The Real Dirt on Clean

You know that good, healthy feeling you get when you’ve just cleaned house? Sorry to spoil it, but you may have just made your home dirtier.

Think of it this way…

How dangerous? Just take a look at these statistics.

• Over 90% of poison exposures happen at home.
• Common chlorine bleach is the #1 household chemical involved in poisoning.
• Organic pollutants, found in many common cleaners and even air fresheners, are found at levels 2 to 5 times higher inside your home than out.
• A person who spends 15 minutes cleaning scale off shower walls could inhale three timesthe “acute one-hour exposure limit” for glycol ether-containing products set by the California Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment.
• Common cleaners give off fumes that can potentially increase the risk of kids developing asthma, the most common chronic childhood disease.
• 1 in 13 school-aged children has asthma. Rates in children under five have increased more than 160% from 1980 – 1994.
• Children are highly vulnerable to chemical toxicants. Pound for pound of body weight, children drink more water, eat more food, and breathe more air than adults. The implication of this is that children will have substantially heavier exposures than adults to any toxicants that are present in water, food, or air.
• If your home is anything like the average U.S. home, you generate more than 20 pounds of household hazardous waste each year (the EPA designates toilet cleaners, tub and tile cleaners, oven cleaners, and bleach as hazardous waste).

To find out what’s lurking on your shelves, go to the National Institutes of Health Library of Medicine Household Products Database. You can search almost any brand of cleaner you use, find out what’s in it, and uncover its links to health effects. Or search by chemical ingredients (see list below for some examples) and discover what brands contain it. The information may shock you.www.householdproducts.nlm.ni h.gov/ingredients.htm

Chemical ingredients to look out for:

• Sodium hydroxide
• Hydrochloric acid
• Butyl cellosolve (2-Butoxyethanol)
• Formaldehyde
• Bleach (sodium hypochlorite)
• Ammonia
• Sulfamic acid
• Petroleum distillates
• Sulfuric acid
• Lye (potassium hydroxide)
• Morpholine

4 Simple Ways to Get Clean

Your home should be the safest, healthiest, cleanest place in the whole world.

So we’ve put together some pretty easy things you can do to make your family safer and your home healthier.And, as it turns out, what’s good for your home is good for the earth and everyone else on it, too. So let’s make our homes healthy. Let’s clean our hearts out. Let’s Get Clean.

1. Get the dirt.

Educate yourself about what you bring into your home atwww.householdproducts.nlm.nih.gov/products.htm

2. Have a clean-for-all.

Put on the gloves and get rid of the nasty stuff in your home. Responsibly, of course. Your local waste collection service has guidelines for proper household hazardous waste disposal, as well as collection sites for things like paint, batteries, and cleaners. Whatever you do, please don’t toss this stuff in the garbage.

3. Welcome healthy into your home.

Commit to carefully considering everything that crosses your doorstep. Here are some safe, healthy things to have in your home:

• Cleaners that are truly cleaner. Get Clean offers product choices that are: nontoxic, natural, biodegradable, concentrated, and hypoallergenic.
• Fresh air. Open your windows to reduce indoor air pollution.
• Essential oils. Use these instead of air fresheners.
• Plants. Besides being nice to look at, they can absorb harmful gases and help clean the air.
• Organic cotton bedding. Avoid standard bedding treated with chemicals.
• Floors made of recycled and renewable resources.
• Healthier paint. That new paint smell can be as nasty as it smells. Choose low VOC paint instead.

4. Clean up our collective home.

Make the earth healthier for all of us who call it home by using these things in yours:

• Energy Star-rated appliances. Save money and energy.
• A low-flush toilet. Replace the largest user of water in your house. Ultra low flushers cut water use by one-fifth.
• Low-flow showerheads. Same pressure. Less water.
• Your flicker finger. Turn off lights and appliances when you’re not using them.
• Gray water system. Install one to recycle used household water for your lawn.
• Tankless water heater. Save money, energy, and space in the broom closet. Use it to store your new Get Clean Starter Kit.

Print this out here: Get Clean Handout

I recommend starting with:

Get Clean Starter Kit

Basic G & Spray Bottle

Scour Off

*Thanks Bonnie Donahue for this awesome post. 

Get it off with Scour Off!

Cooking delicious, yummy, mouth-watering food can be a fun, but cleaning is always a hassle for me. This house had a very dirty griddle that was begging to be cleaned. It had been caked on there for awhile because even my fingernail couldn't get under all the grease and grime. I knew I had something to fix it though. It was screaming at me from under the sink…"USE ME! USE ME!". Scour Off came to the rescue.

This little jar can make even the grimiest messes sparkle like new. Bonus: I don't have to take a break from cleaning because the smell is giving me a headache. Scour Off smells like cherry lip balm! No joke! I also never have to worry about mixing ammonia and bleach (this mustard produced isn't the good kind you put on a hot dog) ever again. Scour Off is made from cherry pits. Yes, you read that right…cherry pits. It's an amazing paste that can handle even the toughest jobs. Flat-top stoves, grills, ovens, griddles, crayon/pen markers on tables/walls, wheels, scuff mark on cars, etc… I have seen this used on all those plus more. It is a generous size container, but you don't need a lot for each project.

