it'll be as irritating as anything else, or if you've just shaved.. You can make a scented liquid deodorant, with 1 part baking soda, 1 part cornstarch, and a few drops of scented oil. I found this one messy, so I stick with the powder puff.

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Allergic reactions: Epsom salts Will STOP an allergic reaction in it's tracks, immediately. Mix one teaspoon of epsom salts with water, stir until dissolved, hold your nose and drink it fast.

Also you can use buffered vitamin C powder to do the same thing, Just mix a teaspoon of buffered C in some water hold your nose and chug it.

Both remedies taste awful, will cause you to have to run to the john with the sometimes, and belch. But the inconvienence and crappy taste is worth it to be able to breathe and stop itching, practically instantaneously. And the results are nothing short of Amazing.

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Nausea: A tea made of Dandelion roots, mint leaves, catnip, raspberry leaves, and anise seeds make a good stomach tonic for nausea and pain. I use this. Put about equal amounts of herb together, put about a tablespoon's worth of the herbs in a tea ball or get a twist tie and tie it up in some cheese cloth. Boil some water put the herb bundle in a mug or cup, pour the hot water over it, steep and sip it when it cools to warm, not hot. Can be drunk cold too. Chilled Aloe Vera juice can calm a sore belly too. For some people when they get nauseated eat an orange. It stops my nausea.

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Ulcer Remedies : Fresh cabbage juice is helpful for ulcers. Drink it immediately after juicing. (use an electric juicer) drink it down with a large glass of water. This dilutes the acid and flushes it through the stomach and into duodenum.

An Ulcer calming tea:
Comfrey (2 parts)
Calendula (1 part)
Knotgrass (1 part)
Steep 1 tsp. in 1/2 cup boiling water.
Take 1 1/2 to 2 cups a day, unsweetened, in mouthfuls.
My father had ulcers he drank this tea all the time. When he used it regularly he was able to cut his tagemet dose.

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Sinusitis: A remedy for steam inhalation for sinusitis:

Dwarf-pine oil (5 parts)
Eucalyptus oil (3 parts)
Thyme oil (2 parts)
Place the oils (3 to 5 drops of each them) Put it in a large glass dish and cover with1 pint to 1 quart of boiling water. For the inhalation, cover your head and the container both with a towel and inhale the vapors, breathing slowly and deeply through your nose and out yer mouth

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Cold Sores: Spirits of camphor, is available in a little brown glass bottles for cheap at drug stores. Sometimes you have to ask for it at the pharmacy desk. Spirit of Camphor can kill cold sores. Get the camphor, open your mouth deliberately cracking the cold sores open, smear the camphor liquid directly from the bottle on the sores and the area around them 5 times a day if they're scabby. Try to get the camphor at the first sign of a cold sore. It will sting, it tastes crappy but tolerate it, because your cold sores will be gone in a day or two. After awhile the sting of the camphor gets strangely pleasant as the cold sore dies.

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Poison Ivy Rash: Here's Two great remedies I use myself when I get poison Ivy. This one is painful as hell but it works mindbogglingly fast. Warning: Don't use this remedy on kids or non-consenting people!

Wait until the Poison Ivy rash has made blisters. Before you go to bed, Get a bottle of Clorox bleach and go to the bathtub or sink and turn on the water. Make it cold. Then scratch to your hearts content, keep scratching careful that all the blisters are opened up and oozing the clear stuff. Pour the bleach straight from the bottle directly onto the scratched open ivy blisters, scream your head off and howl for a count of ten at least. Rinse it off. Pat dry with a clean towel. The ivy rash will have stopped itching right away, (even after it stops hurting) it will be scabbed over in the morning, dead, and no longer itching. The scabs will heal up. Don't use this on sensitive places like your face, orifices or mucus membranes. It's great for feet, arms, legs and hands. In worse case scenarios you may have to repeat the procedure in a very small area. But 99. 9% of the time, it's licked.

