7 Surprisingly Easy Ways to Detox Your Home

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Did you know that you and your family have measurable levels of toxins in your body?

You might be thinking “But I don’t use anything with lead, our house doesn’t have asbestos, we don’t have nasty mold growing in the walls, and I keep our harsh chemicals in a safe place… what do you mean I have toxins in my body?!”

Remove Toxins - Healthy Lifestyle

Well, those are things that we’ve been warned about for years. They’ve either been mostly legislated out of use or we know enough to avoid their dangers.

BUT… what about the toxins we deliberately put on our skin? Or consume daily?

We’ve heard horror stories about lead, mold, PFAS, and asbestos, but it’s time to pay attention to daily-use items that can be just as dangerous.

Toxins in the body lead to a host of chronic illnesses.

Did you know that toxins like to store themselves in your adipose (fat) tissue? If you’ve had fat packed on for 30 years, it’s sure to have toxins hiding inside.

So if you lose extra weight, you will lose stored up toxins too–bonus! (source)

Anyway, in the interest of removing ick from our bodies (and minds) and feeling better as a result, here are some common sources of toxins and a quick fix for each one.

Want to have a healthy lifestyle? Heard about the dangers of plastics, non stick cookware, and chemicals? Here are 7 Easy Ways to Remove Toxins from your life.
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7 Easy Ways to Detox Your Home

1. Ditch Plastics

How to Store Leafy Greens! Stop throwing away spoiled food and have a healthier diet and a healthier wallet too!

First, let’s talk about the endocrine system. One of the more vastly complicated and important systems in your body, the endocrine system affects literally every cell and function in your body.

This system includes:

Those glands and systems control basically everything in your body.

Ever heard the phrase, “all disease begins in your gut”? The more I learn about this stuff the more I believe that phrase is VERY true!

And that’s where plastic comes in. Many plastics contain BPA, which is a known endocrine disruptor. Seriously, check out that list above again, and you’ll see why messing with our endocrine system is a precursor to many illnesses!

There hasn’t been extensive human testing, but hundreds of animal studies demonstrate that BPA causes abnormal development of the brain and sex organs, feminizes male organs, causes early puberty, and leads to infertility.

In fact, BPA has been banned in several countries for use in baby bottles… and I’m pretty sure if it ain’t good for babies, it ain’t good for you and me.

Maybe the closest thing we have to a human study was a trial performed by Harvard researchers where 77 students drank water from stainless steel bottles one week, and then polycarbonate bottles the next. During the polycarbonate week, BPA increased 69% in the participants’ urine. That’s a drastic change over a really short time frame.

Imagine how those numbers would look after years and years of exposure.

So, the solution is to purchase BPA-free products, right?

Unfortunately it’s not that simple.

Here’s an excerpt from a recent study performed by Environmental Health Perspectives:

Results: Almost all commercially available plastic products we sampled—independent of the type of resin, product, or retail source—leached chemicals having reliably detectable EA (estrogenic activity), including those advertised as BPA free. In some cases, BPA-free products released chemicals having more EA than did BPA-containing products.

In other words, BPA-free might be WORSE than BPA!

Toxic Plastic Quick Fix

Begin replacing your plastic containers with metal ones like these, especially the ones you keep your leftovers in.

We’ve been getting in the habit of using ½ gallon mason jars to store things like our raw milk, apple cider vinegar, and granola. You can add in oxygen absorbers to keep dry foods fresher longer.

I mean if I’m going to spend the money to buy raw milk, raw unfiltered apple cider vinegar, and make my own granola, then I don’t want plastics leaching endocrine-disrupting chemicals into it!

We’ve also purchased glass food storage containers – which is especially important because your leftovers can sit for days in them and often get thrown in the microwave (another big no-no with plastics and food).

2. Choose Non-Toxic Cleaners

We pretty much already know that household cleaners are dangerous – yet we still spray them on our counters where we prepare our foods. Are we sure we’re getting every last molecule off our counters before we knead some bread dough there?

Think about something we consider semi-harmless, like Windex. Here’s what the caution label says:

“Avoid contact with eyes, skin, or clothing. Wash thoroughly with soap and water after handling. Avoid contact with foods”

Do you always wash your hands after using Windex? Does it all get on our mirror and nowhere else? Does the fine mist float around, being absorbed by our skin and breathed in our lungs?

We know to be careful with stuff like drain cleaner, but even something “harmless” like Clorox Wipes carry the recommendation to rinse your counters afterwards and wash your hands thoroughly.

How often are these chemicals making their way into our systems? OFTEN!

