Did you know that most of us come in contact with over 100 toxic chemicals on a regular basis? Yes, according to a study from the Environment Working Group “one of every 13 women and one of every 23 men – are exposed to ingredients that are known or probable human carcinogens every day through their use of personal care products.”
This study is just about personal care products, now think about everything else we come in contact throughout the day. Shocking! The bad news is that we cannot avoid all toxic chemicals, but we sure can minimize our exposure to them and the best way to do this is to minimize the toxic chemicals in your home.
Why? Because we spend a lot of time in our homes! In fact, in one lecture I attended from Pete Myers, one of the world’s leading endocrine disruptor scientist, he explained that our bodies are capable of restoring and cleaning themselves out when the exposure is not constant and when we have a toxic-free environment to recharge. This is why the products we use in our home are so important and why we should do our best in having a non-toxic free zone. The more we can reduce our exposure to toxic chemicals, the healthier we will be.
Recently I was on the new show for moms, The Mother Side, showcasing 8 non-toxic products to make your home more green and less toxic. If you’re working on making your home non-toxic, these are all great products to get since they are used on a regular basis and will cut down the toxic load in your home!
To view the segment, hit play below or click here to open it in a new link (or click here to see it on Facebook):
Detox your home with these 8 green products every parent should know about
Force of Nature
When I discovered this product 2 years ago I was so thrilled. Force of Nature is a little machine that turns water, vinegar and salt into a non-toxic cleaner that disinfects just like bleach does (but without the toxic chemicals).
What I love about it is that is safe enough for kids to use – you can even use it to clean baby toys, and it also works on every surface. Instead of buying many different cleaners, all you need is Force of Nature!
That is what Force of Nature looks like:
In one bottle you place the contents of the vinegar and salt capsule, then you fill up the rest with water, put it back in the machine and turn it on. This machines uses electricity to create a chemicals reaction that produces your non-toxic cleaner and it only takes about 6 minutes to make. You see my review on Force of Nature here.
It’s very easy to use – my kids make the cleaner most of the time and you end up saving a lot of money in the long run by switching to this cleaner. Plus, you won’t have to worry about any endocrine disruptors or cancer causing chemicals!
Click here to get a $35 off code for Force of Nature.
A Powerful Water Filter
Did you know that the water that comes out from our faucet is not entirely clean? Yes, you can drink it but a lot of the contaminants in water will accumulate in your body. According to the Environmental Working Group there are “over 300 pollutants in US tap water“ (click on that link to find out what contaminants are in your local water). Their study discovered that:
More than half of the chemicals detected are not subject to health or safety regulations and can legally be present in any amount. The federal government does have health guidelines for others, but 49 of these contaminants have been found in one place or another at levels above those guidelines, polluting the tap water for 53.6 million Americans. The government has not set a single new drinking water standard since 2001.
Water utilities spend 19 times more on water treatment chemicals every year than the federal government invests in protecting lakes and rivers from pollution in the first place.
Our bodies are practically made up with water and as we all know, water is essential for our well-being. This is why drinking clean, toxic-free water should be a priority. In fact, once you switch to truly filtered water it will be very hard for you to drink tap water again. When I try to drink tap water it tastes so weird to me now…
There are many water filters out there but not all of them filter all contaminants. After extensively researching water filters, we narrowed it to 2 filters that filter incredible amounts of pollutants:
The main difference is that Berkey is a filter that sits on your counter, and Clearly Filtered has filters for every need – for under your sink, on your counter, in your fridge, and more. Both companies post their lab test results on their site showing that they indeed filter contaminants; and you can also find a list of the contaminants they filter. To check out the results, just click on the name of the filter you’re interested in.
We have the Berkey water filter in our homes and that’s the one we showcased during the TV segment.
Get a Berkey water filter or a Clearly Filtered one!
Nice smelling house
Everyone likes a good scent but did you know that most scented products are hiding lots of endocrine disruptors. Fragances are a real problem when you’re trying to avoid chemicals because most companies don’t even know what’s in the fragrance they use.
Yes, it’s true. Fragances are considered trade secret, and therefore not all the ingredients have to be disclosed so when a big company buys a scent they don’t know how it’s made. Only companies that are making a conscious effort to be non-toxic inquire about fragrances and get non-toxic ones for their products.
How do you know if a fragrance is non-toxic? Only by knowing what’s in it! You can ask directly the company or check out their site, if the company is not using a toxic ingredient in their fragrance most of the time they will disclose this information. You can also buy products scented with essential oils, which are safer.
There are different ways you can naturally scent your home, but our favorite ones are:
- Using a diffuser and essential oils: this is great when you want to scent a room or your entire home.
