So what does it take for a person to enter category B, C, or D in my previous post? This depends greatly on the person, their overall toxic load, their unique body troubles, and their symptoms. These are the categories that generally people fit into:
1. Sometimes all it takes is an overhaul of household chemicals, switching to natural products. This would usually include:
- Getting rid of all cleaning products including laundry stuff and using only vinegar, baking soda, castile soap, and possibly other natural products such as Molly’s Suds for laundry. We use just baking soda or vinegar for our laundry, sometimes peppermint tea to soak “scented” items, but Molly’s Suds looks surprising good to me. 🙂 I have not found any dish soap I can tolerate any more, so we struggle along with just castile and baking soda for dishes. (I have a blog post on that if you want tips.) However, there are dish soaps out there which are much, much better than average and which will likely be fine for most people.
- Getting rid of all personal products and finding substitutes such as castile soap and essential oils, if tolerated.
- Switching to natural, homemade weed killer, bug spray, and sunscreen. (There are a variety of recipes online to try.)
- Using natural paint such as clay or milk paint, or maybe just a good low VOC paint.
2. A second step is minimizing new contaminants or items brought in, depending on the particular sensitivities of the person. (Although I personally think any area of lowering a person’s toxic load may help overall.)
- Keeping coats, shoes, and errand clothes out of living space and especially out of the bedroom.
- Doing the same with grocery bags, packaging, boxes, and mail.
- Refusing magazines, newspapers, etc. or keeping them in one area of the house. One thing we do is keep magazines (like Lego or kids’ magazines) in a metal file cabinet when not in use. The metal blocks all offgassing, and it is not that bad when in use, although I do not bring any into my bedroom.
3. However, some may not achieve stability, much less healing, until some low-tox house renovations have been done. Examples are replacing all carpet with tile, pressed-wood cabinets with metal, and plastic kitchen and bathroom appliances and fixtures with metal and ceramic.
4. Some may have to move to a less-toxic area, such as away from a main thoroughfare or factory.
5. Some may have to move away from people all together, to the country not near crop spraying.
6. Others may have to move to a completely different climate and area, including tip 4. I know some who were helped enough by this type of move that they THEN could stop at number 1 above, not needing a strict routine or low-tox renovations to gain stability.
7. Others have to move to a completely different climate and area AND build a low-tox home completely from scratch. This is, of course, me for one.
One interesting category is switching to organic food. Some people find this needs to be near step 1 for them. For me, I was healing pretty dramatically after moving here, even with a mostly non-organic diet. However, recently I have had to switch to organic, and I do think if I had switched sooner, I probably would have healed more and/or more quickly before.
So these are my thoughts on the big picture. Let me know if you have questions, and I would love to hear your thoughts as well. I have categorized and broken it down, but know that it also is not always this “simple.” 🙂
Christa Upton Black Hills Picture Books Edgemont, SD 57735
