Why Switch to Clean Products?

If you’ve been following along with me recently on Instagram, you’ve seen that we’ve been making some swaps in our home so that the products we use are healthier, safer and made with natural ingredients. Our goal is to slowly switch out the products we use + eliminate toxins in our home wherever we can!

But why make the switch? It seems like quite a trend lately to switch to ‘natural’ products… but why? It can be more expensive, harder to find products and takes some research — so, if you’re going to switch, there has to be a reason!

There are lots + lots of reasons why someone may choose to switch, and it really depends on the person! Before I jump into why we are making the switch in our home, I wanted to share some amazing resources that I’ve found with you. 

Why We’re Making the Switch

Back in February when we experienced a miscarriage (you can read more about that part of our story here), I allowed myself to get curious about my health and body. I started digging into what types of things contributed to having a healthy successful pregnancy, which then led me to learn about what types of things contribute to having an unsuccessful pregnancy. I found out that there are SO many different and complex things that go into having a healthy baby!

We will never really know why we had a miscarriage, at least not on this side of Heaven — and that’s okay. We are leaning in and learning to trust God through things that feel really messy. There are so many things that are just outside of our control and understanding. But, I don’t want to overlook the fact that there are aspects of a healthy pregnancy that ARE within my control. And as I learned more, I quickly realized that the things that are within my control have a lot to do with my body’s overall health.

Some of the things I found are; making sure I put the correct nutrients in my body, doing my best to keep my hormones balanced, limiting external toxin exposure. As I dug deeper into this, I started to realize that some of the things that are in my home RIGHT now can be super detrimental to my health! I found out that SO many regular household items can cause:

  • Allergy flare ups;

  • hormonal disruption;

  • reproductive, immune and nervous system toxicity; and

  • in more extreme cases, brain damage or cancer.

Once I realized that everyday household items can have such a negative impact on my health, I kept researching and found that there are practically NO legislative regulations about what is allowed in personal care products. Out of hundreds of thousands of different ingredients and chemicals, there are eleven that are banned from being used in our products. Eleven! Other countries ban thousands.

Due to the HUGE lack of regulation, companies can get away with putting toxic chemicals in the products we use. Everyday items that we use to clean our house and take care of our bodies, can sometimes be doing us more harm than good!

After this realization, we’ve slowly been taking a closer look at the products we use and trying to make simple switches toward healthier ingredients. There are plenty of products for cleaning, makeup, skin, laundry, body etc., that are filled with good, natural and SAFE ingredients if we will just take the time to find them! We’ve been using the EWG Healthy Living app and the Think Dirty app to help make it super easy for us to check the ingredients on things before we purchase.

We know it isn’t realistic for us to eliminate every single chemical and toxin we’re exposed to on a daily basis. But what we can do is this; do our research + make better, more educated decisions on what products we bring into our home.

Making better decisions about the products we use will have a huge, long-term impact on our bodies and our overall health. Making some changes will absolutely improve our immune system, our gut, our reproductive system - the list goes on! Especially having Addie around (knowing that she is in such a huge phase of development!), it is a priority for us to take an extra look at what we are exposing her to.

Some Changes We’ve Already Made

We started by going through all of the bathroom, makeup, baby + cleaning products in our home and looking in to their ingredients. We used either the EWG Healthy Living app or the Think Dirty app to take a look at where they rated, and figure out what the major concerns were! Knowing where the toxins in our home are is the first step. 

Any products that rated poorly that we didn’t feel were necessities, we went ahead and tossed! Everyday items (shampoo, body wash, laundry detergent, hand soap) that rated poorly, we started researching alternatives to switch to once we run out. Unfortunately, we do not have the budget to do a complete overhaul — and I think that’s true for most of us! Throwing away all of our products and buying all new items would be a huge investment. Our motto with all of this is ‘know better, do better.’ As we learn more, we will continue to make changes! But we will not let ourselves hold on to any shame or guilt for the items we purchased before we knew better.

There are some things, though, that we’ve been due to replenish — so here’s what we’ve gotten!

Ultimately, we know that we were given this one life and body to steward well and this is one way that we’re doing that! We know that we are opening the door to so many potential changes in our life - what we eat, what products we purchase, how we treat our bodies - and that is amazing. We are excited to share our journey toward a cleaner, healthier and more ‘whole’ life!

“Do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.” 1 Corinthians 6:19-20

Most of the links in this post are affiliate links! That means if you purchase an item using the link, I make a little bit of money without adding any extra cost to you. I really appreciate any time you purchase through these links!

Kieran HookerComment