This method of killing Ivy Rash is slower, but it can be used on the face. I had it used on my face when I was little every summer when my eyes got swollen shut from playing in the woods getting poison Ivy. It's just plain old Kiwi White shoe polish. Use the polish jar with a sponge applicator. Put it on, often. It will dry on your face. Wash it off at night and replace it with a new layer before bed. Put a towel on yer pillows. Anything with Tannic acid in it is great at killing poison ivy rash.

If you live near a walnut tree gather about 8 walnuts with the pithy scented outer green hulls intact and boil them a half hour or more, Strain the juice and smear the juice on your Ivy rash. You can store it in the fridge, just toss the walnuts into the jar, dip a cloth in it to use it. It's soothing and dries up poison Ivy but you look strange because it stains.

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Bee stings: Bum a cigarette or some pipe tobacco from a smoker, Or if you smoke use your own, take out the tobacco and chuck the papers and filter. Put the wad of tobacco in a saucer, mix it with some warm water, and add some meat tenderizer and baking soda like 1/2 tsp. Stir and muddle it all together into a pulpy mess adding water to keep it moist if you need to. Put the mixture in a bit of cheese cloth or under a band aid, tape it on the sting after you scratch the stinger out(never pull a bee stinger it squeezes more bee toxin into you. )Then put ice on top of the whole thing. It will cut the irritation severity and heal it faster.

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Knockout tea for insomniacs or type A personalities:

2 parts catnip
1 part chopped valerian root
3 part hops flowers
2 parts muellin ( add more if you want a dreamy calm effect)
2 parts Camomile.

Mix all the herbs in parts in a jar. Shake to mix it well. Boil some water, as you wait for it to boil, wrap about 2 tablespoons of this tea in cheesecloth or use a tea ball. Pour the boiling water over the tea in a cup. Steep the tea in your cup for like 6 minutes or longer. Drink. sweeten it a little bit if ya want to. Store the tea in an airtight ziplock in the jar in a cool dark dry place.

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Mosquito Repellents: Use Essential oils of: Basil, cedarwood, citronella, geranium, juniper, and/or rosemary. Always dilute the essential oils when you want to put them on your skin. Dilute essentials with a 1-4 ratio with a carrier oil (like safflower or almond oil)if you intend to smear it on yourself. Otherwise use an aromatherapy burner and a tealight and the scent will disperse the skeeters. If you have them set a few up in a circle around your party area. It's great to use if you have picnics or go camping.

To Repel Fleas: Use Cajeput, lemon and pine essential oils. (don't ever put any oils on your pets fur!! instead buy or make an aromatherapy charm necklace and soak a cotton ball with the oils and attach it to your pet's collar. Put the oils in a mister with water, shake it up often as you spray it around the house especially where pets sit. Another way to get rid of fleas is as effective as a flea bomb. This kills fleas. Just sprinkle moth flakes all over the house and take yourself and your pets out of the house overnight. Come home24 hours later and vacuum the moth flakes and dead fleas up when you return.

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To Kill Roaches: Use Powdered boric acid. Sprinkled on the floorboards, in corners, behind the fridge and on the backs of cabinet shelves will kill roaches.

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To keep deer, rabbits and other herb eating critters out of your garden: Use powdered blood and bone meal (available at garden supply houses) sprinkle it in a fin
e dust all over your lettuce or rhododendrons. This will discourage these critters from munching your plants because it smells like meat to their sensitive nostrils. Replace it after it rains or after you water. RINSE your harvests well! But to be nice and reinforce the idea in the critters minds that leaving your garden alone is a good idea, dump out any veggie trimmings you don't want to use in a private area where you don't mind them visiting you. They will not be so hungry as to bother to risk eating your plants in more public areas. like your yard when you feed them. Plus you can form a relationship with them over time.

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Ant repellent oils: Any of the mints. Smear it on windowsills, dribble it along your floorboards, door thresholds, even rim the sugar bowls and refresh it every few days. The ants will give up moving in and go away. If every time you see ants moving anywhere in your home in a line or stream of ants this is an ant trail, ants make these trails as signals to lead other ants into your house with their unique hive scents. Just draw a line of peppermint oil through the line, they will become confused when separated from the scent communication line, and leave or die. Best part is peppermint oil is much safer for kids and pets than raid.