Without Replacing Everything You Own

Once you start paying attention to the ingredients and materials in everyday products, it can get overwhelming quickly. It can feel like everything in your house suddenly needs to be replaced.

For our family, lower-tox living has been much more gradual. We started reading labels, learning what mattered to us, and making different choices as things ran out or needed replacing.

Here are five simple places to start.

1. Simplify Your Personal Care Products

The bathroom is an easy place to start. Soap, shampoo, lotion, deodorant, makeup and other personal care products are things many of us use regularly, sometimes several times a day.

That doesn't mean a long ingredient list is automatically bad or that an ingredient is harmful simply because you can't pronounce it. But it is worth knowing what's in the products you use so often.

Some personal care products can contain ingredients such as phthalates, parabens and PFAS, chemicals that researchers continue to study because of their potential effects on the body's hormone system. NIH recommends checking labels when choosing personal care products as one way to reduce exposure to endocrine-disrupting chemicals. [NIH: Endocrine Disruptors]

Our approach is pretty simple:

Go ahead. Read the label.

Know what you're buying and decide which ingredients matter to you.

2. Reduce Added Fragrance

Fragrance was one of the first things we started paying attention to because it can show up in so many products throughout the home: laundry detergent, dryer sheets, cleaners, candles, air fresheners, soap, shampoo and lotion.

Why reduce it?

A fragrance can be made from many different ingredients, and in cosmetics those individual ingredients generally don't have to be disclosed on the label. They can simply appear as “fragrance.” Some fragrance ingredients can also cause allergic reactions or sensitivities in some people. U.S. Food and Drug Administration

There is another reason we pay attention to it. Phthalates are used in some fragrances and personal care products, and some phthalates are endocrine-disrupting chemicals, meaning they can interfere with the body's hormones. NIH specifically recommends choosing fragrance-free products when possible as one way to reduce exposure to endocrine disruptors. [NIH: Endocrine Disruptors]

For us, that makes fragrance a relatively easy thing to skip when we don't need it.

And remember, “unscented” and “fragrance-free” aren't necessarily the same thing. An unscented product may still contain fragrance ingredients used to mask another odor. U.S. Food and Drug Administration

Looking for a simple place to start? Explore our fragrance-free bar soaps.

3. Simplify Your Cleaning Cabinet

We used to think we needed a different cleaner for every job in the house. We don't.

For many everyday surfaces in our home, we simply use vinegar. It's inexpensive, simple and means fewer bottles under the sink.

Of course, vinegar isn't right for everything. Its acidity can damage some surfaces, including certain natural stones, and cleaning is different from disinfecting. There are times when a disinfectant is the appropriate choice.

The point isn't that everyone should replace their cleaners with vinegar. It's worth looking under the sink and asking how many different products you actually need.

Sometimes using fewer products is the simplest swap of all.

4. Choose Glass or Stainless Steel for Food and Drinks

As our plastic food containers and water bottles wear out, we've gradually replaced many of them with glass or stainless steel.

There is a reason for that beyond reducing plastic waste.

Some chemicals associated with plastics can migrate into food and drinks. Heat is a particular concern because plastic can break down over time and chemicals can leach from it. NIH recommends choosing glass, porcelain or stainless steel when possible, particularly for hot food and liquids, and advises against microwaving food in plastic containers. 

BPA and some phthalates are among the chemicals associated with plastics that researchers study for their ability to interfere with the body's hormone system. 

So we aren't throwing away every piece of plastic in our kitchen. When something wears out or needs replacing, we simply try to choose glass or stainless steel instead.

5. Yes, Even Look at Your Toilet Paper

This one surprised us.

Toilet paper isn't usually something we think about reading a label for. But once we started paying more attention to everyday products, we started looking at how toilet paper was made too.

Paper products can involve bleaching and other processing, and researchers have also detected PFAS in toilet paper samples. A 2023 University of Florida study looked at toilet paper as a potential contributor of PFAS to wastewater systems. That study doesn't establish toilet paper as a major source of PFAS exposure for people, but it gave us one more reason to look more closely at a product we had never really questioned before. American Chemical Society Publications

We eventually switched to bamboo toilet paper and currently use ecoHiny. We liked that it gave us an option where we could specifically look for the things we wanted to avoid, including added fragrance and dyes, and consider how the paper was processed.

Toilet paper probably isn't going to be everyone's first lower-tox swap. But that's partly why we like including it here.

Sometimes the most interesting changes are the ones you never thought to question.

Start Small

Lower-tox living doesn't need to become another thing to be perfect at.

For us, it's simply about reducing unnecessary exposures where we reasonably can. We read labels, ask questions and make different choices when something needs replacing.

Your five swaps may be different from ours. That's okay.

Use what you have. Read the label. Replace intentionally.

Small changes add up.

Real ingredients. Clean. Simple.

References

U.S. Food & Drug Administration — Fragrances in Cosmetics U.S. Food and Drug Administration

U.S. Food & Drug Administration — Allergens in Cosmetics U.S. Food and Drug Administration

National Institutes of Health — Endocrine Disruptors 

National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences — Endocrine Disruptors NIEHS

NIH News in Health — Probing Personal Care Products News in Health

Environmental Science & Technology Letters — PFAS in Toilet Paper and Wastewater Systems