After posting this morning about common sense ways to keep our families safe from coronavirus, I decided to head out to get a few supplies that we were lacking. Top on my list: hand sanitizer.

I thought I was on the ball here, but it appears that, I don’t know, about 50,000 people beat me to the stores.

I have three young kids and they touch everything. And yes – hand washing is the best line of defense. But we are often out and about and it’s not always possible to wash hands right away. I also have one child who bites his nails, which makes me a bit more concerned here.

Anyway, I ran out for what I thought would be a 10 minute errand to grab hand sanitizer, only to find out that it is sold out. Everywhere. I initially tried to buy it on Amazon, but it’s selling for like $100 right now. Yikes.

In my pursuit of hand sanitizer I went to Walgreens, The Dollar Store (which looks like it’s been ransacked in a zombie apocalypse – I really should have taken a photo), Home Depot, CVS, a random gas station and a pet store (true fact) before finding the last few travel sized bottles at Stop and Shop.

Every employee at every store said the same thing – hand sanitizers are flying off the shelves and they are out of stock for now. Some stores had orders in for new shipments, so you could get lucky in a few days.

That being said – a lot of people will get beaten out to this newly coveted item. So, I investigated an alternate solution: DIY hand sanitizer.

How to Make DIY Hand Sanitizer at Home

If you weren’t fast enough to grab hand sanitizer before all the stores sold out, you can make some at home. This should be used as a backup method – behind using soap and water, and behind using a store bought version if you can snag any.

If you do find yourself in a pinch, hopefully this will help.

Ingredients

• 2/3 cup Isopropyl alcohol 91% (rubbing alcohol)
• 1/3 cup of Aloe Vera gel
• A small or medium sized mixing bowl
• An empty container like the small ones found in travel-sized toiletry kits

Instructions

Making hand sanitizer at home is straightforward. In a mixing bowl you stir the Isopropyl alcohol and the aloe vera gel together until they are fully blended.

You can add an essential oil if you like such things. I know a lot of people do!

Pour the homemade hand sanitizer into your container and seal it. Label it and you’re done.

Notes

• The CDC recommendation is that you use hand sanitizer with at least 60% alcohol content. (And remember – hand washing is still the most effective!)

• The recipe above makes a hand sanitizer that’s slightly over 60%, so you need to follow the proportions carefully. You can also decrease the amount of aloe vera to 1/4 cup if you want to create a hand sanitizer with a higher alcohol percentage.

• It is hard to find 91% rubbing alcohol at the stores right now – and nearly impossible on Amazon. The two stores I went to had 70% alcohol available, but not the more concentrated version. It is important to use the 91% from what I can tell. Fortunately a lot of people will have this on hand at home already!

Stay healthy – I hope this helps!

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