DIY Daily Shower Spray

A short note before we get to today’s post. For those of you that have been getting random spam comments if you follow comment threads on the blog, thank you for your patience as I’ve worked to find a solution. My spam filter was only catching about 99% of spam (I get thousands per day – yuck!), so a few were slipping through every day. I think I have finally implemented a solution that is squashing spam in its tracks, and you shouldn’t get random irrelevant comments anymore.

Now, onto our topic of the day!

Do you use a daily shower spray?

For glass stall showers, I really prefer to have a daily spray instead of letting the soap scum and grime build up to make the real cleaning much easier. But, shower sprays are — like most everything else found on the shelves at a store in the cleaning aisle — laden with chemicals and endocrine disrupters. There are a few natural options on the market, including this one, but, if you’re more of a DIY type, it is so easy to make your own, and more economical to boot.

(As a side note, here is the all natural bar soap we use – Kirk’s Castille.)

I browsed through a few recipes when working on this post, and, ended up deciding to make a variant of the recipe found on Livestrong.com. It works well and uses ingredients you probably already have on hand. And, if you don’t, the key ingredients aren’t terribly expensive and last a really long time.

You can find Borax powder in the laundry detergent aisle for less than $3.00, and a gallon of liquid vinegar usually runes less than $3.00 as well. If you have a Trader Joe’s, you can get both Dr. Bronner’s liquid castille soap and tea tree oil at an affordable price. I didn’t have liquid castille soap on hand, so for now, am using dish soap. But, when I go to the store next, I’ll pick up some castille soap and use that instead – it is definitely the most natural option.

Note of caution: If you have natural stone tiles, leave the vinegar out of this recipe – it is harsh on stone over time due to its acidic nature. But if you have ceramic or fiberglass, you can leave it in.

DIY Shower Spray

Makes: ~2.5 cups, about 2 weeks’ worth; Scale to the size of your bottle

Ingredients:

• 2 cups hot water
• 1/2 cup white vinegar
• 2 teaspoons Borax
• 1 tablespoon liquid castille soap (preferred if you have it!), or dish soap (Dawn is preferred)
• 10-20 drops of tea tree oil and/or lavender essential oil (for antimicrobial properties and to cover the vinegar smell)

Method:

• Add all ingredients to a reusable spray bottle, and shake to combine
• Be sure your spray bottle is a quality plastic or glass, as some essential oils can wear through certain plastics (the bottle I used says “Chemically Resistant” on it, which will work fine)
• Spray daily after showering to prevent hard water stains and soap scum buildup, especially on glass shower doors and fixtures

There you have it. the latest in our quest to become as all natural as possible around these parts.

Other posts in this general theme of natural cleaning/living:

•  DIY Febreze
• Using wool dryer balls (which you could DIY as well)
•  Clearing up acne without harsh chemicals
• Five uses for white vinegar
• Five uses for coconut oil

What do you think? Will this spray make it into your shower?