Two things you should know about me:
- I’m a planner
- According to Gretchen Rubin’s amazing book, Better Than Before, I’m also a “Questioner”
What those two things basically add up to is that I’m a hard-core researcher when it comes to, well, just about everything. From preschool to detergent, if there’s a decision to be made pertaining to our home and family you can pretty much guarantee I’m going to research the hell out of it.
As you can imagine, this can have both positive and negative effects. On the one hand I can sometimes fall into a deep state of analysis paralysis.
A condition I neither relish nor am unaware of (no one was happier than me the day the paint colors for our walls and cabinets were finally decided on- no one that is, except possibly the salesman at Benjamin Moore).
On the other hand, these research skills that I have so lovingly honed from elementary school to grad school and beyond can also create some incredible things, especially here on the blog, e.g. our now famous collection of Toy Gift Guides as well as Project Organize Your ENTIRE Life.
So what does all of this mean for 2016? Only two brand new features I’m crazy excited about.
Friday Finds
The first is very simple. A way for me to easily share with your some of my favorite products, apps, and other helpful stuff. Those things I finally settled on after all my research was done or, in this case, used to actually do my research.
For today’s inaugural Friday Find, I’m highlighting an app I started using about a month ago and am absolutely loving.
Think Dirty is a FREE app I discovered in the comments of a green beauty vlog that allows you to quickly scan any product that’s either already in your bathroom or that you’re considering buying at the store to see how toxic (or non-toxic) it is. Ratings are given based on three ingredient categories: carcinogenicity, developmental & reproductive toxicity, and allergies & immunotoxicities.
Along with the super-quick scanner, my other favorite features include the ability to store personalized lists of products, to keep an ongoing inventory with an overall toxicity score in the “My Bathroom Shelf” section, and – this is big – when you scan a product and find out it’s way more toxic than you’re comfortable with, it will actually recommend better alternatives.
Which leads me to our second new feature this year…
1 Year to a Non-Toxic Home
A few months ago something happened, I’m not totally sure what, and my researching spidey-sense locked on to the potentially toxic ingredients in the hundreds of personal care and cleaning products our family uses every day.
I think it was anti-perspirant and the known links between aluminum and cancer and alzheimer’s disease that started me down the rabbit hole. Of course, once I started looking into our deodorants and anti-perspirants, it wasn’t long until I was looking into everything else in our (and our kids’) bathroom too.
Within a few days I had dowloaded the Think Dirty app and started scanning away the entire house… what I found wasn’t pretty.
I’m not going to get much more into it today- there’s A LOT more to come. But this is the year of going as non-toxic or low-toxicity as we can as a family.
It’s a transition that we’re entering into thoughtfully and slowly. We want to make sure we’re making the best choices we can and we need to do so in a way that doesn’t assault our wallets.
I can’t wait to start sharing with you all about it so stay tuned!
*post contains affiliate links.
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