If one day you awoke and decided to ban all chemicals from your life, how bad off would you be? Well, for starters, you probably couldn’t take a shower, wash your face, use deodorant. Or wash your dishes, run a load of laundry, clean the countertops and the floors. You wouldn’t use perfume. Your skin would be cracking without moisturizers. Not to mention your naked face, without makeup. You would have no scented candles or air fresheners. No carpet deodorizers or stain removers. No furniture polish. No bug spray. No sunscreen. And that’s not even touching all the pesticides and preservatives that hide in our food. How would you possibly LIVE?

Living simply doesn’t mean going cold turkey and stressing yourself out about it. It means educating yourself and making simple changes that progress your home in a healthy, natural direction. It’s an ongoing journey in this world of “buy me!” and it takes time to navigate.

One easy way to start is to categorize your life. Educate yourself on, and eliminate known toxins one category at a time.

It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to know these household chemicals are hazardous to our health and can be downright dangerous. After all, isn’t that what the Mr.  Yuk campaign in the 1970s was all about? They handed out stickers to children at school and taught about the dangers of chemicals in the home. Every child went home and labeled their Windex and Clorox, Pledge and Tilex bottles with those frowny green POISON stickers!!!

There are so many alternatives to toxic cleaners, the best of which is JUST PLAIN WATER! Ditch your cleaners in favor of a Norwex rag which removes toxic buildup from the surfaces in your home using only water. If you absolutely, positively must have a disinfectant, try vinegar or essential oils- Young Living has an amazing line of Thieves products that are highly antimicrobial and disinfectant. Lemon essential oil will disinfect almost anything.

Other toxin free options include household vinegar (spray cleaner) or  baking soda (as a scrubbing agent.) Try mixing them together on grout lines or int he toilet for a scrubbable, foamy surprise! It’s simply not true that you need specialized cleaners for every surface. You’ll be amazed at the space you save under your kitchen sink, too.

Again, this one is also easy. Throw out all AirWicks (if it has a number for poison control on the package, that should be a good indication that it’s BAD FOR YOU!!!) and PlugIns, Scented candles and FaBreeze. Replace with an essential oil diffuser and your choice of uplifting, energizing oils and blends. Put you favorite oil on a cotton ball in your car. Just a drop or two will fill your drive with aromatic bliss AND mask the fermenting odor coming from the child’s car seat. Haha! :)

And don’t forget to toss the perfume, too!

OK, this one is also easy, but it takes a little bit more work. You can actually make your own laundry detergent with a few simple ingredients. Borax  is a naturally occurring mineral compound made up of sodium, boron, oxygen, and water. It cleans and disinfects by turning water into hydrogen peroxide. Arm and Hammer Washing Soda (sodium carbonate) is made from common salt and limestone or found as natural deposits. It acts as a solvent to remove a range of stains and is often used in detergent mixtures to treat hard water. Baking Soda dissolves dirt and grease while removing stains and odors, such as those caused by perspiration.  

Let’s start with the basics. Obviously, you will need SOAP. Hand soap, dish soap, soap for your hair, soap your body, even toothpaste. Unfortunately today, most of the things that pass as soap are actually harsh detergents, chemical cocktails that strip the hair and skin of healthy, natural oils and leaving it damaged and dry. And there are many, MANY options out there to avoid the harsh chemicals.

I personally use Organic Vitamin E  or Marula oil mixed with essential oils (rose, carrot, geranium, frankincense, patchouli) as a moisturizer on my face every day. These oils clarify and rejuvenate the skin while reducing fine lines and wrinkles.

Dr. Bronner’s Castile Soap  or Thieves dish soap woks to eliminate residual stains, especially oil-based ones. Castile soap is made from plant oils. It is not a detergent and contains no SLS (sodium laureth sulfate) or any other sulfates so it does not dry out the skin and is gentle on both skin and clothes. There are (literally) zillions of recipes on the internet. Just pick one to try! As for dryer sheets, there are a million ideas online as well. I highly recommend organic wool dryer balls– they fluff your laundry and you can add a few drops of your favorite essential oil for a luxurious scent.

