Lower Toxic Burden Around the Home

 Here are some great and easy ways to lower the toxic burden around your home.

• Start by removing your shoes whenever you enter your home. The soles of your shoes collect a lot of dirt and grime which can be filled with toxins. By simply removing your shoes you make sure you don’t bring those toxins into your home and distribute them around.
• Vacuum frequently. By doing so you will collect those toxins that fall like dust in your home, as well as any toxins you may have tracked in from outside. Since small children spend a lot of time on the floor and they are especially susceptible to toxins, this is a great way to clean up their space.
• Don’t use non-stick cookware. These products off gas at higher temperatures and have been known to kill domestic animals such as birds if they are close to the gases. To prevent this toxin replace all non-stick cookware with safe alternatives such as stainless steel and cast iron. Also, never use non-stick if it has scratches as the coating, and toxins, can flake off into your food.
• Replace your aluminum cookware with ceramic, glass or stoneware. Aluminum can leech into your food during cooking.
• Filter your water, especially for drinking, but also bathing if possible. I use a Zero Water pitcher and love it, but there are other filtering systems that are also good. You can get pitcher for drinking, a faucet filter for drinking water or bathing water, they even make shower heads that filter the water. Lastly there are whole home filters, I personally want a reverse osmosis system eventually. You want to filter your water for chemicals such as fluoride, chlorine and pharmacuticals ( medicines flushed into the system) that your municipal water system was not designed to filter.
• Cleaning products can be terribly toxic but a great way to decrease their toxic impact is to use homemade cleaners that utilize harmless products such as vinegar and lavender oil. Or switch to more gentle commercial cleaners. Folks like Seventh Generation and Ecover all carry less toxic products. I also like Bon Ami for scrubbing dishes, and it has been around forever!
• Switch to glass storage containers. If you must use plastic never put hot food into the container and it is smart to not wash plastic in the dishwasher.

Tomorrow I’ll talk to you about toxins in your food!