Friends, I have missed you! It's been nearly three months since I have sat down at my computer to catch you up on what has been going on over here. Life has been busy to say the least...three babies, three and under! Yikes.
We have all been coping with this pandemic a little differently and hopefully everyone has stayed safe and healthy. I have been keeping busy with the kids and my husband is back to work now. Since I have been at home more than usual I have started to clean out cupboards, drawers and closets. Call me crazy, but I find joy in purging! During my purging frenzy I started to notice how many candles and cleaning supplies I had. I didn't even know what some of my products were for. Anthony, my oldest son got into the cupboard under our sink and grabbed a spray bottle (thankfully it was the one with water in it) and sprayed his brother, Leo right in the eye. I was thankful it was just water but it made me think about how scary it would have been if it was something harmful.
I decided to take things a little further and do some research. I landed upon some articles about how toxic a lot of our typical cleaning products were. Which led me to more articles about how burning candles can be very harmful to our bodies and the ingredients cause a lot of health issues. I was reading that over 70% of products have "fragrance" on the label which can contain phthalates which is linked to lung and breast cancer, even fertility issues. I read enough to make me rethink my lifestyle. In the past, I would literally get up in the morning and light a candle or two right away and it would burn all day long. I also had Bath & Body plug-ins all throughout our house (in almost every outlet). I would change our air filters probably every 4 months and they’d be close to black, not realizing some of the products I was using were part of the problem. Eww right?
After looking more into clean products I decided to get involved in a company called, Young Living and decided to make the switch...the phrase, ditch & switch. To be honest it felt really good going through my cabinets and throwing away bleach, Lysol, Simple Green, our laundry detergent and other toxic cleaning products. Then I threw out all our plug-ins and candles (that was hard to do). But then I bought a non toxic cleaner from Young Living called Thieves and started using it. I was blown away with how well it worked. I poured one cap full of the Thieves cleaning product in a 16 oz spray bottle and filled the rest with water. You read that right, one cap full of product. You can make about 30 spray bottles with one bottle of the Thieves cleaner. Talk about money saver! This cleaner can be used to clean your ENTIRE house from top to bottom. I even use it on glass! During my experimental switch, my husband was a bit more hesitant, but there have been tests done with different bacteria samples and Thieves cleaner killed the bacteria better than any other cleaner, even bleach. Needless to say, I was pretty sold on the cleaners (check out the experiment here).
Once I made the switch with my cleaning products I decided to use the essential oils for aroma therapy. I loved my candles and always felt like they were comforting around my home. But learning how harmful they were, I started to use some diffusers around my house and diffuse my Young Living oils. I began experimenting with different oils to see which ones I liked to diffuse and I noticed a big change...our home smelled so clean but also cozy. The diffusers give off such a comforting vibe and I have been amazed with how much better it makes my home smell. When people walk into my house they always say how good it smells and want to know what it is.
Ok ok ok I may have turned a little on the crunchy side but I love it. My house always smells clean and everything we use is non-toxic! Let me tell you something, I changed my air filters after switching (so after about 5 months) and they are still white-ish . Ha! But what a testament to more clean living. In fact just the other day I threw out our fabric softener. My oldest son Anthony gets eczema really bad so I felt like I was making the right choice by getting rid of anything with fragrance. However, I LOVE smells, I love to smell good and I love my clothes to smell good. So I bought some wool dryer balls to replace the dryer sheets and added a few drops of my essential oils on them to help give our clothes a clean smell. I have been truly amazed with what I can make for myself and for my family with just a few clean ingredients. I now make my own face wash, hand soap, dish soap and perfumes...all from my oils and other inexpensive, clean products. My boys all have their own oil rollers that I put on them before bed and some for during the day. I really enjoy making special rollers for different things (mostly for the kids). I have one for eczema, teething, tummy aches, sleep, focus, immune boost...you know that saying, I have an oil for that? Well it's true.
Okay...now I do not want to sound sales-y at all...BUT I do want to say that if you have any questions on oils, or if you want to start your ditch and switch journey feel free to ask me how and I would LOVE to help you get started. You don't have to become a Young Living member to start your clean living journey. You can start slow and hop on Amazon and get a few things to start out. I downloaded the Think Dirty app and love to get on there and see which products are clean and which aren't. It has become part of our lifestyle now and I couldn't resist sharing this journey with you. You can visit (here) to check out how you can start your journey too.
One more thing before I go, I thought it would be fun to do a giveaway! I am going to pick two winners and put together a fun goodie bag for them full of some of my favorite things. In order to enter you must be subscribed to my blog if you haven't already, and comment below and tell me what would be the first thing you would ditch and switch! Feel free to share and tag others. You can also head over to my Instagram to see some rollers in action (here).
Laundry hack:
Put 16 oz of Thieves laundry soap in a 32 oz bottle (I like this one)
5 cap fulls of Thieves cleaner
30 drops of your favorite essential oil (I suggest a citrus one, like lemon)
Fill the rest with distilled water
Take 3-4 balls and drop about 6 drops of your favorite essential oils on each wool dryer ball (I love lavender).
Homemade dish/hand soap:
Fill 16 oz bottle halfway with pure Castile soap
Add about 30 drops of your favorite essential oil
Fill rest with water
Linked cute labels here
One of my favorite oil roller blends...
I add frankincense, valor, gentle baby, lavender and roman chamomile then fill with dried flowers and fractionated coconut oil.
Here are a few more of my Amazon favorites to help kickstart your clean living journey...
Pure castile soap - this you can use for almost everything...dish soap, laundry soap, hand soap, facewash and more!
Dr. Bronners soap - I use this for our boy's shampoo/body wash. It's safe and smells so good.
Travel oil diffuser - this diffuser is amazing to take with you on your next vacation and folds up so it's easy to travel with.
Dishwasher soap - this is a safe soap to use and it's rated a 1 (1- very safe) on the dirty app.
Oil Rollers - some of my favorite rollers!
Dried flowers - I love using these in my oil rollers to add some good smell and to make it pretty!