Although it may not feel like it, spring is here! I have been using some of my extra time during this quarantine to do some spring cleaning, cleaning out drawers and closets, and paring down, donating things we don’t need or use.
I always love the smell after spring cleaning…the windows are open and I can smell the sweet scent of the hyacinths in the air blowing through and the fresh, clean smell of the lemon and orange oils from my homemade cleaners. I prefer to use chemical-free cleaners in our home and so I make my own. One of the most important staples I keep around for making homemade cleaners is 20 Mule Team Borax.
What is Heck is Borax?
Borax, also known as sodium tetraborate, is a white, powdery mineral mined from dried up lakes. Because it is a completely natural mineral, it is no more toxic than baking soda when used properly.
I first came across this magic mineral when I had my first child. My son had been put on soy formula and the stains were terrible to get out! I was talking about this with my grandmother one day while visiting her with the baby. She suggested pre-soaking in borax and water solution before washing. I asked her, “What the heck is borax?” My grandmother goes to the laundry room and comes back with a box of 20 Mule Team Borax. She was a cleaning lady for many years and also made her own natural cleaners.
I picked some up later that day. It was kind of hard to find in the laundry aisle at the store because it was shoved way back on a bottom shelf. I tried it that very night and was AMAZED at how well it worked! Why had I never heard of this before?
After it worked so well for removing the formula stains on the baby’s clothing, I was hooked! The box had a few other common uses printed on the back to clean rusty cooktops, remove mold and mildew stains and dissolve sticky messes. I had to know more…what else could I be using this for?
5 Great Uses for Borax
While Borax can be used for a myriad of household cleaning and deodorizing, here are FIVE ways to use borax around your home.
Use as a deodorizer- Borax powder can be used to deodorize carpets, stinky sneakers, garbage cans, refrigerators, mattresses, and garbage disposals,
Use to remove rust and limescale on tile, porcelain, cookware, and stainless steel. Because of its abrasive qualities, borax is a wonderful cleaner for bathrooms and kitchens.
Use outdoors to deter common pests like ants, fleas, water bugs, roaches, and other pesky insects. Borax can also be sprinkled around the base of fruit trees to enrich the soil, used as a weed killer, or used to scrub your outdoor furniture in the spring.
Use as a rinse agent in the dishwasher instead of the expensive and toxin-filled alternatives to prevent spots on glassware.
Use as a laundry booster. Borax can be used to boost the power of traditional laundry soap or can also be used to make your own detergent. Works well on stains too!
Using Borax Around My Home
I love that borax is so multi-purpose and also safe for my family. I use it as a laundry detergent booster as suggested on the box, but I utilize it for so many other applications around my home.
Borax works fantastically on those crusty, stove burners to clean grease and cooking spills.
With borax, white vinegar and a little elbow grease, this stovetop is gleaming!
I also use borax to combat insects that sneak their way into the house in the spring like ants. Mix 1/2 cup of sugar, 1.5 tbsp borax, and 1.5 cups warm water. Soak some cotton balls in the mixture and place in corners of the room, windowsills, cabinets, and counters to keep ants away.
Another way I use borax at home is to make a natural weed killer to spray the cracks of my driveway and sidewalk. This mixture is extremely easy to make and can be applied once yearly. I apply in the spring for best results. Dissolve 10 oz. of borax into 4 oz of warm water. Once the borax is dissolved into the warm water, mix into a home and garden sprayer and add 2.5 gallons more water. Do not use around flower beds or vegetable gardens.
Cleaning with Caution
Although borax is a naturally occurring mineral with low toxicity, it can still be absorbed through the skin causing mild skin irritation. As with any other cleaning substance, using gloves and following directions, along with heeding package warnings, is always recommended.
Conclusion
Cleaning with natural ingredients is not as difficult or time-intensive as one may think. Natural cleaners are just as effective and much less toxic! Making your own natural cleaners with borax and other household staples like white vinegar, baking soda, or salt are budget-friendly and eco-friendly too! If you haven’t heard of borax, give it a try! I have given you [at least] five great ways to try it in your home while spring cleaning!
