Test Your DIY Skills During the Pandemic

The pandemic is a trying time for most, if not all, of us. Many of us are finding ourselves pushed, pulled, and forced to do things out of our comfort zones. I’ve always been resourceful and willing to make (some) things from scratch, but the pandemic is requiring me to experiment in new areas.

Getting groceries, including household cleaners, has been challenging. Grocery store queues are long, so we prefer to order online and do a pickup. Although this seems like the faster, safer option, I find that shopping online takes longer than I ever spent in a grocery store. Remember those days?

After our last order, where the particular store was out of eco-friendly household cleaners, I decided it was time to make my own. I’ve had success making non-toxic (and very effective) window cleaner before so I felt confident about making a hardwood floor cleaner.

I did a few searches looking for things like “DIY floor cleaner” and “how-to make hardwood floor cleaner.” Similar to grocery shopping online, I thought this would be a quick and easy search with a quick and easy recipe. I was bombarded with different tips, recipes, methods, etc. This abundance of information is what makes the internet so amazing and so daunting, all at the same time. The searching was turning out to be a longer activity than cleaning the floors. After skimming a few options, I finally mixed one up and got the job done.

Next on the DIY list, which had been there since before the pandemic, was making a new bar of soap out of all those annoying, tiny, dried soap slivers. I always feel guilty and wasteful tossing them in the garbage, even more so now that I know soap is such a powerful foe for Covid-19.

Once again, I did a few searches and skimmed some options. I was delighted to see there were so many options available, including ones to turn it into liquid soap, or fancy colored soap balls.

Feeling like I had the gist of the whole process, I started cutting up the soap bits. Using a makeshift double boiler, I melted all the bits together. A short time later, I glopped the new soap into some greased muffin tins to dry out for a few days. I’m not sure about the results, but it’s soap, made from soap. What could go wrong with that?