ethical living: cleaning the house

"Whatever you do, don't mess up" ~

Want to avoid cleaning? The best way we've discovered to avoid cleaning, is to set a date to do the cleaning. In our place, our cleaning dates are Saturday morning and Wednesday evening, which means, in fact, we DON'T have to clean on Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. See how well that works?!

We're newly weds around here, which means we are enjoying a lovely benefit of married life: someone to share the housekeeping with. If that sounds romantic, it is. We've become quite engaged with making our home tidy, clean and welcoming, for ourselves and guests. We feel rejuvenated, peaceful and more inspired to enjoy, cook and work in our home when it is tidy. This saves us alot of expense trying to get away to somewhere else for peace and nourishment. Making our home a peaceful hub of our lives is the ultimate in self-care. We've achieved a pretty nice living environment by simply cleaning up twice a week (Sat/Wed), and twice a year (Spring/Fall).

ETHICS OF HOUSEKEEPING

My wife and I are very interested in practicing ethical living, as part of our mindfulness towards the health of the environment. For her, this is rooted in her environmental awareness and love of animals, for myself, this is an extension of my call to good stewardship of creation, and my faith in action. Happily, both perspectives jive well to inform our housekeeping choices.

It's taken a year to get through all the chemical cleaners we had already purchased and now ~ starting this week! ~ we are on an all-eco cleaning routine! How did we achieve this? Like this:

WE STOPPED

• we used up the chemical cleaning products we already had, and saved the empty bottles (better to use them than waste them into the landfill)

• we used up all the disposable cleaning aids we had (such as paper towels, disposable floor wipes and cat-hair sticky-roller brushes)

• we didn't buy any more chemical cleaning products

• we informed ourselves about green washing (which is refers to how companies inflate or mislead about their ecological claims)

WE SHIFTED

• we visited local and alternative stores, noticing that big-box stores were lacking in authentically eco options

• we purchased third-party-recognized ecologically friendly products only

• we made reduced packaging part of the decision-making process

• we purchased reusable and washable napkins, cloths, mops, lint brushes, etc

WE STARTED

• we try to clean regularily, so grime doesn't build up

• we've found diy recipes for homemade cleaning products using simple household ingredients such as baking soda, vinegar and essential oils

• we thoroughly enjoy the satisfaction of knowing we are helping the entire world stay "cleaner" by shifting our cleaning habits!

The shift to eco-homemaking has taken us about a year. We used up products slowly over time, and purchased reusable alternatives as we were able. I'm so happy we made this decision together, and that now we can say that we live in an eco-cleaning friendly home! You can too!

Visit the SpiritSpace GIFTS page, to find resources on how you can bless your home by making the eco-shift too. ~xo