Remember the stupid Tide challenge…yeah, the one where people were daring each other to eat Tide pods and getting carted off in ambulances? Well…that got me thinking, Googling, and questioning just exactly how dangerous Tide and other mainstream cleaning products are.

I hate to burst your bleach-filled bubble, but it turns out…they are TOXIC AF. Not just if you eat them…either. Simply put, if you were to soak your clothing in a toxic waste pool then rinse them off, would you really want to wear them again? Well, that is basically what is happening when you use petrochemical products…I’m not just talking detergent, this is horrifically the case with  most main stream cleaning products.

Without getting to scientific on ya’ll, lets just say they contain chemicals that are linked to everything from vertigo and drowsiness to irreparable liver, kidney, nose and lung damage. I was wondering how this is even legal and after doing some digging, it turns out that chemicals in cleaning products aren’t federally regulated. Like, WTF?

Sadly, the bad news doesn’t stop there. As I have started recognizing the impact that my purchases make on the world around me, the more I have begun to grasp the importance of making sustainable and eco-friendly choices. Without getting to preachy on my soap box here (pun intended), those same chemical filled waters that clean our clothes, also drain into our rivers, lakes and oceans. So basically we are slowly poisoning ourselves and our earth with every rinse cycle. No bueno.

That being said…I think its safe to say that we all love a sparkly clean house and spotless clothes right? So what is a girl (or guy) to do?! Thankfully these days there are a handful of options to choose from. A great resource to use is the Environmental Working Group (ewg.org), it will help you weed through ‘natural cleaners’ that are shockingly just as bad as main stream cleaners, and it ranks 2,000 cleaning products and what potential harms they cause.Personally, I have started using doTĒRRA’s On Guard cleaning products. For one, they are free of synthetic fragrances, dyes, and toxins, and secondly they actually work! They use enzymes and sustainable natural-based sources as opposed to petro-chemical ones. My girl Christin who introduced me to doTĒRRA is a mom and wanted to make sure her house was free of toxins for her kids. Makes sense right? Well one of the  the coolest things about doTĒRRA is the warning label. It says “if swallowed just drink water to dilute”, because they are made of plants (Wild Orange, Clove, Cinnamon, Eucalyptus, and Rosemary CPTG Certified Pure Therapeutic Grade Oil to be exact). No poison control. Crazy cool right?!

Another cool thing about doTĒRRA is that you can enroll and select the kinds of products you want, and not just cleaning products but feminine hygiene products, face serums, essentials oils and tons of other options that will get delivered directly to your door! Convinient and chemical free? What’s not to love?!

The line isn’t sold in stores so you need a wellness advocate, my girl Christin has been kind enough to give all C&D readers a free face serum (which is quickly becoming a cult classic) when you sign up for your first order! Click here to check it out!

All photography by John Cobabe

Location: Springville, Utah