B00AFU6252 EBOK (32 page)
Authors: Jessica Alba
R
EMEMBER HOW FRAGRANCE
is bad news in beauty products? That goes double for anything you want to light on fire—like scented candles or incense—or spray all over your house to make it smell good, like air fresheners and potpourri. Fragrance contains phthalates and God-knows-what-else, and you don’t want that fuming up your home—plus some candle wicks actually contain lead.
Wood-burning fireplaces can also compromise indoor air quality. Although, in theory, a fire’s heat pulls dirty air out of a chimney, increasing home air circulation, not all chimneys do this effectively and many can aggravate breathing.
Make sure your stove has a range hood
with a good fan that vents outside—and use the fan (or, at least, crack a window) every time you cook! Be sure to clean the fan’s filter regularly.
Grill outdoors whenever you can
—it’s a great way to minimize the pollution your stove creates indoors. Plus grilled food is delicious!
Keep your chimney clean
with a yearly sweeping to remove buildup, which can block smoke exhaust.
Light fragrance-free candles.
Unscented products off-gas less than their scented counterparts. But if you love a light scent, go with a high-quality soy-based candle, which is a better bet than paraffin wax. My fave candle brand is Joya.
If you have to break up with your plug-in air fresheners and fancy candles, what’s a girl to do? Try these natural air-freshening strategies.
Vodka
contains ethyl alcohol, which is a main ingredient in most commercial air fresheners—minus all the added chemicals like petrochemicals and synthetic fragrances. Vodka leaves no odor as it dries, so you can spray it straight into your air to absorb odors or add a few drops of a favorite essential oil for a (safe) yummy scent (just don’t, um, spray it right at a flame!). And don’t worry, inhaling vodka can’t get you buzzed.
Baking soda
absorbs odors and couldn’t be cheaper; sprinkle in your empty trash cans or leave one container open in the fridge.
Essential oils
can smell awesome, and many are actually antibacterial, but they are overwhelming unless you dilute them (and definitely don’t leave them out to tempt curious kids—they’re incredibly potent). Add 10 drops of your favorite essential oil to 7 tablespoons of water in a spray bottle, and spritz. I love the scents of lavender, cinnamon, jasmine, and eucalyptus around the house.
Coffee grounds
smell awesome when they’re fresh—plus they’re amazingly odor-absorbent. Try tying them up in a coffee filter sachet or setting out a small bowl wherever you need a smell removed.
Houseplants release blood-enriching oxygen, and the ones on this list can also cleanse your indoor air of chemicals, according to NASA research (conducted to find ways to clean air in space stations—cool!). They’re also black-thumb-proof. NASA’s suggestion: For a 1,800-square-foot house, place 15 to 18 of these plants in 6- to 8-inch-diameter containers. (Take care where you place them if you have young children or pets—some are poisonous if ingested.)
- Bamboo palm or reed palm
- Chinese evergreen
- Cornstalk dracaena
- Elephant ear philodendron
- English ivy
- Gerbera daisy or Barberton daisy
- Golden pothos (devil’s ivy)
- Heartleaf philodendron
- Janet Craig dracaena
- Peace lily
- Pot mum or florist’s chrysanthemum
- Red-edged dracaena
- Rubber plant
- Selloum philodendron
- Snake plant or mother-in-law’s tongue
- Spider plant
- Warneck dracaena
- Weeping fig
Y
OU ALREADY HEARD
the fancy baby detergent story, so you know how a load of laundry more or less changed my life. The fact is, how we wash our clothes has a huge impact on our families’ health because the clothes we wear (not to mention our sheets and towels) are the next-closest things to our skin after soaps and lotions. If they’re regularly getting dosed with toxic chemicals via detergents, softeners, and stain removers . . . well, you know where this is going. It’s also no good for the planet because we wash all that junk down the drain—and it ends up polluting our waterways.
DETERGENT
I use our Honest Laundry Detergent, but whichever brand you choose, make sure it contains no petroleum products, phosphates, chlorine, optical brighteners, or synthetic fragrances and dyes.
Chlorine bleach reacts with water, forming a group of nasty, cancer-causing by-products called dioxins. Alternatively, look for non-chlorine-based products (like Honest OxyBoost). These are mostly hydrogen peroxide–based and far less toxic, although you should still keep them away from kids and pets. You can also bleach linens naturally by line-drying them outside on sunny days or adding a cup of white vinegar to every load. (Honest Stain Remover is great, too, for pretreating stains.)
Chemical fabric softener is mainly fragrance and other toxic stuff. Instead, toss ½ to ¾ cup baking soda in the wash and clothes will come out soft and smelling fresh.
Most store-bought dryer sheets are petroleum based and full of fragrance and grossness, so give them a skip. (I go nuts when I see that cleaning tip about using dryer sheets to dust-proof your baseboards—sure it works, but you’re spreading phthalates all over your house!) If you like that extra scent, try a natural brand like Honest Dryer Cloths or a homemade concoction—spritz a washcloth or clean rag with a few drops of your favorite essential oil.
FOUND IN:
Laundry detergents
WHAT IS IT?
Dyes that absorb UV light to make your whites whiter and your clothes brighter by removing yellow tones
WHY IS IT SKETCHY?
Optical brighteners bind to the skin and may cause rashes and allergic reactions; they may also be hormone disruptors and we just don’t know whether they’re safe to use over long periods of time (like the number of years you’ll do laundry). One bummer: They’re toxic to fish.
HONEST
baby
PREPARE FOR PARENTHOOD WITHOUT LOSING YOURSELF
BEFORE HONOR ARRIVED, I WAS TOTALLY FOCUSED ON MY
career. I was 26 when I got pregnant, and I wasn’t sure how I was going to manage juggling both work and family. But when it happened, something just clicked for Cash and me—we realized what a beautiful moment it was and how lucky we were to be able to start a family. The day Honor was born, I discovered the true meaning of love.
As she’s started to walk, talk, and have opinions, my love has only deepened. When Haven came along three years later, our family was complete. Today, our home is filled with more pink, dress-up, and giggles than we could ever have imagined.
M
Y CAREER
is still a priority—I think it’s so important to show your kids by example how hard work can lead to dreams fulfilled. My relationship with my husband is also super important—having children has made Cash and me a lot closer. Once you’ve gone through all those late-night feedings and diaper explosions together, you’re bonded like nothing else; we share everything now. And I literally could not have survived the past four years without my mom or mom friends—no one else understands how you feel when you’ve been up all night with a newborn and crazy new hormones. But there’s no question: Becoming a mom made me the person I was always meant to be.
If you’re reading this chapter because you’re pregnant, or you’re in that thinking-about-it place, get excited! Having a baby is the hardest, most terrifying, exhausting, overwhelming thing I’ve ever done—but it’s also the sweetest, most beautiful, most profound love I’ve ever experienced.
