How To: Cleaning Aluminum Water Bottles

I recently bought a nifty aluminum water bottle—supposedly better than those plastic ones as they’re easily reusable and don’t leach nasty chemicals into your water.
I’ve really liked mine (pictured on right), and have used it a lot as a result.  Recently, it became pretty dirty and got little white deposits or spots on the inside.  Here’s how I got it clean:

All you need is water, soap, baking soda, and an old toothbrush or something similar (this is one of those “use what ya already got'” solutions!).  Now for the steps!

1. Pour a little water and baking soda into the bottle.
2. Take the toothbrush and SCRUB!  This should easily take care of all those icky spots.  And you can use a bendy toothbrush to get to harder to reach areas.
3. Wash the baking soda out.
4. I suppose this step isn’t totally necessary since the baking soda cleans on its own, but you can additionally let the inside of the bottle soak in dish soap and water to get it extra clean.

And that’s it.  You can’t really put these bottles in the dishwater as the tops are so narrow, so I hope this helps you out.

A bit about my bottle (pictured):  I bought it in Kyoto Station, in a stationary store.  The text near the bottom says, “A BIG BARREL ROLLED TOWARDS US.  IT’S BROKEN.  MANY APPLES JUMP OUT OF THE BARREL!”
Isn’t that so cute!?  I got it because while it has a semi-“adult” look about it, it also has a really fun saying.

Review: Nothing But Soap's Eucalyptus Hemp & Tea Tree Soap

Recently I participated in a soap swap through Etsy, which you can read the details of in this post. In short, I got to sample a 1oz bar of Eucalyptus soap from the Etsy store NothingButSoap.

I really enjoyed the soap--it's all gone now. It smelled great, very fresh, and the smell was strong, but not in a bad, overpowering way. Sort of like a perfume?
I like the look of it too--this is silly, but it makes me think of a fancy soap that I could possibly see in my aunt's nice three story house. Aesthetics are important though!
The soap lathered up really well, and it left my hands feeling squeaky clean, and hardly dry at all.

It's a bit hard to review soap, as its a fairly simple thing. But, it was nice to have something other than plain white soap. I recommend you check out NothingButSoaps items, and perhaps participate in the swap yourself!

Japan: Utsunomiya

I’ve shown you Osaka, Kyoto, and Tokyo, now it’s time for my final destination, Utsunomiya:

   

Sorry for not going in to any detail about the trip…There’s just so much that it’s hard to put into words.  I can say though that it is something that I will cherish and remember forever.

Japan: Tokyo

I’ve shown you some of Osaka and Kyoto; here are the highlights from Tokyo:

Japan: Kyoto

First on our trip was Osaka, and now it’s time for Kyoto!

Japan: Osaka

I planned to do a better summary of the trip, but way too much happened to include it all here. Instead, I'm going to make a post with a few of my favorite photos from each place that I visited. Just so you know, overall, the trip was amazing. There's so much about it that's hard to put into words.
Anyway, Osaka is first!

her (not so dark) materials

The ideas that I have!