clean living – Raising Clean

Organization Series

April 23, 2022 raisingcleanLeave a comment

For those of you who don’t know me yet, my name is Jessica DeRico. I’m a hippy-ish mama to one 3 year old girl and another baby on the way, I’m into all things clean living, holistic health, and I’ve always thrived with structure, routines, systems, and organization. Like most of you, I’m just trying to get the most out of my day so I can be productive, present, happy, and healthy. Staying organized helps me do that!

This blog is typically about all things toxin free, but in honor of Spring cleaning time, I thought we could chat organization. I was recently asked to do a short series on this topic for someone else’s business group and everyone really enjoyed it. I do consider this a kind of “detoxing” because you’re detoxing your mind and environment to allow you to live healthier!

I’ve always been picked on (in a friendly way) by family and friends because of my strict schedules and organization techniques and I know what I do won’t work for everyone, but if I can help you organize your day/life at all, that would bring me joy!

I’LL START DROPPING TIPS SHORTLY, BUT TONIGHT I’D LOVE TO KNOW WHAT IS HARDEST FOR YOU:

Organizing Clothes/Household Items

Organizing Your Mind

Organizing Your Day

Looking forward to getting to know you all better Feel free to share your struggles in the comment section. I’m sure every person struggles in some way with organization (I’ve been working on it my whole life and still have struggles).

Like what you read on this blog? You’ll LOVE the Raising Clean Facebook Community -> https://www.facebook.com/groups/raisingclean

The Chances Not Taken

December 20, 2020 raisingcleanLeave a comment

“Original thinkers feel fear. They’re afraid of failing but they’re even more afraid of failing to try. They know you can fail by starting a business that goes bankrupt or by failing to start a business at all. They know that in the long run, our biggest regrets are not our actions, but our inactions. The things we wish we could redo, if you look at the science, are the chances not taken.”

I heard this quote on a Ted Talk I was watching and knew it was one I wanted to remember.

I don’t know if I’ve shared much about where we were at in our lives when I hit the join button on to partner with an incredible clean beauty company, but it was terrifying!

We had just spent a large chunk of our money to move across the country from Arizona to New York. We were pregnant and had the huge expense of raising a human being on the horizon. We had ZERO income coming in… We were both teachers. It was June. Neither of us had paychecks coming in. Then there was the fact that Christopher hadn’t even gotten a new teaching job yet and I wasn’t planning on going back to teaching so our financial state was very up in the air. We didn’t have our own place. We were living with my parents. Our life was seriously so unpredictable at the time when I sat down and talked to Chris about this opportunity after it was presented to me and we both knew it was the right choice. It was a massive risk and we really did not have the extra money to put into my initial investment, but we made it work because we knew it would be worth it.

So watching this Ted Talk and hearing that quote, made me think to myself, what if I had not become a clean beauty advocate…

*I would not be home with my daughter every day.

*Adeline would be in daycare with a person we don’t know.

*I would be working a job that is not in my field or a passion of mine while I spent all my free time getting my NY teaching certification.

*If we did decide for me to still stay home with Addie, we would be pinching pennies trying to make ends meet.

*We wouldn’t have been able to buy a house and would still be in a tiny apartment we hated.

*I wouldn’t know all I do now about ingredients and toxins.

*I would probably still unknowingly be using incredibly harmful products and putting them on my baby.

*I wouldn’t have hit a new leadership promotion last month and started bringing in real, career level income.

It’s amazing to me how much this opportunity has changed and blessed my life and I know there are still so many more blessings to come. Don’t be someone who looks back and regrets the chances you didn’t take. Very few people start businesses because they have more than enough money to or because they have all this extra time to. They do it because they NEED the financial freedom or they NEED the time freedom. I needed both if I wanted to be home with my daughter every day and both are what I have received.

I’m an open book for anyone who has any questions!

Hair it is…

March 2, 2020 raisingcleanLeave a comment

Let’s talk hair care.

I’ll be honest, I’ve only tried one toxin free shampoo and conditioner but because it took me SO long to find it, and because I was greenwashed twice before finding a truly toxin free brand, I knew I needed to share!

I found an article from January of this year listing “The Best Shampoos for Every Type of Hair” and dug into these recommendations a bit and you can imagine that what I found wasn’t pretty.

Some common ingredients were:
🚫PEG – While PEGs can be mild irritants, they’re less than desirable primarily because they help traffic funky chemicals across your epidermis, including a slug of impurities they’re often contaminated with. 😱According to a report in the International Journal of Toxicology by the Cosmetic Ingredient Review, pollutants found in various PEG compounds include ethylene oxide (used to manufacture mustard gas), 1,4-dioxane, polycyclic aromatic compounds, and heavy metals (lead, iron, cobalt, nickel, cadmium, arsenic).” 😳
❌ Phenoxyethanol – used as a preservative in cosmetic products to limit bacterial growth. Skin exposure to phenoxyethanol has been linked to allergic reactions ranging from eczema and hives to anaphylaxis. Infants exposed to phenoxyethanol can experience a depressed central nervous system leading to a decreased appetite, difficulty waking, skin color change, damaged DNA, and limpness of extremities.
❌ 𝙎𝙇𝙎 – often contaminated with 1,4 dioxane, a byproduct of the manufacturing process that is “possibly carcinogenic to humans” and may also cause negatives effects in the kidneys, liver and central nervous system, according to the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health.
🚫 Ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA): This preservative is used to help foods retain color, but it also irritates the skin, causes skin rashes and even asthma. It is on the FDA’s toxicity watchlist, which you know can’t be a good sign (especially considering how many other toxins they let slide).

If you want to hear what I use in my hair or simply want to join the discussion on cleaner living, follow this link https://www.facebook.com/groups/raisingclean/ to the Raising Clean Facebook Community 🙌🏻