natural goals - 2014 edition: the home

Each year I like to make a list of my goals to moving toward more healthy, whole, organic living. I did a Natural Goals post in 2013 for home, food and body.  And this year, I am doing the same. I am happy to report that Mr. Charming and I are taking big strides into improving the over-all health and toxin load of our home.  

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What I've Accomplished Since 2013:

Honest Co. Products Have Become A Staple.  I adore the full line of Honest Co. cleaning products and I have replaced most of the cleaning products in my kitchen, living room and laundry room with Honest Co. products.  I will be doing full product reviews on this lovely line soon! 

Ceramic is my friend.  We have moved away from teflon, which was a goal in 2013!  We invested in a really nice set of ceramic stovetop cookware.   It's SO easy to clean, the food cooks so well in it, and its a beautiful shade of aqua that matches the beachy theme of our kitchen. 

Say No To Plastic.  I invested in all glass tupperware.  I love taking my lunch to work in little glass bowls.  Knowing the only option I have is a microwave for one meal of my day, I try to take salads or cold cuts as much as possible, but now when I do have to heat leftover bone broth soup or chili, I heat it in glass instead of plastic, saving me from the chemicals that can leech into food, even if it IS BPA free.  We also use glass and ceramic dishes on the daily, all plastic bowls met the trashcan. 

Got All New Filters.  While spring cleaning, Mr. Charming and I replaced our home AC filters. We also got a new filter for a vacuum and I bought a brand new tile vacuum for our kitchen.  Dust is a huge problem in Arizona, so anything I can use to help filter that away from my delicate little nose, the better. 

Redecorating and Passion Projects.  I realized, that for the well-being of my mind and soul, especially working from home so much, that redecorating and working on passion projects around the house are very important activities.  I use to feel guilty for investing money in making our space more of a home and making it pretty and diving into things I found on Pinterest, but overall, writing in a beautiful space or working out in a space that is inspiring makes us so much more creative and productive in the long run. 

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What I Still Want To Do In 2014:

Get our air ducts professionally cleaned: Sears is one company I found that does this with high pressured tubing ONLY. NO chemicals!!  This was a goal in 2013, and though I really want to do this, we invested money elsewhere first. 

More Ceramic.  I would LOVE ceramic bake ware as well.  Now that I've fallen in love with how easy they are to cook with and CLEAN, I'd love ALL my cookware to be ceramic. 

Clean out cabinets:  This is still a process.  Though we switched our everyday cleaners, we still have a lot of old chemical products in the cabinets we don't access much. We need to take a day to just mask up, and dig into these areas and get rid of it ALL.

Continue purging things we don't need.  Everyone has areas in there home that just collect, stuff.  My type-A personality hates these areas, haha.  I want to continue finishing our spring cleaning list. 

It's a good place to start, and I was happy to see, looking back, what we've been able to accomplish.  It's all about baby-steps in the right direction.  Don't stress about changing everything NOW.  It will put stress on your family and yourself.  Do one small thing at a time towards a better environment. 

I'd love to hear what all of you are doing to improve the health in your home! Feel free to leave comments and share your accomplishments and goals!