The City of Rockingham hosts Eco-friendly Home Essentials workshops with local business owner Teressa Andrews

Rockingham residents learnt all about eco-friendly home essentials at a workshop hosted by the Rockingham Library. The City of Rockingham invited guest speaker Teressa Andrews to speak and teach people the basics of how to reduce the use of toxic chemicals in their homes at an affordable price. Attendees were also treated to live demonstrations on how to make basic, non-toxic cleaning products such as household cleaner and room sprays. Ms Andrews shared that she is blind and despite being “different”, this hasn’t stopped her from pursuing her passion as an aromatherapist and eco-friendly business owner. She said the inspiration for her business Natural Flight came from her own experiences with skin irritation and in particular her husband, who previously suffered from severe migraines. It was only after her own research that she came to know that there were “toxic chemicals in just about everything on the market”. “Anything that has fragrance, is hiding 3000 raw chemical products and they don’t have to declare it, they don’t have to give you the numbers, they don’t have to give you the names, because it comes under a perfume law,” Ms Andrews told the workshop. “We grew up cleaning, using bleach, thinking that smell was the way to go. I’m very smell obsessed, but by using natural products, I am not having to worry about carcinogens that are going through my system and the one thing that it’s made a huge difference (to) is my husband’s migraines.” Ms Andrews said her husband would previously have to see the chiropractor fortnightly to prevent migraines but since making the switch to natural household products, he very rarely has a migraine. In the workshop Ms Andrews also explained the variety of essential oils available and what the difference in quality means. “Depending on what type of oil you use, it can be quite inexpensive, when you start breaking it down by drops,” Ms Andrews said. To conclude the night, attendees were invited to create their own non-toxic scented household spray to take home, as well as a little goody bag with additional information and household samples to try.