day 19 - 25 Days of wellness
Hi there! I’ve seen a couple of people I follow do Advent calendars for various things - 1000 Hours Outside has one for outdoor family activities, and Nutritious Movement has one for movement to create a “butt for the holidays” haha. So good.
So here we go - I’m going to drop a little post each day on a little Wellness tidbit for you to consider. Enjoy!
DAY 19 - home air quality
If yesterday’s topic made you angry, buckle up. Today we are discussing indoor air quality. Chemical sensitivity sufferers unite, this is where it all begins for many of us hit over the head with a need to transition to a more natural life-style.
What contributes to the air quality in your home?
Off-gassing building materials and finishes
The cleaning products you use
Amount of airflow
Furniture
The personal care products you use
Air-fresheners & scented candles
Outdoor air pollution coming in
Let’s go into more detail on each of these for a moment…
Off-gassing building materials and finishes
Synthetic and natural materials have volatile organic compounds that get into the air and ultimately your lungs. The difference is how they affect you. Conventional paint, varnish, glues, binders, reaction byproducts from PVC adhesives, etc. Even the vinyl in windows can contribute to un-live-able conditions for the very sensitive. Here’s a few links to help you find alternatives:
https://www.greenbuildingsupply.com
https://www.mychemicalfreehouse.net/category/healthy-interiors
http://www.thehealthyhomepodcast.com
Cleaning Products
Bleach and fragranced synthetic cleaning products put all kinds of compounds into the air that are terrible for your lungs, let alone your skin. Yes, our bodies are made to detox. But most of us have compromised detoxification systems by now with the huge load coming at us every day since birth on top of what we inherited from previous generations (I wish I could unlearn that. Sorry.). Touching and breathing the synthetic chemicals we use to clean our homes is just another way for toxins to enter our body. But there are alternatives. And they’re not even that expensive. Here’s a few switches:
Bleach - question why you are using it in the first place, given how critical a balanced microbiome is. For most applications, simply making a 50/50 vinegar and water spray (you can add some pure essential oils or soak citrus peels in the vinegar for a few weeks first if you want some natural scent plus extra cleaning power) can do the job. I really love cleaning sprays that include probiotics and natural enzymes to cut through the biofilm created by dead and dying microorganisms (hint: when you use bleach, the worst pathogens are the ones that survive, and they feed off all the dead bodies of their fallen comrades). This is the one I use (by the way, none of these links are affiliate links. I’m just literally sharing what I use). https://purebioticsusa.com
I use the same cleaner for all of my cleaning needs - floor, counter, toilet, sink, mirror. I like keeping it simple that way.
If you want an easy way to replace all of your cleaning products and still have special cleaners for each application (glass, counters, toilet, etc.), here is the company that I use (and this IS an affiliate link): https://click.trulyfreehome.com/aff_c?offer_id=198&aff_id=3435
I have gotten laundry supplies from them for years because they are the only detergent system that cleaned our cloth diapers fully enough. Check ‘em out.
AIRFLOW
The ancients who discovered feng-shui and ancient plant wisdom have known this for a long time: movement is life, and stagnation is death. A healthy home has healthy air-flow. Without good air-flow, all of the junk getting into the air from building materials, cleaning products, etc., will find pockets to stagnate in. Open your windows and clean out dark corners regularly to prevent areas where air pollution, dust, and mold might want to collect.
Furniture
This one’s going to be “fun.” Most modern furniture contains foam and other fabric compounds impregnated with flame retardants. Every time we sit down on the couch, it releases these into the air. What we don’t breathe in eventually lands on the ground to be picked up by the crawling baby. Oh, now life seems really bleak! What can we do???? Well, if you don’t want to change your furniture, make sure you sweep/mop/vacuum regularly. If you are open to changing your furniture, here are your options:
Go furniture-free (I’m not kidding - it’s actually really great for your body as it creates much more opportunity for movement, flexibility, and muscle development). https://youtu.be/zfYCx1g2pUw
Replace your mattress with a healthy one. There are several companies out there now to choose from. Disclaimer: they’re all expensive. Further disclaimer: they’re so totally worth it. We got our first healthy mattress and european slat frame from a local-to-us-at-the-time company in Ohio. Our crib mattresses have all been Naturepedic brand. As our kids have grown they have gotten Obasan mattresses. When we moved into our little travel trailer to start our homestead, we built mattresses that would fit their bunks from materials (natural latex and wool batts for comfort and fire protection)off of https://www.diynaturalbedding.com/diy-mattress/ wrapped up in an Oeko-Tex certified mattress/bed-bug protector off of Amazon. (We also love diynaturalbedding’s wool comforters. They’re my favorite part of winter). We put coco-coir bed pads under them to ensure healthy airflow under the mattresses since they don’t have a box spring.
Replace your furniture with furniture that either has no padding and uses healthy natural finishes… or is flame-retardant free. Some of Ikea’s furniture meets this standard. There are a few other nontoxic furniture companies — this blog has a good line-up and what-to-look-fors: https://www.consciouslifeandstyle.com/non-toxic-furniture/
Personal Care Products
Look for products made from ingredients you can pronounce - the closer to nature the better. Synthetic fragrances, even anything listed as “natural fragrance” I avoid. It is potentially possible that some of these are nontoxic, but I like to keep it safe by either using something unscented, infused with herbs, or with pure essential oils added. This brand is a sister company to Every Day an Experiment: https://www.etsy.com/shop/HerbalEmbraceStore
Back in “the day” when I was just barely learning about how to clean up my home and personal care products so they weren’t dragging down my other efforts to overcome chronic ailments, the Environmental Working Group was a useful resource to identify which products were nontoxic. Unfortunately, there is now a lot of Greenwashing going on there. Products are labeled as in the healthy category until proven guilty. In other words, if there is an unstudied ingredient in a product, it doesn’t count against it. And there can be 20 wonderful ingredients and 1 very toxic ingredient and the product still get an “A.” So I don’t send people there anymore. I have a long list of how I have replaced different personal care products in my life, but in attempts to keep this blog post from becoming a book, we’ll come back to that another day!
Air fresheners and Scented Candles
Just say no. You don’t need them, and they’re terrible for your lungs. If your room smells, clean it up! When we had a house with carpet, we used the company ZeroRez to clean the carpet with natural enzymes. They did a fantastic job after showing us with a UV light the terrible pet stains from the previous owner. When they had finished cleaning, the house smelled CLEAN, rather than smelling of carpet shampoo that would ultimately attract more dirt and nasty to it. There are some lovely natural candles available, or essential oil diffusers, or recipes for potpourri and simmer pots to naturally and safely scent your home. But again… if it’s dirty, don’t cover it up - clean it up! Get it at its source!
Outdoor air pollution coming in
Yeah, there’s not much you can do about cleaning up your outdoor air if you live in a polluted area. BUT you can install a good air filter for your home. We love our Air Doctor, and they run sales all the time. I wish they made a mini version I could run in my trailer on solar power! https://airdoctor.us.com
Ok, I know that was a lot for some of you. Send me a message if you want to schedule private coaching where we can work through your healthy-life-healthy-movement-healthy-home plan 1 step at a time.
See you on Day 20!
