Clean and Toxin Reduced Living: Where to Start?

There’s some negative connotations around the term “clean living”, so to clarify, here is an article I wrote explaining exactly what it means to me. So eating aside, I’m talking our daily lives. So let’s talk first where we are exposed to toxins:

Cleaning products, Water, Makeup, Feminine hygiene, Sexual products (condoms, lubricants, vibrators, etc.), Skin care (face), Shower care (shampoo, conditioner, body wash, shaving cream), Lotions, Candles, Air fresheners, Hair products, Hand soap, Laundry products, Chemicals from paint, carpet, furniture, clothes, blankets, bedding, mattresses, etc., Yard care, Pest control, Plastic (water bottles, plastic wrap, pre-packaged food, plastic dishes/cups, to-go containers, etc.), Materials from eating ware, Aluminum (foil, cooking ware)

All of this is just in our homes! This isn’t even covering chemicals we come into contact with when out and about. Feel overwhelmed? Me too. While it’s impossible to live a toxin free life (even though I use the hashtag because it’s the concept, and effort, not reality), we can do our best to limit our exposure wherever we can. This isn’t out of fear, but out of knowledge of what these toxins do to our bodies and a desire to help my body and those around me be as unburdened by them as possible. It’s a long process, and in my opinion, one done best gradually. My articles here and here have some great, safe swaps and explain the toxins in these items (well-cited), but here I want to address where to start. Obviously if you overhauled this all at once, it would cost a fortune! However, there are simple, and cheap ways to overhaul. So what I did is looked at what I used most, was already ready to replace, or could be multi use and replace the most products with one product or last a while. So here’s my opinion of where to start! I’m a stay at home mom who loves to cook, so for those like us, I’d recommend cleaning products, cooking products, and water, but I also give ideas for if you aren’t home that much or don’t cook that much of better places to start!

I would make a list of everything to overhaul, order them according to what you use most of and what can be multipurpose. Everyone’s list will look different! I don’t paint my nails often, use hair products much (besides shampoo, conditioner, detangler, and oil treatment), wear much makeup (only abt once a week), etc. however, I do use skincare twice a day, so my list looked something like this: first replace any of LO’s items, so sippy cup and lotion. Everything else was safe beforehand. It’s important to replace your little ones’ items first since their brains and bodies are still developing rapidly. Next was me: cooking/food supplies, skincare, cleaning products, water, makeup, nail polish, pest control and yard care, lesser used kitchen products (cake pans, waffle iron, etc – still need to replace these). I wanted to be the guinny pig and test the natural stuff before I switched my husband’s stuff because I hate it when stuff isn’t great that you purchased, but he especially hates it and he was not excited about switching his products, but agreed on the importance, so once I knew what products were good, then we swapped his.

If I was starting over, I would’ve done cleaning supplies before skincare. It’s all incredibly important, but cleaning supplies is such an easy place to start and makes a dramatic difference in the air you breathe every day in your home. Anyway, make a list, order it, and then take a small portion of your budget and replace as slowly as you need.

