Simple Tips to Detox Your Home (and why you should)
photo cred: Wellness Stock Shop
"Your body is your temple. Keep it pure and clean for the soul to reside in."
-B.K.S Iyengar
When I started to dive into the field of health and wellness several years ago I was focused almost entirely on food (and exercise). What I didn't have any appreciation for at the time was the role that toxins play in our health. I had no idea that our liver played such a crucial role in removing toxins, and I didn't appreciate how many toxins enter our bodies every single day and have the potential to cause unwanted symptoms and health issues. These toxins build up over time and can manifest in your body as headaches, fatigue/sleep issues, low energy, allergies, skin issues, chronic GI problems and so much more.
I know that navigating household, beauty and personal care products can be incredibly overwhelming (it still is for me). So I'm sharing my top tips to slowly clean out the products in your house and help your body detoxify more easily on it's own.
Before I share my tips, here are a few reasons why you should keep reading:
The average home contains 62 toxic chemicals resulting in our indoor air often being more toxic than outdoor air.
There are 10x the amount of toxins in the United States than in Europe & Australia.
To date there are fewer than 100 ingredients banned from personal care products in the US where in Europe this number is over 1,500.
According to the Environmental Working Group, women use an average of 12 products a day, containing 168 different chemicals. Men use fewer products, but still put 85 chemicals on their bodies.
When our bodies have a high toxic load they hold onto fat and make it difficult to lose weight 😫
Many household products contain endocrine-disrupting ingredients which can increase the production of certain hormones (like estrogen), imitate hormones (which can lead to estrogen dominance), decrease the production of others, compete with nutrients and more.
Conventionally farmed produce and animal products contain pesticides that can't be washed off.
Most conventional laundry detergents contain fragrances, bleach and other endocrine-disrupting chemicals.
Source: Dr Stephen Cabral
These tips are just a few breadcrumbs to help you along your health and wellness journey. Start small with one simple change at a time; health is a journey not a destination.
Gather all of your household cleaners and look for the words “caution”, “warning”, or “danger” on the box or bottle. Those words (especially "warning" and "danger") are a giveaway that there are potentially toxic chemicals in the product. It's best to simply remove the product from your home.
Use EWG Skin Deep database and the EWG Verified database to verify if your household cleaning products contain harmful chemicals.
Start swapping out your cleaning products for safe and all natural ones. You may notice that you have a ton of products and wonder how expensive it may be to do this; however, what you'll likely find is that it's less expensive because you actually don't need so many products. One of my favorite and easiest ways to do this is to use Branch Basics cleaning products. We recently interviewed one of the co-founders on The Art of Living Well Podcast (episode to drop later this fall) and you can use code 'Livingwell' for 15% off a starter kit.
If you're not ready to remove all of your chemical cleaners, I suggest putting all of them in a sealed container and moving them to your garage. P.S. I just did this for my household.
Need to really disinfectant a surface area? Check out Branch Basics or this site to make your own with a few simple ingredients (much cheaper and safer than Clorox wipes).
Repeat these steps with your beauty and personal care products too. Take one room/area at a time and know that by doing this you are creating a safe and healthy space for you and your family (furry friends included).
A couple of my favorite brands and places to shop for household/cleaning products include: Thrive Market, Molly's Suds, Branch Basics, Beautycounter, local co-ops (like Lakewinds in Minneapolis), WholeFoods and even Target.
Although tap water is a topic for another day, you may want to check out EWG's database to see how "clean" your drinking water really is 😫.
I'd love to help you cut through the confusion and clean up the toxins in your life. Click here to set up a free consultation.
In health & happiness,
Stephanie