Cleaning with Marie Kondo!

Hi Everybody,
We interrupt our regularly scheduled programming on natural body care products to discuss tidying and decluttering your home.  I have been KonMari'd.  It's from the book by Marie Kondo, The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing.  Marie “KonMari” Kondo runs an acclaimed consulting business in Tokyo helping clients transform their cluttered homes into spaces of serenity and inspiration. Marie has been taking the world by storm with her international bestseller about the KonMari method of cleaning up.  Get the book!  It revolutionized my thinking on cleaning and tidying. Once I started reading I couldn't put it down.  I read it in two days and jumped up and started cleaning and organizing the very next day.  I first cleaned my kitchen and bathroom thoroughly.  Then the next weekend I tidied my linen closets and then took on my youngest son's room.  We got rid of 10 bags of linens and toys for charity, and threw away countless bags of garbage.  Even my son is happy now because he knows where all of his toys are.  I am eagerly eyeing my next tidying project.  : )



Keep it Clean!
Michele

Why Are Phthalates So Bad?

Phthalates are found in plastics and artificial fragrances.  (I pronounce them THAL-lates, I can't manage the PHTH). :-)  One of their uses is to make plastics softer and another is to carry fragrances.  We are exposed to them in a number of ways - through vinyl shower curtains, new cars (you know that new car smell that we all love - phthalates!), perfumes and some children's toys.  They are among a class of chemicals known as endocrine disruptors. Endocrine disruptors interfere with our body's natural hormonal system and cause subtle changes in our bodies.  Some possible health effects are: sperm mutations, interference with puberty and masculinity, interference with fetal development and tumor promotion.

One way to avoid them is to avoid artificial fragrances and vinyl shower curtains. I use cloth shower curtains, natural fragrances and avoid cooking in plastic containers, which can contain them also.  A great article on how to avoid phthalates can be found on the Huffington Post website.

A study of 9 pregnant women by the Washington Toxics Coalition showed that all of the women had at least 4 types of phthalates in their bloodstreams.  The CDC did a study from 2001-2010 of exposures to chemicals as measured by levels of metabolites in urine (http://www.cdc.gov/exposurereport/), and among Americans many phthalates were found in our urine at varying levels.  The CDC asserts in its phthalate fact sheet that human health effects from exposure to low levels of phthalates are unknown. Another study by Manikkam, M., et al, showed that phthalates caused multigenerational effects in rats, such as obesity, reproductive disease and sperm mutations.  Hmmmmmmmm.  I'm not liking it. :(

Keep it Clean!
Michele

How Much Have I Lowered My Chemical Body Burden?

With my switch to more natural body care products, my chemical body burden has dropped from 227 to 63 chemicals and the average EWG Hazard is down from 4.0 to 1.5.  If you remember from one of my earlier blogs, the EWG is the Environmental Working Group and they have a cosmetics database with assigned hazards from 0-10.  I think 63 is still a lot of chemicals, but I can drop it further by switching my lip-gloss, mascara and leave-in conditioner. (See my June 12th and 29th posts)

So, I think I'm getting the hang of this.  Let me know if any of you have switched to cleaner, more natural products and what you think!

Keep it Clean!

Michele