1. “Toss the Toxins” –
   • cleaning products, laundry, hand soap. This is one of the easiest and cheapest places to start. You can do this for almost free. Some of the toxins you can throw out, aren’t ones you really NEED, or at least I didn’t, so I think it’s fine to throw out things like nail polish, perfume, lotion (unless your skin really needs it) and not replace them immediately but not be breathing the toxins. Here is an awesome article explaining why these things are so toxic and what to look for and toss in “tossing the toxins”. In summary, it’s about avoiding VOCs, “fragrance” (which can actually be a word for one of 5,000 different chemicals, most of them coming with endocrine disrupters, hormone disrupters, etc. (source) and is in EVERYTHING from soap to cleaning supplies, to lotions), and other nasty chemicals.
   • They explain it like walking down the cleaning aisle and that overpowering smell. That’s what’s occurring on a lower scale consistently through a million different products in your home. Once I got rid of them all, I felt SO much better. We don’t get sick often because our immune systems can focus on detoxing and not consistently being suppressed with all those chemicals, and we’ve just felt so much better. Now we are SO sensitive to fragrance (like how your radio gets louder throughout the day and then the next morning it feels super loud). When we’re around fragrance or in a home full of plug ins, our eyes are dry and or watery, we’re dizzy we get headaches or migraines consistently and sinus problems. It’s crazy how much we just thought was normal, were actually symptoms and left us feeling so much better once we removed the toxins! Even if you feel you’re not home much, this is, in my opinion, is where everyone should start because this is the air you breathe at least 8 hours every night, probably more if you are home longer, so your air should be clean and once it is, you’ll notice a difference when you’re exposed at other’s houses and you’ll never be able to go back!
   • I love Branch Basics. I’m not sponsored by them. I’m not partnered with them. This is not an ad. I just really love them. When I share a discount code, it’s just the one on their website you can share if you’ve bought it before so I always recommend if people buy it and if they like it, to then share that discount with friends they’ll get (I don’t get anything from that, it just saves you money.) If you’d like the discount code, message me because I always worry sharing it invalidates what I’m saying! Anyway, I love Branch Basics, especially because one bottle can be used for everything, but if you don’t want to try it or feel it’s too expensive, here, here, and here are some great articles on crazy cheap cleaning options (baking soda, vinegar, hydrogen peroxide, lemon, etc. I haven’t tried them, but I do trust the sources. I do use vinegar or hydrogen peroxide for extra disinfecting power or some cleaning needs (like dishwasher with BB, cleaning washing machine, etc.), but haven’t tried the others. You can use Branch Basics or homemade cleaning supplies to replace almost every cleaning supply. I think this is the first step because you can replace all your cleaning supplies for a great price for BB or basically free. Test first obviously before you throw all your stuff out to make sure you like the method
2. Cooking products
   • This one gets expensive, so what I did was made a list of everything I wanted to replace and what I used most. Mine looked something like this: sippy cups and waterbottles were at the top because that’s what LO, Dal, and I drink out of all day, cookie sheets and muffin tins were next because I use those weekly, ziplocks (replace with Stasher bags were next and buying more glass Tupperware. The link to why is above.
   • That’s a simplified version and I still have lots I’m working on replacing that’s more expensive and used less often (griddle, waffle iron, etc.) in summary, I’d recommend making a list of toxic Cookware you’d like to replace, then ordering it from what you use most to least, find the items you want and put the links in a document or wish list, then if you’ve set aside a weekly or monthly Amazon or miscellaneous budget, pick a percentage or dollar amount that you will spend each week or month replacing items. Some of them it’s best to wait until they run out, but some should be replaced asap. This is slow, but gets you there without wreaking havoc on your budget. And it’s economical in the long run since it means you don’t have to replace your cookware, Tupperware, buy new ziplocks, etc. Here is a great article on what to do until you can replace non stick.
   • This is one though that you need to evaluate. If you rarely cook, replace things you use daily first like makeup or skincare, or if you’re replacing your cookware, but run out of eyeshadow, obviously don’t buy a brand with toxins, use that chance to buy a new clean brand. (Make sure you check for heavy metal testing and ingredients on EWG and Think Dirty apps. I love 100% Pure. No heavy metals and good ingredients. There are a few not rated as well on Think Dirty though, and avoid those.
3. Water
   • Since you obviously drink water all day every day, this should close to top of the list. One size does not fit all for water filters. Look up your zip code on EWG here and learn what toxins are in your water. It will also gives recommendations for which filter will remove which toxins. Osmosis and others remove important trace minerals, so if you pick one of these, add minerals back in. I love Berkey, but go to the website and make sure it removes the contaminants you need- it’s not the top choice for everyone. For us, reverse osmosis was what was needed to remove everything, but we can’t put in a whole house filtration or drill holes, so Berkey was next best! (Also, I thought it was Berkeley until I bought one with promo code turkey Berkey over Thanksgiving 😂)
   • Again though, look at your lifestyle, do you work out of the home all day do you have a way to bring your own reusable water bottles full of this water? If not, maybe buy reverse osmosis filtered water jug (TJ’s has them), bring it to work and use that to fill your water bottle (or maybe your work offers great filtered water) and spend money in other areas you use daily, then come back to this when those are taken care of.

So, in summary, every category has what probably feels like a million sub categories and can get overwhelming fast! So just in my opinion, I would first replace all cleaning supplies including laundry etc with BB or the other inexpensive swaps, cooking supplies (pots and pans, cooking utensils, and food you eat on/drink out of daily (make sure none of it is plastic), and your water. I would then hold off on lesser used cooking supplies and replace makeup, skin care, and hair care. Lastly, I would move onto other items you don’t use as often like nail polish and lotion (you can make your own if you’re a consistent lotion user and if that’s the case, you could do that right away. I love 100% Pure for lotion, but here and here are a couple recipes that look good, but disclaimer: I haven’t tried them.

This is the first article in a series I am doing in attainable steps to clean living and eating. Each section will have where to start, intermediate, and advanced. Each of those will typically have 1-3 articles of simple steps to get you to where you’d like to be with toxin free living. These are just my opinions of simple places to start, but start where is best for you and remember any healthy change you make is a step in the right direction and makes a difference! As always, please feel free to reach out with any questions you may have about switching over to this lifestyle. I know it can be so overwhelming, but you’re not alone and I’m here for any questions you may have. Happy toxin free living!