Ecologue.com

Recycle Your Bathroom in Style

By Susan Wasinger

A New Life for Towels

Tattered towels can find new life as pillows. For an easy sewing project, find the best parts of old, damaged, or mismatched towels and washcloths and turn them into soft, fluffy, inviting pillows. Throw them on a chair next to the tub,or use them to cushion a bench seat. In order to save them from the landfill, a mix Styrofoam peanuts, plastic shopping bags, and scraps of toweling can be used to make a stuffing. (It’s not as soft as down, and it rustles a bit more than foam, but it’s waterproof, dries quickly, and lets you recycle and reuse waste materials). If you can’t bear the thought of sitting on styrofoam, rest assured that at least you’re recycling your old towels while giving your bathroom all the panache of an upscale spa.

Mushy Soap Solution

A soap dish should never be a “dish” at all. Soap will get soft, soupy and generally unappealing if left in a vessel without drainage. In addition, this mushy residue leads to lots of wasted soap. Keep your soap high and dry with this simple idea. Make a pebbled pedestal for your bar by selecting a small pot and filling it with weathered river or beach stones. Small bonsai planters are ideal, but any small pot with a drainage hole will do. Layer some larger stones on the bottom, followed by smaller pebbles on top. The soap rests on the uppermost stones, providing plenty of air circulation to keep the bar dry and prevent waste and mess. Next to the tub, near the bathroom sink or even in the shower, this practical accent piece safeguards your soap with style.

A Soda That’s Good for Your Teeth

Even dentists recommend baking soda and salt as a simple and effective method for cleaning teeth. In addition to whitening teeth and deodorizing the mouth, baking soda helps neutralize acids from plaque. Salt has been used for centuries to reduce tartar build-up and soothe gums. The solution below is simple, cheap, and free from the usual detergents, bleaches, and chemical preserving agents used in commercial toothpastes. Unfortunately, baking soda and salt don’t taste very good. To remedy this problem, liven them up with subtle flavor by adding natural aromatic ingredients to the mix. Just follow this simple recipe:

Mix together.
3 parts baking soda
1 part sea salt

Add the aromatic ingredients of your choice.
Cinnamon sticks
Fennel seeds
Cloves
Citrus Peels (the colored part or zest only)
Whole vanilla bean
Dried whole mint leaves

The aromatics may take a couple days to impart their essence, so keep the mixture in a large, tightly covered jar for a day or two before using. When ready to use, transfer the dentifrice to a shaker. Be sure to add some of the herbs or spices to your shaker in order to continue imparting flavor. The dentifrice should keep safely for a month or more if kept dry.

A Breath of Fresh Air

Potpourri may seem like an artifact from the 20th century, but wonderful, sensual smells never go out of style. Here’s how you can add an accessory to the bathroom that’s both aesthetically and aromatically pleasing. Natural, sculptural plant stalks act as a simple, subtle diffuser for fragrant essential oils that gently sweeten the air and cleanse stagnant smells.

Try using thin peeled branches from a tree; woody cuttings from a bush; hollow or spongy stems from a weed; or dried stalks from a field of tall grasses. Stalks are engineered by nature to draw liquids upward. Fill a small bottle with an aromatic essential oil, topped with a drilled out cork. Place a small bunch of these stems in the bottle so that they pass through the cork. The ends of the stalks will slowly release the scented oil into the room, freshening the space without the use of harsh chemicals or aerosol spray cans.

Essential oils come in a wide variety, from the tingly clean scent of peppermint to warm, sweet florals, to strong astringent scents such as tea tree oil. Aromatherapy continues to grow in popularity and has been credited with everything from killing bacteria to fighting depression. But even tangible medical benefit, aroma evokes emotion, and no one can deny the poetic power of a pleasant scent.

The best aromatic scents for the bath...
Lavender
Rose
Geranium
Lemon
Orange
Eucalyptus
Cinnamon
Tea tree
Peppermint

Try this blend for a fresh-scented bathroom:
15 drops lemon
6 drops eucalyptus
3 drops rosewood

Crafty Recycling

Recycle Your Bathroom in Style

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