You might already be taking steps to reduce the waste your household produces… But there are those few areas where waste just seems to be unavoidable. The truth is, you probably just haven’t been exposed to the alternatives. Dental care can be one of those high waste areas, so let’s tackle it right now!
Consider all the toothbrushes, tubes of toothpaste, and containers of floss that a single person throws out every year – including the plastic packaging that these products come in. Then scale it up to the amount of people living in your country and you quickly realize that dental care is a significant contributor to our global waste problem.
The good news is: the solutions are here, and they are readily available! Below are easy to implement alternatives that will drastically reduce the waste footprint of your oral care routine.
The Problem With Conventional Toothpaste
Regular toothpaste tubes contain a mix of plastics and aluminum, which makes them unsuitable for recycling. Thankfully, dental care companies are starting to feel the push from consumers asking for more sustainable alternatives. In response, Colgate rolled out a new recyclable toothpaste tube in early 2020. The tube has been under development for years and is available through Colgate’s new Smile For Good toothpaste. The paste itself contains fewer ingredients than most conventional toothpastes and is certified vegan.
Problem solved? Not completely… Current recycling technologies generally depend on a stream of relatively clean plastic. So for the empty tube to actually stay out of a landfill, you will have to cut it open and clean out any residual toothpaste. Even so, the tube can get pulled out from the recycling stream by unknowing workers who mistake it for a regular, unrecyclable tube.
Crushing It Sustainably
A low-waste alternative is toothpaste tablets. These are dry pills that are crushed in between your teeth and turn into a foamy toothpaste in your mouth. Several different brands of toothpaste tablets are available on the market, including Crush & Brush which come in glass containers, disclose all their ingredients and are cruelty-free. The tablets are particularly useful for traveling: Conventional travel-sized toothpaste tubes are extremely wasteful and their regular-sized equivalents are usually not allowed in carry-on luggage on flights. The solid tablets, on the other hand, do not raise issues with airport security.
Make Your Own!
If you prefer to get creative and want to be in charge of selecting your toothpaste ingredients yourself, you can also mix your own toothpaste at home. However, be sure to run the ingredients by your dentist and use care to avoid harsh or overly abrasive materials.
Since the beneficial effects of brushing your teeth depend much more on your toothbrush and on proper brushing technique rather than on your toothpaste composition, you can get away with very simplistic toothpaste recipes. Here are a few ingredients to consider:
Coconut oil naturally has antimicrobial properties and can form a great base for your toothpaste
Baking soda combats the acidity in cavities and can act as a mild abrasive for removing scale
Spices are an easy and safe way to add flavor to your toothpaste
Do not add fluoride to your homemade toothpaste since it has to be very carefully dosed to avoid adverse effects.
Zero Waste Floss
Floss is a frustrating item based on the ratio of packaging to the amount of actual product. Luckily, there are some zero waste floss brands commercially available. Be aware though, that most of them are based on silk – which is produced by boiling silkworms alive. Among the few silk-free options are FLOSSPOT Gold (available in Canada and the US) as well as the bamboo floss by Earth’s Tribe (available in Australia).
Some people also recommend using an oral irrigator such as a WaterPik as a way to reduce your need for synthetic floss. However, I would advise to use caution. While oral irrigators have other beneficial effects for dental health, they do not serve as a full replacement for regular flossing.
Biodegradable Toothbrushes
Toothbrushes are another source of plastic commonly accepted as a necessary evil. That is far from correct since there is a large variety of biodegradable, safe and hygienic toothbrushes commercially available. I personally use and can recommend Lavish Essential’s bamboo & charcoal toothbrushes.
Be Resourceful
From interdental brushes with bamboo handles to recipes for homemade mouthwash, the internet is full of low waste alternatives to commonly used products. Most of them are very easy to implement in your daily routine – others may require a little bit of adjustment. But with the amount of options available, there are no excuses not to make waste-smart choices when it comes to dental care. The cumulative effect over a lifetime is well worth the switch.
Welcome Ellie!
Ellie Auras is a sustainability coach and waste reduction, advocate. She writes about all topics related to the sustainable lifestyle and businesses on her blog Greensplained.com. Follow her on Instagram and Facebook to stay up to date on everything Green.
