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Natural Home Care

14June 12, 2017Productive Home by Erica

Top 5 Cleaning Products To Hoard For The Zombie Apocalypse

Want to make sure your home cleaning preps are on point? Check out what 5 cleaning products are most important to stock for a long-term emergency situation.

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621February 17, 2016Productive Home by Erica

How To Make DIY Liquid Castile Soap

I made 6 gallons of liquid soap so you don’t have to. You know about Dr. Bronner’s Liquid Castile Soap. It’s been an all-in-one, all-natural cleaning solution for generations of hippies, greenies and all manner of natural living advocates. Dr. Bronner’s is great, but it’s not the cheapest cleaner out there. So, these were my…

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81October 19, 2015Productive Home by Erica

DIY Whipped Peppermint Foot Cream

At the risk of oversharing someone else’s podiatry problems, by husband has some janked up heels. They’re super dry and they get these deep cracks in them, especially in winter. (Sorry, sweetie.) This Whipped Peppermint Foot Cream was developed for super dry feet like my husband’s. The addition of peppermint essential oil gives the cream a…

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57March 26, 2015Productive Home by Erica

Can You Make Liquid Castile Soap from Bar Soap?

When I was recipe testing for the book I ended up making nine or ten batches of cold process bar soap. That is a lot of soap for a family of four. Normally, I use Dr. Bronner’s liquid Castile soap in many of my personal and home care products, but faced with a glut of all natural, homemade bar soap, I thought perhaps…

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11January 23, 2014Productive Home by Erica

Toxin Free DIY Citrus Cleaner

As you may have noticed by my Meyer lemon obsession, it’s citrus season, and I couldn’t be happier. As I’ve mentioned before, any pretense of locavore principles goes out the door for a case of mandarin oranges or a perfect, juicy grapefruit. While I’m paying the karmic debt for the food miles it takes to…

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5January 10, 2014Productive Home by Erica

Organizing Kids Toys: The Toy Closet Solution

If you have kids then you know how toys can multiply, especially over the holidays. Here’s how we solved the Kid Toy Madness issue our house. We took the vast majority of our kids toys and moved them into The Toy Closet. The Toy Closet didn’t start out as a toy closet. It started as the…

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38October 30, 2013Productive Home by Erica

Biweekly Menu Planning Form (Free Downloadable)

This year, with my son in preschool, mornings are spent shooing two kids along and getting everyone out the door on time. The AM has to be far more regimented, and fast breakfasts and easy, (often make-ahead) lunches are essential. We are also doing a lot more freezer-meal cooking to streamline dinner these days and…

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34September 24, 2013Productive Home by Erica

How To Organize Your Spice Drawer With Mason Jars

Like most pretty serious cooks, I have a pretty serious spice collection. I’ve been a fan of buying my spices in bulk at my local Yuppie-Hippie Co-op for years now. The spices you get in bulk, if you are in a place that rolls through their stock, tend to be fresher and of higher quality…

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3February 9, 2012Natural Home Care by Erica

A Slightly Easier Way To Keep The Big Girl Panties Clean

Perhaps, like me, you spend far too much of your life doing laundry. Far too much. I have asked everyone I know if they have any tips or tricks to cut down the number of loads or number of hours involved in laundry and the consensus seems to be, you just have to put on…

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0September 8, 2011Productive Home by Erica

A Pantry Unburied

Let’s recap: two weeks ago the contents of my pantry were on the floor and fake catalog pantries were driving me to drink. Now, I am pleased to report, my pantry is not only usable again, but actually has a bunch of empty shelf space in it, just waiting for me to fill it up with…

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Hi! I'm Erica, the founder of NWEdible and the author of The Hands-On Home. I garden, keep chickens and ducks, homeschool my two kids and generally run around making messes on my one-third of an acre in suburban Seattle. Thanks for reading!

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