Beware any products that have major warning labels on them. They are actually advertising the toxicity levels. (For more insight into toxicity levels in products, try to the Think Dirty app).

Think about it…should we really be killing 99.9% of all bacteria? Those products can’t distinguish between helpful and harmful bacteria and every product we use gets into our body through our skin or through the air, which means that what we use in our homes affects our bodies and our growing children. We need a certain level of helpful bacteria in our bodies for normal function. Being exposed to something that kills 99.9% of bacteria (bad AND good bacteria) does not serve our bodies on a day to day basis.

Need more reasons to switch out your cleaning products to ones that aren’t toxic? It can be cheaper to use simple cleaners—one concentrate that can be used to clean everything (like Thieves) can eliminate the need to buy a different product for everything. You don’t need a separate cleaners—one for floors, one for counters, one for the shower and one for glass. You can make one natural one that can be used on all surfaces.

It also decreases the safety risk for children. While there is no cleaner that should be ingested, having natural cleaners in the house is safer than having ones that need to be hidden behind lock and key and unsafe for children to use. My children have their own spray bottles of natural cleaner so they can safely help clean without me being fearful that a cleaner is “too dangerous” for them to use.

Have you ever choked on the fumes from cleaning products or needed to open up a window to air out a room you just cleaned because of those fumes? That’s a HUGE warning flag about the toxic level of that product.

Research cleaning supplies today. Write down what you find then choose from the list

• Stop buying cleaners that promise to eliminate almost 100% of bacteria…they don’t distinguish between the helpful and harmful kinds and make their way into your body
• Download and use the Think Dirty app on your phone and look up products in your house
• Make your own cleaners from concentrates (like Thieves)
• Educate yourself—learn what is in your products
• Choose sustainable products that you would feel comfortable entering a water supply
• Pay attention to scents—if they are overwhelming, smell like “chemicals,” or are simply “too much” for you, explore alternatives
• Make the main goal when choosing cleaning products the health and safety of your family, not convenience or “chemical clean”
• Commit to stop looking at advertising and sale tags and start looking at ingredient labels when choosing cleaning products
• Or come up with your own!

The main culprits here are laundry detergents, fabric softeners, and dryer sheets.

Ever walk through the laundry aisle at the store and get overwhelmed by the extreme smells coming from there? Fragrance isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.

Whatever we wash our clothes in stays on the fabric and works its way into our bodies through our skin and nose (it turns out inhaling those scents isn’t us smelling something “pretty;” those fragrances negatively affect our bodies). And the havoc they reek isn’t limited to just their time in the washing machine—fabric holds the scent and we are then continually exposed to fragrance. Think your sheets just “smell nice?” You’re inhaling those chemicals all night long while you sleep. You’re inhaling them all day long while you wear your clothes washed in those chemicals. What are we trying to mask anyway? If our laundry was truly clean, we wouldn’t need to cover up the cleanliness.

“Clean” is not a scent. Clean means free from dirt or pollution.

Read your laundry labels today and do your research. Get to know the chemicals and what effects they have on our bodies, not just our clothes.

You don’t really need fabric softener or dryer sheets. In my opinion, it is one of the most wasteful up-sells ever. I haven’t used them in years with zero negative effects after stopping. They are an unnecessary expense & contain chemicals, endocrine disruptors, and air pollutants. Do you have allergies or asthma in your family? Get rid of fragrances immediately. Don’t suffer from those? Ditch them anyway; they can still disrupt the body. On top of that, pollutants found in dryer sheets enter our environment through our dryer vents. There are ripple effects to everything we do, products we use, and choices we make.

Do some research today. Know what goes into your laundry products and how those products then effect your body and the world around you. Write down what you use now, what you find our in your research, and ideas for how you can (ironically) clean up your laundry room.

Choose something from the following list that you can implement as part of your laundry room detox:

• Stop buying and using dryer sheets
• Switch to wool dryer balls (if you feel you need an alternative to dryer sheets)
• Try wool dryer balls with a safety pin through them to solve static issues
• Go fragrance-free on every product
• Make your own non-toxic laundry soap
• Start using waste free, non-toxic laundry soap (like Dropps)
• Commit to clean laundry—use “clean” products (you shouldn’t have to mask laundry with fragrance if it is truly clean)
• Look into removing mold or mildew from your washing machine (if present)
• Or come up with your own!

Let’s start in one of the most used rooms in our home: the kitchen. There is a constant shift happening in the kitchen—food comes in, trash goes out, and we are always cleaning. It’s a great place to look at products we are using on a daily basis and really gain perspective on how much we use, what types of products we use, how much waste we are creating, etc. We can then use this info to figure out what changes we can make to create a healthier kitchen environment for our family.

The kitchen is the land of single use plastics. We don’t need them—not to the extent we are told. They are part of the “convenience” sales pitch we are constantly fed in motherhood. With very minimal effort, we can eliminate a significant amount of our single use plastic in the kitchen.

For example, I stopped buying plastic baggies almost two years ago and instead rely on reusable containers, wax based covers, and glass jars to store and seal food. I also use bento boxes for lunches that need packed if on-the-go if foods need to be separated. What happened when I stopped buying plastic baggies? Nothing negative—I started getting creative and realized that I truly did not need them. One family making even this small shift made an impact. Many of us making this small shift can create an even bigger positive shift.

The kitchen is also an important place to look at your cleaning products and really understand the chemicals you are using and exposing your family to…our skin is our largest organ and absorbs what we come into contact with. Everything has an effect on our bodies.

(The kitchen can be a great place for a food detox, but that is coming in week three. Today is all about cleaning supplies and plastics).

Write about your own kitchen. What is your family’s plastic use like in the kitchen? How much trash do you create on a daily basis? What types of cleaners do you use? Are they non-toxic? If they are advertised as “green,” does the ingredient label show that they are truly natural or is it simply advertised as “clean?” Spend some time today researching a few of the ideas listed below. Write down what you learn, what you feel applies to you, and changes you’d like to strive for now and in the long term.

Choose something from the following list that you can implement as part of your kitchen detox:

• Switch to non-toxic cleaning products—including dish, dishwasher, & hand soaps, counter and floor cleaners
• Learn how to make your own cleaners and soaps
• Ditch non-stick pans
• Consider replacing plastic scrubbers with sustainable ones
• Stop buying and using single use plastic baggies
• Try beeswax food wraps
• Switch plastic for silicone, metal, or other materials that don’t leach chemicals
• Replace paper napkins with beautiful cloth ones (it’s just laundry & can easily be washed with towels)
• Don’t rely on plastic wrap and aluminum foil
• Commit to not buying plastic cutlery for parties or take out (I love Sharkpit Designs)
• Filter your drinking water (I’m a fan of Berkey)
• Understand what your current water filter does filter out and how to maintain it
• Avoid heavily packaged products; buy in bulk when applicable
• Compost leftovers and food scraps
• Or come up with your own!

Keep in mind that detox month isn’t about changing everything all at once. Awareness is often the first step. This month might look like you making big shifts, little shifts, both, or simply gathering information to figure out what you need/want to change for your family. This month is very different than the other guided journal topics… “detox” can mean a lot of different things to different people. Our goal is to take inventory of our homes and individual lifestyles, raise our awareness, figure out what we want to change, and then take action from there.

If you get overwhelmed, remember these things: Awareness encourages authenticity. Slow growth sustains long-term change. You’ve got this.