Full personal care with totally safe ingredients - oral

The two ingredients are of course baking soda and hydrogen peroxide.  But using them carelessly you can do great harm to your teeth and gums.  Many commercial oral care products contain the same ingredients, safer, but not perfectly.  Some warned that you cannot use the whitening toothpaste for more than a week, and some cautions for whitening mouth wash.

I won't use dry baking soda to grind you teeth whiter.  It has to be a very precise process to avoid grinding your gums.  At most I would spread dry or paste baking soda on the surface of your teeth to apply them effectively, and make them wet for whatever cleaning effect they have on your teeth.

Or you can mix baking soda solution with glycerin so the paste can stay on your teeth, but all baking soda are dissolved.

Baking soda can remove water stains, which is calcium deposits.  But I doubt if it can dissolve your teeth away by just brushing your teeth or rinsing your mouth.  There are whitening mouth rinse that contains baking soda.  The salty taste is a dead give away.  The concentration doesn't really matter as long as you rinse your mouth thoroughly after.

Baking soda will definitely whiten your teeth but a simple rinse could prevent your teeth from getting more and more stains.

Baking soda is slightly alkaline while sugar caused tooth decay is an acidic process.  It might protect your teeth against decay.  But I will still use a fluoride toothpaste for my kids as we don't drink fluoridated water, we have reverse osmosis.

Baking soda is a deodorizer, so it would help to combat bad breath.  Daily rinsing may cure bad breath.  For emergency I would rinse mouth with concentrated solution and then rinse thoroughly.  You can also work baking soda powder gently into the voids of your teeth, to go where your tooth brushed or flossing missed.  And rinse thoroughly.  Although baking soda is only slightly alkaline, I won't suggest to leave anything in your mouth.

Hydrogen peroxide attacks anything organic (living or once living) and then some.  Certainly it will remove most stains.  Certainly it will attack your gums and anywhere in your mouth.  You pay a lot of money at the dentist to protect your gums while remove stains in the most rapid way.  But a diluted mouth rinse should not cause any harm.  Indeed, 3% peroxide solutions are diluted with equal parts of water for mouth rinse, to reduce bad breath, for first aid, and to kill germs.

Somehow concentrated hydrogen peroxide can dig deep into your teeth around the gum line if you don't rinse after use.  So be very careful what you are using and following instructions.

I use daily a mouth rinse made up of at most 1/8 part of 3% hydrogen peroxide solution and 1 part water, saturated in baking soda.  That is suppose to reduce stains, kill germs, prevent tooth decay, and cure bad breath.

I suggest to use whitening tooth paste unless you are prepared to make your own "pure" toothpaste using glycerin.  If you want a boost, you can stick baking soda to your tooth paste.

Full personal care with totally safe ingredients - skin

For "body wash" I use the same thing as my "shampoo" - saturated baking soda solution in tap water, or the softest water you can get.  That's about one teaspoon per cup.

You can pour the solution on your body with an old body wash bottle.  Or you can simply put the baking soda into a bath.  First clean yourself with a little water in the bath, then add water to whatever level you desire.

I don't suggest to use another vinegar rinse as that's too much trouble with no reason.

I hope I don't need skin moisturizer in the long run, at least not everyday.

I suggest corn huskers lotion on a as needed basis or on trouble spots.  It solved all my skin troubles as the alcohol in it makes it medicated.  I use it for after shave, and moisturizer after I removed tough skin on my heel with "floating stone".  The formula has been used for just less than 100 years and all the common ingredients are said to be safe.

Some people suggest to use it for moisturizing your hair too.  But I use it on my scalp when there's something like an insect bite, or where there are some dry spots.

You may turn your solutions into lotions or gels if you mix glycerin with it.  You can make your body wash solution into something like body wash lotion.  It is easier to apply for kids and it can last for a week instead of a day or two.

Food grade glycerin is about 50 cents per oz online. You need to further dilute it into lotion. Glycerin is the main ingredient in corn huskers lotion, itself a good moisturizer and found in many personal care products and food as base.

I use it for the face too.  After washing I don't feel the face oily, nor dry.  But the oil free feeling don't last long, but not even the strongest face wash that I use last that long.  I repeat with the BS solution if I need to, or just wipe face with a wet towel.

For body scrub I sprinkle a little BS from a pepper bottle into my wet hands and rub it gently on my face or where it's needed.  Dry BS is very fine crystals and can cause fine scratch lines on glass when dry.  But it dissolves as soon as it touches water.  And it won't scratch your skin because the "floating stone" are many times tougher than that.

Full personal care with totally safe ingredents - hair

I have sensitive and problematic skin so I had tried a lot of things.  My recent experience of cleaning triggered me to research on cleaning myself, with safe and effective ingredients that I already have.

I use the most thick moisturizing body wash and that is not enough.  To sustain problem skin I need to cover myself with a good body moisturizer. 

After shampooing, I must use good conditioner or my hair will go crazy.

All these doesn't make any sense to me.  After I stripped my hair and skin of body oil, I reapply something else to re-moisturize my body.

So I found some common natural personal care routines that I can use.  I will concentrate on the simplicity of the process, the chemistry, and the safety.

For hair "shampoo" I use 2 cup of reverse osmosis water and saturate it with baking soda in a measuring cup.  That means roughly two teaspoons of baking soda dissolving in very soft water.  Then I pour the solution into an empty shampoo container and use it to apply to my dry hair thoroughly in the bathroom.  Then rinse THOROUGHLY before next step.

