Susie Homemaker

Not quite, but close.

The last two days I have done nothing but clean, and it's been fun actually! I've been using some of the recipes I've gotten off of Pinterest, learning how to use natural cleaning solutions and the like. Since I don't have any essential oils - yet - I'm just using the castile soap, citrus peels, vinegar, borax, and salt.

One thing that not many people are aware of is just how sensitive my skin can be. I'm allergic to most soaps and other cleaning products because of a little chemical called cocomidapropyl betaine. This thing is a surfactant (read: one of those ingredients in soap that makes it bubble and foam up) extracted from the coconut. It's not as well known as sodium laureth sulfate, which is also a surfactant, and isn't a common allergy, but it is annoying to have to read the back of soap, shampoo, and toothpaste bottles every time I go to the store. Forget reading the back of cleaning supplies — the best you'll find is fragrance and surfactants listed as ingredients.

Because of this allergy, I've been doing a lot of research on natural home cleaning supplies and how to make them or get them. I'd really rather make them myself at this point, because it is just that difficult to make sure that my skin doesn't bubble up like a pot of boiling water otherwise. That can look rather unsightly, and it's hard to treat with my other allergies.

So, I've been cleaning and cleaning and cleaning. The living room, my bedroom, the kitchen are all scrubbed down and spic and span. I'm not sure what has gotten ahold of me, because I certainly haven't been the cleanest or most organized person ever. I know that when I was a kid, I was angry because I couldn't stand things to be out of place, but I couldn't bring myself to organize things either. It was too hard or too stressful to do anything about it, possibly because I believed my mother would come in and tell me I'd done it wrong and make me redo it.

Maybe that wasn't the case, maybe it was, who can know? My father wasn't neat and tidy, though my brother was more the organized sort than I was. I'd get so frustrated at myself that I couldn't get my room the way I wanted it to be, and when I moved out of my parents' house and bought my own, I still didn't take care of it like I needed to — it was a wreck and a half by the time I moved out of it.

Since I've been on these medications though, it's like a new life has been breathed into me and has woken up that urge to just get. it. done. Honestly, it's probably the best thing ever to be a side-effect of these particular medications. I have a need to clean, a need to organize, and a need to refocus on these things. Maybe this breakdown that I've had is just the thing to get my life back on some kind of track.

I know that this post has been rambling, and I apologize deeply for it. I'm discovering a new side of Megan, and it is glorious and terrifying at the same time. I hope this isn't the last time I discover a new side to me, because I kind of like where this is going.