Quick Fix for Cleaners

We use an all-purpose cleaner made mostly from water. Basically, you could drink the stuff (probably would taste nasty though!), so if trace amounts find their way onto our skin or into our foods, it doesn’t matter one bit.

You can also make other homemade cleaners like this homemade window cleaner, this homemade soft scrub, non-toxic laundry detergent recipe, and this homemade cleaning paste.

You can also buy truly clean household cleaners.

Branch Basics has a great selection at a very reasonable cost.

branch basics spray bottles and concentrated bottles

I also really like Hypochlorous for cleaning. Stronger than bleach and non-toxic!

3. Detox Your Laundry

The scientific community is coming out with more and more evidence that these laundry products are damaging to our bodies.

homemade laundry detergent in glass jar with metal measuring cup

For example, every news outlet in the country reported on a major issue with children eating laundry detergent pods, with hundreds of children being hospitalized and at least one death occurring.

Okay, I know you’re not eating laundry detergent, but we’re soaking our clothes in this stuff every week. Our skins absorb stuff pretty darn well, meaning detergent makes it into our system every week, for all of our life.

On top of the soap itself being dangerous, the University of Washington discovered that detergent, softener, and dryer sheets all emit at least one chemical regulated as toxic or hazardous (without any labels indicating this). Most of these products also produce carcinogenic air pollutants.

Quick Fix to Get Toxins Out of Your Laundry

Make your own Homemade Laundry Detergent. Got a baby in your home or people with extra sensitive skin? This Homemade Baby Laundry Detergent is great not just for babies, but for anyone with sensitive skin.

I know, you’re thinking that this is one more thing you have to learn how to make. But, these detergent recipes take very little time to make and are well worth the all-natural results that won’t harm your family

For fabric softener? Simply pour ½ cup of vinegar in the rinse cycle of your machine–or skip it entirely.

Here’s another good option for a non-toxic laundry solution and Pure Haven has a great non-toxic laundry detergent too.

Not Into DIYing?

Try to buy as clean of a detergent as possible, making sure to buy from a reputable company as some have been found to mislabel their products.

One other option is an ozone washing machine device like this one.

You use no detergent at all–just ozonated water to get your clothes super clean–no sorting and no need to use anything but cold water ever.

4. Filter Your Water

The hazards of tap water aren’t some underground secret anymore – a quick Google search reveals dozens of articles from reputable sources reporting the dangers.

For example, the New York Times reported that only 91 contaminants are regulated by the Safe Drinking Water Act, yet more than 60,000 chemicals are found in tap water. Hundreds of those chemicals contribute to disease and cancer.

That same article ends with “Government scientists now generally agree, however, that many chemicals commonly found in drinking water pose serious risks at low concentrations.”

The fluoride found in tap water has never been shown to prevent cavities or tooth decay (except by direct application like your dentist might do). On the contrary, it’s been shown to destroy teeth in young children and babies.

The chlorine (according to Environmental Health Perspectives) can contribute to low birth weight, preterm birth, birth defects, fetal deaths, and other pregnancy problems. I’ll go out on a limb here and say it’s probably not good for adults either.

Quick Fix to Remove Toxins from Water

The best overall solution would be to buy a complete home water filtration system, but that’s not feasible for everyone. A small filtration system that sits on your counter can be a more attainable solution for most people. Find out here how to make your tap water safe and go here to read about what you need to know about what is in your water.

At the very least, you can begin purchasing filtered water by the gallon (less than a buck at Walmart and many other stores) to use for drinking and cooking.

5. Choose Non-toxic Cosmetics/Personal Care Products

overlay of beautycounter make up products

Did you know that cosmetics and personal care products require no safety testing?

Good thing for them, as they use known carcinogens and endocrine-disrupting chemicals. Stuff like petroleum and formaldehyde, to name a small few, are some of the ickies they use.

These companies sleep at night because they (hopefully) think their products are literally skin deep. However, according to the Environmental Working Group:

“Cosmetic ingredients do not remain on the surface of the skin. They are designed to penetrate, and they do. Scientists have found many common cosmetic ingredients in human tissues, including phthalates in urine, preservatives called parabens in breast tumor tissue and persistent fragrance components in human fat. Do the concentrations at which they are typically found pose risks? For the most part, those studies have not been done. But a small but growing number of studies serve as scientific red flags”

Also, the European Union has banned hundreds of cosmetic chemicals, while the US has only deemed 11 unusable. Clearly, many of these chemicals are proven hazards, yet we continue to use them.

