Old-Fashioned DIY Products

Jules

Jules

SF VIP
Before we could buy something for anything, there were lots of homemade products.

One that I use often is to remove build up on my hair.

A small handful of baking soda mixed into your shampoo.
Rinse.
Rinse again with a mix of a cup or two of warm water with vinegar.
Re-rinse to get rid of any lingering scent of vinegar.

Used weekly this will remove the yellow that tends to show up on silver hair.

A wide tooth comb in the shower helps to get rid of tangles.

Do others have old favourites that we make ourselves?
 

I had two DIY things I relied on and regularly did when my kids were little (babies).

As a substitute for regular ordinary Johnson's Baby Powder, and when my kids had a diaper rash, I would lightly brown regular white flour in a pan and use that to sprinkle on them at change-time, and another that worked wonderfully was regular ordinary cornstarch.

A light dusting on baby's bottom, a couple of dashes inside the rubber pants, and baby was off and running.

Knew several older moms (my aunt being one of them) that only used these two DIY remedies/recipes. No store-bought baby powder in their homes whatsoever.
 
Another... oatmeal baths.

While I never did such with my own kids, I do remember my mom giving my baby brother an oatmeal bath when he got a bad diaper rash.

Oatmeal baths are apparently good for all sort of common skin ailments/rashes.
 
Another I have tried... one that supposedly works incredibly well, is dabbing mosquito bites with straight ammonia.

A few drops on a cotton-ball is all that's needed, however, my bites still itched.
 
My grandma would make these little potpourri saches for us to stick in the drawers where our clothes were. She gave them to us every Christmas. IDK what-all she put in them but I know she used herbs and flowers from her garden and spices from her kitchen. Mine usually smelled kind of like the soap Irish Spring and my sister's smelled like roses or other flowers. I actually looked forward to getting that tiny little gift from my grandma every Christmas. I can still smell it every time I think of her.
 
Murrmurr said:
My grandma would make these little potpourri saches for us to stick in the drawers where our clothes were. She gave them to us every Christmas. IDK what-all she put in them but I know she used herbs and flowers from her garden and spices from her kitchen. Mine usually smelled kind of like the soap Irish Spring and my sister's smelled like roses or other flowers. I actually looked forward to getting that tiny little gift from my grandma every Christmas. I can still smell it every time I think of her.
Click to expand...
My DIY potpourri recipe... a few sticks of cinnamon snapped up and dropped into a pot of simmering water in the stovetop, and if you like, add in a few cloves.

Absolutely heavenly!
 
Another DIY I tried, was adding orange peels to my kids plastic diaper pails (odour control).

I can't say the results were magical, but I got that one from an aunt I used to babysit for. The diaper pail in her house always had orange peels in it.

Would love to hear from any other moms that did the orange peel/diaper pail thing back in the day.
 
Thought of another one - the same grandma always put a daub of mud on our bee stings (she kept bees and me and my brother couldn't leave them alone). She'd brush off the stinger first (she always said "brush it off, don't pull it out") and then put mud on it and then we let it dry. It worked I guess...they never swelled up or hurt (except when we actually got stung).
 
As a young child, my siblings and I suffered through mustard plasters!

My aunt burned one of her kids quite badly mixing a way too strong mustard homemade plaster once.

The old saying, "more is not better" rings true on this one.
 
Murrmurr said:
Thought of another one - the same grandma always put a daub of mud on our bee stings (she kept bees and me and my brother couldn't leave them alone). She'd brush off the stinger first (she always said "brush it off, don't pull it out") and then put mud on it and then we let it dry. It worked I guess...they never swelled up or hurt (except when we actually got stung).
Click to expand...
Grandpa swore by a dab of gasoline on bug bites and bee stings.
 
Just about forgot about one of my all-time favourites, adding regular ordinary white vinegar to the washing machine when laundering diapers.

The vinegar prevented soap residue buildup in the diapers, helped to balance the pH level (less diaper rash/irritation), and the vinegar also made the diapers buttery soft.

I used to do a vinegar wash cycle when washing diapers once or twice a month.
 
I'm sure most here remember the old water-filled teething rings that you froze before giving to baby to chew on.

In a pinch, a baby washcloth wet-down, wrung-out, and tossed into the freezer for 40 minutes, made for a super great substitute!
 
Cut an onion in half and put it in a jar, then put the jar in the "sick room"...the room where a family member is in bed with a cold. The onion turns brown when it soaks up the germs, or so grandma said. 🤔
Also she cut a cucumber lengthwise and put one half on the bottoms of your feet to bring down a slight fever. That actually seemed to work.
 
Murrmurr said:
Cut an onion in half and put it in a jar, then put the jar in the "sick room"...the room where a family member is in bed with a cold. The onion turns brown when it soaks up the germs, or so grandma said. 🤔
Also she cut a cucumber lengthwise and put one half on the bottoms of your feet to bring down a slight fever. That actually seemed to work.
Click to expand...
I recall reading about going to bed with a sliced onion positioned on the sole of each foot with socks over. :)

I'm a firm-believer in many old remedies.
 
Aunt Marg said:
Another I have tried... one that supposedly works incredibly well, is dabbing mosquito bites with straight ammonia.

A few drops on a cotton-ball is all that's needed, however, my bites still itched.
Click to expand...
HAHA. Last summer, before I discovered DEET, I tried a similar remedy on my mosquito bites. First I'd scrape off the top layer of skin with a knife, then apply alcohol. It also didn't work. After that, it just burned AND itched.
 
In a grade school science class, the teacher put a piece of raw meat in a jar filled with Coca-Cola at the beginning of the day's class session. At the end of the session, the meat was pretty much decimated. The teacher then asked the class what we thought that same beverage would do to our bodies.

As kids, my parents couldn't afford the dental bills, so we were rarely allowed to drink pop or eat candy. I never formed a taste for that kind of stuff.

Tony
 

You must log in or register to reply here.

Back
Top