Welcome to “The Real Deal with Candice Deal” column. When she’s not working as a project manager, you can usually find this avid horse rider sitting in the saddle. Between the office, home and barn, Candice does her due diligence to find the best, easiest, most economical options for things we do all the time – without the chemicals and toxins we don’t need. Be on the lookout for this column in 2022.  Welcome, Candice!

Reduce Your Toxic Load and Spend Less!

BY CANDICE DEAL

Who wants to spend less money? And keep chemicals out of your body? I do, and I bet you do, too.  Here are some easy ways to reduce your toxic chemical exposure and save a little cash along the way!

Clean Up Your Act in the Laundry Room

We all want our clothes to smell and be clean!  But there is a difference between being clean and smelling like a rain garden for two weeks.  Walk the laundry aisle of the grocery store and you will find an array of alluring scents of laundry detergent, laundry softener, dryer sheets and scent boosting beads!

But what is really in that bottle of detergent?  Mostly water, harsh chemicals and surfactants and fragrance.  Fragrance is not an ingredient, but it’s a host of ingredients that make up that rain garden smell.  Typically, these are going to be full of chemicals that aren’t nice to your skin, the air you breathe or your endocrine system.  Your clothes are on your skin most hours of the day, so what’s in your clothes is touching your largest organ all day long! And detergent can get pricey when you realize that you are paying for a lot of water and harmful chemicals.

You can easily clean up your detergent with a home-made recipe that’s a cinch to make at a fraction of the cost and uses much gentler ingredients – most of which you probably have in your kitchen right now. This simple recipe gets your clothes clean, saves money and reduces the toxic chemicals next to your skin all day!

Materials:

1-gallon size glass jug (plastic will work, too)

1 cup baking soda

1/3 cup sea salt

2 1/2 cups hot water

1 1/4 cup castile soap

Directions:  Combine baking soda and sea salt in your gallon jug.  Add hot water.  Shake/stir until salt and baking soda have dissolved.  Let the mixture settle (until it doesn’t sound fizzy) and cool.  Add the castile soap (I like Dr. Bronner’s, the ingredients are non-toxic) and then top with cool water.

Use 1 cup for regular loads, use a little more for heavily soiled loads or large loads, use a little less for small loads!  Give your jug a little shake before dispensing as the ingredients may settle.

Want to take it one step farther?  Ditch your fabric softener and use white vinegar – add some drops of your favorite essential oil (they won’t stain like olive oil) directly to the vinegar bottle and shake or pour into the measuring cup and add 3-5 drops of oil.  Add the vinegar to your bleach dispenser to soften your clothes; no need for a dryer sheet.

Brush Better in the Bathroom

When you think of your toothpaste, what is the golden rule of brushing your teeth?  Brush for two minutes? Use up and down strokes? Or is it the alarming message on every tube? MAY BE HARMFUL IF SWALLOWED! The reason you should not swallow your toothpaste is because it contains harmful chemicals.  So why would you want to use it in a sensitive place like your mouth?

Your mouth has its own microbiome, much like the gut.  Mouthwash and toothpaste are full of alcohols, surfactants and fluoride that dismantle the microbiome.  We want to keep the Ph level of our mouths in an alkaline state.  If our saliva is too acidic it can dissolve the enamel of the teeth and host the bad bacteria that can cause cavities.

Oils like coconut, MCT and essential oils are fantastic for your mouth – they are botanical biotic boosters.  Baking soda is very alkalizing and its similar to saliva biochemically.  Toss your tube and replace it with an easy to make at home toothpaste and a rinse that will leave your mouth clean and Ph balanced.

Ingredients for Toothpaste:

2 cup glass dish with lid (or several small)

1 cup organic coconut oil (solid)

½ cup baking soda

20 drops of peppermint oil (or cinnamon oil)

10 drops of frankincense oil

Directions: In a double boiler, heat the coconut oil until it’s liquified.  Add in your baking soda and stir until well mixed.  Remove from the boiler. Stir in your essential oils.  Transfer to a glass dish with a lid.  Let the mixture cool to room temperature or stick in the refrigerator to decrease cooling time.  Your liquid will become a soft paste.  Use a spatula or spoon to transfer to your brush or rub the brush directly on the surface.  When you’ve brushed for two minutes, spit your paste into the trash vs. the sink to keep your drains clean.

Ingredients for Rinse:

20 oz container with lid

16 oz. purified water

1 oz. sea salt

2 drops of peppermint oil

2 drops of frankincense oil

Directions: Stir until salt has dissolved; use your rinse before and after brushing.  Consider adding tongue scraping to your regimen to increase your cleanliness – you can use the edge of a kitchen spoon!

Ingredients for Whitening:

1/2 TBsp 3% hydrogen peroxide

½ TBsp purified water

Directions: Mix in a cup and swish for 2 minutes.  Follow with your rinse to alkalize your mouth.  Hydrogen Peroxide is acidic. Use this solution two times a month to keep your teeth white and keep stains at bay.

That’s it – less toxins in and on your body, and more money in your pocket!  Easy-peasy!