The symbol for 'Harmony' looks just like a neat little home :)Each month I seem to discover a new way to improve the Simplicity of my life. Most of the time, these initiatives end up making my home ‘greener’ and more efficient, so they are a real plus. It makes very good Feng Shui sense to reduce the amounts of harmful chemicals, as they are considered to be low level energy, and will therefore attract low level energy. Replacing them with a bio-eco friendly alternative which has high level energy, will in turn attract more high level energy of course.
Here is the first of my top tips that you can easily and simply implement into your life:
Reduce toxic chemical in the laundry
This one is easy peasy! Years ago I switched to a more eco friendly version of laundry liquid because I found out that powders generally end up sitting in the material of our clothes and can potentially lead to skin problems like eczema and general dermatitis, and even promote respiratory sensitivity. As I was just about to have my first baby, I decided to go with the most innocuous kind of liquid I could find in the supermarket at the time. (yes, I didn’t go to a bio-eco-friendly website/shop at first) Later on I found that the sodium laurel sulphate used in most detergents is highly harmful to humans, and so this made me choose to find a totally ‘safe’ alternative for washing.
Two things I found that worked are the pairing of Bicarbonate of Soda (bi-carb) as a washing aid (simply because it ‘softens’ the water and naturally deoderises) and White Vinegar as a rinse, instead of using fabric softener. Fabric softeners break the fibres of the materials to make them feel softer, and the perfumes used in them are synthetic. I use an essential oil like Lavender for linen (in with the White Vinegar in the rinse spout), Tea Tree for towels, and Lemon for whites. Using Lemon oil in the rinse for whites is helpful when you can hang out the washing in the sun, as the natural photosensitivity of Lemon will help brighten your whites. My washing is cleaned, simply, safely and ends up just smelling ‘clean’ or with a beautiful, natural scent of the essential oil I’ve chosen.
Bi-carb and white vinegar are SO cheap to buy and work out to be a very economical alternative to commercial detergents.
For a full wash in a top loader I use one and a half tablespoons of bi-carb, and about 60ml of white vinegar (+ about 5 drops of whatever essential oil I use).
There are a hundred and one uses for bi-carb, white vinegar and essential oils in the book ‘Speed Cleaning’ by Shannon Lush and Jennifer Fleming. RR $19.95. Some bookstores even sell a handy ‘wheel chart’ with the stains and which combination of cleaner to use for each kind of problem.
The other totally organic product I use now is ‘Soap Nuts’. A soap nut is not actually a nut at all, but the outer shell of a fruit related to the Lychee. It is used throughout Asia as the way to clean anything. The shell contains natural ‘saponins’ which are released when the shells are soaked in water and naturally clean and soften fabrics. A mixture of the saponin can be used for applications around the house too, for cleaning cutlery and plates in the sink and for cleaning bench-tops and furniture. Most of the time I use the Soap Nuts for the darks and colours, and for the linen and towels. But I also use them for whites if I know I will be hanging it out inside the house because of rain. Everything is cleaned well, and smells like clean water after just using the soapnuts.
The purely environmental benefits of this are that I can use all the rinse water from my washing on the garden without any concern that there may be some chemical that is potentially harmful for my plants. I can even use the rinse on my organic herbs which I use in my cooking! Above all else, the economic savings and the lift in vibrational energy of my home, I love the fact that I am doing something that is promoting good health for my family and the earth too.
There are also beneficial ‘knock on’ effects for your health, because if we reduce toxic chemicals that come into close contact with our body, we reduce the amount of energy we use naturally detoxifying our bodies. This in turn creates less stress on our immune system (lymph and blood) and the organs most responsible for removing harmful compounds from our bodies (lungs, liver, kidneys, bowel, skin), so we should be able to realise a gentle and subtle lift in our own personal energy levels, and hopefully an improvement in the function of those organs and our overall health, because of one simple step we take in our household maintenance. Not bad eh? (I have personally seen the steps I have taken lead to an increase in my family’s health. We seem to have a greater immunity to the seasonal viruses that seem to debilitate many families around us) It can also manifest as less money, time and effort taken with buying products to treat dermatitis, respiratory sensitivities and loss of sleep due to being uncomfortable or irritated because of toxic chemical. Not to mention the considerable savings made on not buying every cleaning product thrust at us via marketing. It is a win-win situation.
