When I became a mom was the first time I started really looking at ingredients and paying attention to what is in the things I use every day. It was really important to me to try to keep my products as clean as possible. I really had no idea where to start!

I had never thought about chemicals and toxins that are in the items we use every day. It wasn’t until I started researching and reading labels that I understood there is junk that is HORRIBLE for us in just about everything we use. From hygiene products, make up, our food, BABY PRODUCTS (this one really gets me) and our cleaning supplies.

You’d think the cleaning supplies you can buy to CLEAN your house are to do just that. But in reality a lot of that stuff is toxic to your family and your pets and can make you sick. There is also a TON of stuff linked to cancer that is found in our daily household products. Scary!

So after having a baby and wanting him to grow up living a more organic life I decided it was time to make some changes.

I want to share with you 5 clean swaps for your everyday household items. There are so many more things to replace in your home to make it “cleaner” but this is a great start! Ans everybody has to start somewhere!

DISCLAIMER: This post contains affiliate links. Which means I might be compensated for purchases made from these links at no additional cost to you. I am not responsible for any actions taken from my advice, all ideas and opinions on this post remain my own.

There are still a ton of things in my own house I need to find cleaner options for but my household cleaners, our food and the products I use on my kids are where I am focusing my attention on for now.

I hope this list helps get you thinking about how to make your home a healthier place!

Ingredients to watch out for

Before I dive into my product list, I want to go over some ingredients listed on cleaning products that are absolutely NOT clean.

• Phthalates- known endocrine disruptors, can effect fertility
• Ammonia- skin irritant, if inhaled can cause chronic bronchitis, asthma
• Formaldehyde- known carcinogen (causes cancer)
• Triclosan- can promote growth of bacteria that is drug resistant, endocrine disruptor, found in many antibacterial products
• Phosphates- linked to kidney disease and other health issues in humans
• Chlorine Bleach- can cause burns, respiratory issues and other health problems

There are many other toxins companies use in their cleaning and everyday products. These are just a few, do your research on the products you are using and see what you should consider changing!

Dish Soap

I have always been a big name brand girl when ever since I started buying my own dish soap. Imagine my sadness when I found out the ingredients in my favorite brands are less than ideal.

Here are a couple great options for a cleaner dish soap-

Attitude dish soap

This dish soap is a certified safe household product. Made with plant based ingredients and free of the harmful preservatives, cancer causing contaminates and endocrine blockers for in so many of our cleaning products.

On their website, Attitudeliving.com they state how their products contain fragrance of natural origin. Which is great because we actually don’t have any idea what “fragrance” is made of when listed with ingredients.

I like how this company takes ownership of where their fragrances are derived from! They have a ton of other clean products to check out as well but I linked the dish soap below!

I also LOVE that this brand has it’s own dish soap specifically for baby products!

Better Life dish soap

This is also a great option for a non-toxic dish soap. I love that the list of ingredients isn’t a mile long and it is made from things I have heard of before and can pronounce. That can’t be said for many of the products on the grocery store shelves these days!

There are many different scent options and don’t use synthetic fragrances. It has Vit E and another plus- made in the USA.

Laundry detergent

You would think the stuff you buy to get your clothes CLEAN would do just that. Unfortunately, a lot of the big name detergents are loaded with chemicals and the horrible toxic ingredients you should be avoiding. Even some detergents marketed for BABIES are toxic. These chemicals have been linked to skin irritations, hormone disruption, infertility, even cancer.

That information is horrifying and not something I am willing to gamble my health and the health of my family on. There are a TON of natural and non-toxic detergents out there, you just have to find them!

Attitude detergent

Clearly I am a fan of this brand. This detergent actually works on odors and stains unlike some of the other natural detergents, smells good and is made without all the nasty chemicals.

Attitude is ECOLOGO certified meaning it’s formula has undergone a lot of testing to make sure it meets high environmental standards.