Over saturating the solution with baking soda probably won't do much.  If the solution don't have enough cleaning power you are the first one to know.  You aim to rinse off thoroughly so the concentration of the solution isn't critical.  You can use tap water.  But soft water itself cleans by dissolving hard deposits, and it dissolves more baking soda.  Baking soda also may have softening effects as in commercial softeners, where calcium (in water) is replaced by sodium (in Baking soda) and then extracted somewhat.  That's why people should not drink softened water, especially those who need to watch sodium intake. 

For the "conditioner" I use apple cider vinegar.  I dilute an oz or two of vinegar with reverse osmosis water in a measuring cup, giving the water pale colour but not too smelly in the bathroom.  Then I pour the solution into another bottle for use in the bathroom.  Apply to wet hair thoroughly and then rinse THOROUGHLY.

You can use white vinegar but the smell is stronger.  The two solution aren't really shampoo and conditioner as such, but the concept is never to mix them together.  They will start off a famous chemical reaction forming carbon dioxide bubbles and a temporary acid.  It may be good for carpet stains but not a good idea on your head.

Baking soda is a deodorizer and eatable, so it's fail safe.  You don't need to smell your own hair to be sure that it doesn't stink.   BS can remove grease and water scale effectively.  I would think the vinegar is optional.  But a lot of people tested it and it shouldn't cause any harm.  BS is slightly alkaline and vinegar is acidic.  So it may be cleaning in different ways.  Keep them on the dead hair and you won't go wrong.

As for the problem of dandruff, I suggest you do more research before trying.  I have no worries as my best shampoo and best conditioner still leave me with dandruff.  Every week or two I need to use medicated tar shampoo to treat my hair.  It isn't really treat but just a quick wash.  But I bet in my case it's drying of the skin under the hair so my alternative hair cleaning shouldn't get any worse.  I hope it gets better without stripping the oils everyday.  I tried other dandruff shampoo but they don't clean that good or the hair don't feel that good.

I'm happy with the effect so far, but not a long term test.  Your hair don't feel so clean during the washing, because you aren't removing all the oil.  After natural drying, my hair feels like I shampooed and conditioned as before.  So what a waste of time before.  It feels a little sticky at the end of day, but I have to wash my hair everyday because of the weather.

I have tried on kids very long hair.  It doesn't tangle that much without stripping the oil.  But it's not a long term test either.

For me the preparation is easy.  I just go to the kitchen and use the same measuring cup I use for cooking.  It's easier then making coffee.  And you can make more to use for a few more days.  For the whole family you may want to use two large milk bottles, put them high up in the shower, and fit taps on them.

Perfect carpet cleaning with perfectly safe ingredients

Now I have done all the experiments.  Firstly, the cleaning agents are not as important as the cleaning tool.  You do have to get one of the carpet "steamers" - not hot steam but will apply shampoo on the carpet and then suck it up.  Without it you have to soak the wet dirt up with a micro fibre or just cloth.  For removing stain in a small area it's perfectly OK.  It's just don't worth the manual labour if you can get a cheap steamer for smaller areas.

Now the cleaning agents.  Of course baking soda.  First you optionally spread baking soda around the carpet, more on dirty areas and stains.  You just drop a scoop in mid air and it will spread pretty evenly when the powder hit the ground.

Now spray the dirty area and stains with white vinegar,  neat or diluted.  It depends on how dirty your carpet is and how much you want to spend on vinegar.  It's cheap but still a couple of dollars per gallon.  The chemical will produce an acid temporary for extra cleaning.  The resulting neutralized salt is slightly yellowish.  It doesn't stain but if you have pure white carpet, I would try in a small area first.

Now the ingredient for carpet shampoo.  Add a cup of vinegar to it, more or less if you want.  Optionally add a cup of rubbing alcohol to it.  Optionally you need a little bubble, if only you need it to see how much dirty water is being sucked back into the steamer.  You can mix with carpet shampoo, but test first if there is adverse or mutual suppressing reactions.  You can add an oz or two of laundry detergent.  Or, I have an ultimately biodegradable car shampoo with very low suds.

Then follow the steamer instructions to clean the carpet.  Put it simply, for the first pass backwards, press the button to apply "shampoo".  Then at least pass a few times along the same area to suck back up all the shampoo.  Don't reapply shampoo unless you suck up all the shampoo that can be sucked up.  If the carpet get too wet, it will affect all the glue in all the layers.  The carpet may get loose or be damaged.

You can replace the steamer by hand.  But when I dispose of the used shampoo bucket, I always have a dark grey bucket of dirty water.  The dirty water is still very dirty even if I wash in consecutive days.  So that's the power of the steamer.

One thing to watch is that the baking soda from the carpet can "clog" the dirty water circulation.  If that happens you just need to rinse the dirty bucket in warm or cold water.  Baking soda is soluble in water.  For this clogging reason I don't use baking soda as shampoo.  But I think you can, but then don't add vinegar to neutralize it.

I had a Hover steamer, the biggest I could get.  It was a mistake.  It's so heavy to lift upstairs.  Yes you can separate the buckets from the steamer before lifting but that's extra work.  Even the to and fro action need some muscle if you go over the whole house.

My steamer clogged long ago, with fibre and dirt from the carpets.  It it also leaks from the tool tube.  I cleaned it up, took it apart, and realized that the clog can easily be cleaned if you dissemble a few parts.  It didn't look promising.  The seal ring broke into two pieces.  But when I put it back together, it works.  The leak is just a design fault, putting stress on the tube all the time.  You can use tape to stop the leak if nothing else.  The tube is for the hand tool, a mini steamer for the stairs, which is impossible for the full steamer to get on.

I'm not a fan of Hover but they do have supply of parts and repair if you need.