“Nontoxic Living” Without the Stress✨

out back post-breakfast with my ☕️

I love chatting about avoiding toxins & making easy switches to do so. I fall down rabbit holes & can get obsessive real quick if I’m not careful, so I try to focus on a few categories that feel like a lot of bang for my buck - or low effort, with a high impact. Here they are.

Cleaning House (And Laundry) 🧺

I use Branch Basics, or just vinegar + Baking Soda. Or just water! Cleaning products are for wiping & spraying all over. This is an easy choice for me, plus the girls LOVE to help me spray, wipe, and scrub. The girls clean floors, baseboards, cabinets, whatever. At 15 months old, Fiona mostly uses just water, but trust me she is not to be left out! We use Branch Basics on laundry too. Clothes sit on their precious skin all day.

Sleep Environment 🌝

Our girls sleep 11-13 every night, so getting this part “right” feels like an easy win. We do organic cotton- for sheets, sleep sacks, and PJs to avoid pesticides while their tiny bodies are resting & restoring themselves.

We recently got affordable air purifiers at Costco. After months going in circles trying to choose the very best purifier on the market, I remembered once more that I shouldn’t let perfection be the enemy of the good 🥸 (this feels like a theme in my life overall right now)

We invested in a Naturepedic crib mattress that’s now on its second owner, and plan to buy mattresses for ourselves & Soph soon that aren’t sprayed with flame retardants, etc. I also prioritize vacuuming our bedrooms with our HEPA filter vacuum above other cleaning tasks because I read that normal dusty attracts PFAs, VOCs, etc 🙂‍↔️

I remembered to opt for an organic cotton “lovey” for Fiona. She sleeps with it and with a polyester monkey she is even more so attached to 🤪

What We Wear (Products + Clothing) 👗

I try for little capsule wardrobes - made of organic, natural materials. We’re not perfect because everyone loves a good leotard + tutu combo. When I thrift, I try to do cotton or other organic materials- not certified organic necessarily, just literally organic like they are of the earth. Linen, cotton, wool, silk, etc.

Dressing our babies in plastic- which is most or all synthetic materials - is not the best option for their tiny endocrine systems. 🩷

For this same reason, I skip body products that aren’t super simple and organic. We use (minimal) shampoo, (minimal) conditioner, hydroxyapatite toothpaste, and organic coconut oil for occasional lotion.

What We Consume 🫐🍠🥩

Cottage cheese, Greek yogurt, frozen blueberries, coffee, filtered water. All organic. Easy, no prep.

We aim for organic. We aim for real food. Food is something I spend much of my mental energy on. Learning to feed myself in a timely manner, cooking meat so I want to eat it, finding sauces that aren’t terrible for our bodies.

It all overwhelms me a bit so lately I’m telling myself to just simplify. Repeat meals weekly. Start the day with Protein and find cleaner ways to prepare foods we love.

We use cast iron pans, and skip plastic in the kitchen. Think spatulas, cutting board, cups, plates, food storage 🫠 You get it.

A perk of learning to center our days around good food is that it sort of defines a rhythm for us. Better food makes us feel better, and the girls learn so much! We measure, we count, we stick our hands in dough and talk about it all. It is a sensory delight.

Getting Outside 🌞

we love Nash Farm for time outside!

I get outside with my girls as much as I can. I aim for 3+ hours daily largely thanks to the 1000 Hours Outside podcast. (My favorite child development experts emphasize how kids need outside free time 5+ hours a day!) Aiming to outweigh the presence of technology & sedentary lifestyles is just such an ambitious goal at this point, if you ask me. So I’m proud of us. As I’m typing this, I’m thinking I would like to write a separate post about the amazing ways the outdoors supports all of us as parents, along with our kids, and how much the impact of getting outside with my kids has factored into our decision to homeschool. So I’ll put a pin in this one now.

IN CONCLUSION… I know a lot of folks would read this and think it’s too much to think about, or we all just need to “pick our poison” because everything is bad for us. I don’t agree. I feel good about doing what I can for my tiny humans. I hope this post is helpful & not stressful. We are all connected and the tiniest changes really do add up.

What are some habits or switches you like that I should try???

Please share 🫶