A Toxin-Free Lifestyle on Your Homestead

Are you concerned about all the chemicals that could potentially be in your home? On our homestead, we have been considering ways to have fewer toxins available to our skin, and our lungs, or going into our gut for a while now. Let’s talk about 6 ways to prevent toxic chemicals from being a problem for our nervous and immune systems.

The average home might have 1,000 toxins floating around, hiding out or being stuck somewhere we don’t think about much. By reducing your exposure to these chemicals, inflammation, and stress can be reduced and you can have more energy! Amazing! Research has even shown that it may prevent cancer. Which may be a duh moment for you.

Grow Your Food or Eat Organic

Being on a homestead or gardening doesn’t necessarily mean that you can eat toxic-free. If you live in the city, you might want to have your soil tested, just to be sure. The things in your soil to be worried about might be; lead, petroleum, Asbestos, Arsenic, and Radon. If you don’t have any of those contaminants, then you are good to start growing something! We use Organic seeds and Heirloom seeds so we can save the seeds. We also use the Lasagna Gardening technique, so we don’t actually grow anything in our clay soil.

Have you ever heard of the Dirty Dozen or the Clean Fifteen brought to you by the Environmental Working Group? The website is here. At the very least figure out what foods from the list you don’t grow and what from the list you eat. The items that you do eat, try to find those organic.

Use Glass Instead of Plastic

I know, I know, but kids. If there is no other option, try to find these numbers on the bottom of bottles; 2, 4, or 5. Try only using plastics when on the go, otherwise use glass. Upgrade your plastic Tupperware to mason jars, glass with a silicone lid, or stainless steel options.

We only use glass options on our homestead. We use cast iron most of the time for cooking. We still haven’t kicked the microwave completely out of our house, but we would like to. The convenience is making us lazy.

Use Less Chemicals on Your Body

We try to make products like shampoos, moisturizers, and household cleaners. We use this product here to wash our bodies and hands. Some day I think I would like to learn to make soap, but now is not the time. I don’t wear makeup anymore. I try not to put any chemicals in my hair. Sometimes I sneak a little bit of some doTERRA product on my hair if I know I’m going to have to dry it with a hair dryer.

We use the Washer Magnets to wash our laundry. Here is our post on the Laundry Magnet System we use. We use a water filtration system called ProPur King. It is a gravity filtration system. We don’t use fluoride in our toothpaste. We don’t use anything that says “fragrance” in it. Those can be a group of anything, not just smells, according to the FDA “Trade Secret” loophole.

Eliminate Artificial Fragrances

If you use candles with fragrances, make sure to only use soy candles with essential oils. Also, read the ingredients as even soy candles can have additives. Soy candles don’t emit toxins like paraffin candles, such as lead, benzene, and toluene.

I can’t use perfume because I am so sensitive to all those smells, since I have migraine disease. I only use essential oils to diffuse in the air and on my body. Plug-in air fresheners, room sprays, and such can have harmful toxins such as formaldehyde to Phthalates, and ethanol which are endocrine disruptors and can cause cancer, according to the EWG.

Having a live plant in each room has been shown to scrub toxins from the air. You do have to have a large amount of plants to do this per se. Here are some of the best plants to use for this purpose:

• areca, lady, dwarf date, and bamboo palms
• Boston Fern
• Rubber Tree
• spider plant
• Ficus Tree

A Less Toxic Lifestyle

I know it might feel a little daunting to change all these things at one time, but take one area at a time. Work on exchanging one item for a more sustainable option. Cast iron, for instance, will supposedly last forever if you take care of it properly. How many other items in your kitchen can say that?

Using wooden cutting boards is much better for us than the alternatives. The benefits are that they are durable, easy to clean, and they have a natural antibacterial property that helps keep foods safe. I just learned this recently. Wow! Wood cutting boards kill bacteria. One other thing I learned recently is to not put your cutting board in the dishwasher. Just wash in warm soapy water and air dry!

In Conclusion…

Just growing a few vegetables or fruits that come from your yard or paying attention at the grocery store to the items to buy organic can eliminate many toxins right there. Try to use more glass, wood, cast iron, or even stainless steel meal carriers such as bento boxes can help with a toxin-free lifestyle. Try searching for toxin-free beauty products. Use things with the least amount of ingredients if you don’t have time to make your own. Be choosy about the candles or fragrances you put in the air or on your body. Try some real plants in your home. If you are bad about watering indoor plants like me, try Spider plants, they are very easy.

What are some things that you do around your house that help you to put less toxins in your body? Do you have any helpful hints and tricks? Please post them in the comments below to help our Eden community prosper.

I am not an affiliate of any of these items above, I just love them!

Blessings,

Kimberlee