Moving towards a chemical free lifestyle can be a daunting task. All natural products, although have been coming down in price over the years, still are more costly than the typical cleaners that get used. The cost of organic foods have been coming down. During the summer months, they are quite close in price to non-organic.
But now what?
We all are acutely aware of the chemicals that are in our cleaning products. We all have been reading, researching, listening to all the chatter that has been going on about what pesticides are being used on the crops that generate our food supply. Over the years information had/has been going around the web about sodium lauryl sulfate and/or sodium laureth sulfate in our hair care products and we can’t forget about the controversy of whether it is necessary to put Fluoride in our drinking water.
How do we go from using and eating chemicals in our every days lives to moving towards a chemically free lifestyle.
My best response is …..”Slowly”
So what does this mean to the average family?
Start with one thing that you feel is most important to change. For my husband and me, it was growing an organic garden. When he got to busy to maintain a over sized garden, he filled it on and now my daughter and I do a smaller one that she and I can handle. When we don’t have garden produce, then we hit the farmers markets and try to only buy things that are in season.
What we have found in this first process is that we buy only what we need for 3-4 days. We don’t buy in bulk as much, unless it is toilet paper or paper towels. By purchasing in smaller amounts we have less food waste and we are more inclined to eat everything over a couple days than having multiple choices and worrying about what doesn’t get eaten.
Maybe going organic is not were you want to start. Maybe it is more important for you to work on changing over your cleaning products to more environmentally friendly products. This can be a great place too start too. The suggestion here would be to find a product that you can try for a week. With all the direct marketing companies out there these days, it can be worth finding one that will allow you to try the product first.
What we have found with the environmentally friendly cleaning products is that the good ones really do replace many if not all of your household cleaners. They clean just as well and can save you hundreds if not thousands of dollars. But the trick or key here is find a company that is transparent and provides you with all the information about their products.
Essential Oils has been another topic that we all keep hearing about. In our house we started with organic then we added essential oils and we are now in the trial phase of the cleaning products. My husband was more into the gardening and cleaning products and I am more about the essential oils.
For me, essential oils are providing me more energy, helping to reduce my chronic pain and giving me some of my vitality back. Essential oils I did not just close my eyes and pick one. The researcher and the skeptic in me had to find what I felt was the best. That has taken me a couple years of researching, reading and trialing various products from various companies.
I don’t want to get into the various companies or the pros and cons of 1 vs another. What I want your take away from my experience is essential oils do work if you find a good company. Essential oils have become a very important part of my life because I deal with chronic pain from scoliosis and multiple sclerosis among several other health issues. Essential oils really have been impacting my life in a positive way. So at the very least, try em, you won’t be disappointed.
Moving toward a chemically free lifestyle is not always easy, especially if you have barriers in the way. But not all is lost. Living a chemically free lifestyle is not an all or nothing process. As you have read, our family started with one thing. We started with organic foods and gardening. Maybe you want to start with cleaning products. May someone in your house hold deals with a chronic illness and you want to try essential oils for the first time. There is nothing wrong with starting with one thing first. It is better to make one small change than no change at all.
I am going to open up the comments for this article. What did you start with to move toward a chemically free lifestyle? If anyone would like to know which products I use, you can ask in the comments or fill out my Contact Us page.