A healthy home is a beautiful thing. Too many homes are filled with products containing chemicals that contribute to cancer, hormone disruption, thyroid problems, asthma, migraines, and so many more health issues. Even so many "natural" ones contain these horrible ingredients like synthetic fragrance chemicals. It can seem overwhelming to change it.
That's why we're doing a complete Home Detox 2018 together. We'll pick one room a month to focus on and month-by-month, detox our homes together. There'll be weekly educational posts and monthly giveaways. All of the information will be updated right here in this post each week!
Who's Ready for Home Detox 2018?!! We'll be going through a room of the home each month and working to ensure we're getting the toxins out in the products in that room! Link to full post: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?...
Each month, I'll offer a couple of possible ideas of products together totaling around $50 for that room. The Essential Rewards program is the best way to keep improving your health and your home with points back on every order and the minimum order is only 50 PV a month! So get on Essential Rewards if you aren't already and let's detox our homes!
For January, we're going to be in the Kitchen! Here are two possible ideas to start out detoxing the products in your kitchen!
1) Thieves Dish Liquid, Thieves Foaming Hand Soap, & Thieves Dishwasher Detergent
2) Thieves Household Cleaner, Thieves Fruit/Veggie Soak, & Thieves Wipes
This month, we're going to be exploring more about each of these items, how to save the most money on them, how to use them, and why they're awesome! Stay tuned!
GIVEAWAY: Everyone who orders or has the products in at least one of the sets this month will be entered into a drawing for a $50 account credit! (Or mix and match based on product availability or what you already have!) (One winner will be chosen each month.)
Week 1 of Kitchen Detox: Dishsoap
What's cleaning the dishes you eat off of and what are you soaking your hands in?!!
Well one of the worst things we can use is that brightly-colored Dawn! This rates D out of F on EWG's ratings. It contains some of the biggest no's including:
-Fragrance (nervous system effects, respiratory effects, hormone disruption, etc.),
-Artificial colors (which are petroleum-based), and
-METHYLISOTHIAZOLINONE which is high concern for skin irritation/allergies/damage.
AND GUESS WHAT?! I discovered earlier this year that the "hypo-allergenic," "natural," "non-toxic" Seventh Generation dishsoap also contains METHYLISOTHIAZOLINONE as well as another artificial preservative. UGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!
That's when I started using Thieves dish soap and nothing else.
It's pricier. But it's not just getting our dishes clean. It's giving us the therapeutic health benefits of the Thieves essential oil every time we wash our dishes!
WHAT ABOUT BUBBLES?
From Lindsey Elmore The Farmacist:
Thieves Dish Soap takes a minute to get used to because it doesn’t bubble. Really, none of the liquid cleaners bubble: the laundry soap, shampoos, and Thieves household cleaners included.
.
There are a couple of good reasons for this: 1) essential oils change the surface tension of bubbles, making them more likely to pop, and 2) most bubbles you find in liquid soaps are a byproduct of SLS.
.
SLS or sodium lauryl sulfate is a very common surfactant found in about 30% of cleaning products, and much of this is synthetic. SLS is a known ocular irritant, dermal irritant, can be absorbed across the skin, and may also be associated with hair loss and aquatic toxicity. Therefore YL chose to exclude it from their products.
.
So, take a tip from me: skip the bubbles. They mean nothing for the cleansing power of the product, and more natural alternatives are available.
.
https://www.facebook.com/lindseyelmore/videos/1093139637493155/
Of course Thieves dish soap is out of stock right now. 😫 I contacted leader support and they do not have an ETA on it yet but hopefully it will be soon! In the meantime, just try using your Thieves household cleaner to wash your dishes!! Or if you want to get fancy, here's a DIY dish soap recipe using Thieves household cleaner and a few other ingredients!https://www.stillbeingmolly.com/2015/05/26/easy-diy-non-toxic-dish-soap/
Stay tuned next Tuesday as we talk about hand soaps with the ingredients to watch out for in those and some budget-saving tips for using Thieves foaming hand soap!
Home Detox 2018 Week 2: Hand Soap
We're in the kitchen this week and we covered dish soaps for Week 1. This week we're going to go through the low down on hand soaps.
This is one area I had a really hard time switching over due to a tight budget and lots of kids! I remember the days when I would buy the huge refill container of generic Softsoap full of so many horrible toxins.
Thankfully, the FDA is finally realizing that Triclosan in hand soaps is really hazardous to our health and doesn't even get hands any cleaner than without it. So we generally don't have to watch out for this nasty ingredient as much as we used to, but still be on the lookout for it as it's one of those that you should avoid at all costs!
Like we talked about with dish soaps, "fragrance" or "parfum" is another ingredient we need to watch out for. But this one is a big issue with hand soaps because it's even in A LOT of the "natural" hand soap brands.
This ingredient is so important to avoid because the term "fragrance" or "parfum" can include any of hundreds of different chemicals that are linked to hormone disruption, allergies, dermatitis, asthma, infertility, and cancer.
