Your Home Might be Making You Sick
Common household swaps that will reduce toxins and prevent disease while also keeping your space clean
It is true what they say, a cluttered home breeds a cluttered mind. But what a cluttered home also breeds are toxic, bacterial growths, dead cell piles, and a space for insects of all sizes to thrive.
However, as nasty as all that sounds, the substances you use to CLEAN your house can be similarly toxic and bad for your health.
It’s one thing to clean up your eating habits, but cleaning up your environment too is just as important for full body health.
Especially if you are living in a body that is fighting a disease everyday, keeping your home where you spend most of your time free from other harmful toxins, no matter how small, can have huge benefits for your healing.
So many people have the misconception that clean is clean, and clean is only good. Which is where you see the incessant Purell-ing and Lysol-ing of every surface of our skin and counters.
In reality, our bodies house thousands of types of bacteria, we are essentially comprised of bacteria. And every once in a while, we need a little bad to keep our immune system strong and fast-acting. Therefore, when something truly dangerous comes around, our bodies are equipped to handle it, because they spent the last few years getting stronger from fighting off common bacteria.
Nowadays the products we use advertise how they kill 99.9% of bacteria, and we assume that’s a good thing for ourselves and the environment. But the chemicals used to kill that many bacteria could in fact, also kill our own.
You will learn in my healthy swap list, the chemicals that are considered generally safe for the public, are not necessary generally safe for everybody, nor are they generally safe to be used for years on a regular basis.
So, let’s go through all the common household items that can easily be swapped out for their less-toxic counterparts.
Dishwasher Soap and Tablets:
Most products on the shelf for dishwasher’s contain chlorine. Chlorine mixes with hot water in the dishwasher and comes out as gas through the vents, thus filling your kitchen with chlorinated toxic air.
Well, everybody uses it so it must be safe right?
When studies are conducted to determine the safety of a product they measure it on a small scale, not anticipating the frequency of the product nor the other products the consumer will buy that also contain toxins and are therefore, surrounded by chemicals constantly.
Body and beauty products, sheets, clothes, carpets, paint, cosmetics, and more all contain harmful substances that added up, make up a toxic environment.
What can you buy instead of the chlorinated tablets or soaps for the dishwasher?
All-natural products like borax, baking soda, or white vinegar for rinsing your dishes and products that are non-toxic listed below that I love.
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Laundry Room:
Throw. Away. Your. Bleach.
This is a PSA.
Inhaling bleach fumes irritates the nose, eyes, skin, and lungs. And guess which chemical is found in high concentrations in bleach? Chlorine! Studies link use of bleach to an increased risk of cancer because of how toxic it is.
What can you use instead if you need those pit stains removed? There are plenty of all-natural bleach alternatives available now that you can find below.
Dryer sheets are another quick toss away. Not only are they terrible for the environment but they contain so many dyes and perfumes that we do not need our body coming into contact with.
Tide is another household name I could go without ever seeing again in my life. As you’ll learn from the next post on the bathroom, anything of a bright blue color is best avoided. Laundry detergent and pods can easily be found natural now, and it is so important to clean your clothes with natural products as our clothes are in direct contact with the largest organ in our bodies: our skin.
The bathroom is a place where people feel like it is always crawling with so many germs that they use the harshest chemicals they can find to scrub that tub and toilet.
The go-to I see most of the time is Windex. A chemical so potent it’s this intense, electric blue color. Windex has had a chokehold on the market since before I was born because it was certainly the most recognizable cleaning supply I saw in my house, and one my mother used often on many surfaces (although she uses more natural alternatives more often now yet I still believe I’ve seen that blue bottle there recently).
For anyone into DIY you can buy spray bottles from the Dollar Store and simply add white vinegar, filtered water, and a few drops of an essential oil (I love lavender or eucalyptus), and now you have a natural, grime-killing, sweet smelling cleaner. Not to mention you’ll save a lot of money by making it yourself!
While you’re wiping the grime, make it a conscious effort to always clean out your drawers and your shower. People predominantly hoard things in the bathroom, swearing they will use that concealer one day, while all your doing is collecting more things to allow bad bacteria to grow on. Throw that stuff away and simplify your life.
Non-toxic body bars and washes are also a must. My partner and I switched to bars of soap instead of the ones that come out the bottle and it was life-changing. You feel cleaner and smell great.
Toilet bowl cleaner and shower cleaner are also two things necessary to a clean bathroom, all of which can be bought naturally!
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In-Home Air Quality
Obviously, nothing can be better for us than having our windows wide open and letting the true, fresh air to filter in. Sadly, not all times of the year call for that.
Nothing can replace the air quality our great trees provide however, there are simple purchases you can make that will keep your house smelling and feeling as fresh as the outdoors.
You are going to want to throw out those Febreze bottle sprays, glade candles and wall-plug ins, and any candle not made organically with soy. All of these things are extremely toxic to our lungs and affect our bodies gravely.
Plus, there are so many incredible switches you can make from these products so your home actually smells like a real smell, not a chemically, manufactured one.
Air purifiers like essential oil diffusers spray essential oils throughout the house that do wonders for your mental and physical health.
Plants like snake plants, ferns, peace lilies, and spider plants all help filter the air in your house and remove bad particles developed in the vent systems.
Himalayan salt lamps release negative ions into the air that calm the atmosphere, clean the air, improve mood, and help sleep quality.
Burning incense provides a natural smell to your home that has this nostalgic quality which can reduces anxiety and stress. It purifies your space and gives you a feeling of calm and peacefulness.