Wellness with Jen: Spring Clean Your World

As much as it drives me crazy, my house is not tidy right now.

Clean, yes. Tidy and organized, no.

I feel like the day that my extremely active and attached Momma’s boy was born was the day that the beautiful organization that I crave became a thing of the past. I cannot stand a disorganized home, but I have learned to accept that for now my time gets dedicated to other things. The de-cluttering of life will happen in time.

Although the clutter of toys, school papers, Frozen everything, baby equipment, and a new home office has taken over, the house is clean. When it comes to cleaning products, it can be hard to know what is safe, especially if there are human babies and/or fur babies in the house. Consumers have become more aware of the harmful ingredients that are being put into household products, and with this realization, the companies that make these products have learned how to advertise in order to attract those of us who are looking for products that will not harm our family.

Everywhere you go, you will see products on store shelves that say “natural” “green” “organic” “free & clear”... all of the things that suggest a healthy product. There are a few things to know about these products and how they are labeled. I think the most shocking to me was what I learned about the organic products. Products that are labeled “organic” can contain up to 5-10% of ingredients that are not organic and potentially not even healthy. Something else that is baffling and frustrating to me is that “natural fragrances” and “fragrances” in the list of ingredients basically just means that there is a combination of potentially harmful ingredients hidden under that simple label of “fragrances”. You might be shocked to discover how many ingredients contain “fragrances” and “natural fragrances”, aka a ton of ingredients that the company doesn’t want you to know about.

I see many posts in Mommy groups on social media asking about safe laundry detergent, household cleaners, and other products, and many of the comments say something like, “It doesn’t matter what I use because my kids don’t have sensitive skin.” Unfortunately, these days it’s not just about whether or not there is someone with sensitive skin or allergies in the house. Inside air has been shown to be 5 to 7 times more toxic than outside air, and because of this stay-athome moms have been shown to be at a higher risk of dying from cancer by 54%. These statistics are mind boggling. Our homes have become toxic because of harmful chemicals in household cleaners, detergents, air fresheners, soaps, etc. It is more important than ever to know what products you are using in your home. Every product that you use, whether using it to clean the bathroom, mop your floors, do your laundry, wipe down the baby’s high chair, or “freshen” a room, releases fragrances into the air that you breathe. It is your job to know whether or not those fragrances are healthy or harmful.

You have some options:

• Purchase products from a company that you know and trust. Know the source of the ingredients. Know their mission. Know their promise.

• Make your own cleaning products using ingredients that you know and trust.

• Freshen the air of your home with pure and therapeutic essential oils rather than synthetic air fresheners and toxic candles.

I choose to do a combination of these options. Yes, I’m a busy Mom. Yes, I work full-time and run a wellness business. Yes, it does takes a few minutes to mix up a DIY product. Yes, it took a bit of research to find a company that you trust to provide you with healthy products. Yes, it took some trial and error to find what works for our family. But realistically, isn’t your family’s wellness and saving yourself $$ worth a few minutes of your time??!

What works for us won’t always work for others. Wellness takes trial and error. Wellness takes finding what works for you. Wellness isn’t a one size fits all type of deal. But once you find your path to wellness, you’ll be grateful for your journey.

Follow me on social media and then shoot me a message to be added into April’s Spring Cleaning drawing for a little household cleaning bundle. Happy Spring, everyone!

Jen Cosby

jcdiamondwellness@gmail.com

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