Products better for your health...

In the past couple months, I've started to use my couponing to help reduce my grocery and household costs and I've used that savings to start buying more organic and better food for my family. We're eating more organic fruits and veggies, and I can't believe that you can taste a difference. We're also eating organic chicken now- Smart Chicken. It's expensive, but you can taste the difference and there is much less waste than cheap chicken... I'm also shocked that my kids- innocent as they are at almost 14 months old and 3 1/2 years old- eat more organic carrots than traditional carrots and more organic apples than traditional apples. They can even tell a difference!

I found a book at the library- "Green This, Vol. 1- Greening Your Cleaning" by Deirdre Imus. It's an excellent book with tons of information about household products that I was using- and all the horrible chemicals and toxins and yucky stuff in everything. My 3 year old constantly has allergy/asthma/respiratory problems and after reading this book I realized that one more thing we can do to help him (and both my husband and myself who have allergies/asthma) is to get rid of the toxic cleaners we were using.

Seventh Generation makes a great line of non-toxic cleaners that are naturally safe and effective. I found a great deal on Seventh Generation cleaners at Target- there are $1.00 off 1 printable manufacturer coupons here and also $1.00 off 1 Target printable coupons here. They have a great multi-purpose spray cleaner that runs around $2.99 regular price at Target, and their dish soap is around $2.69. So, take $2 off those makes it very cheap! Their multi-purpose spray cleaner is great- I've used it on pretty much everything- the shower, around the kitchen, etc.. and what I LOVE about these products is I don't choke because of the fumes and I feel great using them around my kids.

I loved Lysol... I mean, I really loved Lysol- wipes, cleaner, spray... I never felt like something was clean unless I was choking on Lysol fumes. I was first very skeptical about using natural products but there are SO MANY natural disinfectants and cleaners around that only kill the bad germs and bacteria. After reading "Green This" I was really bothered by all the chemicals in everything and reading the side effects of exposure to each different chemical in each cleaning product it's no wonder why we have resistant strains of illness. It's really scary when you start reading up on this topic...

And beware of false claims on products. Several companies are coming out with products that have the name "green" in them to make themselves sound better- but they're really not. Try to look for non-toxic cleaners, and start reading ingredient lists. Seventh Generation is one of the brands that has been around for awhile now and has established themselves to be a good company with high quality products at reasonable prices.

Let me know if you have a chance to look into that book or a similar one and what products you've found to be better for your health... I'm trying to find a reasonably priced alternative to hand sanitizer-- since my readings have shown me that I really shouldn't be using that either!!