This is the detergent I use for most laundry in my house (besides my kid’s- I’ll share that next). It makes me feel better knowing I am using a detergent now that is safe for items my family wears on their skin! Also- budget friendly, which is super important to me as we all know.

Daisy’s Goat Milk laundry soap

I LOVE this laundry soap for my kid’s laundry. I have been using this for a few years now ever since I had my first baby. I was using one of the leading name brand detergents specifically made for babies when I found out it contains all these toxic ingredients. That just infuriated me and I knew I needed to do some research to find a safer alternative for the clothes I was going to put on my baby’s skin.

Then I came across this laundry soap. It has non toxic ingredients, made with goat’s milk (which makes clothing soft and has the same pH as our skin) and has a fragrance free option. I go between that and the lavender scent.

Antibacterial soap

Something that led me to look more into ingredients of antibacterial soap was when I started eliminating dyes in my products. SO many foods and products we use contain RED 40 which has been linked to behavior issued in kids and issues with human health. So I started reading labels to check for artificial dyes and noticed my hand soap has RED 40!

Seriously?! I don’t care what color my hand soap is, how unnecessary is that! That is a topic for another blog post but it led me to dig into other ingredients in hand soap that aren’t clean.

Triclosan is an ingredient found in many antibacterial products that is a known endocrine disruptor. This can effect your thyroid and hormones. That is alarming. And If we can make little changes in our products that we use we can begin to eliminate these products from our home!

Puracy Natural Foaming Hand Soap

This is a great everyday handwashing soap to use in place of the harsh chemical soaps. It has no triclosan or other toxic chemicals. And it smells good and does the job!

Candles

This is one that took me a LONG time to do something about. I had known candles weren’t great for your health because of the chemicals they burn off. Most scented candles are made with paraffin wax which creates toxins when burned that are known to be carcinogens (cancer causing).

But I LOVE for my home to smell amazing and I wasn’t ready to let my candles go.

Then I discovered a GREAT option to still have my favorite smells without making my family breathe in those harsh chemicals.

Simmer pots!

I am obsessed with a good fall smelling simmer pot! If you have never heard of these, you basically boil water on your stove, add a few ingredients and let it simmer. There are SO many great recipes for simmer pots and perfect for every season!

I love a good fall smell. Here is my recipe for my fall scented simmer pot:

• 3 cups water
• 3 cinnamon sticks
• 1 apple, sliced
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Put it all together in a pot, place on stove and let it simmer. Makes your home smell AMAZING and has all natural ingredients! There are tons of recipes out there for every season. This one really is easy to switch up and is cheaper than buying candles all the time.

Multi purpose home cleaner

Something you use on all the surfaces of your home, where your kids touch, where you set your food, what you breathe in shouldn’t be full of junk that is bad for your family. There are a lot of multipurpose cleaners on the market and a lot of the big name brands are unfortunately full of those toxic chemicals.

There are a couple different multipurpose cleaner brands I want to share:

Attitude

Yep, there’s that name again. There is a reason they are top of the list for natural home products. They work well and they are non toxic!

They make a large variety of surface cleaners for many different uses, the ingredient list is short and free of harsh chemicals, and it’s affordable.

Don’t just take my word for it- you NEED to try this for yourself if you are switching out your household products for cleaner options! It smells fresh and actually works. 

A few others to check out

• Molly’s Suds cleaners– they also have a laundry detergent line as well as other home products
• Puracy cleaners– Puracy has a product for baby toys and surfaces that I also love!
• ECOS– clean formula and uses orange oil to power it’s cleaning

As a mom there is nothing more important to me than keeping my family safe. That is why I knew I had to make changes in the products I was buying to use in my home.

All of this can be pretty overwhelming especially when you are just getting started reading labels and researching cleaner products. I hope this list got you thinking and gave you some good options for switching out your products!

Remember- if you are wanting to make the switch to a cleaner lifestyle, you just have to start somewhere. Your health and the health of your family will thank you!

I’d love if you’d share some of your other non toxic household products you use as well! I always like to try new things.