Rid Your Home of These Toxic Products!

Did you know…

Studies show that using household cleaning products (weekly) can do the same amount of lung damage as smoking one pack of cigarettes a week?

Hard to believe, I know. In fact, my husband didn’t believe me when I recited this fact, until I showed him the research. The truth is, there are so many toxic chemicals found not only in our cleaning products, but in a lot of our household products, and it is having a direct effect on our health. Here are a few more disturbing facts:

• Formaldehyde is used in skincare and beauty products
• The air outside your home is safer than the air inside your home
• Anti-perspirant deodorants have been linked with breast cancer
• Shampoos, soaps and detergents contain a lot of toxins which weaken our immune system; some of these toxins even mimic estrogen
• Flouride and aspartame are two of the top most harmful chemicals that damage your brain and put you at higher risk for Alzheimer’s and other dementias (heavy metals are also on the list, including aluminum and mercury)
• Skincare (including lotions, makeups and perfumes) disrupt your endocrine system (anyone reading have a thyroid disorder??)

The list goes on and on. I have barely scraped the surface. And these ingredients are in your everyday products!!Maybe you are reading this and rolling your eyes. A few years ago I probably would’ve been doing the same thing. It isn’t until you experience disease firsthand that you stop and wonder “how did this happen?” That was the case for me. In 2012, my mom was diagnosed with a rare brain disease, called semantic dementia, at the young age of 50! The following year, I was diagnosed with a thyroid disorder and autoimmune disease (Hashimotos). I feel like after that, I became hyper-aware of disease all around me. Thyroid disorders, early onset dementias, early breast cancer (and other cancers) in friends, various autoimmune diseases in my family members and friends. When doctors and medicine failed to help me feel better, I turned to alternative methods and studies.

And this is what I found. There are SO many things in the environment around us that [I believe] are absolutely affecting our health; from foods to bath and body products to cleaners to the very air we breathe. I do believe that genetic factors need to be present for these diseases to occur, but there are things that can trigger them and we really don’t know what will set off disease at any given moment. We can’t live our lives in constant fear, but we can arm ourselves in knowledge and defend our families against disease. I can’t control what happens outside my home, but I can control what happens inside.

Making The Change

Change doesn’t come easily. After attending a friend’s workshop a few months ago (teaching about the harmful products in our home), I knew that I wanted to make a change in my home. The main obstacle was money; it seemed that all of these substitutes were double the cost of regular products…especially when it came to the bath and beauty products!! My budget simply couldn’t make this work.

Lucky for me, I had a couple of people in my life to help me out. One is my daughter, Maurina. She has been using natural products for quite some time and she was actually in town visiting at the time of the workshop (she went with me). She’s been trying to get me to make the switch for quite a while.

The second person is someone that I met through my sewing business; I did a job for him and after talking, I discovered he uses the same products as Maurina. He actually came to our last foundation board meeting and gave a presentation on the products and how we could benefit the foundation (financially) by shopping for these safe products.

I spent my time researching the quality of the products and I tried a few out over the course of a few months before I made the big plunge. It also helps that I visited Maurina over the summer and everything in her house has been converted to this safer product, and I was impressed with how clean she keeps her home. Since my son suffers from severe eczema, I started with switching over our laundry detergent and lotions; I’m working on the other soaps. Let me just say that I love the laundry detergent; the smell, the quality, all of it! It’s free of all the toxic chemicals from my other detergent and costs right around the same price, believe it or not!

