{"id":467,"date":"2020-08-10T02:00:07","date_gmt":"2020-08-10T10:00:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/treehousewriters.com\/wp53\/?p=467"},"modified":"2020-08-09T19:02:00","modified_gmt":"2020-08-10T03:02:00","slug":"treading-lightly-homemade-mouthwash","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/treehousewriters.com\/wp53\/2020\/08\/10\/treading-lightly-homemade-mouthwash\/","title":{"rendered":"Treading Lightly: Homemade Mouthwash"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>Here in the Treehouse, we have to get by on what&#8217;s at hand. This series explores simple, nature-friendly alternatives to conventional products and practices.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Plastic bottles are amazing. They can hold all different kinds of things, mostly liquids. They&#8217;re highly squishable, usually (depends on the plastic).<\/p>\n<p>And they will last for millions of years.<\/p>\n<p>Long after I&#8217;m dead, that plastic water bottle will be kicking around somewhere, causing trouble. I&#8217;m on a campaign to eliminate plastic from my life as much as possible. Especially single-use plastic. And hey, when you live in a treehouse, and going to the store is a big deal, you tend to find alternatives.<\/p>\n<p>I use mouthwash to brush my teeth (on the advice of my dental hygienist, years ago), which has the advantage of also eliminating toothpaste tubes. When I came to the treehouse, I decided to stop buying commercial mouthwash, and researched a bunch of recipes. This one is tweaked for my preferences. I usually make a large batch of mouthwash and store it, refilling this glass bottle which I keep on my sink.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Here&#8217;s my alternative to mouthwash that comes in a single-use plastic bottle.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-469\" src=\"https:\/\/treehousewriters.com\/wp53\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/mouthwash-1-300x262.jpg\" alt=\"mouthwash makings\" width=\"300\" height=\"262\" srcset=\"https:\/\/treehousewriters.com\/wp53\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/mouthwash-1-300x262.jpg 300w, https:\/\/treehousewriters.com\/wp53\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/mouthwash-1-768x670.jpg 768w, https:\/\/treehousewriters.com\/wp53\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/mouthwash-1.jpg 1000w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\">Ingredients:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"list-style-type: none;\">\n<ul>\n<li>1 1\/4 cup water (distilled or boiled and cooled)<\/li>\n<li>3\/4 teaspoon sea salt<\/li>\n<li>3\/4 teaspoon baking soda<\/li>\n<li>6-8 drops peppermint oil<\/li>\n<li>2 drops clove oil<\/li>\n<li>1\/4 cup vodka (optional)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Mix all ingredients in a bottle, preferably glass. You can add more water if you prefer. Cap and store.<\/p>\n<p>The vodka isn&#8217;t essential, but after years of brushing with alcohol-based mouthwash, I find I prefer it. Makes my mouth feel fresher. This could be a result of conditioning, but what the heck.<\/p>\n<p>You can vary the essential oils. Maybe you prefer cinnamon and vanilla. Some people like tea tree oil (I tried it &#8211; no thanks). Just make sure to use food-safe oils. And watch it on the clove oil &#8211; that stuff is powerful!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Here in the Treehouse, we have to get by on what&#8217;s at hand. This series explores simple, nature-friendly alternatives to conventional products and practices. Plastic bottles are amazing. They can hold all different kinds of things, mostly liquids. They&#8217;re highly squishable, usually (depends on the plastic). And they will last for millions of years. Long [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[93,51],"class_list":["post-467","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-essays","tag-plastic-free-living","tag-treading-lightly"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/treehousewriters.com\/wp53\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/467","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/treehousewriters.com\/wp53\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/treehousewriters.com\/wp53\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/treehousewriters.com\/wp53\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/treehousewriters.com\/wp53\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=467"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/treehousewriters.com\/wp53\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/467\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":498,"href":"https:\/\/treehousewriters.com\/wp53\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/467\/revisions\/498"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/treehousewriters.com\/wp53\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=467"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/treehousewriters.com\/wp53\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=467"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/treehousewriters.com\/wp53\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=467"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}