Coconut Oil-My new best friend

When I made the decision to use cloth diapers, I discovered that you can't use regular diaper rash creams, since the thick formula can ruin the diapers ability to absorb properly. SO I did some research and asking around and found that some people use coconut oil. But I thought you couldn't use oils with cloth diapers. Well coconut oil is different. So I bought a jar of it and have been amazed ever since. Especially recently, when I found countless more uses for this amazing product.

Coconut oil has a high melting point of around room temperature, so it is normally a solid product, and melts upon contact with skin. It literally turns to water. This makes it easy to apply to baby's bottom and also allows it to rinse clean out of diapers, as long as they're washed in hot water at some point during the wash routine. During the warmer months last summer, we kept our jar in the fridge, since it would melt quickly in the jar in baby K's room.

Now since coconut oil is so great on a diaper rash, that must make it pretty fantastic for all skin. I recently added some coconut oil to my face cleaning oil and it made it work even better. The few pimples that had started to form were gone almost instantly. So this made me do some more research into why coconut oil is so fantastic and here's what I found:

The health benefits of coconut oil include hair care, skin care, stress relief, maintaining cholesterol levels, weight loss, increased immunity, proper digestion and metabolism, relief from kidney problems, heart diseases, high blood pressure, diabetes, HIV and cancer, dental care, and bone strength. These benefits of coconut oil can be attributed to the presence of lauric acid, capric acid and caprylic acid, and its properties such as antimicrobial, antioxidant, antifungal, antibacterial, soothing, etc.

Quoted from Organic Facts.com

If you visit the above quoted website, there is detailed information into how coconut oil helps with hair and skin care, heart disease, weight loss, immunity and much more.

Now I'm sure you're thinking, well, WHERE can I get this amazing product?? You can find coconut oil in the cooking section or organic section of most grocery stores, or online, for example on Amazon.com or Well.ca. OR, you can enter my friend's giveaway, over at Captain Fussybuckets. Her giveaway ends on March 8th, so you have just over a week to enter. I know I'll be entering and even if I don't win, I'm going to buy more so I can start cooking with this stuff. Definitely not going to mix the diaper rash cream with my cooking stuff.

If you've used coconut oil, please share your favorite uses for it. I can't wait to try more things out!

If It Ain't Broke, Don't Fix It!

Maybe it's because I blog about cleaning, but after I found a system that worked, I felt compelled to find another system that worked better. But now I'm realizing that in the process, I just lost my groove. I haven't found another system that worked, so I'm going back to my schedule.

As I'm preparing each meal, I put away dry dishes and clean the new ones. This makes sure we never have an overflowing sink of dishes. In the morning, I put a load of laundry in the wash, in the afternoon, I move it to the dryer and in the evening, I fold and put away. Throughout the day, I'll tidy the house up and during nap time, I'll do one deep clean task per day. These are:
Monday: Bathrooms
Tuesday: car/downstairs
Wednesday: windows
Thursday: dust
Friday: floors

I was doing so well with this system that I'm wondering why I tried changing it! I have 4 days left until the 1 year anniversary of us getting possession of the house and it's almost where I want it. I'm actually quite proud of myself in the last two days. I really can do this stay at home mom thing!

The Secret to an Immaculate House

I've discovered the secret to an immaculate house! No really, I have. And not only have I found it, I'm going to share it with you. This is a real turning point for me, and I'm almost surprised I didn't discover it earlier. I mean, once you find out what it is, it's kind of like 'oh yeah, that makes TOTAL sense'. I have a whole new outlook to cleaning. Instead of 'cleaning' my house *insert depressed, sad sounding voice here*, I 'keep my house immaculate' *insert upbeat, positive sounding voice here*.

So here it is, are you ready?

It makes total sense, right? I have this mini white board on my fridge, and will follow the directions at the bottom. It completely changes the way I see cleaning the house. Instead of focusing on *ugh* cleaning, I'm focusing on *yay* a clean house.

You're welcome, my friends, you're welcome!

Playing Catch Up-almost at one year!