After working our way down a very long list of recommended lotions for eczema, and seeing absolutely NO results from any of them, we finally decided to try this company’s lotion. The first picture of my son’s hands was taken about a month and a half ago, at his very worst. The second picture was taken this morning, after 2 weeks of faithfully using this lotion. They have been this way- red, chapped and bleeding- for a year and half now. We have tried more lotions and creams that I can count and nothing has helped. We have finally seen a little bit of improvement, although it’s still not completely cleared up. A lot of friends actually recommended this lotion and claimed it cured their eczema. It hasn’t cured his, but it has helped better than anything else we’ve tried so far, including prescription lotions and steroids. We are actually meeting with another doctor today and I have a referral to the Children’s Hospital nearby. I am hoping that between these two appointments, we can get to the root cause of what is going on because at this point, I am thinking this is much more than eczema (maybe an autoimmune disorder). At any rate, this has helped provide him a little relief in the meantime. (These photos are NOT photoshopped in any way).

I’m also in love with the dishwasher pods. I will never look back! We have spent years battling foggy glasses. We have tried dishwasher pods and both liquid and powder detergent and nothing gets them entirely clean. There was always a residue hardened on my dishes from the detergent. We thought the problem would be resolved when we got a new dishwasher; no such luck. I am not kidding you, my dishes have never been cleaner since making the switch!! I can actually see through the glass! I wish I’d taken before and after pictures, like in those commercials you see on TV, but I didn’t think to do it. But you can see how crystal clear my glasses are! And best of all, there is no harmful residue left that my family is ingesting every time we eat and drink.

This past week, I finally took the plunge and did a complete “household cleaner” make over! I ordered a starter pack that came with all of the basic products you would need to convert a household to natural cleaners, including: laundry detergents and spot cleaners, dryer sheets, tub and tile cleaner, cleansing wipes (in place of Clorox wipes), toilet bowl cleaner, furniture polish, glass/window cleaner, cleaners for countertops and greasy stoves/ovens, floor cleaner….just to name a few. I believe the pack came with 16 different products (and that was the basic starter pack; there are bigger packs you can purchase). Plus, I got some bonus products: chapsticks, hand sanitizers, travel size lotions and my favorite essential oil (the respiratory blend).

Let me tell you, it felt like Christmas morning when my package came!! I know that sounds totally nerdy, but I was so excited that I went on a cleaning binge when it all arrived. I was anxious to test it all out and see how it works. I cleaned my toilets, counters, bathtub/shower, mirrors and even the greasy stovetop. So far, so good! Even my skeptical husband was impressed with how well it cleaned the grime. And best of all, I wasn’t made sick by fumes of toxic chemicals in the process. These cleaning products are so safe, in fact, that your child could get into them and drink them and they wouldn’t be harmed. Not that I’m going to put that to test, but it’s good to know that it wouldn’t be the end of the world if that happened.

Immediately, I packed up the harmful cleaners that have been residing in my home and kicked them to the curb! Good riddance!!!

I am so happy and excited that we made the switch, and this is just the beginning. Second to good health, the best part is that I am not spending anymore money out of pocket than I was already spending. Oh, and 5% of what I spend is donated to my non-profit, The DEANA Foundation. How awesome is that?

This company offers more than just cleaners; they are a whole wellness company. Some of the other natural, safe products they offer include (but not limited to):

• make-up
• skincare-even anti-aging!! (I’ve been so resistant to change over!)
• vitamins and supplements
• medications
• essential oils (WAY cheaper than your other big companies which I won’t name, and they are the same quality grade and undergone even more testing in the process)
• hair products
• lotions and perfumes
• aluminum-free deodorant
• toothpaste (they do offer a fluoride version, but they have fluoride-free as well)
• some snack and food items, including aspartame-free gum and mints

All with NO chlorine bleach, NO ammonia, NO formaldehyde, NO phthalates, NO toxic chemicals.

I can’t wait to try it all out and I will give you all updates as I go and share what I have found that works! If you are interested in trying anything out, contact me or comment below and I’d be happy to teach you about everything they have to offer. Just to make it clear, I am not selling anything. I just want to make sure you know the best way to get these products and how to do it in a way that supports the foundation as well 🙂 You can find them third party on Amazon, but you will spend double the money doing it that way. Don’t waste your money!

Who is ready to join me in the healthy home make-over?