How to Remove Toxins from Your Cosmetic Drawer

You can make safer DIY products or buy solid non-toxic products.

It can be daunting to replace ALL of your personal care and cosmetic products that you use daily (not to mention expensive). But you can make changes little by little.

You can make this homemade body wash and this homemade body cream is pretty easy to make too.

If you’re not into DIYing, you can buy safer products.

One company that’s very transparent about ingredients is Beautycounter.

Every single batch is tested for heavy metals and other contaminants and the quality is superb.

Beautycounter has amazing foundation, their lip glosses are gorgeous and their lip stick is well, super pretty and not “made up” looking.

overlay of beautycounter make up products

Their Countertime Skincare is amazing natural retinol-free super anti-aging skincare and it lasts a LONG time. You can see all that they have to offer here.

Remove Toxins from Your Haircare

Another important way to remove toxins from your personal care routine is to get them off of your hair. Just think about it–the pores on your head are pretty large so anything you are putting on your scalp can enter into your body fairly easily.

Now, I’m a hair product snob and haven’t found any DIY shampoo recipe that’s enabled me to give up the plastic containers in my shower.  Sigh….. But at least you can ditch the toxins from your haircare products by seeing what haircare ingredients to avoid and using something safer.

Beautycounter’s shampoo is great for a lot of people but I personally use Pure Haven’s Supergreens Collection for my hair.

Super nourishing and super clean.

6. Choose Non-toxic Cookware

Most people buy nonstick pans because they’re easy to use and clean. The manufacturers claim there are no issues with this coating as long as it’s not overheated, but that assertion is coming under fire.

The EWG conducted a series of tests, with results proving that a mere 2-5 minutes on a conventional stove top were enough to begin breaking down the coating. This coating leaches harmful particles into our food and into the air. (source)

One of the most interesting tidbits I’ve found is that a bird will die quickly if kept close to where a cook uses nonstick cookware. Probably not good for people then, either!

Teflon and similar nonstick coatings are chemicals belonging to the PFC family. According to the EWG:

“PFCs have been found in nearly all Americans tested by federal public health officials. Chemicals from this family are associated with smaller birth weight and size in newborn babies, elevated cholesterol, abnormal thyroid hormone levels, liver inflammation and weakened immune defense against disease.”

So for sure, one thing to do is to buy Teflon-free cookware if you want to reduce toxins in your home.

Quick Fix to Get Non-toxic Cookware

Ideally, my family would be using ceramic cookware but it’s crazy expensive. There’s this pot I’ve had my eye on that costs over $200… so file that under “things I’ll buy when we win the lotto or are included in a massive inheritance”

We compromised by buying each other a stainless steel cookware set for Christmas. They were surprisingly affordable and we love them – especially since we’re not consuming hazardous chemicals.

Ceramcor Cookware is a very high quality cookware brand that is well known for being super clean regarding ingredients–if you can save up for it, it’s a great choice.

7. Avoid Toxic Pesticides (On Food and Lawn / Garden)

Natural Weed Killer - Super simple and No Toxins!!!

The pesticides I’m referring to here are the ones found on your non-organic produce as well as the bug spray you use in your home to poison/drown unwanted creatures.

The American Academy of Pediatrics states that the poisoning risks of pesticides are clear, from both acute and chronic exposure. Exposure to pesticides is linked to decreased brain function, pediatric cancers, and behavioral problems.

As noted in this post on strawberry pesticides, the amount of toxins on your food can be significant.

Toxins accumulate in your body (and aren’t easily expelled) are part of what leads to most degenerative diseases known to man.

Quick Fix for Pesticides

When purchasing produce, we buy everything organic that’s found on EWG’s Dirty Dozen list, and the rest we buy non-organic (unless the organic is on a huge sale). If you can buy everything organic, then good on ya. But avoiding the most pesticide-riddled produce can help rid your life of high sources of toxins.

Do a Google search for CSA (community supported agriculture) or farmer’s market and maybe you can find some awesome local organic farm to buy your produce from. I just volunteered to run a drop-off site for a local CSA.

In your home, there are easy alternatives to spraying massive amounts of Raid at every bug that dares cross your home’s threshold. When the weather turned cold and every spider within a mile tried to come inside, we spread diatomaceous earth on the window sills and by the doorframes.

We also sprayed cedarwood essential oil on these areas for a little extra protection I mixed about 15 drops into 4 ounces of water in a spray bottle.  (For the company that Adrienne chose when she went on a hunt to find the “best” essential oils, go here.)

