One of the things I’m most excited about with moving with nothing is the fact that I get to really think about my home and what I want in it. And I’ve come to the conclusion I want to make it the healthiest home possible.
It’s no secret that I am a huge believer in organic products; I buy all of my food from Whole Foods and do not eat meat with antibiotics, diary that uses hormones and other foods that have lots of chemicals in them.
When cleaning my home, I use organic products – no Lysol, bleach or Mr. Clean. I am a firm believer that inhaling these chemicals is bad for you and the environment. Who wants to spray their kitchen counter with chemicals then plop some food on it? Not I. My skin is sensitive enough without having to worry about what my washing up liquid is doing.
I’m no hippy or new age girl but a believer in good, clean, preventive health. The extra cost for natural products is worth it to me; I’ve saved so much in healthcare and just feel so much better. In fact, in the three years Chris and I have lived this way we’ve had neither colds, headaches or any other typical ailments (my hospital stay had to do with genetics).
But food and cleaning materials is all I’ve done thus far. I’ve never really thought much about other things such as furniture, linens, paint, and where things were made. And I thought, if I’m eating and cleaning well, paying attention to those labels, why stop there?
One of the areas of health that has eluded us is sleep. After several moves in a couple of years our once nice bed has become broken. The room we’re in now isn’t the healthiest nor the nicest and our bedding has begun to suck. Chris has sleep issues which cause me sleep issues and in desperation, I picked up a wonderful book for information on how to create a better bedroom. It gave me ideas not just about the bedroom, but also how to make my home a little more healthy.
We’ve both realised that without sleep, everything suffers and we had already vowed that our number one priority in the new flat was to invest in an excellent bed with a fabulous duvet, linens, frame and paint. This book helped me to realise that I want a natural wood frame, a great mattress, organic cotton and linen sheets and milk paint for the walls instead of regular latex (when I painted the walls in my last bedroom, the paint smell kept us up for weeks).
I’ve been surfing through one of my favourite companies, Gaiam, and have found natural bedding from mattress, recycled wood frames, pillows, duvets and sheets. I’m going organic.
Sometimes people do not see the value of things, just the cost. Why spend so much on a bed when you can get it all for $5 at Wallmart? First, for my health and second for the environment. I want to do my part so that buying organic is normal, healthy living is normal instead of it being some crazy persons’ kick.
It’s my goal over the next several months (December through March) to chronicle the creation of a home, from scratch, in a healthy, organic, pretty way. I’ll try to share purchases (like another great book on healthy home living from Jane Alexander), information and ideas because generally when I’ve looked for this information, it’s always been by people with lots of money and way out there ideas (I’m not into crystals, hanging symbols all over or chanting). I want to show it in a more real way, for every day.
Link One: Lifekind for wool and rubber mattresses and bed frames.
