How to Get Rid of Toxins in Your Home
Did you know that research shows that one of the most toxic environments that we live in, is our own home? That’s scary, right? I had switched some of my products years ago to products that were “green” products and therefore safer our family. Little did I know that some of those so-called “green” products were just as toxic and dangerous. Cleaning our homes shouldn’t have to be difficult or require us to suit up in haz-mat suits. We can take simple small steps to make the changes that will lead to a better, cleaner environment. Following along so we can rid your home of toxins!
So let’s start DITCHING those products that are so dangerous to our health and wellbeing and start SWITCHING to safer alternatives.
So how do we start to target the items in our homes that are not good?
This handy Detective Mom Checklist can help and there is an app for that too! (Isn’t there always?)
Download and print out the full version of this checklist
You can also check out the Think Dirty App. Easily scan items at the local store to get an instant read on how toxin-filled it is.
Let’s start with our beauty routine.
Everything in our beauty routine goes on or in our bodies. Toothpaste, face wash, moisturizer, wrinkle cream. It’s all-absorbing as far as it can, and if the body doesn’t know how to process it (for non-organic compounds for example) the body stores it.
Petroleum-based beauty products are like this. The body is meant to take in, use, and process out through the liver anything and everything that we take in or put on ourselves.
That’s the normal healthy flow of our body’s natural metabolism.
Let’s talk about alternatives to our formerly favorite beauty products so we can give the body natural products that it can fully use…and when they have Young Living essential oils in them the body gets wellness support too!
Facial Care Ditch
Ready for an eye-opener? Check your facial scrubs, face washes, moisturizers and “spot treatment” creams for the yucky items listed on each graphic. (Face not feeling so clean anymore?)
Our budget did not allow me to just toss all the old facial care products that contained ingredients we really did not need or want on our skin.
To maximize our money, I used up what we had, and then started looking into alternatives-both DIY, and Young Living products.
The first facial care item I ditched was using store-bought scrubs. The smell (after I had been using EOs for a few months) was so unnatural I could not even tolerate them anymore. A good thing!
Next I DIY’d a face wash and loved the pore-cleaning results. My store-bought toxin-filled cleaner did not leave my skin as clean and clear.
Look through the labels of the items in your bathroom, and make a mental note to toss, or use up and toss.
Facial Care Alternatives (Time to Switch!)
Natural products work, but your skin needs time to de-tox from the old petroleum-based products to truly moisturizing and nourishing natural oils.
Whenever you switch to a new facial care product, give it 2 weeks to let your skin get used to the way we really need to be caring for ourselves.
The products listed in the images are fantastic natural facial care infused with the power of essential oils and based in truly nourishing natural fatty oils like grapeseed and olive.
Satin Face Scrub:
There is nothing as invigorating as this scrub! It’s truly gentle, yet effective. My skin felt so smooth. A little goes a long way, like all of YLs products, so a pea-to-lima-bean sized amount is all you need for a great morning wake up for your skin.
ART & Orange Blossom Facial Wash:
Both of these spa-quality facial cleansers are created from ingredients you can read! Hooray! They do contain citrus oils, so use these at night, or when you are out of the sun. I loved the ART cleanser the best, and save my ER points for that one. 🙂
Orange Blossom Cleanser can be diluted with water to make it last a LOOONG time. I do this by using an empty foaming soap pump dispenser, fill it halfway with Orange Blossom Cleanser and then top with water. It’s lovely for dry skin, in my opinion.
Frankincense is my favorite skin oil. I apply every morning and every night.
Oils give your skin a healthy glow. It’s amazing to see.
Want a DIY alternative to maximize your dollars? This DIY facial scrub/cleanser from The Stay-at-Home-Mom Survival Guide uses honey as a base. (It’s great for acne-prone skin):
DIY Natural Honey Facial Cleanser
The Kitchen
We want this room to be the cleanest and sanitary place in the house, right?
Well, it’s time to read labels again. Consider it an essential part of this year’s Spring Cleaning. As you pull your cleaning products out of your closets and cupboards, have the toxin checklist handy and verify.
It’s time to ditch (or use up and switch) products that contain these harmful ingredients. It’s about long-term health guys. There is no dollar amount we can attach to that.
Do you have any items with these ingredients in your kitchen?
Switch to a Toxin-Free Kitchen
I have saved money and time by switching to Thieves cleaner! It works in more places than the kitchen. It can be used to clean literally everything in the house.
With the power of Thieves essential oil blend and other natural ingredients this super-concentrated cleaner can be diluted in a spray bottle to use as a counter spray.
I add ½ a capful poured right on my steam mop pad for mopping tile, linoleum and wood floors.
If you have not tried Thieves dish soap, I highly recommend it! It is a powerful soap that is easy on your skin. You can even use it as a laundry pre-treater…more on that in another section of this class. 🙂
Diffusing essential oils neutralize and eliminate odors from food. I accidentally burned something on the stove and my whole house smelled like burnt food. I added two or three drops of purification into the diffuser in my kitchen and I was amazed at how quickly that burnt smell disappeared.
Having a diffuser in the kitchen has been a great way for us to diffuse throughout the day. Nothing energizes our household like smelling Citrus Fresh or Orange first thing in the morning.
Where do you diffuse in your house?
Laundry Room
Our clothes touch our skin all day long. How we wash them and care for them is a big factor in caring for our skin and overall health.
There is so much information out there about which detergents and laundry products are best and worst and everything in between.
