After many years of submerging my hands in water, doing household chores, cleaning, diaper changing, etc., my hands have become extremely rough. They’re so rough that I’m scared to touch myself.

Wiping away tears means that I’ve got to pull my long sleeved shirt over my hands to wipe my daughter’s tears or giving a soothing back rub means that I’ve got to cover my hands first or else I might draw blood.

Lotions, Creams and Other Stuff

I tried all kinds of lotions and creams to ‘take the edge off’ of my sandy hands, but nothing seemed to work. Little did I know that the solution was sitting in my kitchen all the time.

My Rough Hand Solution

It’s so simple that I can’t believe I didn’t do it sooner. In a small bowl I poured sea salt (finely ground, not the chunks), some olive oil (just enough to make a paste) and a squirt of homemade hand soap (any liquid hand soap will do).

After wetting my hands with warm water, I apply the paste and massage the palms and backs of my hands (don’t forget to get between the fingers too). The salt helps to remove the dead, dry, craggy skin while the olive oil helps to moisturize at the same time.

The squirt of hand soap makes it easier to rinse it off with warm water. First I tried the hand scrub without the squirt of hand soap and realized that I had oily hands (oil and water just won’t mix). I needed a small amount of soap to encourage the mixture to come off of my hands.

I guess you could always omit the soap and just wash your hands with soap afterward, but the soap will serve to dry your hands out again (just what we’re trying to avoid).

You’ll be amazed at how soft your hands will become. I leave a little container of the mixture next to the kitchen sink, so at the end of the day, or at the end of a heavy cleaning session, I use the mixture to soften up again. After my hands are dry, just for safe measure, I apply my favorite hand lotion.

No More Embarrassment

No longer am I afraid to touch people. The other day in church the Pastor asked that we try something a little different. “Let’s try holding hands as we pray today.” I looked to the right and to the left and was able to confidently take the hands of the people standing next to me without fear of them screaming in pain and drawing back bloody stumps for hands.

If you have rough, dry hands, give it a try, you’ve got nothing to lose.

I came across an article today on How to Make a Homemade Solar Oven.

It got me to thinking.  That would be a nice project to keep the kids busy.  Not only that, it’s a great lesson on how to utilize reusable energy (not to mention that if it works, it’s a great toy).

On a whim, I decided to mix hydrogen peroxide with my dish washing liquid.

Normally after I get through washing the dishes, I clean the sink with a little hydrogen peroxide. It scrubs the stainless steel sink clean, leaves a great shine and it also disinfects the sink, sponge and counter top area.

One day while washing the cutting board after cutting chicken, I wanted to disinfect it, so as usual I poured the hydrogen peroxide on it, let it fuzz, foam and disinfect, rinsed it off then washed it as usual. Then I had a thought, being a busy mom, why not kill two birds with one stone. I had ¾ of a bottle of dish washing liquid left in the bottle so I filled it up with hydrogen peroxide and shook it.

Quite a bubbly mixture until it settled down, but I noticed that I don’t have to use as much dish washing liquid because the hydrogen peroxide seems to help the soap do its job better. Using a smaller amount of soap on the sponge produced much more suds and the dishes are just as clean if not cleaner.

The mixture is a great way to disinfect and clean the dishes at the same time. Not only that, the sponge gets disinfected too. A quart of hydrogen peroxide costs about a dollar a bottle (it used to be 85 cents but with the way prices are rising, it’s more expensive now).

Mixing hydrogen peroxide to a generic brand liquid dish washing detergent, not only stretches the mileage on the detergent, it boosts its cleaning power. Why not give it a try? You’ve got nothing to lose and all to gain.

Note: Even though the sponge gets disinfected using the liquid detergent, I still disinfect the sponge the old way when cleaning up after handling raw meat.