Healthy Home

12 Super Simple Ways to Decrease Your Daily Environmental Footprint

Our health and the health of the planet go hand-in-hand. This is not my belief — this is a fact. There are countless studies documenting the connection between poor health and living in polluted areas. I mean, just think about it for a moment: how can we be truly healthy breathing polluted air, drinking contaminated water, and eating foods grown in…

According to NASA, These 7 Houseplants Improve Indoor Air Quality (Big Time!)

Indoor air pollution is considered one of the top 5 environmental health risks by the US EPA. Fortunately, a few particular houseplants have been found to help greatly improve indoor air quality by removing pollutants. Not so fun fact: indoor air quality can be up to seven times more polluted than outdoor air. And in recent years, studies performed by…

4 Safe, Non-Toxic Shower Curtains for a Healthy Home

Most typical shower curtains pollute indoor air with unhealthy chemicals! Instead, opt for one of these four safe, non-toxic shower curtains. Not so fun fact: indoor air can be up to 7 times more polluted than outdoor air. Yep, even more polluted than the air in big cities like New York and San Fransisco! “In the last several years, a…

DIY Non-Toxic Air Freshener: 3 Ways

Naturally scent your home and improve indoor air with these three non-toxic DIY air freshener recipes. They’re a great, simple, and healthy alternative to those store-bought, so-called “air fresheners” that actually pollute indoor air with unhealthy chemicals — ironic, right!? After dating for nearly four years, I thought I knew everything about my boyfriend when we moved in together. Goodness gracious,…

Endocrine Disruptors: What They Are & How to Protect Yourself

More and more science is shedding light on the dangers of endocrine disruptors or endocrine disrupting chemicals. Here’s what they are and how to limit your exposure! Hormones are a pretty big deal to say the least. They’re the chemical messengers that tell the body what to do, when to do it, and how. But more and more science is…

DIY Glass Spray Bottle (perfect for your DIY home cleaning products!)

Making your own glass spray bottle with up-cycled materials is so easy! And a great option to store your DIY cleaning recipes with essential oils. So if you’re here right now… I’m going to assume you’re a crunchy little modern hippie like myself. You wear natural beauty and skincare products, prefer glass over plastic, and make a lot of your…

3 Simple Ways to Improve Indoor Air ASAP

Indoor air can be up to 7 times more polluted than outdoor air! Luckily, you can quickly and easily improve the indoor air quality of your home with these tips. Your home has so much more to do with your personal health than you may think. Consider this: according to the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), indoor air can be up to…

10 Simple Ways to Stay Healthy at Work

Most of us spend a lot of our lives at work. An estimated 10.3 total years, actually. That’s why it’s so important that we try to keep healthy while at work. This not only means making sure we don’t dig into the donuts in the staff kitchen too often, but also making sure we stay active and create a healthy workspace. 10 Simple Ways…

DIY All-Natural Laundry Powder

The average 4-person American family does a whopping 80 pounds of laundry a week. Wowza, that’s a lot of laundry! It’s also a lot of laundry detergent. Unfortunately, most common, store-bought laundry detergents are filled with unhealthy chemicals. We and our families are exposed to the chemicals in laundry detergents both when they are made airborne during the laundry process,…

6 Simple & Natural Home Cleaning DIYs Made With Just 6 Ingredients

It’s ironic that home cleaning products are often a major source of indoor air pollution. After all, we buy them with the intention of making our homes healthier, safer places — not chemical dumping grounds! But many of the chemicals found in conventional cleaning products have health implications ranging from headaches and skin sensitivity to endocrine disruption and increased risk of…

Packing a Non-Toxic & Eco-Friendly Lunchbox

“I would send you a bouquet of newly-sharpened pencils if I knew your name and address.” (You’ve Got Mail, anyone?) Well, it’s upon us yet again: a new school year. I don’t know about you, but summer totally flew by. I literally had to do a double-take when I saw Thanksgiving decorations for sale at the mall last weekend. (Should we start a…

DIY All-Natural Powder Dishwasher Detergent

The automatic dishwasher: what a life-changer. I’d know because I spent most of my life without one. And I seriously had NO idea what I was missing. All the time I’ve saved just in the past few months! I almost feel a little bad for my kitchen sponge, which can sometimes go all day without being touched (poor little guy;…

Which Cookware is Healthiest?

So you spend a lot of time thinking about your food, but how about what you use to cook your food? Chances are this doesn’t get as much thought. But it absolutely should! Some cookware leaches unhealthy toxins into your food. Nonstick Cookware and Bakeware (including Teflon) Nonstick synthetic surfaces are made with the plasticizer polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE), which emits a chemical called perfluorooctanoic…

Spring Clean ALL THE THINGS with Branch Basics 100% Plant-Based Soap

You may recall me gushing about Branch Basics — both the product and company — to you before. I actually developed a girl crush/deep appreciation for the ladies behind the product before I ever even tried it: I heard them speak about their motivation to create a “human safe” cleaning product… they talked a bit about body burden (the whole…

Simple Swap for a Body Unburdened: Laundry Detergent

Ah, there’s nothing I enjoy more than a freshly-made bed with nice clean sheets… (It’s the simple things in life.) Unfortunately, most common, store-bought laundry detergents are chock-full-o’-nasties. We and our families are exposed to the chemicals in laundry detergents both when they are made airborne during the laundry process, and afterwards when wearing clothing, using towels, or sleeping in…

DIY all-natural citrus zest all-purpose cleaner

Goodness gracious, are there a lot of home cleaning products on the market. We’ve got kitchen cleaner, bathroom cleaner, toilet bowl cleaner, floor cleaner, tile and grout cleaner… oof, I’m starting to feel like Bubba from Forrest Gump (mmm maybe I’ll make shrimp for dinner tonight). And of course, most of these products are chock-full-o’-nasties, poisoning your family’s indoor air…

Why you must filter your shower water

How dare I tell you what you MUST do! Oh, but I’m doing it. Or at the very least, I’m making an *extremely* strong suggestion. Why? Because chlorine is not to be messed around with! Chlorinated water interacts with naturally occurring organic matter (like the organic matter found in our waste water) to form water disinfection byproducts, including trihalomethanes (THMs). Two primary…

10 simple healthy habits to adopt in the new year

2018 is here! (Even though for the next few weeks I will undoubtedly still be writing “2017” on checks and other memos. Do ya feel me or what?) Have you made a New Year’s resolution yet? Below are 10 simple healthy habits to adopt in the new year that you can actually see through all the way to 2019. 1….

Which plastics are safest? Understanding plastic recycling codes

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it until I’m blue in the face: I. HATE. PLASTIC. and really try to avoid it as much as possible. But it should be known that not all plastic is created equally. Some readily leech extremely harmful chemicals while others have slower leaching rates and (comparatively) more innocuous chemical compositions. The recycling codes…

DIY wool dryer balls: natural fabric softener

Every once in a while – when I actually take my laundry out of the dryer just as it is finished rather than lazily leaving it for, oh you know, a couple of days or so – I throw it on my bed, dig my way underneath the heaping pile, and lie there enjoying the warmth until it dies out….

DIY Foaming Mason Jar Soap Dispenser

Some of us just like mason jars. We keep all of our loose teas, baking powders, and spices in them. We sprout grains in them. We put our toothbrushes in them. We drink from them. We get giddy when we learn that a limited edition blue vintage-style Ball mason jar is released. We giggle at this mason-jar-turned-chalice and secretly hope…