Non-Toxic Cleaning Products

No doubt the reasons for purchasing highly advertised and recommended cleaning products are almost all, if not entirely, based on the goal of keeping your home clean so that your family can live a long, healthy life. Unfortunately, purchasing these chemical agents most often accomplishes exactly the opposite effect, filling households with tainted air supply and ultimately resulting in a plethora of health issues including, but certainly not limited to, asthma, allergies, eye irritation and nausea.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has noted that indoor air quality (IAQ) can be anywhere from two to five times as polluted as the air we breathe outside. This is due to a range of factors including chemicals in decorating materials (like paint) and highly toxic cleaning agents. Store-bought cleaning products come with a laundry list of hard-to-pronounce chemicals, all of which you repeatedly release into your family’s internal atmosphere every time you use them to provide a “clean” environment. Fortunately, it’s perfectly possible to do away with these cleaning materials once and for all and still rest easy in a clean, non-toxic home. 

Switching to homemade, non-toxic cleaning supplies is as easy as looking up time-tested recipes online or in books and committing to using these substances in place of toxic agents. The best part? A healthier family isn’t the only positive outcome to making this change. Eliminating toxic cleaning supplies from your home is also a great way to ensure that children don’t accidentally come into contact with these harmful materials, whether snooping around in cabinets or lovingly offering “help” during cleaning times.

Aside from creating an all-around healthier living environment for you and your family, going green and non-toxic in the area of cleaning can save money by a long shot. Rather than paying per bottle for toxic concoctions, there are numerous ways to combine safe, cheap, regular household chemicals to create non-toxic cleaning supplies for your home, and many of these substances can be purchased for pennies on the dollar, especially in bulk. Not to mention many of these products also have other uses in the home, from laundry detergent to cooking to more.

On a global scale, reducing the use of toxic chemicals in your home also increases the quality of the outdoor environment as well as the amount of safe drinking water available to our population. When you use toxic cleaners, chemicals are released into the air, and though they most immediately pollute indoor air, they eventually make their way outdoors and, ultimately, into the ozone. Pouring chemicals into drains and washing them away results directly in pollution of the water supply we use for safe use and consumption, thereby reducing the already tiny 1% we have for use.

by Anjie Cho

Why Save Water?

If you live in this century, and let’s face it, you do, you’ve undoubtedly been encouraged to save water in any way possible to you. One obvious reason for preserving our water supply is that, contrary to popular belief, water is not a renewable resource. Our planet has a finite amount of water, and only 1% of this resource is even available for human consumption. In addition to this very obvious reason to be wary of water use, there are numerous other factors influencing the mission to reduce our nation’s, and our planet’s, use of this precious resource.

As previously mentioned, of the finite amount of water available to us on Earth, only a stunning 1% is potable, and this number is rapidly decreasing due to excessive pollutants and litter being dumped into our clean water supply almost daily. We absolutely cannot live without clean drinking water, and neither can any other species supported by Earth. Every living creature needs water, which means that even if we redirect our pollution into water sources that humans do not currently use, we are still actively killing various species of the animal kingdom, many of which are already endangered. Even for advocates of animal consumption, this is an issue. What will you eat if we eradicate all existing species? Inability to conserve our water for later use ultimately means extinction of all life on our planet.

Aside from keeping the entire planet alive, conservation of water is beneficial for that other green substance we love: money. Taking care to monitor your water usage and preserve as much as possible directly influences the amount of money we spend each month, each year on utility bills. These equations are simple. Many of us are charged based on water consumption, as we are with any other energy source. The fewer gallons we utilize, the less money we pay. As a side note, popular methods for conserving water can save thousands of gallons of water annually. Conserving water doesn’t just decrease water utility bills, though. It also directly affects the cost of other energy bills including gas. The fewer gallons of water you heat for various reasons, from showering to washing clothes to washing dishes, the less gas you use to heat this water, which results in immediately lower gas bills.

Other reasons for conserving water include reducing state and national funds (to which we contribute) spent on public structure aimed at keeping our water supply flowing and fresh, reducing expenditures on sewage and wastewater processes and even reduction of the occurrence of sinkholes in some states.

by Anjie Cho

Type A Zen and Other Dawnsense

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This week Holistic Spaces caught up with Dawn Gluskin, from Dawnsense.com. Dawn is one of my favorite twitter personalities and is dedicated to living a successful life full of zen and peace. Check out our chat below, where we talk Type A Zen, meditation, daily gratitude and more!

AC: You talk a lot about Type A Zen in your social media posts. What does that mean?

