Going Natural

I've always been a bit of a hippie.  I knew from a young age that I wanted to grow most of my own food, that I wanted to cloth diaper my children, and that it was totally possible (and good) to clean your home with natural products.  When I was a kid, my mom canned applesauce and pear sauce, and we had cloth grocery bags and a clothesline in the back yard.

As I got older, I got sucked in to consumerism and the idea that you needed to buy things to have what everyone else had to be normal.  Somehow I accumulated a number of chemical products that I never used before - everything from counter cleaner to face wash with alpha-beta-something-or-others to fabric softener.

Two things have helped us rethink what we're putting in, on, and near our bodies.

Situation 1
We had gotten away from using most chemical products, but still had the bottles around the house.  My mom was watching Miss F at our house one day, and I came home to a strong chemical odor.  I was alarmed.  My mom, beaming, proudly announced that she cleaned our kitchen for me.  She found some Fantastik under my sink, and wiped everything down.  It even got into the hand knit, organic cotton face washcloths I made for Miss F.  I had to wash everything a number of times before I got rid of that smell.

Situation 2
I sometimes put documentaries on in the background while Miss F and I are going about our daily routines.  I just put on a random documentary Netflix recommended called Chemerical.  It was so good that I texted *B* and demanded he watch it when he got home.

I did a quick round up of the most noxious chemicals in our house.  *B* and I plan on going through the house with a fine toothed comb to find the rest of them.  As we go, we're replacing our habits and hygiene products with natural alternatives.  Follow along as we make new changes in our lives:

Homemade deodorant
No 'poo
Oil cleansing method
Homemade toothpaste
Line-drying clothing
Cloth napkins

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