Being sick sucks. Having sick kids sucks. Being sick and having a sick three year old and a healthy 8 month old sucks even more. And then there's a sick husband, housework, dirty laundry, dirty diapers, clean laundry, dishes, ugh. And of course, you can't keep on top of all this while you're sick, so instead of being able to enjoy feeling better, you get to deal with the house first.

So we're finally feeling better, it's safe to say we are no longer sick, but the house definitely needs some love. Clutter-EVERYWHERE. And I just remembered that the end of February marks one year since we moved. And I've always said, it takes a year to get settled into a new house. So not only does this house need a good solid cleaning, I have just under two weeks to finish up any 'move in' type of things that I had wanted to do. More artwork on the walls, just a general sense of feeling settled in the house.


So today, Day 1 of Operation Overhaul, I'm going to re-de-clutter the house. Major tidying up to do. Will go along and dust while I'm at it. I have no idea what I'm going to do tomorrow. I'm sure I'll figure that out as I go along cleaning today.

The curse of 'I'll deal with that later'

I think one of the reasons why I have so much stuff is because when I don't know what to do with something immediately, I put it aside to figure out later and of course I never get around to doing that. So I end up with piles and boxes of stuff that I tell myself that I'll deal with later and just never get around to. And when I finally do, all I end up doing is reorganizing the mess so it isn't as overwhelming in the moment.

So it's a little late but I'm adding a new years resolution to my list. When cleaning up and organizing stuff, if I come across something that I can't put away in the moment, I get rid of it. If I really do need to keep it then it should have a permanent home already. And if it isn't worth finding one for, then it probably isn't worth keeping.

This doesn't just apply to physical things, but also to tasks. Once I've made my 'I'll organize that later' pile, I actually have to find time to organize it. Instead, every time I walk by, I tell myself 'oh yeah, can't forget to clean that up' and of course what do I do? FORGET.

So instead of procrastinating, I need to follow Nike's catch phrase and 'Just Do It'. Or add my own, and 'Just Do It NOW'. And instead of dealing with junk later, I need to ask myself, 'Do I REALLY need to keep this?' and do something with it (NOW) based on my answer to that.

Le Petit Refuge winner

Congratulations to entry number 21-Lara C. You are the winner of the Le Petit Refuge prizepack! I will contact you to arrange shipping. Hope you enjoy your new products!!

And a huge thank you to Amanda at Le Petit Refuge for providing the products for this giveaway. Best of luck with your new business!

Shampoo/face wash follow up

It's been about 7 weeks since I tried the un-shampoo and about 6 since I started using oil to clean my face. I know some people were inspired by my posts and tried them out, but didn't have the same results I did so I'm going to take a few minutes to do a follow up on how it's going, and potential changes that can help it work better.

Baking soda as shampoo

At first, this was fantastic. My hair was clean, shiny, but not greasy, the color looked so bright. When my bottle ran out of my first 'batch', I started just eye-balling the baking soda and I noticed that my hair started getting greasy faster. When I finally took a one tablespoon measure into the bathroom to mix my 'shampoo', it was an instant change. Back to super clean and non greasy hair.

So to those who tried this out but didn't have success, maybe your hair needs a more concentrated solution. If you want to try again, experiment with the amount of baking soda, and try using apple cider vinegar as a conditioner, if you normally use conditioner.

Oil cleaning method for my face

This method calls for castor oil mixed with olive oil, but since I didn't have olive oil, I used canola. I free poured a small amount of each oil into a small bowl and just dip my fingers into the mixture and massage onto my face before steaming off with a hot facecloth. After the first few weeks, I didn't have any breakouts and no dryness, which is important to note with our below freezing temperatures and wind. In the past 6 weeks, I have noticed a few pimples, but they are normally quite small, and are gone the next day. This has been surprising to me. I assumed that slathering my face with oil would create a teenaged-style zit-city. But it hasn't. I haven't used anything except for my oil mixture to clean my face and I also haven't worn make up over much of the past two months.

So to anyone who wants to try either of these two cleaning methods, or two wants to try again, be patient. You might need to tweak your combinations a few times before they work well for you. But I can say that I haven't used, or bought, shampoo or face cleanser for myself for two months now. A box of baking soda might last me a year, as would a container of castor oil, if not longer. So that means I can wash my hair and face for around $10/year. I don't think that's bad at all.