3 Frugal Steps To A Healthy Home

Today we are going to look at 3 Frugal Steps to a Healthy Home.  This is an important and often overlooked piece of organizing.  Clutter will be cut down when we remove everything from our home that is unhealthy.  More importantly, it is a fact that we need to keep our family safe!  I deeply regret that we even need to think about these dangers but we do.  I have first-hand experience in regard to the fact that what you keep in your home can make you sick.

8 Toxins In Your Home

Arsenic  (in food and water)

BPA  (linings of food cans, and it’s used as a coating on receipts. The chemical is still used in some plastic products

Dioxins  (chemical bleaching of paper, for example, toilet paper, tissues, and coffee filters)

Phthalates  (flooring, shower curtains, synthetic leather, PVC vinyl, synthetic fragrance, nail polishes, paints, furniture finishes, plastic cling wraps, and food containers)

Flame retardants  (furniture, carpet padding, and everything with polyurethane on it)

Lead   (old paint)

PFC (non-stick pans and in fabric and carpet… even on backpacks)

Glycol Ethers  (solvents in dry cleaning and in personal care products)

First, don’t panic!

Next, methodically and systematically eliminate these toxins from your home.   I am not all the way through the list yet.  I still working on flame retardants and dioxins.  It is a process.  Here are 3 SIMPLE and FRUGAL steps to keep your home safe and healthy.

3 Frugal Steps To A Healthy Home

• Use plastic only where necessary.   There are only two places in my home where I have plastic.  The basement and the bathroom.  Both places come in frequent contact with water.  I use BPA-free storage bins in these areas of the home because our basement is damp and I want to protect the things I store there.  Likewise in the bathroom, I use plastic storage bins in the closet to store necessities like a first aid kit, dental products, and the like.  Substitute paper cardboard boxes and baskets where you can.

• Clean with organic, natural cleaning products.  I make my own to save a ton of money and keep my family safe.  Many cleaning products have endocrine disruptors.  People with auto-immune diseases and children need to be very careful around these products.  It only takes about 5 minutes a month to make your own frugal cleaning products.  You can check out my recipes HERE!

• Make sure your kid’s toys are safe.  The top contaminants to avoid are: lead paint, play makeup, cadmium, and lead in play jewelry, and phthalates in soft plastics (like teethers and rubber duckies).  While we are on this topic make sure that you have your home tested for lead paint if it was built before 1978.   Remember, kids, don’t need a lot of toys.  Imaginations are fostered and critical thinking skills are grown when you limit the toys and media.

YOUR TURN…

How do you keep your home healthy and do it frugally?

Blessings,

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