Go ahead and check your soaps right now and see if they contain "fragrance!"
Other things to avoid:
Parabens. These ingredients are estrogen mimickers—meaning that once applied to the skin, they enter the bloodstream, and the body mistakes them for estrogen. When the body thinks there is an abnormally high amount of estrogen present in the bloodstream due to the presence of these hormone disrupters, it reacts in various ways: decreasing muscle mass, increasing fat deposits, causing early onset of puberty and spurring reproductive difficulties in both men and women.
Sulfates. These chemicals are used to produce lather and bubbles in soap. Some common sulfates are SLS (sodium lauryl sulfate) and SLES (sodium laureth sulfate). Sulfates strip the skin of its natural oils and increase penetration of the skin’s surface. They are also irritants for people with sensitive skin or eczema.
SO WHAT CAN WE DO?!
Young Living gives us lots of options, including Thieves foaming hand soap and lavender foaming hand soap!
At first, I bought liquid castile soap and used Thieves oil to refill my Thieves foaming hand soap. I figured this would be the cost effective way to go. But then I budgeted it out and realized that it wasn't really any cheaper, especially if I was going to use enough Thieves oil to make it really count for getting stuff clean! So I started buying the Thieves foaming hand soap refill and have been doing that ever since! (See the picture in the comments for the cost breakdown.)
Thieves foaming hand soap is concentrated so I personally dilute it! I fill an empty foaming hand soap bottle 1/3 of the way with Thieves soap refill and fill the rest with water (running slow so it doesn't bubble!). It foams great and smells fabulous!
Bars of soap also tend to last a long time for washing hands so Young Living's bar soaps can be a great option too!
AND DON'T FORGET: When we use Young Living products, we're not just avoiding toxic chemicals. We're giving ourselves therapeutic benefits of YLEO's with every use! How awesome is that?!!
Have you tried Young Living's Thieves foaming hand soap and/or the refill?!!
Week 3 Home Detox 2018: The Lowdown on Dishwasher Detergent
We generally don't think much about this one but this is something that we end up ingesting because there's always going to be some residue on our dishes!
The FDA doesn’t mandate ingredient disclosure to household products. That means that what may be deemed “safe” for one person may be harmful to another. In fact, most commercial-brand dishwashing detergents are made from a petroleum-based mixture of chlorine bleaches and other harmful substances that can cause hormonal disruptions, lung and eye irritations, intoxication and even cancer.
☢️ Chlorine: Chlorine gas was used by the U.S. as chemical warfare in WW1. The U.S. government was convicted of illegal war crimes for using chlorine gas. Even in small amounts, it causes or exacerbates asthma and allergies. In liquid form, even in tiny amounts, it negatively affects gut and skin flora and mutates DNA. Chlorine also negatively affects thyroid health by blocking absorption of iodine.
☢️ Phosphates: According to Cascade’s website, phosphates “helped with dishwashing performance by facilitating food removal, removing the calcium that binds these types of foods together, and aided in grease removal. They also helped control water hardness and bound/suspended soils within the wash water so they did not redistribute onto plates.” What they did not say is that phosphates pollute lakes, bays, and streams and can create algae blooms and starve fish of oxygen. Luckily, 17 states passed laws requiring the removal of phosphates from detergents.
☢️ Many have ingredients like Sodium Formate and Polyvinyl Alcohol which are labeled as hazardous to ingest. 😱
☢️ And like we talked about with dishsoap, dishwasher detergents also usually contain synthetic preservatives like benzisothiazolinone (even Seventh Generation). These preservatives have been banned in other countries and are banned for use in cosmetics. (Yet it's allowed in even "natural" dish products that we soak our hands in.) These chemicals are used as preservatives due to their antimicrobial nature, which means they likely also negatively affect microflora.
So what do we do instead?! The only dishwasher powder I know for sure is safe is Thieves Dishwasher Powder! The first time I ordered it, I opened the bag to see what the powder was like and I was instantly amazed at how fabulous it smelled!! I've never had dishwasher powder that smells so great and is so natural!
Here's a quick demonstration and info about Thieves dishwasher powder:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MI7hYZpV1-I
Many people have found that less is more with it, so start with 1/2 a scoop instead of a full scoop!
And don't forget the rinse aid! Did you know you can use Thieves household cleaner alone or with white vinegar as a natural rinse aid?!
Some really great natural DIY tips for keeping your dishes and your dishwasher clean here as well as a link to a DIY dishwasher powder recipe for those who'd rather make it: http://anointedbyabba.com/2016/10/green-dishwasher-tips-using-thieves/
Who detoxed their kitchen this month?!!! If you ordered or have and are using at least three of the products from this month's Home Detox 2018 Kitchen project, you can enter to win a FREE Thieves Laundry soap!! Just go here and enter:
http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/0acef1b613/?