Creating a Non-Toxic Kitchen, Part 1 – Natural Dish Soap

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Is your kitchen toxic?

Ironically, the kitchen is home to more toxic products than any other area of the house. When you use commercial products to clean your kitchen you’re allowing undesirable toxic chemicals to leach into your utensils, countertops and even your food.

There’s dish soap, oven cleaner, counter cleaner, floor cleaner and any other product you use to attain a sparkling kitchen. While these products certainly give your kitchen a beautiful shine, they’re not doing your body any favors.

Filled with often toxic chemicals that you have to be careful not to inhale or touch, these products should not be entering your house at all – and especially not your kitchen. Even something more gentle like dish soap contains sulfates and other moderate health hazards – ingredients best left out of our dishes and away from our food.

So let’s start off with dish soap since that is the product that actually comes into contact the most with our dishes and cooking utensils. Take a look at the ingredients on the back of your dish soap bottle and see if you understand what most of them are. If you don’t, it’s a pretty good sign you need to be emptying it down the drain and replacing it with homemade natural dish soap.

Due to the lack of chemicals, it will undoubtedly foam less. But don’t be fooled, this recipe will beat bad grease and dirt leaving you with sparkling dishes you don’t feel bad placing food onto. It’s very easy to make and reasonably priced too.

And those who suffer from dry or sensitive skin can finally take the plunge without the irritation that comes along with regular dish soap.

Homemade Dish Soap:

Prepare an old dish soap container or a glass jar.

-2 tablespoons of vegetable glycerin (available in most grocery and drugstores)

-6 tablespoons of liquid castile soap (check health food stores or drugstores)

-5 drops of an essential oil of your choice – tea tree works particularly well and is anti-bacterial (any drugstore will sell essential oils)

-2 cups of cold water

Combine the castile soap, glycerin and essential oils. Add water and mix.

That’s it! Just remember to give it a shake before each washing-up session. We’d love to hear how this worked for you.  Follow me so you don’t miss the next post about creating your own oven cleaner.

Jay Fields
Jay Fields is an author and aromatherapist who has dedicated himself to discovering and reaping the benefits of living a holistic lifestyle. As a certified consultant, Jay spends much of his time studying and teaching the wealth of information the world of aromatherapy has to offer. In his spare time, Jay enjoys swimming and spending his time with his family.