- Grow Fragrance: this is a great alternative for those spray cans you see in the bathrooms everywhere. You can use Grow to scent your bathroom, or any room. We keep ours in each bathroom and next to areas that get stinky, like the diaper pail.
Non-toxic laundry products
We all need to do laundry and unfortunately there aren’t many laundry products that are both non-toxic and actually clean. That’s why I am really excited to share My Green Fills with you because I finally found something that truly cleans and it’s safe for the family. Plus this company is pretty unique in that they work hard to reduce waste.
When you order My Green Fills you get one plastic laundry jug for you to reuse. The actual laundry detergent comes in a small pouch that you dilute in water so you are not tossing out giant plastic jugs into our environment every month.
And what I love the most about My Green Fills is that they are a subscription service (that you can cancel at any time)! This means I never have to think about buying laundry again – every time I’m about to run out I get my monthly order. It’s perfect for busy moms, and what mom is not busy?
Check out My Green Fills here!
Water Wipes
If you have small kids than wipes are probably a staple in your home. My kids are 6 and 3 and I still use wipes on a regular basis! The problem with wipes is that some contain ingredients that I don’t want near my kids. In fact, when my youngest was a baby we used a different pack of wipes one time and the entire area where we wiped her got so red.
My daughter has sensitive skin and although these other wipes we tried were supposed to be for sensitive skin, they clearly had some irritating ingredients. That’s why I love using water wipes, because they’re made with 99.9% water and a drop of fruit extract. Plus my daughter with very sensitive skin hasn’t had issues with water wipes!
We use Water Wipes when we’re on-the-go, to wipe hands and faces and we also used them for years to wipe the diaper area. They clean very well, so I’ve even used them to wipe down table at restaurants. I always carry a pack in my purse because you never know when you’ll need a wipe! And I even buy boxes of them to take to my children’s school because I don’t want them using anything that might contain toxic chemicals.
My favorite way to get these wipes is by using Amazon Subscribe and Save because you get up to 20% on the wipes!
Non-toxic make-up for kids
One day I had a precious baby in my arms and the next she was asking me for make-up. I don’t wear much make-up but for some reason my girls are obsessed with make-up! The problem with personal care products, and especially make-up, is that they can contains lots of endocrine disruptors. In fact, the beauty industry is one of the “dirtiest” industries where a lot of toxic chemicals are found in products.
For a while I just told my girls they couldn’t use make-up but after finding myself wiping marker off my 3 year old’s face I knew it was time to find a non-toxic brand for kids. That’s when I discovered Klee Kids Naturals, whose “mission is to give parents the peace of mind by choosing only natural, non-toxic and wholesome ingredients to formulate its bathtime and makeup products.” So now they are my go-to brand for little girls make-up!
They use safe ingredients and they even use essential oils to scent their products, which is great since endocrine disruptors tend to hide in fragrances. They have a wide range of products, from nail polish to pretend make-up for little girls and even make-up for teenagers. You can get sets, which is what we got our girls and what’s featured on the video above, or you can buy each piece of make-up separately. They’re also pretty affordable and even have other safe personal care products for kids, like this hair detangling spray with we use regularly on my kids’ hair.
You can get Klee Kids on Amazon or directly on their site.
Non-toxic shampoo and conditioner
When it comes to shampoos and conditioners thankfully we have plenty to chose from now-a-days. One of my favorite brands it’s NOW Foods because I did a tour of their factory (anyone can request a tour) and saw first hand that every single ingredient first gets tested for purity to make sure there aren’t any hidden toxins. Once they ingredients pass the lab tests, they are brought into the factory for production. This is how they can guarantee that what’s on the label it’s on the product and not only that, they list every ingredient they use. Which, unfortunately, it’s not common in the beauty industry.
Regardless of the shampoo and conditioner you’re using, you should check it on the SkinDeep Database to make sure it’s made with safe ingredients! The products are rated from non-toxic to toxic, you should aim to use a product rated between 0 and 2.
If you want to try out the NOW Foods ones, you can find them here.
For our kids we use this shampoo and this conditioner from Babo Botanicals.
If you’re trying to minimize your family’s exposure to toxic chemicals, these are great products to start with. All, with the exception of the make-up, are things everyone uses on a regular basis in their homes. And by switching to non-toxic on products you use regularly, your family’s toxic exposure gets greatly reduced.
Have questions about these or other non-toxic products? Ask me on Instagram or in our free Facebook group.
Alicia Hursley says
Absolutely love this! We just moved to Upper Marlboro and bought a super old home. There is definitely a huge need to get things detoxed and fresh. We actually found a green-certified carpet cleaning service called PG County Chem-Dry. They helped out a lot, but we also want a longer term solution and your tips have certainly helped us out. We really enjoy the water, vinegar, and salt cleaning solution. Thank you so much for sharing!