Ten years ago when my mom, sister and I immigrated to the USA, my mom started cleaning vacant apartments for a living. Every day she would leave for work and clean 2-3 apartments a day. She was dealing with the leading cleaning brands everyday which contains many toxic chemicals, absorbing them non stop. After about 3 months she lost 25 lbs, she looked so thin and unhealthy but yet she was eating good like she always has.
Sometimes I would go with her and help out, I hated to clean the stoves, there was a degreaser that once you spray it, you would feel like you can’t breathe.
It was very tough for me to see my mom who was healthy-looking and had an amazing corporate job in my country become super unhealthy thin just to make money so my sister and I could have the ” American Dream”.
At the time I was 14 and didn’t know that there were toxin-free, plant-based cleaning products.
Luckily she left that job after 6 months and started working as a nanny/housekeeper for a family that was using some toxic-free products in their home.
This year, I have been incorporating more toxic-free products, from cleaning products to nail polish. And after moving back to Florida with my mom, the first thing I did was throw away the dishwashing soap that she had from dawn, she thought that because it was “gentle” it meant that I wasn’t harmful.