Our Journey to Clean Products
Happy New Year! The new year is often a time of reflection and desire to implement changes for many, myself included! As 2023 was coming to an end, I did a lot of reflection on last year, and dreaming up goals for the year ahead!
Blogging was always that was a passion project for me. I love sharing my experiences and writing, and I love getting to read others experiences through their blogs as well. While I have many other goals, dreams and aspirations for the year, revamping my website and blogging again is one of them I am committed to devoting time to. We have a VERY exciting year ahead filled with many projects (finishing our DIY Barndiminium!), and I can’t wait to take you along every step of the way.
One of the biggest changes I made within the last year was deep diving into the health of myself, my husband and my children. While I never really saw myself becoming a “crunchy mom” and 28 year old me would most likely cringe at my new found way of life, throughout the last 6 months we have been making many changes in our household from personal care and cleaning products to what we eat and where we shop.
The other day as I placed my Whole Foods order for the week (thank you Amazon for the convenience of placing the order online AND delivering it right to my door by the way), I thought to myself “How on earth did I begin this journey and why did it take me so long”? Then, I remembered. My journey very loosely began because of CrossFit with my husband several years ago. Random, I know, but we kept coming across the same issue: my husband smelled like onions. No matter what deodorant I tried purchasing for my husband, it just wasn’t cutting it and the smell just would not go away. We were both so confused as to why even with daily showers, men’s body spray and deodorant, it just wasn’t working. It also didn’t help that in addition to doing CrossFit, my husband also works outdoors (often times in the sweltering heat of the summer). So basically, I was desperate for a solution and this was a problem that could no longer wait to be solved.
Naturally I did what all wives in this situation would do- I headed to Google. I learned that many of the ingredients found in typical deodorants actually often times create a worse odor due to how our bodies react to the chemicals in them. After learning that I was on the hunt for an aluminum free alternative that would hopefully solve the never ending onion smell saga. Luckily, after switching to an all natural aluminum free deodorant, there was a night and day difference! As if by magic, the mystery was solved and we found our solution.
After that, I didn’t really make any clean swaps or deep dive down this rabbit hole until springtime of last year when I was noticing my daughter was having a lot more tantrums and meltdowns than usual. She has always been a hypersensitive child, but I could tell in my mama gut that something was just not right. I kept asking myself why she was acting so unlike herself and questioning how I could help her.
I decided to take matters into my own hands and do some research to try to find an answer to this recurring problem we seemed to keep finding ourselves in. After reading what felt like 500 articles, I decided I would try cutting out food dyes and see if that helped. After all, it had gotten trendy and I had seen many people touting the benefits of removing food dyes from their children’s diets. Again, to my surprise, it was a night and day difference. As a former Pediatric Nurse, I wondered why no one had ever mentioned to me the dangers and side effects of food dyes. This is when I realized that maybe I needed to do some more research about the other foods in our homes, and the products we were using. So, back to Google I went.
Oooof. I was slowly beginning to realize that basically everything in our home from the various foods and snacks in our pantry, the cleaning products I was using, the products I was using to clean our clothes (I had a deep affinity for powdered Tide), and the personal care products we all used were totally toxic and filled with chemicals. After taking in all of this information, I felt frustrated, confused, and above all else, overwhelmed. Why had no one warned me of the dangers of some of the products I was using? Why are products with dangerous ingredients even made and sold? Where was I going to begin in swapping all of our products?
If you are just now beginning your own journey to clean products, I’m here to help. It can be overwhelming in the beginning when it feels like you basically have to start over from scratch. For my own journey, I decided to start small with a few swaps, and then replace other products as I could, and made sure when I went to repurchase something when we ran out, like dish soap for example, that I did my research and found the cleanest possible option on the market.
Here are some of my favorite swaps and some of the first swaps I made as I began my journey.
Anything underlined is a shoppable link.
If you love fresh smelling clothes that are left totally clean and softer than ever- this is your sign to purchase Molly’s Suds. They have so many natural scent options from Lavender, Citrus Grove, Ocean Mist, to my personal favorite, Eucalyptus. They also have a Shea Butter scent made for washing baby clothes and it has the comforting scent without all of the dangerous chemicals found in the other laundry detergents marketed for washing babies clothing. Molly’s Suds also offers several options from laundry detergent sheets, laundry pods, and powdered laundry detergent, so there is definitely something for everyone’s preference.
