As I have said in previous posts, once I was diagnosed with ms, I somewhat overhauled my whole life and so did my family. My sister spurred the change, because she is very concerned with the effects of routinely using carcinogenic products generally. Then, my ms diagnosis further motivated us to change our ways.
So, we got rid of all of the crap, toxic, and carcinogenic household products we have used forever, and we changed over to clean, nontoxic products—or at least the cleanest, least toxic products that still work. We literally changed our hand soap, dish soap, glass cleaner, surface cleaner, and detergent to name a few. We specifically use the following:
- Seventh Generation Disinfectant Spray
- Seventh Generation Disinfecting Wipes
- Seventh Generation Liquid Detergent
- Honest Company Wipes
- Dr. Bronner’s Liquid Soap
- Dr. Bronner’s Sal Suds Dish Soap
- Method Glass Cleaner
- Method Antibacterial Cleaner
- Method All Purpose Cleaner
What you could do too, instead of throwing away the products you currently have all at once in a huge overhaul is just change out your products to these less toxic, cleaner products one by one as you run out and need to replace your products. Another option is also to create your own cleaning products instead of using the above, which saves so much money. I am just not at that point yet. I can’t get past the convenience of buying the products already made—especially since the less toxic, cleaner products are becoming more and more readily available.
The reason we changed over to these products is because our cleaning products are used regularly (and probably even more regularly considering the times and everyone’s heightened concern about getting sick), so if they are not as clean as possible, you are breathing in toxic, carcinogenic fumes on the reg, which is simply not good for you. They are also especially not good for your pets and children, so changing over your products creates a safer and cleaner home.
Literally, it’s almost like an oxymoron. The products you are using to clean your home and to keep everyone healthier in your home can actually make your family really really ill and internally damaged. To be specific, the use of the mainstream conventional cleaning products we are all used to and familiar with can create a home that has higher pollution and toxicity levels inside the home than those outside of the home. That is actually horrifying to think about. Also, these toxic chemicals used in our normal cleaning products are known to cause liver, kidney, and nervous system damage. Simply just changing out these products can better your health and your loved one’s health, which who doesn’t want that.
Also, clean detergent is really important, because, for example, we actually wear the clothes we wash and dry ourselves with the towels we wash. Whatever chemicals are in the detergent are on our clothes that we wear, towels we use and the sheets we sleep on. So, they are on our skin and seeping into to our skin throughout the day. So, changing out your typical detergent for a clean detergent will lessen the amount of chemicals our skin absorbs. This same concept applies to our hand soap, body wash and dish soap, as well. Our skin absorbs all of that and we literally eat off of the plates, silverware and etc. that we wash, so it’s critical to use clean products so as to not ingest or absorb more carcinogenic chemicals regularly.
Lastly, as I noted above, this is not something you have to do all at once. You can do this on a pace that works best for you, but just know that it is important to consider the ingredients in the household cleaning items that you use, because they can really affect yours and your loved one’s health. And, as always, my goal is always to figure out how to be a well preserved.
Always,
Taylor
