Green Cleaning

Cleaning products tend to have chlorine and other things that are not good for inhaling. Keeping your indoor air clean from toxic chemicals is important for keeping healthy breathing. For me, chlorine can burn my sensitive eyes, and especially bad when I'm wearing contact lenses!

If you are creative and have the time to figure out solutions, you can stick with a basic inventory of a few things that you combine from some internet research to clean everything from stove to bathtub: baking soda, Dr. Bronner's soap, alcohol, and vinegar.

However, most of us don't have the time to research and create different solutions and here is an easy kit of green cleaning products I recommend.

To emphasize the impact on your health (and sanity!): I had one student who had terrible disabling migraines, and after putting on our Sherlock Holmes' thinking caps for several months, we figured out that it was her laundry detergent when we found the pattern that she got her migraines on the days that she changed her bedsheets!

For me, I have sensitive skin allergies, so if there is fragrance and other chemicals in a laundry soap, that exposure on my skin gets me itchy and/or with sneezy nose or swollen eyes. I really recommend finding a fragrance-free laundry soap. This is my favorite because it's highly concentrated, uses the power of enzymes to get out your toughest stains, and does so many washes in a small little bottle that isn't too heavy to carry up and down stairs to my garage laundry room!

To take your green cleaning to the next level, you can research which plants will help clean up your indoor air. I love my "weeping fig", commonly known as a ficus. She's a little diva and insists on being next to the window, so I have to make room for that. Plants also give your eyes something to rest on when you need a break from the computer screen--another de-stressing tip!

Life and outdoor air pollution gives our immune system enough stress. Cleaning up your indoor air is an easy way to lessen the stress on your body and improve your health! It starts with getting rid of the bad cleaning products that are the pollutants. Don't try to use them up, just toss them to detox your home and protect your health now.