8 natural ways to cleanse your home

coming into a new year, a focus of mine is natural cleansing and detoxing in our home. whether that may be negativity, toxic chemicals, or unhealthy living. so i thought i would give you guys a post one some great changes we've made to detox our home.

one: shungite

when you think of healing crystals, you may think of a bunch of new age spencer pratt/ heidi montag crazy crystal shit.....

sooooo... i can't totally blame you if you have decided to quit reading. but for those willing to hear me out, its worth listening. so the crystal i'm talking about is called shungite. shungite is about 2 billion years old and 98% carbon. its only found in a random lake in Russia and its THE ONLY known natural source of fullerenes in the world. what are fullerenes you ask? they're a powerful antioxidant according to this scientific journal. they've been described as a radical sponge that go around soaking up free radicals without harming any healthy cells. cancer researchers are studying their anti-tumor effects (see here).

harold kroto, richard smalley, and robert curl won the nobel peace prize for chemistry in 1996 after discovering fullerenes. fullerenes, diamonds, and graphite are the 3 forms of crystalline carbon. when you put shungite in water, the fullerenes attract and neutralize water contaminants. the lake in russia that shungite comes from, you can drink the water straight without any filtration. INSANE!! its been used for centuries in russia to clean water. but that aint all it does. researchers have also seen a decrease in histamines in the blood and a corresponding decrease in allergies! pretty neat little black rock ;)

i recently ordered a small one to throw in a glass of water. but would still love to get some jewelry out of it. google about shungite! you'll be glad you did.

two: essential oil diffusers

its no secret that our household has been overtaken by young living essential oils. you'll always hear me saying "i have an oil for that!" and its true, i do. while i haven't splurged on this exact diffuser the photo, its high on my list of things i'd love to have. we use our diffusers for everything from immunity boosting benefits, to the mood enhancements, to promoting deeper sleep... and thats just scratching the surface. the diffuser works by distributing essential oil molecules through the air. you throw a little water in them and add just a couple of drops of oil. super easy and so much safer than many candles on the market now. 

three: swell water bottle

i am so guilty of having too many plastic water bottles. so this post is mostly to remind myself to use my swell bottle instead. many plastics contain bpa and phthalates which are linked to cancer, endrocine and development problems. plus, you can't add any of the acidic essential oils to plastic water bottles (they literally eat the plastic away) so its important to only add them to glass or stainless steel bottles.

four: himalayan salt lamps

if you haven't heard about these yet, get excited. ever noticed how invigorating waterfalls, lightning storms, the mountains, and the ocean are? well thats because they emit negative ions. negative ions actually creative positive vibes. negative ions release serotonin in our brains, serotonin it a neurotransmitter in your brain. to make things simple, its happiness. you may have heard of antidepressant commercials talking about SSRIs, those are selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors...basically drugs inhibiting the serotonin to be taken away, making more of it available. pretty neat stuff (sorry the psych nerd in me is coming out.) so basically negative ions are essential for positive feelings and good energy (see scientific research here) ... and while we are talking about it, want to know what emits positive ions? computers, phones, tvs, laptops.... 

i'm sure you're wondering where this pink rock lamp fits into all this! well the heat of the light bulb in the lamp releases negative ions into the room! they claim it can:

 reduce static electricity

improve allergies

improve sleep

clean the air

reduce stress

 improve headaches

boost blood flow

i've studied up on these and seen research for both sides. if you are a non believer and don't want one of these pretty lamps in your house, theres another option here. but personally, i love the lamp ;)

five: wooden prayer beads

i could never do a blog post about about cleansing the home with out including our Creator. we have this "house jewelry" as i call it on our front door. its an important daily reminder to us to be thankful for everyday we are given. we deserve nothing and are reminded of His grace in our lives everyday. they're also a great reminder of people i have promised to pray for each day.  in our house, prayer is THE most important way for us to detox our home and minds of negativity.

six: house plants

when i was writing this blog, i totally almost overlooked these. as much as i would LOVE to have a green thumb, i'm lucky to keep succulents alive. but i continue to keep plants in the house...until i kill them. i guess i'm actually more like a plant serial killer. theres several houseplants that are great for cleaning the air in your home: cactus, aloe vera, snake plant, ficus, boston fern, ficus, and peace lily just to name few. since most of us spend the majority of our day indoors, its good to think about cleaning the air inside.

seven: smudge sticks

lets go ahead and put the spiritual/ritual purposes of smudging aside. i aint here to look like a witch. i love my Jesus and i'm going to keep my opinions of smudging to remove negative energy out of this and just talk about science. smoke therapy is nothing new, its thousands of years old. it was a practice done around the world from native americans to ancient egyptians. scientists today are learning that maybe they were on to something. in this study in 2007, they found that burning herbs reduced airborne bacteria by 94% for 24 hours. up to a month later, seven other pathogenic bacteria in the open room were still not able to be detected! nice to know its such a powerful antiseptic.

hmmmm.....

smudging seems to be a great natural alternative to the a chemical can of lysol if you ask me. and this study shows us that those cleaners aren't all they were cracked up to be anyways!

eight: young living thieves household cleaner

a staple in the davis household. you might see the retail price tag of $28 ($22 for young living members) and think its highway robbery. and if you were to add a sprayer to the bottle and use it straight up, it would be. BUT thats not how its intended to be used. its a completely organic, nontoxic, and all-in-one concentrated cleaner. its also entirely plant and mineral based. i add a capful to an entire spray bottle of water. so a bottle of thieves cleaner lasts me about a year.  i use it for 99.9% of the cleaning in my house: hardwood floors, bathtubs, tile, countertops, stove top, stains, glass, mirrors, kitchen sink, and toilet. the only thing i don't use it for is stainless appliances. if you use the commonly used ratio of 1 part thieves cleaner to 30 parts water, it breaks down to about $0.88 a spray bottle!!!!

i love using it because not only is it cleaning but its completely safe for the kids AND its boosting their immunity with the oils (read about thieves oil history and how it got its name here)

how does your family detox the home? i would love to hear!

xoxo-hannah