Did you know that researchers at the University of Colorado say that cooking, cleaning, and other household activities can generate pollution in your home that are at similar levels to major cities?

Exposing yourself to toxic chemicals day after day can have a negative cumulative effect on your body. Who doesn’t want to minimize the amount of toxins and chemicals you are exposed to every day? To add to your regular spring cleaning routine, here are some simple steps you can take to detox your home and create a healthier environment for you and your family.

Add Some Greenery

Plants naturally clean the air around us. Don’t be intimidated if you don’t have a green thumb either. You don’t have to have a green thumb to have plants in your home. There are so many plant varieties that are so hard to kill, that even the blackest thumb can manage. 

I have several house plants, but one of my favorites is the SNAKE PLANT. It is so hard to kill! I probably water my snake plants every other month, and they always look good.

Did you know the SNAKE PLANT is one of the top air purifying plants identified by NASA? It removes at least 107 known air pollutants, including carbon monoxide and nitrogen monoxide, formaldehyde, chloroform, benzene, xylene, and trichloroethylene among many others. It also has a higher efficiency of absorbing carbon dioxide, and it is one of the few plants that release oxygen during the night.

In addition to cleaning the air, I like to use plants in rooms as a design element to liven up spaces, and make rooms more welcoming. I have a live plant in almost every room of my house.

PURIFY THE AIR

In addition to having plants clean the air, you can step it up by adding an AIR PURIFIER to your home. Yes, you put filters in the walls for the air system built into your home, but even though those filters trap some dust, that does not clean the air inside your home. Air purifiers help remove allergens, dust, smoke, mold, dander, and all kinds of germs.

Will has seasonal allergies, so I keep an air purifiers running 24/7 in our home. We have one upstairs and downstairs in our home. The one upstairs, is a Holmes air purifier that I purchased at Target several years ago. The downstairs one is an Alexapure Breeze, that I purchased off Amazon, after researching several other air purifiers. It is very quiet, has an ion cluster technology, and automatic settings so that it will turn on only when it senses pollutants in the air. If you’re ever a little gassy, don’t sit near a machine like this, because it will give you away!

GET RID OF CHEMICALS

Yes, sometimes you need all the chemicals to clean big messes, but why not be as toxic free as possible for day to day cleaning?

To make my cleaning routine toxic free (and cheap), I have switched to using white vinegar as my main cleaning agent. Vinegar is a natural germ killer, and it is a stronger cleaning agent than you might think.

I use baking soda, dawn soap, and vinegar to clean showers, tubs, and sinks. I use it to clean windows and mirrors. And I make an all purpose cleaner for countertops by mixing it with some water and 4 THRIVE ESSENTIAL OIL (just shake up the bottle before you use the spray).

I like to put my homemade cleaner in a GLASS SPRAY BOTTLE for the aesthetics. I think it looks cleaner than ugly plastic bottles, and cutting down on plastic use is good for the environment.

Sometimes I switch it up from my homemade cleaner, and use MRS. MEYERS CLEAN DAY MULTI-SURFACE CLEANING SPRAY. I love the whole lemon verbena product line by Ms. Meyers.

For laundry, I use the SEVENTH GENERATION LAUNDRY DETERGENT. I also am a fan of the METHOD LAUNDRY DETERGENT. As for fabric softeners, I like to use use NATURAL FABRIC SHEETS, but am interested in testing out the WOOL DRYER BALLS as well because you can use them over and over!

What are your favorite house plants? What do you do to reduce your exposure to chemicals? Comment and let me know!

Cheers,

Ship