I have touched a little on some of the toxins in our everyday routines. As women, we tend to use numerous beauty products daily (and sometimes, several times daily.) LADIES! You would not believe the number of chemicals and toxins you are exposing yourself to!
Many of these products have the same or even more dangerous ingredients than cigarettes, yet they do not come with a Surgeon General’s warning regarding the myriad of risks to your health and safety. Side effects from chemical and toxin exposure include:birth defects, weakened immune system, advanced aging, hormonal and fertility problems, disruption of endocrine system and an increased risk of cancer.
Now, I am not naive to think this is something that has just begun to happen, however, one would think in a developed and regulated country such as the United States, more legislation would exist to control exposure from food, water and personal care and cleaning products.Toxins and chemicals are sneakily slipped into ingredient panels on product packaging or sometimes not even required to be listed at all if determined a “trade secret”.
Legislation
Despite the ever-growing number of products in the cosmetic industry, there has been no federal legislation on cosmetic safety since 1938! The United States has only 11 banned chemicals while Europe has more than 1,300 toxins and chemicals that have been banned for use in consumer products. State legislation is making better strides on the local level though, with 211 bills banning toxins in water and consumer products pending in 32 different states. You can check pending legislation in your state by clicking here.
Educate Yo-self!
Education is the key! Learning more about the ingredients in the products you and your family use is a great way to have some control over chemical exposure. Here are some ways you can educate yourself:
Read articles online, magazines, books and blogs.
Follow EWG on social media. EWG’s website also has an abundance of information on all topics environment related.
Use an app. EWG’s Healthy Living app contains 128,000 products and is growing daily. I use this app and LOVE it! Use the app to scan items and see ingredients’ potential toxicity. If you are not able to find your product in the app, you are asked to participate in helping EWG grow its database by snapping photos of the front and back of the product and barcode so the product can be added. Other apps include Think Dirty, Yuka, and INCI Beauty Analysis.
Read/scan ingredient panels and labels.
Listen to green and eco related podcasts. Some of my favorites are The Toxin Terminator, The Green Dudes and Green Divas, and Talking Clean with Irene.
Engage with other like-minded people by getting involved in local community groups, online communities and attending events both online and in person. Facebook is growing with so many groups for every interest. Offer information, ask questions and show support. I have made some awesome connections this way!
Sacred Chocolate is certified organic, certified vegan, certified kosher, carbon balanced and produced in a 100% renewable energy factory in California.
BONUS!
For a FREE printable list of ways you can educate yourself, visit the Donna Naturale Download Library!
Educating yourself is an essential step to greening your home and lifestyle. I am sure you’ve heard it before, knowledge is POWER. By educating ourselves on these issues we can make better and cleaner choices. We can also use our consumer buying power to help drive the industry in a greener direction by supporting and purchasing cleaner alternatives.
I hope this information has challenged you not only to educate, but also to protect yo’self!
Attend the FREE Online Nontoxic Beauty Summit!
Interested in attending an upcoming FREE ONLINE event?
The Nontoxic Beauty Revolution 2020 hosted by Diane Kazer is coming March 9-15th.
Did you know that ONLY 4% of women think they're beautiful? Women are on a constant treadmill to "buy their beauty," and it truly is killing them.
Join me and learn how to transition to self-love and body acceptance and what you can do RIGHT NOW to build your beauty!
The average woman puts over 515 synthetic chemicals on her skin every day, and of that, 60% of it is absorbed into her body.
Babies are born with over 250 chemicals in them before they have even taken their first breath.
Everything we eat, apply and inject into our bodies could set off illness at any given moment (and can age us more quickly!) — women are literally "Dying to be Beautiful!"
--->>Learn to build YOUR beauty when you attend this free, online health event!
WHY ATTEND?
Your host, Diane Kazer, struggled with implant illness and journeyed away from shame and fear to self-healing and self-love. She became a health advocate after seeing the true costs to women's lives in the quest for beauty, helping them to reclaim their power so they can build a new life and birth a new purpose, crafted from the pain of their past.
She's here to help you by sharing what she learned.
