Living Clean - An introduction

For days (weeks?) I've been very preoccupied with something and I thought it was about time I share. Here's how is started.

A few weeks ago I was reading through blogs and noticed a few mentions of 'safe' sunscreen and baby products. I see this all the time but I've never really paid close attention to this kind of stuff. Why? I don't know. I'm a Mom, I'm supposed to be paying attention. I never did before.

I'm embarrassed to admit that I've had a bit of a love affair with chemicals, without realizing it. I loved having a house that smelled like a fake tropical rainforest. I liked Body Shop lotions and Maybelline mascara. I thought buying Method was doing the right thing. I didn't read labels. I didn't think anything of it. 

Also, I have to further admit that I've never been into what I used to consider hippie organic stuff (hearing myself say that now makes me cringe at my own stupidity). I was pretty sure that all natural body products all reared of patchouli and were ten times the amount of regular products. I actually kind of used to roll my eyes at stuff like this, because I didn't know any better. I'm an idiot. 

But anyway, as I was saying, after seeing those few posts I thought, ok, maybe I need to look into this stuff. Is Ben's sunscreen safe? Is my lipstick safe? Why are people making their own laundry soap? And why are chemicals so bad anyway, surely if they're sold in stores they're safe, right? 

WELL.

You guys. Most of the products in stores are bad. Like, really bad. I didn't know! I have vaguely heard about parabens over the years and, again, never really looked into what the fuss was all about. And I thought seeing 'fragrance' on a label was totally normal and ok. DEAR GOD. It's a big deal people. Huge. 

So, I won't go into all the sordid details. I don't want to turn my blog into a terrifying encyclopedia of cosmetic and cleaning product chemical horror stories. But, I started researching and to this day I haven't stopped. I started looking up the safety of products we were using and it's snowballed...and now I feel like I'm awake to it all, but I mean this in a GOOD way. 

It's been tough to know that I've made such poor choices when it comes to the products my family use, simply because I didn't make an effort to look into the details. I've learned my lesson, and I immediately began to make changes once I realized what was going on.

It's overwhelming, this sort of thing, and I think that's why people don't want to get started because they think about the research and who has time for that? There's so much to worry about anyway, and really does it all matter?

Yes it does. Every tiny little change helps. And making our own home a safer place is such a good place to start!

Here's what I'm thinking. I'm going to do a little mini-series over the next while about how I'm making our home a little greener and chemical-free. Nothing too crazy, but I will share my initial changes in terms of bath/baby/body care, cosmetics, and cleaning products for the home. Those are the categories I'm starting with and I thought if anyone out there is interested, maybe you can make some changes too!

Stay tuned for the first post!