The Beginner’s Guide to Non-toxic Living

Non-toxic living sounds a little intimidating. I know when I first started trying to swap out to healthier products, I was overwhelmed and confused. 

But it’s an important step in our health journey so it’s one we need to tackle(but don’t worry- we will do it together.

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What is non-toxic living?

 Every day we wake up and do things like brush our teeth, wash our hair, wash our face, moisturize, put on makeup, light a candle, etc.

But what if I told you that these little things could be part of our health issues? 

The chemicals in the body products, cleaners, and air fresheners are filled with what are called toxins- meaning that the chemicals have been known or proven to irritate the skin, cause cancer, and disrupt hormones. That doesn’t sound too fun right?

That’s exactly why living a non-toxic lifestyle is so important.

 Simply put, living a non-toxic lifestyle means that you take precautions to cut out toxins so that our homes and bodies are more clean, organic, and healthy.

Toxins can include chemicals in our food, clothing, beauty products, and more. In fact, if you go that down that rabbit hole too far (which I have done before) , you’ll become overwhelmed.

So instead of doing that, let me break it down for you and give you some actionable steps!

How can I be toxin free?

Well, I would say being totally toxin-free would feel REALLY hard. I think the goal is to switch and ditch where you can and not stress about the rest.

But I do love detoxing homes because that’s where we spend the majority of our time.

I consider getting started a 2 part process. First, you have to figure out what toxins you want to avoid and then you need a plan to slowly swap to healthier options in an organized way. So first let’s start with the yuck part.

What to avoid

Now I could make you a long list of all the toxins you want to avoid and why, and while my research- nerdy- side would kind of love that, I know that it would bore you to tears ( But guess what I did it anyways- you can grab it from my printable shop or it comes free when you purchase the Switch and Ditch course).

We want to make sure we are using reputable and evidence-based sources when we research or scan our products. You may love your Aunt Suzy, but that doesn’t mean when she says that Mrs. Meyers’s hand soap is non-toxic and clean that it really is. ( Love you, Aunt Suzy!) I always want you to have REAL information because I promise there is a lot of fluff out on the internet. So here are the sources I recommend :

Think Dirty

The Think Dirty app is a super handy free app that makes it easy to scan products and find out how toxic they might be.

It will rate a product on a scale of 0 to 10 (0 being clean/toxic-free and 10 being the worst). It will tell you exactly what toxins give that product that rating and what side effects it might have.

Let’s look at an example. I have blocked the product out because I don’t want to make it look like I’m talking badly about any product or company, but I still wanted to show how products will show up after they are scanned. (I will say I’ve scanned a LOT of products in my time and the majority of products off your local shelf will scan an 8…just try it if you don’t believe me)

Here we have what we will call Product A.It was given a rate of “8” meaning pretty dang toxic. The color system works kind of like a stoplight- green means go, yellow means proceed with caution, and red means stop.

Green = clean ingredients

Yellow = kind of ok

Red= avoid

Then if you click on the ingredients, it will open up more information on that specific chemical. Notice here that “fragrance” is categorized as an 8 because it is “possible carcinogen.” WHAT?

Next time you walk into your bathroom, I want you to pick up a few products and see how many have fragrance written in the ingredients. And then I want you to think about how often you use that product and apply it on your skin.

Yikes!

Also..a little researcher tip from me to you- fragrance is a broad term that can be used for multiple harmful chemicals and in most cases is made up of plastic. Plastic! That means you are literally spraying plastic into your pores when you use that strawberry-scented body spray.

EWG

The EWG is another great resource for information on products and their health impact.

They are a non-profit organization that provides research, great articles, and consumer guides. I love to hop on and research certain products knowing that I’m getting a legitimate and evidenced-based answer.

I highly suggest checking them out.

Simply Tori B on Instagram

I obviously love sharing all about wellness and non-toxic living. If you want some fun information on clean products that I love and trust (which I’m about to talk about below too) then I’d love for you to follow me on my fertility and hormone balancing account on Instagram. I only pull information from reputable sites and use my account to share that information with others!

Also, I like to make jokes and share freebies so that makes it a little more fun too.

How to transition to a non-toxic lifestyle

A little at a time.

There’s no need to go Rambo and try to swap every single item in one day. If you are anything like me, I know you want to, but it’s really not worth the stress or money. Instead, take it room by room or item by item. 

How can I make my home non-toxic?

Keep in mind that it’s a marathon, not a sprint. Non-toxic living takes a little trial and error, research, patience, and time. Don’t expect your entire home to be toxin-free in a day.