DIY Hand Sanitizer
Hand-washing is our first line of defense against any virus – so wash thoroughly and often and carry hand sanitizer and wipes with you when traveling to wipe down cell phones, trays, handles and door knobs, stick shifts in cars, drawer pulls, keyboards, and all those other easy-to-forget places we touch everyday. Now, after seeing hand sanitizer was sold out everywhere and retailing on amazon for $150/bottle, (INSANITY!) Lori hopped on her Instagram Story and shared her homemade recipe for DIY hand sanitizer for $1 with all drugstore/grocery store purchases. Give it a watch here:
The Ultimate Whole-House Deep-Cleaning Checklist
Ok now to get to the whole house deep clean. This is the checklist we found a while back that we love referring to whenever we get into a deep-clean-everything mode! But let’s go into a bit more detail about the types of products to use in each space and overall so keep scrolling down where we get into the real nitty gritty of it all! Also, if you are in need of a break from all the panic and want some light, pretty home decor refresher tips for Spring, check out this post. It’ll be more your speed — or a nice palette cleanser after this one. 😉
The Best Air Purifiers on the Market
One of the best investments you can make in your home is in its air quality. That, of course means making sure the home, structurally, is well-insulated and that the windows tightly seal. You’ll want to be sure to keep air vents clean and install air purifiers. Now there are a few different ways you can go when it comes to air purifiers- varying price points, but we will say under $300 isn’t going to get you much juice and the Air IQ, top-of-the-market will run you a couple grand but is well worth it for that hospital-grade air at home! Here are some of our personal favs:
Our Favorite Vacuums
Lori has an affinity for vacuuming! Anyone that’s worked in this office can tell you that. And what a difference having the right one makes. A good vacuum is going to be a good weight – easily portable (not like those ridiculous 50s honkers!) and sensitive to picking up dust. Here are some of the best vacuums money can buy that are actually (dare we say?) kind of fun to use. The Miele products (and no, they’re not even paying for this post – just a fav around here) make it easy to remember to run the vacuum once each day:
Best Natural All-Purpose Cleaning Products
As much as we love experimenting with making my own cleaning products sometimes the efficiency of capitalism takes over, we’re all busy, right? So here are some of our favorite store-bought go-to eco-friendly all-purpose cleaning products:
Focus on Kitchens and Baths First
- Warm, damp environments are breeding grounds for bacteria and often have some of the highest foot traffic in the home. And while the toxic chemically cleaning products will kill bacteria – they’ll also kill your air quality and some of the other good stuff! So you definitely want to make the switch to green products, if you haven’t already! Unconvinced about why you should? In this post from a little while back, we detail all the horrible toxins to eliminate from your home, so many of which can be found in packaging, plastics, and toxic ‘cleaning’ products.
- And when it comes to the bathroom, where soooo much bacteria is you’ll want to pay extra attention to some of the other products you use regularly, aside from just the cleaning products. These include making healthy eco-swaps for toilet paper, towels, cosmetics, candles. We did a deeper dive into the simple swaps you can make to detox your bathroom in this blog post here.
If You Have to Fly or Travel Communally…
JetBlue and other airlines have already issued statements that they’ll be increasing the rigor of their cleaning and sanitization services and temporarily putting a pause on their hot towel service. If you’re flying, it’s probably best to avoid the luxe hot towels, as fab as they are! Also a good idea: travel with masks, wipes, and a good set of essential oils. Here are some of our favorites that come in adorable travel-sized containers.
Green Interior Design Tips
Since our firm specializes in green interior design and sustainable interior architecture, we could go on forever! Here are a few digestible quick-tips that will get your home a little cleaner in no time:
- As a rule, we never specify carpet in our projects. It’s kist plain unhealthy. If you have to have something soft underfoot, look for a gorgeous area rug. Something sleek and stylish to pull the whole space together. Something sustainable that can be passed down generations, and removed and easily cleaned! We wrote a guide for shopping for sustainable rugs, complete with inspo gallery images and a cleaning guide. Check that out here. And part II here.
- Spend more time outdoors! Based in Southern California, we’re all about those sleek contemporary spaces that move you seamlessly from indoors to outdoors. Full-walls of floor to ceiling windows, ample natural light, and edible gardens easily accessible from the kitchen. With performance fabric technology improving the way it has, you can get chic-looking, sustainable, healthy fabrics on your outdoor furniture so they look as luxe as your interior furniture does! To see what we mean, check out some of our favorite outdoor furniture vendors here.
- These blogs are the cliff notes — we have a 2nd edition of our firm’s best-selling book, Green Interior Design coming out this year available for pre-order now on amazon.