Did you know your essential oils have a part to play in keeping your laundry room toxin-free?
You can get clean laundry AND keep your skin safe from harmful chemicals…easily!
As you Spring Clean your house in the coming months, look at the products on the shelf of your laundry area. There are great resources online for buying affordable and healthy laundry products, but did you know you can grab essential-infused items for the laundry room right from Young Living?
We think about Young Living essential oils being for body and mind, but did you know they are great for home care too? We covered the cleaners, but let’s talk laundry.
Thieves laundry detergent, Thieves dish soap, Purification EO blend, and Thieves cleaner all are helpful in the laundry room!
Thieves dish soap can be sued as a stain treater, as can Thieves household cleaner. Pour right on stain, work into fabric, let sit or wash right away.
Lemon essential oil is also a great stain treater! A few drops to cover the stain then wash the item right away takes out many organic stains on clothes. I keep a bottle in my laundry room so it’s on hand all the time.
What if I told you there was a natural option for “bleach”?
I just found this in an oils group recently and it is amazing for brightening clothes.
DIY “Bleach”
½ C 3% peroxide
½ C lemon juice
15 drops Lemon essential oil
Distilled water
Gallon dark glass container (or put clear glass container in a dark corner of the shelf when not using to keep peroxide active)
Combine all in the jar. Add 1 C per regular wash load. (I added 1 ½ cups to a heavily soiled white load.
If you haven’t switched to DIY dryer sheets or dryer balls, it’s time! They eliminate the exposure to the air-born toxins in dryer sheets.
Here is a DIY dryer sheets “recipe” for you from Jaimi at The Stay-at-Home Mom Survival Guide:
What is your favorite natural DIY laundry product?
Personal Care: Time to Ditch
The everyday items we apply to our skin impact our health. No doubt!
Think about toothpaste. Our pediatric and adult dentists say the whole philosophy of the ADA has changed to exposing kids and adults to fluoride less than our generation may have received fluoride treatments.
I know from watching my kids that it takes them a long time to learn how to brush properly and not swallow toothpaste. It’s important to me to know they are not swallowing any harmful products, so we took a close look at our bathroom cabinets to eliminate what was not going to healthy with long-term use.
Another interesting fact came from our pediatrician. He said most lotions are primarily water, so they evaporate rather than truly moisturize your skin. This is a traditional medicine pediatrician saying this! He suggested just using a DIY lotion made with coconut oil or another “fatty oil”.
It is so easy to stop buying products that have junk in them. SO EASY!
Making your own lotions and hand soaps can be scary and you might think it’s time-consuming or just too much work. The reality is the time to support our health is not optional. It’s there, but we need to rescue it from wasted time.
So try it. Check out this super amazing lotion that is so easy to make.
Super Moisturizing Hand Lotion
Not interested in the DIY stuff? Lavender hand and body lotion is amazing! I put it on as body lotion after taking a shower and within 10 minutes I could have fallen asleep. It was so relaxing!
Sensation hand and body lotion is also a beautiful but energizing lotion.
Both of the above are not greasy and they last even with frequent hand-washing.
How to Make the Switch
I touched on the idea of using and then switching product choices for better health early on in this post. We call this “Replacement Buying.” Nothing ground-breaking.
We don’t have to keep buying products that can harm our health. The beauty is if you are a Young Living member you have access to a full range of health and wellness products!
Replacement buying just means you use up what you have of your old products. I am still doing this with the kids’ lotion and our shampoo.
Then as I get close to running out, I try a Young Living alternative product to replace my old toxin-filled stuff.
There is a way to do this replacement buying for the items you use monthly and earn money back in the process.
Maximize Your Budget to Build Your Wellness Arsenal
No doubt the foods we eat and the products we put in and on our bodies affect how we feel, how productive we can be in a day, and how well we stay/how quickly we recover from illness.
I want to be at my best, and that means changing my habits to make sure I am living well and setting a great example for my kids.
So how do we do all this and keep our household budgets intact? It’s no secret that Young Living oils cost more than those you’ll find in the stores. That is the truth. We also know why that is: Young Living uses only quality plants and natural ingredients that are unadulterated.
When you become a Young Living member you can save 24-44% off retail pricing. In addition, you are eligible to enroll in Essential Rewards – a monthly wellness box – where you can earn as much as 20% back on your purchases to use towards purchasing your favourite products. You decide what goes into the wellness box each month, decide when to ship and how much you’d like to budget.
This is how I have “purchased” more products than our budget would allow. My 50PV order each month supplies us some of our oils needs and then I save up my ER points as long as I want to spend on purchasing other YL items for free!
The Essential Rewards program is completely optional. You can just buy as you need. That is completely up to you! If you do however place a 50PV order get I’d suggest going on ER first because you can always use your points and cancel your ER without canceling your wholesale account. Super easy!
If you have not purchased a premium starter kit but are interested, I am also offering each new member who uses my sign up link a welcome package:
- Essential Oils Resource Guide
- a free introductory e-course covering essential oil basics
- access to the Oily Tipsters Facebook Group for essential oil information and support
- 99 Ways to Use your Starter Kit
- A personal wellness plan created by me.
- two 10ml glass roller bottles to get started.
There are a number of different options for starter kits depending on what country you live in.
Purchase can be made here: Premium Starter Kit
For questions – connect with me on Facebook or via email.
What is one thing that you have decided to switch today?