In place of deodorant, I use a roller ball of witch hazel and essential oils (lemon, lavender, tea tree and whatever else smells nice) on my underarms as a natural (and health giving) deodorant. Bonus! When you do sweat (which is a healthy detox process) your underarms will act as a natural diffuser and make you smell GOOD instead of stinky! I cant tell you how may times people have told me I smell amazing when the only oils I was wearing were in my armpits.

I won’t lie. This category may be the hardest to give up, but it is also the most rewarding. THIS is where those amazing little bottles of essential oil come into play.

First off, you can make your own soaps, lotions, shampoos, etc from scratch. Homemade toiletries, made purely from plant oils can be the ultimate in luxury!!! But I’m not into messy kitchen projects, and as of this writing, that’s beyond the scope of this blog.

Secondly, you can purchase lovely, organic, chemical free products, like the Young Living’s Thieves product line, or  Young Living’s amazing line of chem-free hair care, body care, oral care, or anti-aging beauty care products. These can be a bit pricey, but they are so concentrated with essential oils that a little (teensy weeny bit) goes a very long way!

Third, you can make your own toiletries from a few existing (chem-free) items and customize their fragrance and antimicrobial properties with essential oils. YAY! This is where it gets fun! And it’s easy, too. Just start with Castile soap. Castile soap is so-called because it originated in Castile, Spain. It is a “true” soap, not a harsh chemical detergent, composed of plant oils. It’s incredibly versatile in nature and can be used as a major ingredient to make all kinds of things, from beauty products items to cleaning supplies.

Dr. Bronner’s or Vermont Soap comes in several delicious scents, but if you start with unscented, you can also add oils from there. Simply swap out your hand soap and dish soap. In a foaming dispenser, mix castile soap, water and your favorite essential oil. Thieves oil is antibacterial and great for hand soap, Tea Tree and Lavender are skin- toning and great for the face. Castile and coconut milk make a moisturizing shampoo, although there are thousands of other shampoo recipes out there. You just have to experiment with this one. Hair is a finicky thing. Do a little experimentation and research into essential oils and you can make a custom-tailored product for every use!

Lately I’ve been a fan of The Grandpa Soap Shampoos & Conditioners- the Witch Hazel line smells so good and the ingredients are super clean. Just know that their Pine Tar line smells like a smoldering campfire- so be forewarned- I kept catching whiffs of my hair and thinking my house was on fire all day.

*Don’t be surprised if some natural (clean) products don’t quite foam and bubble like you’re used to- that foaming action is caused by toxic ingredients that not only irritate your skin, but they soak through the skin into your bloodstream. Yikes!

**Part of the chem-free lifestyle involves shifting to a suds-free paradigm!**

Look for products with simple ingredient lists and avoid ingredients like parabens, phthalates, toluene, and mineral oils (made from petroleum.) Most importantly, remember that just because a company touts themselves as “clean,” does not mean that they are! The term clean is not regulated and is often used by brands to “greenwash” their products and trick unsuspecting customers.

Skin moisturizers are a bit harder to create at home. Believe me, I’ve tried. They always end up too greasy or drying. I guess I haven’t found the right recipe. But once I discovered Just Ingredients, I never worried about homemade lotion again. This company has an incredible lineup of toxin-free clean products that you will love! Young Living also has an amazing lineup of skincare products that I’ve been using for years. In today’s harsh chemical-laden environment, you can never have enough nourishment for the skin.

There are lots of toxin free mineral makeup brands on the market, so here’s where you need to do your research. And sometimes it comes down to just experimenting with different brands. If you have an extensive makeup collection, start swapping out one piece at a time.

To complicate matters, the FDA does not require manufacturers to test their products for safety before OR AFTER selling them to the masses. So you have to know what you are looking for.

To be completely honest, I don’t wear makeup anymore – except for the rare occasion (which also happen to be the only times I use antiperspirant,) so I am not the right person to make brand recommendations. So for me, skincare is pretty simple because I don’t have the time, interest or money to invest in elaborate routines. But that’s just how I roll.

I saved this one for (almost) last because (generally) this blog is not about food. And if you are a relatively health conscious individual (which you are, if you’re reading this) you have probably already purged your house of processed food, packaged & canned food and have tried to eat primarily organically grown whole foods. In other words, you need to eat a lot of salad  and start cooking with produce.

According to Hippocrates, this category (medicine) should fall under the one above (food). After all, food IS medicine and most of the medicines we use in natural living… are foods! You may imagine my surprise the first time I had a severe cold and I was advised to treat it with garlic.