If you're interested in trying Scour Off yourself, or replacing your cleaners with all natural non-toxic ones, I highly recommend starting with one of the Get Clean Starter Kits! (The kit does not come with the Scour Off now but if you order the Get Clean Starter Kit before January 2015 then I will personally send you a Scour Off. This kit will last you a really long time, about a year. So no more running to the store because you ran out of dish soap, all purpose cleaner, window cleaner, etc…

Hope y'all have a great week. Check back Wednesday for a new post :D

What We Did Wednesday

♫ Rain rain go away…♫ that was the song we sang most of the day. We had a cold, rainy lazy day in this house. I hate rainy days and love them at the same time. I hate that we are stuck inside trying to stay occupied with every puzzle, book, play-doh, and coloring book we have. However, I love cuddling up on the couch with a blanket and watching a movie or listening to the rain hit the tin roof. That is one of the best sounds.

Country life definitely has it perks. Fall is the prettiest time of year. I love all the colors, smells, and weather. Raleigh always says "oooo pretty" when she sees the trees.

Raleigh has been obsessed with watching Mickey Mouse lately. She immediately asked for it when she got up this morning. While she danced to the hot dog song, I made her a Mickey themed breakfast. She will eat anything so this strange combo didn't phase her. This kid is a bottomless pit! Per request: "biscuits, awwberry, badada"

While terrorizing the house & emptying out the toy cabinet, she found this Homedics massager. She could not stop laughing. It tickles like crazy on my feet too. Thank goodness she is so easily amused or I would be drinking a lot of wine tonight to de-stress. 

This is the chalkboard I made today for the Shaklee booth this Friday. If you're in the area {Pleasant View, TN} stop by 24church for their Christmas Extravaganza! Or you can shop online if you can't make it.

Y'all gonna check out the CMAs? I have it recording on DVR right now :D

Have a great rest of the week y'all! 

Shaklee- A New Beginning

I bet a lot of people have heard about this company before but for those of you who haven't then here's the down low. I have just recently started selling a brand called Shaklee. They've been in business for over 50 years but I guess I wasn't in the loop before now. They've been featured on Rachel Ray, Oprah, used by Arnold Schwarzenegger, Gwyneth Paltrow, over 150 Olympic medalists, and is the only cleaning product used in The White House. Heck it's even gone to space. Awesome right?

I was skeptical of it at first because it's all natural and I've tried some cleaners in the past that were all natural but didn't clean very good. I had my doubts about Shaklee too, but man was I wrong. I had a spot on my counter that refused to come off (heck it was more stubborn than my husband). I sprayed the all purpose Basic H on there and POW! It was gone. After trying half dozen other products on there and finally this did it. I was amazed. I of course then went through my house trying to find anything and everything to clean with this magic cleaner. It's also great because it's a concentrate, so that 16 oz bottle you get of basic H is equivalent to 5,824 bottles of Windex (26oz). Oh by the way did I mention it's great for windows too. ;)

(that middle picture. That's Coke that got spilt down the wall awhile back…no judgement…it was 

hidden behind my desk)

Then there's laundry detergent (also has fragrance free) that is great for people who have allergies to detergent. I am pretty sure Raleigh has an allergy to ours because she gets little bumps. I just ordered some dish washer detergent too. I think I might become a little OCD on cleaning. UH OH ;)

Cleaning products aren't the only thing that we sell at Shaklee. We have a lot of vitamins! Pretty much any vitamin you can think of. I started on the Vitalizer which is a daily vitamin pack that has everything you need in it (omega 3, vitamins ABCD, probiotics, antioxidants, minerals, and anti-aging nutrients). I know I wasn't getting everything I needed in my daily diet so I was thrilled to be able to get the Vitalizer. Plus I don't have to worry about having a dozen pill bottles laying around that I have to remember to take 2 of this and 3 of that to get a full daily dose. I couldn't tell a difference until I missed it for 2 days and I lost all my energy and felt like crap. Now I won't miss a day. I will definitely get the Stress Relief and Gentle Sleep next because honestly who doesn't want those too.

I haven't tried any beauty products yet but I am already making a list of what I am going to get. I also got some Shaklee 180 products in which are weight loss products. However, I am not the one who will be using them; Koby will be the one using them. The 180 products are high protein smoothie diet. It burns fat but not muscle so you can keep the good stuff. There are so many success stories here with before and after pictures. They are great for on the go if you forgot or want to skip a meal or snack (also have snack bars). We do the strawberry banana smoothie recipe that I found on Bonnie Donahue's blog here, but I've tried the Chocolate Banana and that's a good one too.

I will definitely get the baby products when they come back in stock. I know those are always popular because every mom wants their child to be safe. Raleigh loves to help me clean around the house and now I can let her because everything is okay. I don't have to worry about her breathing in harsh chemicals or touching the counter when its got clorox on it. It's nice not having to worry about that.

Shaklee does tests on all the ingredients coming into their site and test all the way through production to make sure it stays pure. All the products are all natural so the same Basic H you use on your counters, you can also use as a bubble bath or to clean your kids hands. There are so many great products that can make your daily life so much easier and healthier.

If you love the products and want to earn money by selling them to your friends and family then we can set you up easily. Head over to listen to a free webinar about some of our wonderful ladies and their stories and if you're still interested then let me know. Being part of Project Dream is going to change my life and I can't wait to experience all it has in store for me. Thank you Jaima for introducing me to this amazing company.