You’ve started becoming increasingly conscious of what you put into your body.
You’ve starting eating more whole foods, spend more time cooking, and do your best to source out the highest quality, most nutrient dense By Design foods.
You’re a regular at the Farmer’s market, you’ve invested in an animal share and words like pasture-raised, organic, locally sourced, wild and free range are a regular part of your vocabulary.
You care about where your food comes from.
You care about the quality of your food.
You’re doing your absolute best to make the best health decisions for your family.
So why the heck are you still cleaning your house with so many chemicals!?
I’ll admit… switching to more natural cleaning products wasn’t always a priority for me. I was still working on creating habits around the foundation pieces of my health – eating, moving and thinking By Design and getting my spine checked for core problems.
But now that living a life By Design has become a lifestyle for my family and I, there’s been room over the past few years to start making more and more changes that will help us live even healthier lives.
You can end up down a bit of a rabbit hole when trying to substitute healthier, more natural alternatives to the things in your life. There are homemade and store bought versions of almost everything under the sun… from cosmetics to laundry detergent. So my recommendation is to start simple, and experiment with a few items that are having the greatest toxic exposure to your family’s health. For me it was our cleaning products.
The added bonus is that I’ve ended up saving a lot of money on expensive products (even the most “natural” ones can break the bank and aren’t always the best option) by making my own at home and investing in bulk items of some of the key ingredients in each recipe.
(Is it still a recipe if you’re not eating it?)
But more importantly I’m reducing the chemical exposure in our home.
Here are the products I started with, which I adapted from this, this and this website. These three resources have been a wealth of knowledge and provided the bones of these recipes.
Multipurpose Disinfecting Cleaner
- Combine 1 tsp. of borax, 1 tsp. of washing soda and 1 tsp. of liquid castile soap in a glass spray bottle.
- Add 2 cups of distilled water and 5 drops each of tea tree and peppermint essential oils.
- Clean surfaces with an antibacterial microfiber cloth.
Glass and Window Cleaner
- Combine 2 cups of distilled water, 5 tbsp. of white vinegar and 5 drops each of lemon and orange essential oils in a glass spray bottle.
- Clean surfaces with an antibacterial microfiber cloth.
Laundry Soap
- Grate ¼ bar of castile soap using a cheese grater.
- Combine with 1 cup of washing soda and 1 cup of borax.
- Add 10 drops of lavender essential oil and store in a mason jar.
- Use 2 tbsp. per load of laundry.
These were the three simplest recipes that I started with because they shared some of the main ingredients, which were also really easy to find at a natural food store near me.
If you have a secret cleaning product that you make or even one that you buy that has helped reduce the chemical exposure in your home, comment below. I’d love to hear what has worked for you.
For more simple By Design recipes why not pick up your copy of the Eat By Design Cookbook. I’ve created it in the form of a 28-day meal plan (plus grocery lists!) so you don’t need to think about what’s for breakfast, lunch or dinner for the next month. Or you can grab the first 7 days FREE by clicking here.