Got a lot of spiders in your home? Here’s a tip….put each leg of your baby’s crib in a tupperware container filled with baby oil to keep bugs from climbing the crib. Then have your husband fish the bugs out–gross, but effective!

8. Try Air Filtering Plants

collage of air purifying plants including ficus, mums, and spider plant

This isn’t a “switch this for that” option, and it was added after the original post, but it’s one to consider for sure.

To address indoor air quality, you can do many of the above things, but you can also invest in a quality air filter, or get this–you can grown indoor air purifying plants–many or most of which are simple to grow!

Conclusion

It’s scary how often we expose ourselves to toxins.

Take a look back at the 7 points mentioned, and you’ll realize that it’s many times per day that you’re adding toxins to your body… and you can’t get rid of that stuff easily.

I know it’s not easy to get rid of products we’re conditioned to use every day. Plastic? Seriously? EVERYTHING comes in plastic!

It starts with you deciding that your health is worth the inconvenience of making some changes. Once you realize that you can prevent most chronic diseases by avoiding toxins, you’ll see that it would be worth ten times the work to avoid poisoning ourselves.

Plus you will notice that you will feel amazing as you become toxin-free.

Take one step at a time and you can get rid of the toxins in your house. I mean shoot, I’m planning on taking a whole year to get everything out of my house! When your cleaner, deodorant, dish detergent, or whatever you want to get rid of runs out, replace it with something better.

Have you made any changes to rid toxins?
How did it go?

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16 Comments

  1. Distilled water is not a good choice unless you also buy mineral drops to put in it. Distillation takes out the minerals our bodies need. And yup, it comes in plastic. So water filters are the best way to go. We have an RO unit (under counter) that does a great job.

    Also, the EWG website has an extensive list of makeup and hair/body care products and ingredients that you can check for safety. The also have a list of EWG Certified products. I use it all the time to check out the stuff I use on my body.

    1. Hi there. I would agree with you on that. Some say that distillation is a great choice but personally I would go with another kind of filtration. The post wasn’t written by me, actually, but was a guest post. I did just edit that out–thanks for catching that. Not sure why I didn’t notice that sooner!

  2. The recommendation to buy distilled water at WalMart contradicts the recommendation to avoid BPA plastic bottles, please clarify.

    1. I know… unfortunately I have never been able to find distilled water that didn’t come in a plastic bottle. We will usually pour our water into a glass jug when we get home. Eventually we want to buy a Berkey for filtering our water so we don’t have to go through the hassle of doing that.

  3. ive been slowly replacing my Teflon cookware with good old fashioned cast iron! I’ve also been buying. Enameled cast iron cookware too! You can get it cheap at the flea market or even online. I make my own laundry detergent and am slowly trying to replace all the processed foods. Working on being healthier on a budget!

    1. Good for you!!! I should get some cast iron. Didn’t work great for me when I first tried it but I want to try again.

      1. I use cast iron almost exclusively and love it! There’s a learning curve, so if you want to try again just shoot me a note. I’m sure I’ve learned a thing or two worth sharing. 😉

  4. We can’t install a water filter on our sink because of the faucet type and it’s not our house. I use a pur water filter pitcher but it’s made of plastic! Any glass water filter pitchers out there?

    1. Would you be interested in a Berkey? They are stainless and that is what I have in my home. I can give you a good deal on it if you would like. They have a plastic one too which is quite nice and it’s non BPA and the same material that the Vitamix is made out of. Copolyester. Some green companies are very keen on it. Thanks. Plus it filters much better than the PUR and it’s stand alone. I have mine in the mudroom.

  5. So I see inexpensive ceramic cookware at the store. I was thinking that once my non stick griddle wears out, I will get a ceramic coated one. This stuff isn’t half as expensive as what you are talking about. What is wrong with the inexpensive stuff?

    1. I can’t say for sure that there is anything wrong with it. Do you mean it’s half the price of the Ceramcor? I would just make sure that it is really good quality. If you think it has the same qualifications as Ceramcor then I would think it’s good quality :).

    2. When we bought our new stainless steel set we did a lot of research on what cookware to buy. From what I was able to find the ceramic coated cookware is great except over time the coating starts to wear off into your food starts to chip. Kind of like your non-stick stuff. I’ve decided to not buy the coated stuff just to be sure. When I’m rich I’m going to get Ceramcor. 😉

      1. Too funny Erin about the “rich” thing. Maybe wait for a sale…I’m thinking about 1 of their frying pans…..my nonstick one needs to bite the dust for sure even though it’s a safer kind.