The Non-Toxic Beauty Revolution will help you with:
● Identifying toxins in beauty products and procedures
● Transitioning to self-love and body acceptance
● Using diet and detox to build your beauty
● Understanding how implants impact your health
● Recovering from implant illness
● Aging gracefully — inside and out
● And so much more!
You're not alone. There are answers. We can heal together.
--->>I'll see you online at The Non-Toxic Beauty Revolution when you register today!
Did you know the average person is exposed to over 500 chemicals and toxins in their daily routine?
According to the Environmental Working Group (EWG), many beauty, hygiene and cleaning products have toxins that can cause a wide variety of side effects, from headaches and indigestion to more serious conditions including an increased risk of cancer. It is scary to think that you and your family may be using harmful products on a daily basis. Research has shown numerous common products contain toxins and chemicals such as lead, aluminum, phthalates, mercury, arsenic, parabens, and so much more! I have felt so guilty just thinking about how many toxins I am exposing my children to regularly and this has motivated me into ACTION!
It is overwhelming to think about greening your whole routine all at once, especially replacing your favorite products you have used for years. It’s less intimidating, at least for me, to replace products slowly, focusing on one at a time. Finding a cleaner alternative can take some research, and perhaps some trial and error, in order to the right product for you and your family.
Green Your Routine!
Here are a few simple steps to begin greening your routine:
Less is MORE! It is not necessary to use so many health and beauty products! Pare down the products you are using. Keep it simple.
Read labels. If you cannot pronounce it, it’s probably not good for you. Educate yourself.
Avoid products with added fragrances. Chemicals used to make fragrances are absorbed through the skin into the blood. These toxic chemicals are categorized as allergens, hormone disruptors, neurotoxins and carcinogens.
Get crafty and make your own cleaning (and/or beauty) products. My favorite homemade cleaner recipe is a great one for beginners to try. In a 12 oz. spray bottle, add 8 oz. water, 3 oz. white vinegar and 1 oz. lemon juice. This simple antibacterial spray works fantastic for wiping down counters in the kitchen or scrubbing soap scum in the bathtub.
Use an APP. EWG has a great app where you can scan product barcodes and give you feedback on the ingredients and their toxicity levels. There are many other similar apps out there too!
Detoxifying your lifestyle can have many positive effects including making you feel better, improving your overall health, and reducing your risk of side effects from toxic chemicals. And since many toxins have many aging effects, cutting them out in your daily routine will also help you look better too!
Sacred Chocolate is certified organic, certified vegan, certified kosher, carbon balanced and produced in a 100% renewable energy factory in California.
My name is Amanda and this is my blog, Donna Naturale, which means Natural Woman in Italian. I am obsessed with Italy and am even learning Italian and planning for a dream vacation there someday soon! I blog toxins in the everyday products we all use and cleaner, more natural, product alternatives.
A little about me…
I am a mother of a blended family with 9 (yes, 9) children. I have worked in the medical field for over 15 years and a medical coder for the last 10. I started this blog because I have experienced some of the common side effects of toxic ingredients. I want to not only raise awareness of these toxic chemicals but also to offer greener, less toxic choices. I also hope to eventually promote changes in legislation to prohibit the use of these toxins.
Things I LOVE!
These are a few of my favorite things…family and friends, plants and gardening, coffee, tattoos and art, being outdoors, trying/learning new things, all things DIY, reading and writing, geocaching, traveling, and experiencing different cultures.
I have always had a love for stories and writing. I can remember when I was a little girl being so excited to go to work with my mom…she drove the Bookmobile for the county library then. The Bookmobile was a large truck with shelves of books from floor to ceiling. I would pick out a book, or several, and sit under her desk in the back of the truck to read. My mom has worked at the library here for close to 40 years so we push books like crack. All kidding aside, I believe having good reading and writing skills are essential skills needed in life. Through blogging, I am able to use this platform as [another] creative outlet and to learn and grow more as a writer.
What you will find on Donna Naturale
I hope to share educational and informative posts, explaining the toxins we should be aware of and how we are exposing ourselves daily. I will be adding product reviews and sharing tips on how to live greener, more sustainable and less wasteful lives.
Join us!
Join my family and me as we transition to a cleaner lifestyle and kick these toxins to the curb!
