How to Make Your Own DIY Hand Sanitizers

Even at the best of times, which we certainly are not in, a little hand sanitizer between activities is good practice. The world, particularly heavily populated places, can be a place full of sneezes, coughs, picked noses and all sorts of other unmentionable activities. While, of course, none of us are involved in such things, and we all—OGP readers—have the most hygienic of practices, there are those who don’t, and they touch the same stuff we do.

With that in mind, many of us are trying to cut back on the waste we create, as well as the chemicals we apply to our skin, not to mention save money, so sometimes store-bought hand sanitizers just aren’t the greatest choice. So, what’s a concerned citizen to do? Well, as is often the case, simple ingredients, reusable containers and DIY initiative can save the day. Hand sanitizers are easy to make right at home.

Before getting into DIY hand sanitizers, please remember the importance of washing your hands:

In terms of COVID-19 (and lots of other transmittable illnesses), there is no need to look further than the soap dish. Plain old soap and water, now with the new-and-improved 20-second (two “Happy Birthdays”) tenant, gets the job done just as well as hand sanitizer. Actually, it’s better. Rather than relying on something fancy, why not just used hand sanitizer classic: soap. And, any soap will do, no need for anti-bacterial or anti-microbial.

It is, however, important to wash our hands correctly, and that involves time and lather. Start by wetting the hands under a tap. Turn off the tap, and while the hands are damp, begin applying soap, rubbing it into a lather for at least 20 seconds, and hitting forgotten spots like thumbs and under fingernails. After 20 seconds, rinse the hands and dry them either via air or a clean towel.

That said, there are times (maybe the water is out) and places (near the front door) within our abodes when it’s handy to have some hand sanitizers available, so it’s worth knowing how to put some together. It only takes a handful of ingredients and a couple of minutes to help make the house notably safer for ourselves and our families.

Hand Sanitizer Recipe Endorsed by the WHO

The ingredients are:

• 1 cup of 99% isopropyl alcohol
• 1 tablespoon of 3% hydrogen peroxide
• 1 teaspoon of glycerin
• some distilled (or boiled cold water)

All of these are available at a corner drugstore. Start with the alcohol in a glass jar, add the hydrogen peroxide next, and then the pure glycerin. Stir these up. The final step is to add enough water so that the cumulative volume of the sanitizer reaches 1-1/3 cups. Put a top on the jar and shake up the mixture. Distribute it into spray bottles or old liquid soap dispensers in strategic places around the house, particularly near entry doors.

Hand Sanitizer On-the-Go

Because the best practice is to wash your hands with soap and water, hand sanitizer is mainly something we should have with us when we don’t have access to these things: on-the-go. In this case, and for these times, it should be used very frequently, following contact with anything someone else might have touched.

We should use it any time we use a hand to muffle a cough, field a sneeze, rub our eyes or dig in our ears. At the same time we are preventing ourselves from getting COVID-19, we want to prevent unknowingly spreading it to others if we are infected.

Hand Sanitizer Recipe for Silky Smooth Hands & Pleasant Aroma

The ingredients for this are:

• 2/3 cup of isopropyl alcohol
• 1/3 cup of aloe vera gel
• a few drops of a nice-smelling essential oil

After stirring these two together, add a couple of drops of essential oil, but not too much, for a pleasant aroma. The aloe will prevent the hands from drying out, and the essential oil makes it smell nice (though you shouldn’t be sniffing your fingers right now, people). Distribute this into small, reusable spray bottles that can be kept in the car, in a pocket, in a handbag and wherever else seems appropriate.

Important Notes for Success and Safety

It’s very important to get the ratios correct with these recipes. Hand sanitizers must be at least 60% alcohol to be effective against the coronavirus, and they are a secondary solution for when soap and water aren’t available. Oddly enough, our hands have to be relatively clean—no dirt and grime—for the sanitizer to work well. Stay safe.

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