How to Create a Cleaner Lifestyle at Home
Originally posted on https://www.makeandtend.com/how-to-create-a-cleaner-lifestyle-at-home/
Creating a more natural lifestyle at home starts with knowledge.
Knowledge about what shouldn’t be in your life is one thing. But then knowing what to actually replace those things with is another.
Luckily, we are in an age where creating a cleaner and safer home is easier than ever. The only problem is that the options and information can be so overwhelming that many people simply don’t take action.
In this post, we simply outline a few areas in your life where you might be using less than ideal products and recommend suggestions for what to use instead (based on things that we use and love at our house).
So let’s dive into what it looks like to create a cleaner home!
PRIORITIZING NATURAL PRODUCTS AND WELLNESS
There are many areas of our lives where we have become dependent on products that are far from ideal. Unfortunately, many products and brands use so many chemicals, toxins, and cheap ingredients to create everything from dish soap and laundry detergent to lip gloss and baby wipes.
And while I don’t want to be a Debbie Downer or a Negative-Nancy, I just want to continue to bring awareness to this silent crisis that is occurring. And I want to offer hope and present an easy to implement, all-natural and safe alternative for families to live better and healthier lives!
Because it’s so worth it, so easy, and so cost-effective.
So while exposure to these [potentially] harmful ingredients may be small, it’s the small exposures that happen daily for years and decades that add up.
If you think about a traditional lipstick, for example, many popular, household brands in 2019 still use [small amounts of] lead in their lipstick. LEAD! There is not a single person on earth that will tell you lead is safe for humans (except maybe people that produce and sell lead, of course).
Yet this is in a product that we rub on our lips daily, which is absorbed by our skin and frequently ingested, due to the nature of the product.
And while regulatory agencies will consider the amount of lead used in lipsticks (and other cosmetics) safe, it’s the daily exposure for years and decades that can potentially lead to negative health effects on the body.
So here are just a few areas of life where you can implement healthier options, primarily with Young Living products, as I believe these are some of the best natural and beneficial products to use!
ESSENTIAL OILS
Essential oils are incredible. They’ve been used in one way or another for thousands of years, all across the world.
They are simply the essence of plants – roots, leaves, fruit – distilled or pressed to gives us the concentrated, powerful and incredibly beneficial essential oil.
They have such a variety of health and wellness benefits that can support:
- A strong immune system
- Healthy digestion
- A calm mind and support for stress and anxiety
- Quality sleep
- Allergy relief
- Healthy skin and hair
- And so much more!
Essential oils can be used by themselves by diffusing them or applying them directly to your skin in order to share these benefits with your body.
They can also be used as ingredients to create products that can replace synthetic and toxic products you use on a daily basis.
Some of these products you can easily make using essential oils include:
- Household cleaners
- Personal care products such as facial moisturizers and serums
- Skin support items such as acne relief
- And a bunch more, which we get into below
The best way to get started with Young Living essential oils is by getting one of their premium starter kits. You get to choose whichever oil diffuser you would like. And it comes with 12 bottles of essential oils, all for an incredible, one-time bundle discount.
These different oils cover a wide variety of uses and benefits and are the perfect starting point for anyone serious about health and wellness.
THIEVES AND HOUSEHOLD PRODUCTS
Thieves is the powerful cleaning and household product line from Young Living. This is arguably my favorite thing that they produce.
It’s all centered around a proprietary essential oil blend they developed called Thieves, which includes Clove, Cinnamon Bark, Lemon oil, Eucalyptus Radiata, and Rosemary.
This blend is so powerful.
First off, it provides a ton of immune system support and is great for diffusing or applying to the skin in the fall or winter when cold and flu season is rampant.
But secondly, this blend is the base for an entire line of products ranging from all-purpose cleaners to laundry detergent, soap, toothpaste and much more.
We literally use different Thieves products in our home all day, every day. It’s literally helped us easily (and enjoyably) remove a handful of toxic products from our daily life.