…Garlic?

While that may sound daunting, eating clean is actually easier than living clean. You see, it seems impossible to live without shampoo, or dish soap or laundry detergent. But we CAN live without chicken nuggets, Oreos and Velveeta cheese. You simply don’t buy them. Whatever doesn’t come home from the grocery store, doesn’t get eaten. But when the laundry detergent is low, well, it’s a little more work to make more instead of buying Tide pods in a pinch.

To start eating clean, just leave a few things out of your grocery cart each week. Psssst– here’s a hint. Don’t go to the grocery story hungry!

Another way to challenge yourself is to try something new from the produce section. Dragonfruit? Google a recipe and voila. You’ve just made a GIANT step forward in clean eating. Once you get a taste for whole foods, you will never go back. Take it from me, the world’s pickiest eater. Or at least, I used to be!

As a busy homeschooler and homesteader, I’ve discovered the power of the Sunday Cook-up. It’s a painful few hours, to be sure. But if you can prep, chop, and cook up the lions share of your ingredients and meals for the following week, you will not only free up a bunch of time, you won’t find yourself making poor food decisions. You won’t reach for the potato chips if 1. you didn’t buy them and 2. you have something else already made.

But like I said, this is not a food blog. You won’t find gourmet recipes here- at least not many. Of course, a huge part of homesteading is growing and making food from scratch, as well as food preservation. All of these are skills that require refining over time- in this life we are constantly learning new things! So stay tuned to the blog to watch me wade through each new discovery.

Prior to C-vd, an individual’s personal choice in medicine was never a controversial topic, at least not in the public forum. Today’s political climate tells a different story. However, it is an indisputable fact that if you are trying to avoid chemicals- in your food, your water, your cleaners, your cosmetics- it’s reasonable to assume you will want to avoid them in pharmaceuticals, too.

Just a quick Google search of pharmaceutical-related deaths, or toxic cough syrups, or drug recalls over the last decade will tell you everything you need to know. If you are currently taking prescriptions, I’m not telling you to stop. I am saying there are many things we can treat at home first without running to the doctor’s office or the corner drugstore.

Yes, garlic! Its a powerful immune booster! So are onions and mushrooms and sweet potatoes and ginger… the list is long. If you love Indian food like I do, you’ll be happy to know those dishes we love are positively jam-packed with health building herbs! Berries are antioxidants. Turmeric reduces inflammation. Walnuts and Blueberries sharpen your cognition. Oregano kills bacteria and viruses. Quite literally- food IS medicine.

But there are other health modalities that help treat dis-ease which are not considered foods. Things like essential oils, herbal preparations, homeopathic remedies, magnet therapy, PEMF (pulsed electromagnetic field therapy,) acupuncture, chiropractic and so much more. The mainstream calls these modalities “alternative” medicine. However I believe the more appropriate term is ORIGINAL medicine, given to us by God.

The easiest way to transition from pharmacy to FARMACY is one step at a time, just like everything else. Open a Young Living account and snag some essential oils – I’d recommend ten or so to start, just so you have a working arsenal- Thieves, RC, Lemon, Lavender, Peppermint, Raven, German Chamomile, Deep Relief, Breathe Again, Tea Tree. But they also sell kits which give you an excellent starting place.

Then, add a few herbal remedies to your medicine/ first aid cabinet- you can make them yourself if you’re feeling adventurous- Homemade Elderberry syrup is an easy way to start! Be careful buying herbal preparations on the internet- these can be so diluted as to be ineffective. I highly recommend Natural Hope Herbals such as- Echinacea, Mullein, Wild Cherry cough syrup, Herbal Throat Spray,

Organic herbal teas are in abundance at the grocery store and they are labeled for their specific use. So when they go on sale, stock up! Buy or make an herbal salve such as People’s Paste for wound care, Complete Tissue Salve for connective tissue repair, Ivy Oakey for poison ivy rashes.

Experiment with homeopathic remedies by using Boiron’s Cold Calm or Oscillococcinum when you or your child experience cold or flu symptoms. This stuff is amazing! In fact, Boiron has a whole line of products for everything you need- from first aid, to pain, stress & sleep. Check out their entire inventory and find what’s right for you.