People always ask me about healthy living outside of the kitchen and whether I use natural products in my beauty routine, in my house etc. I’ve written lots of posts on natural beauty but hadn’t gotten to natural cleaning yet so I thought I would share some thoughts here and try to answer your questions, as I’ve noticed there have been quite a few recently.
Before I overhauled the way I lived the products I used in all aspects of my life never used to matter, as long as they were functional I didn’t mind what was in them – I never really even thought about it. As I got more interested in natural living I started to be more conscious of everything I was using though. I wanted to be as kind to my body and environment as I could be. It also suddenly seemed so strange to pay so much attention to what I put into my body through my food and drink, but ignore what I used around it. That’s when I switched up my make up bag and all the products I used around my house and I’ve really enjoyed the change.
For the last few years I’ve been using as many natural cleaning products as I can and wanted to share what I’ve learnt. You know I’m not one to preach so I won’t go on and on about the reasons not to use certain brands but I thought it was worth noting that lots of popular companies use concentrated ingredients, which I’d never thought about before. Some of the main ingredients I learnt to avoid (when possible) were chlorine bleach, chlorine, ammonia, lots of synthetic fragrances, phosphates and phthalates as they can be really harsh on the environment and your skin, and they can be carcinogenic too. Some of the harsher chemicals also don’t degrade very well, so they’re not great for the planet either when they’re washed away down the sink and I don’t like the idea of them getting into my food either
So, instead I’ve been focusing on natural products and learning as much as I can about them. I like finding companies who base their formulations on non-toxic, plant based ingredients (no phosphates or chlorine bleach!) and whose products are kinder to the planet and me. However, I’ve also learnt that you can easily make your own DIY cleaning products, which is great. Who knew that apple cider vinegar, essential oils, baking soda, coconut oil and lemon(to name a few) could be great for most household tasks from scrubbing the bathroom sink, to cleaning your shower, polishing your furniture, wiping your hobs, cleaning the loo and making your counters sparkly and clean? It’s pretty awesome and definitely worth looking into, however I don’t think it’s always quite as effective and they can be a bit of a pain to make when you’re busy! So I do also use a few different brands, mainly Ecover and Method , who I recently partnered with to make some delicious recipes which are on the blog. Their products are pretty easy to get hold of now, which is great and they’re the most natural, accessible companies I’ve found. They also used recycled packaging, which I like, and everything I’ve tried has worked really nicely.
So if you’re looking to overhaul your home to make it a little more natural, then have a look at the ingredients in what you’re using now and if they contain slightly scary sounding ingredients then have a go at a DIY product (there are so many recipes online – try a site like Mind Body Green to get started) or try finding a more natural brand that avoids some of the chemicals we talked about above.
Let me know if you guys have any more questions on this and whether there are any similar topics you want covered, always happy to write posts for you guys of the things I’ve learnt!
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