Here is the first of my top tips that you can easily and simply implement into your life:
Reduce toxic chemical in the laundry
This one is easy peasy! Years ago I switched to a more eco friendly version of laundry liquid because I found out that powders generally end up sitting in the material of our clothes and can potentially lead to skin problems like eczema and general dermatitis, and even promote respiratory sensitivity. As I was just about to have my first baby, I decided to go with the most innocuous kind of liquid I could find in the supermarket at the time. (yes, I didn’t go to a bio-eco-friendly website/shop at first) Later on I found that the sodium laurel sulphate used in most detergents is highly harmful to humans, and so this made me choose to find a totally ‘safe’ alternative for washing.
Two things I found that worked are the pairing of Bicarbonate of Soda (bi-carb) as a washing aid (simply because it ‘softens’ the water and naturally deoderises) and White Vinegar as a rinse, instead of using fabric softener. Fabric softeners break the fibres of the materials to make them feel softer, and the perfumes used in them are synthetic. I use an essential oil like Lavender for linen (in with the White Vinegar in the rinse spout), Tea Tree for towels, and Lemon for whites. Using Lemon oil in the rinse for whites is helpful when you can hang out the washing in the sun, as the natural photosensitivity of Lemon will help brighten your whites. My washing is cleaned, simply, safely and ends up just smelling ‘clean’ or with a beautiful, natural scent of the essential oil I’ve chosen.
Bi-carb and white vinegar are SO cheap to buy and work out to be a very economical alternative to commercial detergents.
For a full wash in a top loader I use one and a half tablespoons of bi-carb, and about 60ml of white vinegar (+ about 5 drops of whatever essential oil I use).
There are a hundred and one uses for bi-carb, white vinegar and essential oils in the book ‘Speed Cleaning’ by Shannon Lush and Jennifer Fleming. RR $19.95. Some bookstores even sell a handy ‘wheel chart’ with the stains and which combination of cleaner to use for each kind of problem.
The other totally organic product I use now is ‘Soap Nuts’. A soap nut is not actually a nut at all, but the outer shell of a fruit related to the Lychee. It is used throughout Asia as the way to clean anything. The shell contains natural ‘saponins’ which are released when the shells are soaked in water and naturally clean and soften fabrics. A mixture of the saponin can be used for applications around the house too, for cleaning cutlery and plates in the sink and for cleaning bench-tops and furniture. Most of the time I use the Soap Nuts for the darks and colours, and for the linen and towels. But I also use them for whites if I know I will be hanging it out inside the house because of rain. Everything is cleaned well, and smells like clean water after just using the soapnuts.
The purely environmental benefits of this are that I can use all the rinse water from my washing on the garden without any concern that there may be some chemical that is potentially harmful for my plants. I can even use the rinse on my organic herbs which I use in my cooking! Above all else, the economic savings and the lift in vibrational energy of my home, I love the fact that I am doing something that is promoting good health for my family and the earth too.
There are also beneficial ‘knock on’ effects for your health, because if we reduce toxic chemicals that come into close contact with our body, we reduce the amount of energy we use naturally detoxifying our bodies. This in turn creates less stress on our immune system (lymph and blood) and the organs most responsible for removing harmful compounds from our bodies (lungs, liver, kidneys, bowel, skin), so we should be able to realise a gentle and subtle lift in our own personal energy levels, and hopefully an improvement in the function of those organs and our overall health, because of one simple step we take in our household maintenance. Not bad eh? (I have personally seen the steps I have taken lead to an increase in my family’s health. We seem to have a greater immunity to the seasonal viruses that seem to debilitate many families around us) It can also manifest as less money, time and effort taken with buying products to treat dermatitis, respiratory sensitivities and loss of sleep due to being uncomfortable or irritated because of toxic chemical. Not to mention the considerable savings made on not buying every cleaning product thrust at us via marketing. It is a win-win situation.
Jannette is a Senior Holistic Feng Shui practitioner who
operates her own consultancy in Brisbane, Queensland. She is dedicated to finding the simple, easy and effective solutions to improve the energy flow in your home or
business, body and spirit.
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