Ever since BF was diagnosed with encephalitis a year and a half ago, I’ve been trying to make efforts to get all the chemicals out of our house. Did you KNOW that chemical exposure can cause encephalitis?? Very scary, especially when you consider the odds that we were given when BF got sick, that only 1/2 of people even recover from encephalitis and out of the 1/2 that DO survive, they can have varying degrees of brain damage. It goes without saying that we ALL want to do whatever we can to avoid the risk of death or brain damage for the ones we love!

In addition to going chemical-free for our OWN health, I just think its the responsible and Christian thing to do to be better stewards of the Earth that God gave us. If you’ll notice, if its good for YOU, its usually good for the Earth as well.

A few things I’ve started doing are buying Seventh Generation laundry and dishwasher detergent (I buy it at the Granary). Since your clothes are in contact with your largest organ, your skin, I believe that it is SO important that we avoid chemicals there. And, typical dishwasher detergents are loaded with dangerous things both for yourself AND for the environment. Dishwasher detergent (typical store-bought) is POISONOUS!!! Isn’t that crazy?? And the author of several books I’ve read, Hulda Clark, says that if someone in your home has cancer, you should HAND-WASH their dishes to avoid the phosphates that cause CANCER TO GROW. I don’t know about you, but if it causes cancer to grow, I don’t want my kids getting traces of it on their Winnie the Pooh dishes. I know of several people who make their own laundry detergent with varying degrees of success. I haven’t tried that yet, but I’m sure I will at some point when my to-do list gets a little shorter. For now though, I’m very happy with the Seventh Generation products. My clothes appear very clean and fresh, with no over-bearing flowery smell like you get from most detergents. Actually there’s no smell at all. It ain’t cheap, but to me, its worth it knowing that’s one more step toward keeping my family healthy, as well as the planet!

I just came across this website that gives instructions on making your own cleaning products. I haven’t looked too closely yet, so I can’t say personally how effective any of the suggestions are. I WILL say that baking soda and vinegar will clean almost anything, and I have started buying both of those products in bulk at Sams to do a lot of my cleaning with. (I also wash my hair in BS/vinegar but I’ll talk about that later in another post. :))

So, my friends, what are YOU doing to make your home and planet a healthier place?? I’d love to hear your ideas, hints, tips and suggestions in the comments section!! Any healthy websites or blogs you know of? I’d love to hear. 🙂 I welcome your comments!