Learning faith in OS? (Non religious)

dandy-candy

I have a problem with having faith in doing things OS/naturally.
When something needs cleaning hygienically and I read about using vinegar, tea tree oil etc, I can't really believe it works as well as using shop bought disinfectant or bleach.
Same with OS remedies. I spent a year studying Herbalism, but every time I get a cough or cold I nip down to the chemist for a bottle of something instead of having a herbal tincture.
I'm such a sceptic about these things and I hate being this way! I really want to embrace a natural, Eco friendly, good old fashioned lifestyle - I just don't know how to learn faith in it. It isn't even like I've tried and had bad results, I haven't even tried!
How do you have conviction in what you do and use? I could really do with some pointers on leaving my comfort zone and reliance on commercial products behind me.

meritaten

jeez Dandy! That is a hard one! vinegar etc vs bleach. hmmmm they both sting like bu99ery if you get them in the eye? therefore they both kill germs?
Herbal remedies? from personal experience I had a really bad chest infection a few years ago - had THREE different antibiotics from Dr over six months and in the end tried Echinacea from the herbalist shop - three weeks later my chest was clear!
for colds etc I dont rush out and buy tablets - I buy honey and lemons. and a pack of paracetamol if feeling really poorly. works much better and as much nicer to take - I like honey and lemon in tea anyway.
try a 'remedy' which you believe 'wont do any harm' and see how you feel about it.
OH i nearly forgot - a pack of polo mints is far cheaper than a pack of indigestion tabs and more effective! the active ingredient is the peppermint which is a very old indigestion remedy!
I could go on - and if anyone is interested I will!

cornishchick

may i suggest an experiment.

re cleaning.. mentaly split your kitchen in to half, clean one with your normal cleaner and one with the natural cleaner and see if you can see a difference.. do the same with the bath or do one loo with bleach and one with the natural cleaner.


I got fed up one day of scrubbing at a really dirty sink and bath with bleach. cant stand the smell of clorine that lingers in my nose and makes my cigerette taste horrid:o anyways,.... I turned to vineger, lemon juice and Bi carb and havent brought any for months.

babyshoes

I think that with most things it's about finding what works for you - I personally use a combination of OS and modern methods having tried both in the past.

For example, for nausea I might have peppermint tea if it's not too bad, but once it goes beyond a certain level or if the peppermint tea hasn't worked, I resort to modern medicines (I get a lot of nausea due to my IBS). For things like colds and flu which are caused by a virus there is no medicine which will actually cure it anyway, so it's a matter of using any remedy that works to help ease the symptoms and support your body in the fight against it, whether that remedy comes in a pill/bottle or is one you make up at home from natural ingredients. If it works for you, that's the important thing!

I still use a dash of fabric softner for everyday clothes washing as I like the smell of it, but for pet blankets and things like towels which actually get harder if you use too much fabric softner I use vinegar - it has no smell after the washing is dry. For everyday wipe downs in the kitchen I often use vinegar in a spray bottle, but also have a bottle of antibac stuff for a deep clean, such as the times I am going to have food touching the surface directly, for example when rolling out pastry on the table.

Vinegar in the kettle is as good a descaler as any commercial one I've found, but for good descaling & cleaning of larger appliances like the dishwasher I find that the larger volume of water needs something stronger, but I'll still use vinegar for in-between times.

In the bathroom, I still use bleach in the toilet because I'm lazy and it does most of the hard work for you, needing little scrubbing after it's soaked for a while. I also feel that it's one place than needs the strongest weapon available! For wiping down the tiles though, I often just do that while in the shower, and it only needs a wet sponge for most of it, with stardrops for the odd stubborn spot.

thriftwizard

OK - I've been using vinegar, bicarb, soap, borax & not much else for cleaning since my 5 kids were small. They are now aged from 17-24. Our house certainly doesn't sparkle (or glow in the dark) but none of my kids have asthma despite having a houseful of assorted pets, they've only ever had the odd tummy bug when half their classes were sick too, they hardly ever got coughs & colds & shrugged them off pretty easily when they did. We were warned that DS2 would be asthmatic as he had bronchiolitis when he was just 4 weeks old, but he never did & he's Mr. All-Action Man now. There's not much in our medicine box but paracetamol & ibuprofen for emergencies & no-one seems to need anything else. If someone has a sore throat, they drink liquorice root tea, or a teaspoon of raspberry vinegar. The BSE & other food scares led me into cooking from scratch & growing whatever we can ourselves; we don't have a big garden & I lost my allotment in an admin mix-up, but we still grow a fair bit of fruit & herbs & have just enough room to keep a handful of chickens.

Interestingly I was kind of forced into this by several of them having very delicate skin; "normal" washing powders & additives etc. brought them out in rashes. But it tied in with my general way of thinking & the more artificial stuff I eliminated, the healthier they seemed to get. Now I rarely enter a supermarket; I find buying fresh stuff & groceries from small local shops & our excellent market saves me loads of money & other stuff I buy online - a fair bit from AF and the like.

Look on it like this; behind the scenes, there's a LOT of money being spent on top-flight psychologists & ad-men to persuade you that dubious new chemical concoctions in bright shiny packages are somehow better for you than the stuff we've evolved over millenia to deal with. I'm not suggesting that life was perfect before modern science & marketing, far from it. But it was certainly cheaper...

craigywv

GREAT replies to the post!!!!