Weekly Wellness ... Cleaning Products

Happy Thursday!  I am so excited about the post today, I have so much to share and so much great information I hope helps you as much as it has helped us.  When I embarked on this journey my goal was to go as green as I could in the house, never thinking it would save us money.  I have only been working on the green journey for a few weeks and I have already found I was spending crazy amounts on laundry and cleaning products that I didn't need to.  Not only am I switching out our products to make them green, but I have cut down on the number of products I am using by a shocking amount. Every single step I make I learn so much and with every single thing I uncover I am more and more convinced I have made the right decision, both financially and for our health + well being.

To begin ... 

When I purchased my Premium Starter Kit I added in Thieves laundry soap, Thieves dish soap, Thieves foaming hand soap and Thieves household cleaner.  So the first thing to go into the re-home bin was 2 bottles of laundry detergent + 1 bottle of fabric softener + 1 box of dryer sheets.  I replaced them all with 1 bottle of laundry detergent + 12 dryer balls (which last a whole year).  I had bought into the theory that I need something to wash the laundry, something else to soften it, something to help with stains and something to whiten whites.  All of that adds up in the monthly budget not to mention each product I was using was at least an 8 out of 10 on my Think Dirty app.  My eye balls were all 😳.

Next up was the cleaning supplies, and we had sooo many.  Not only did we have a bucket of them in the kitchen + a back up stash in the laundry room, we also had a small bucket of each under every sink in the bathrooms.  Basically a whole lot of products.  One by one I scanned them in my app and each one showed up as having one crazy ingredient or another that wasn't good for us.  The biggest one ... Lysol (and I have like 6 cans) which contains an ingredient (Mea-Borate) considered a possible carcinogen and an ingredient that has an "increased incidence of liver and kidney tumors in mice and rats".  

Are you kidding me?

I have been using Lysol like its my full time job after the Hubs white blood cell count dropped.  I am telling you, my FULL TIME JOB ... spraying the bed, the sheets, the pillows, the counters, the bathroom and so much more.  If he would have let me I would have sprayed him down as well. I had no idea it could be harmful in any way. I can not tell you how many Lysol fogs I walked through as a child as my mother and grandmother used it as much, if not more, than I did.  Along with bleach, it was the smell of clean I was used to. You know better, you do better.  I keep repeating this in my head.

I scanned every single product in my house and so many went into the boxes and bins.  Toilet cleaner, tub + tile cleaners, glass cleaners, counter cleaners, cleaners with bleach ... so many bottles. I replaced them all with one product which cleans every single thing in my house from glass and mirrors to floors and does so actually much better than most of the ones I was using.  The box of products you see above is just what I collected from three bathrooms and three showers upstairs.  I had created a cleaning station for each, glass cleaner, counter spray, and tile and floor cleaner.  (ooh the money!!)

Let me say this again  ... more than 30 products replaced with 1.  I don't have words for the money I spent on things I didn't need.  Once again I bought into the theory that I needed something to clean the mirrors, something else for the sinks and counters, something else for toilets, and lastly, something else for the floors.  Again my face was like this 😳. I was sure I was wrong, I kept asking my friends who use Thieves.  Were they sure?? ... and they were and now so am I!!

You can purchase Thieves household cleaner in many sizes but I would recommend the largest since you are diluting it and using it for everything.  I have a bottle for the kitchen, one for the laundry room, and one under every sink in the sink.  I really feel like having it near means something will be wiped and cleaned when it needs to be.  I love the smell (now the perfect smell of clean to me) and I love that it leaves surfaces clean without streaks and residue.

Here is the best news of all ... besides the money I am saving + the decrease in the sheer number of bottles ... by using the Thieves products along with the essential oils I have been diffusing his white blood cell counts have started to rise.  I didn't believe it when the oncologist told me, but the blood work supports it and I am completely and utterly sold. 

What do I recommend?  If you are using products you are wondering about ... check them out.  Use either the Think Dirty app or the EWG Healthy Living app ... or both.  Read what is in the products you use and educate yourself. Read about Thieves and the ingredients included.  Ask you friends if they use it and what they think.  And most of all, give it a try.  I have never heard of anyone buying it and using it who didn't love it.  That five star rating plus what I have seen in my own house makes me the happiest girl around.  To purchase products I tell all to start with the Premium Starter Kit and add on products.  You will be signed up as a distributor with the purchase of your kit and everything else you purchase is now wholesale.  The household cleaner alone that I purchased (64 oz.) is $87 rather than $116 and one of my friends shared it lasted her a whole year due to the dilution instructions.  She has a smaller household than mine so I am hoping for at least 4 months which is still a wicked crazy financial saving.

If you have any questions at all ... email me and I will share all the knowledge I have and ask questions for what I don't know.  I wish for all of us to have clean green homes and save so much money doing so.  I have linked the bottles I use for my products below.  Make sure you are using amber glass as sunlight and temperature will break down your products in regular glass bottles.

Have the very best day!