Reduce The Toxic Load in Your Home
And Reduce Risks to Your Personal Health
Did you know that our bodies all contain parabens, and we all contain plastic?
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Many current and alarming health trends, like declining fertility and increased cancer, can be traced back to environmental chemicals. These chemicals are everywhere, but most commonly found in the home! Your hair, skin, makeup products, your laundry detergent and yes - cleaning products.
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The cleaning industry can be held to a higher standard. Actually, all industries can be held to a higher standard. The more demand for fragrance free and sustainable products there is, the more accessible and affordable these products will become. Regular grocery store cleaning products can cause side effects like asthma, eczema and other health issues directly resulting from the chemicals they contain.
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Choosing to live a lifestyle that doesn't cause health problems can be difficult to navigate because virtually all name brand products in the grocery store for beauty, hygiene, cleaning and even food, contain one of the 4000 unstudied and harmful synthetic chemicals that are sold.
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It’s not just cleaning products - literally all household products are putting our health at risk. In a recent study, parabens and phthalates were linked directly to breast cancer in women who used common beauty and hygiene products.The good news was that once these products were discontinued, the women no longer had the breast cancer risk.
Here are a few easy ways to reduce exposure to household toxins: Try to avoid synthetic fragrance - opt for fragrance free or plant fragrances like essential oil that do not contain synthetic fragrance.
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Try to avoid plastics and forever chemicals - this is a hard one, but replacing cookware and dishes with glass, stainless steel, 100% ceramic and cast iron can be a good start.
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Try to avoid lotions, and opt for regular oils. Jojoba, MCT oil and coconut oil work well on skin.
Opting for fragrance free and chemical free body soaps and shampoos like baby castile soap can not only reduce your exposure to toxins but save you a ton of money over time.
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Resources
I added some links to websites that will assist you in finding more information about reducing the amount of toxic exposure in your home:
The Promise – The Swell Score
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Dr. Yvonne Burkart – PhD Toxicologist | Consumer Advocate | Mom
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Environmental Working Group – EWG Exposes a Toxic Pesticide in People |
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For a Truly Clean House..
Opt to Use Your Own Vacuum!
I think we can all agree that vacuums are an important part of the cleaning process.
I think it’s important to have standards for our homes that reflect the ‘new normal’. We have increased allergens in the air, we have more kids in daycare than ever before, we have COVID, we have pests.
You’re probably wondering what vacuums have to do with this.
A home cannot truly be clean if the tools used to clean it are full of dirt and allergens!
Vacuuming is one of the best ways to control dust, pests and allergens. When vacuuming your home, you might not know what’s lurking in the dust. Bed bugs and other small pests can be so small that they aren’t visible to the naked eye. Using your own vacuum for professional cleanings helps remove the risk of cross contamination from house to house.
Cleaning company vacuums are dirty. When searching for a cleaning company, opt to not use one with community vacuums. Vacuums have small crevices that quickly build up with dirt and grime. As a former “community vacuum” user I can tell you that within 2 days of using the same vacuum, it will have build up in hard to reach places. Cleaning out a vacuum is not only tedious, but exposes us to a dust and other particles, from a combination of homes, which is not only gross, but time intensive, increasing the cost to the business which is then passed down to the consumer.
Cleaning company vacuums end up in the landfill. Investing in a high quality vacuum addresses cross contamination concerns while also reducing the number of vacuums in the landfill. Not using the cleaning company vacuum is efficient! Afterall, they’re big hunks of plastic, they aren’t biodegradable, and they cannot be recycled or repurposed. Think of the reduction in waste if every cleaning company opted out of providing a vacuum? Not only is it better for your health, but it’s better for the environment as well.
The Temperature is Rising..
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It’s getting hotter! We’ve experienced this first hand in homes. In the NW we are used to a temperate climate. It is not the norm for us to be cleaning in homes that get to 80+ degrees inside without the air on.
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I’ve noticed some heat related oddities in customer homes. I’ll explain the most recent - Imagine a very nice, sprawling ranch style home with big, natural wooden beams going across the high ceilings in the living room.
The wood looks natural and unfinished.
One day I noticed something dripping from the wood. It was a golden color. Upon closer inspection, the golden colored stuff had crystallized on the wood. Is it sap? I was sure it was sap.
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I investigated a little bit online. What I found was that excessive heat can cause wood to expand and expel pitch or sap. The type of wood matters, and I don't recall the type of wood. This matters when determining whether it's pitch or sap. The point isn’t to figure out what the substance is so we can clean it. I recommend not doing that. Natural, unfinished wood doesn’t like to be scrubbed or to be wet. You could scrape the hardened pieces off, and possibly sand down other areas carefully, but I would avoid cleaning something like this.
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Since we’re assuming heat is the culprit here, I would also address attic spaces and make sure they’re ventilated (and clean). If the attic is well ventilated the next step would be to make sure the home is well ventilated and the temperature is controlled. We recommend setting the thermostat at 75 degrees or lower when it's warm outside.
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The good news is if you see the wood in your home expelling a pitch or sap, it’s only cosmetic and won’t impact the structure itself. Until we have an outdoor temperature reduction solution, or some kind of innovation in the roofing industry to cool down homes, we’ll have to rely on keeping the indoor air at lower temperatures to protect our home.
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