2. Deodorant
This is an easy swap to make- but be careful. This is one of those products where you can very easily be greenwashed by marketing and think you’re getting a clean, nontoxic product, but you’re actually not. In fact, I recently had to switch deodorants again for this very reason. The deodorant that previously solved the onion smell mystery for my husband was by the brand Native, but unfortunately, they have recently been bought out by Johnson & Johnson, and they are no longer clean. Thankfully, I found some incredible smelling deodorants that are both totally clean and nontoxic and truly work miracles! I am currently using a brand called Hey Humans, which is totally clean and offers a variety of scents including sandalwood, lavender, cucumber, cedarwood and coconut milk. I can honestly say that I do not miss Native at all.
Next on my list to try is the Blue Tansy deodorant by Primally Pure, and the charcoal scent by Primally Pure for my husband. Primally Pure is an incredible brand that prides themselves on providing high quality products that are entirely clean, nontoxic and made of all natural ingredients from shower gels, dry shampoo, facial cleanser- you name it, they have it. They even have personal care products for babies which definitely would have come in handy a few years ago when I was a new mama. I was so excited when I discovered this amazing brand as I have been slowly but surely switching out all of my personal care products, and their incredible product selection will definitely make it easy to purchase all the items I need from one place, and I can trust they are made with the most high quality ingredients, and are entirely nontoxic.
3. Miss Mouth’s Messy Eaters Stain Spray
If you are a parent or have a husband who works outside everyday like myself, you NEED this. I truly do not know how I ever lived without this incredible product- forget scrubbing stains for hours, I have yet to meet a stain that this spray can’t fix.
This time of year brings about a lot of sicknesses and germs, especially with all of the holiday gatherings and get togethers. That’s where Clean Smart cleaning spray comes in. This spray works MAGIC and it removes 99.9% of viruses and bacteria and even kills germs like salmonella, E. Coli, and RSV. This would be a perfect addition to a baby shower gift for a new mama during RSV season, and is completely safe to clean high chairs, children’s toys, and even pacifiers.
5. Hand Soap
When I first began doing research on clean products, one of the things I was most shocked to learn was how many chemicals were in your average hand soap. Yes, I was guilty of purchasing the hand soaps filled with artificial fragrances that filled the room. I was even more shocked to learn that some of the original swaps I purchased that were labeled “clean,” were in fact NOT clean at all. I later learned this is called greenwashing. Some of my favorite hand soap swaps have been from Attitude, which offers a variety of natural fragrance scents and offers liquid or foaming hand soap, Molly’s Suds hand soap, and Better Life hand soap.
6. Molly’s Suds Dryer Sheets & Wool Balls
I was shocked to learn how terrible dryer sheets are for you, but I was also slightly saddened at having to give them up as I greatly appreciated the scent boost and the way they made my clothes feel. I can confidently say I do not miss traditional dryer sheets AT ALL now, thanks to Molly’s Suds. Molly’s Suds dryer sheets put out a great level of scent to have your clothes smelling fresh, and the softness of my clothes has not been compromised at all. We also love using the wool dryer balls and infusing them with a few drops of my favorite essential oils (yes, I am a sucker for Eucalyptus!).
7. Dishwasher Tablets and Dish Soap
Enter Molly’s Suds again. I’ll be honest, I was skeptical if this swap was going to leave my dishes as clean as I was used to, but Molly’s Suds proved me wrong, AGAIN. I do not miss my old dishwasher tablets at all. They come in convenient to use dishwasher pods just like I was accustomed too, and do not leave any grease or food residue on any of our dishes, cups or silverware. I have tried quite a few dish soaps and my favorites have been 9 Elements, Molly’s Suds, and Attitude. Attitude even has dish soap that is entirely clean and made for cleaning baby bottles.
I know this journey can feel overwhelming, frustrating and confusing. What are you supposed to do with all of your old products? How are you going to replace all of your products? If you’re anything like me, I wanted to do it all at once and restart from scratch. I found that it is so much easier, more cost effective and far less overwhelming to start where you can and when you can and focus on one set of products at a time. Over time I have found so many other incredible clean product swaps from hygiene products, cleaning products, kitchen essentials, make up, and yes, even candy! I am so looking forward to sharing those products more throughout the year, and continuing on this journey with all of you.
I hope you enjoy some of my favorite clean swaps, and of course if you have any product recommendations, please send them my way! We love trying out new things :)
Check out more of our favorite clean products here.
AFFILIATE LINKS are included throughout this blog post.