We currently use Thieves…
- foaming hand soap (smells amazing)
- laundry detergent (I can no longer tolerate the smell of traditional detergent – too synthetic)
- dish soap
- Toothpaste (they have a few different kinds. My husband swears by the Denatrome Ultra)
- Mouthwash
- Household cleaner – we use it to make all-purpose cleaning spray, stain remover, sink and tile scrub, and floor cleaner.
- Hand Sanitizer
And of course, we use the essential oil itself. We diffuse it, we make wellness rollers to rub on our skin when we feel sickness creeping up. We seriously love Thieves.
And while some of the products may seem expensive, they are actually quite affordable. Many of them – such as laundry detergent and household cleaner – are super concentrated and can be diluted and used for a long time.
If you try nothing else from Young Living, Thieves can satisfy your deepest desires.
Check out the Starter Kit for the best pricing on Thieves products.
SAVVY MINERALS – CLEAN AND NATURAL MAKEUP
Makeup is honestly one of the worst industries when it comes to ingredients. They are filled with so many synthetic ingredients, cheap fillers, and downright toxic stuff.
It’s not unusual to find well-known products and brands using lead, mercury, petroleum, talc, synthetic dyes, chemical fragrance and much more.
In fact, the European Union has banned more than 1,300 ingredients for use in products while the US has only banned around 30. So our cosmetic industry is falling really far behind.
However, Savvy Minerals is an excellent alternative!
This is Young Living’s clean and pure makeup line, using actual minerals, essential oils, and other plant-based ingredients to create beauty products that your skin will actually appreciate.
They have a few Starter Kit options so you can try out a range of their products in various shades.
Considering makeup is a very intimate product (it’s applied on or near your eyes, mouth, and nose daily), it should really be as healthy, safe and natural as possible.
This should definitely be something you consider changing as soon as possible. You can save yourself years or decades of exposure to harmful toxins by simply finding a clean makeup brand you like.
So do yourself and your skin a favor, check out the Savvy Minerals Starter Kit to get started!
NINGXIA RED – ANTIOXIDANTS AND NUTRIENTS FOREVER
NingXia Red is a superfruit juice that combines the power of wolfberries (or goji berries) with other superfruits and essential oils to create a truly unique and incredibly healthy drink that will load your body with all the good stuff.
Wolfberries are some of the most nutrient-dense foods on the planet and have some of the highest concentrations of antioxidants.
While NingXia may not be replacing many (or any) products from your current diet, it’s the perfect addition for short term and long term wellness support. Fill your body with clean fuel and keep it running the best it can for years and years to come.
This has become a foundational item in our home simply because of how it tastes and how it helps us. It provides clean energy and mixes perfectly with sparkling water for an irresistible, refreshing beverage that we literally crave daily.
Check out the NingXia Starter Kit if you are interested in filling up on all the good stuff.
SEEDLINGS – TREATING OUR LITTLE ONES WELL
Seedlings is the baby product line from Young Living. While there isn’t a starter kit for these products, they have a number of items that can help support natural wellness for our babies and toddlers as well.
They have baby wipes, baby oil, diaper rash cream, baby lotion, linen spray, baby wash, and shampoo.
These are all based on a specific essential oil blend, Seedlings Calm, made up of Lavender, Coriander, Ylang Ylang and Geranium for a gentle, delicate, and floral blend, perfect for little ones.
Young Living also has a line of essential oil blends and products called Kidscents, which are gently formulated blends for the toddlers in our life and include products like vitamins, toothpaste, shampoo, and bath wash.
Kids deserve safe products too!
CULTIVATING A CLEAN AND SAFE HOUSEHOLD
I love that Young Living has made it so easy for us to incorporate so many healthy products into our life and remove so many harmful products from our life in one easy brand.
Sure, you can get healthy soap from one company, healthy cleaning products from another and clean makeup from another, but I’ve become such a fan of Young Living products and it’s so easy to prioritize health and wellness in our home because they literally have everything.
And almost everything we have tried so far has worked well and become our standard. So far, the only thing I don’t love is their deodorant, but that’s pretty common for natural deodorants (my husband likes it though).
My husband does not like using the Seedlings Lavender Baby Wipes, but I certainly do.
So getting a Starter Kit and becoming a member is a must for those wanting to create a healthier, cleaner and more authentic lifestyle in the home.