DG: I’ve been a ‘Type-A’ all my life, which, to me, means highly driven, motivated, with big goals and willing to put in the time and work hard.  But, from the outside, this same personality type can also be considered a workaholic or someone that has blinders on to all the rest of the beauty that life has to offer outside of work and achievement. At some point, I came to terms with my own perfectionist traits and realized that I never stopped to celebrate my successes, and frankly, wasn’t happy.  My life was a constant focus of one big goal to the next.  

In recent years, I’ve counter-acted that with lots of introspection, yoga, meditation, self-care and just an overall deepened spiritual practice. Now, I am still super-driven, but not so attached to the outcome.  I find happiness in just be-ing and not artificially through achievement.  Type-A Zen is also the title of my forthcoming book, where I talk in more detail about my own life experience, offer jewels of inspiration, and share the stories of some other amazing women who’ve lived their own Type-A Zen stories that go from chaos to clarity and love.

You're very involved in yoga and meditation. Do you think one of these would work as well without the other? How do they relate to you?

Sure, you could do one without the other, but they really do go hand in hand. Both involve focus on breathe and cultivate mindfulness.  The difference is in meditation, you are completely still, and in yoga you are syncing movement with your breathe.  Both practices allow you to connect more deeply to yourself, find your center, and your peace, which are all such beautiful and lovely things and why I incorporate them into my daily practices.  For me, they are what help to fuel the ‘zen’ and ‘spiritual’ aspects of my being.

What led you down the path you're currently on, of taking care of your body inside and out?

I’ve also been into fitness, but I think it used to be fueled by the wrong motivation: vanity and my perfectionism (you know — gotta get that perfect body and be in shape).  But, since I’ve deepened my spiritual practices, my motivation behind everything has changed.  I look at wellness from a holistic perspective: mind, body, and soul working in harmony.  Now, I work out to feel good and to take care of the temple that is my body.  The ‘vanity’ portion doesn’t really play into it, and the perfectionism is out the window. I feel better than ever from the inside out. 

What does it mean to be a Zen Rebel?

Zen Rebel is a little movement I’ve started and wish to grow in the years to come.  It’s about living a healthy, spiritual life, being of service to others, living your truth … but without any pretension.  In other words, you can drink green juice in the morning and still have a glass of wine at night.  It’s permission to do no harm, but also take no sh*t!  It’s a concept to make spirituality and expanded consciousness accessible to all.  You can strive to live a purpose-driven life and make a positive difference in this world … and still leave room to be perfectly imperfectly human too! Right now, I’m getting together with a few designers and experimenting with different distribution and e-commerce platforms to sell yoga-inspired clothing and jewelry and raise money for causes near & dear to my heart.

You're a huge advocate of daily gratitude. Tell us a bit about what gratitude does for you in life. 

I believe that by acknowledging all that we have to be grateful for, we not only increase our happiness, but also attract more abundance into our lives.  When I’m having a bad day or a rough time, I remind myself that it can always be worse. For any of us that are blessed enough to have our health, food, water, a roof over our heads, clothes on our back …. we’re better off than many others in the world.  In fact, just putting our two feet on the ground in the morning and taking in a deep breath is a major blessing. When we can truly and deeply appreciate what we have and how far we’ve come, we send the Universe a message that we are willing and able to receive more.  It’s really hard to be unhappy when you are counting all of your blessings.  (Try it next time you’re in a funk)

What tips would you give my readers to lead a holistic, healthy and happy life? 

It all starts within.  Go inward to discover your true passions and purpose in life. We can only give from an overflowing cup (not an empty one).  So, fully love, accept, and take care of yourself first and everything else will fall into place. 

How have you created your own holistic space?

This is a constant work-in-progress for me.  I like to keep the house as de-cluttered as possible with free-flowing energy, but with two young children and a ‘pack-rat’ husband, it can be a bit of a challenge sometimes!  I do keep my own space nice and tidy and clean out my closets often. Cluttered space to me is a cluttered mind.  I also use all-natural products & essential oils for cleaning & making the house smell nice & fresh!  I do have my own little altar/spiritual space where I keep all of my favorite things from beautiful candles, my buddha statues, angel cards, to sweet, personal notes, chakra stones, etc. This is the space I go to mediate each morning.  It’s very peaceful & beautiful to me. (And, of course, clean!)

by Anjie Cho

Dawn Gluskin is author of forthcoming book, “Type A Zen.”  Formerly founder & CEO of a 7-figure technology company that she founded in her living room, Dawn is no stranger to hustle, but was also no stranger to high-stress living.  In working with so many other women in business, she quickly learned that the modern day super woman’s “having it all” can come with a high price tag.  Through mindfulness practices: yoga, meditation, journaling and a lot of self-reflection, Dawn has found much joy & peace in her own life … while still keeping her business chops & motivation.  She teaches and inspires others how to do the same by redefining ‘success,' turning inwards and living life from the inside out!