The 4 Small but Mighty Changes I’m Making This Fall Towards an All-Natural (and Cozy) Lifestyle

In the Davis household, fall means lighting the fireplace a whole lot more often, wearing pajamas for as long as possible on the weekends, and hearty, home cooked meals. There’s something about the weather changing and activities winding down that just exudes coziness, rest, and warm meals, and to say that I’m #hereforit would be an understatement. This new season lends itself to more time spent at home, and I’ve been adamant about creating a space that’s not only conducive to cuddling, but also as toxin-free as possible.

If you’ve been around here for a while, then you know that eliminating chemicals and toxins from my home and lifestyle is one of the main modifications I attribute to becoming pregnant so quickly despite my endometriosis diagnosis. If you’re curious to hear more about my journey, you can find all the details here.

While I’m pretty proud of the changes I’ve already made, I’m constantly researching new ways to clean up my health and home, and some of these most recent finds were too good not to share. I’ve broken it down room by room to make it easier for you to decide if and where these small swaps will fit into your lifestyle too, and I hope you find these suggestions to be just as rewarding as I have.

BATHROOM

I have shamelessly bragged about my all natural skin care routine, favorite deodorant choice, and irreplaceable shampoo find. Let’s just say I thought I had my bathroom routine perfectly nestled in the “100% toxin free” zone. But then as I was recently shaving my legs (in anticipation for above-mentioned cuddle sesh) with your general, bright pink razor, something caught my eye. That little blue strip at the top of the razor…why is it there? And what is it made of? Yes, these are the things that cross my mind in the shower. Honestly, it’s where I do my best thinking.

While that strip promises to not only provide protection, lubrication, and moisture, it also claims to signal that your razor is becoming dull as the blue color fades. This seemed ligit enough. But I also found that it is home to chemicals including polyethylene glycol, ethylene oxide, 1,4-dioxane (carcinogens), soy, and aluminum, are all toxic to the body, yet literally being absorbed into every pore as we drag that blade across our skin.

This led me to explore cleaner options, and I currently have my eye on this single blade razor (I mean…rose gold, come onnnnn!), but it’s a little pricey. So until I make the switch, I’ve simply removed the blue strip from my plastic razor with tweezers! It literally took me less than a minute. This little change cost me $0, and guess what?? My shave is still just as close and soft and ultimately effective.

KITCHEN

We have a little tradition in our house that once fall hits, we make soup once a week for dinner. The fun kicker is that you can’t make the same recipe twice. In this venture, we’ve found some keepers that are so good we sneak them back in the rotation by changing a few ingredients (you can find our favorites on the Make + Manifest Pinterest board here) while others we’ve let “accidentally” go bad in the fridge.

One common theme I find in many fall recipes, especially soups, is that the ingredient list calls for canned foods. Beans, tomatoes, cream of fill-in-the-blanks…these are cheap and easy additions that, until now, I have considered a plus when it comes to cooking on both a time and money budget.

But when I took a deeper look, it turns out that BPA and PVC are often found in canned foods, and both are associated with birth defects, cancer, diabetes, and heart disease.

Obviously I will chose my health over easy and cheap, so ditching the cans was a no-brainer; but it turns out that making the whole foods replacement is really no more expensive or time consuming. I’ve started looking ahead and doing my veggie chopping and bean soaking on Sundays, so all my ingredients are ready to go as the weekday arrives.

My general rule of thumb has to always been to shop the outside of the grocery store and avoid all the packaged goods in the middle. I was making an exception for canned foods, but no more! I have a feeling that my can opener is going to get tossed sooner than later.

LIVING ROOM

Fellow smelly-candle-loving babes raise your hand! Ok good…I’m not alone. Whew! In my opinion, nothing compliments a fireside nap like the scent of a sweet but spicy candle, and your girl has been known to stock up yearly at the anticipated Bath & Body Works 3-wick sale.

Let me tell you…I was afraid to look up the amount of chemicals these candles contain. Mainly because I excitedly lit mine for the first time last week and had been looking forward to it for months. But as soon as that cinnamon-y, apple-y smell filled my living room, I heard myself preaching to a friend, just days before, that scents are often chemicals.

Girl. I hate to break it to you…to us…but I was right. The list of nasty ingredients found in nearly all candles is looong (like too long to bother typing), and their associated health side effects are even longer. I won’t belabor the point, but my heart aches informing you that all of our candles were thrown in the trash, .

Now I won’t leave you hanging, because I too refuse to go into these chillier nights without a warm and inviting smell filling my home. This gorgeous diffuser and these essential oils have proven to be the perfect replacement and I’m honestly wondering why I didn’t make this change sooner.

BEDROOM

We recently bought a king-sized bed for two reasons. First, pregnancy has me tossing and turning, and between me and the pillow fort I’ve surrounded myself with, there is barely enough room for Bob. Second, we know we’re about to have a party of three, and we wanted to be ready for all the future family snuggles, pillow fights, and bed jumping.

While I was excited about the size upgrade, the opportunity to buy new sheets (based on all the pinterest inspo, obviously) is what had me giddy. Not only was I going to be ditching our outdated color pallet and pattern, but I was ready to splurge on the big-girl purchase of linen bedding.

Out of all these changes, this was definitely the most expensive, but totally justified by the promise of quality and longevity. I also love the look and feel of linen, but the health benefits of this gorgeous material are way underrated and ultimately what pushed me to make the plunge. #sorrynotsorry to get a little woo-woo on you, but I have to share the crazy cool positives of flax linen- antibacterial, hypoallergenic, breathable, stimulates blood flow, heat conducting, decreased radiation…honestly I could keep going with all the positives.

After a lot of research, we went with this flax linen bedding and can tell you that it’s been worth every penny and the hype is REAL.

With Baby D on the way, an ever-looming endometriosis diagnosis, and my obsession with learning, I’m aware that my quest for an all-natural home will never end. But to avoid overwhelm ooorrr breaking the bank, I’m making a few changes as my family’s needs arise, and the snuggle-approved swaps I’ve shared above are already proving to be a hit.

If you try (or were already doing) one of these, let me know your thoughts in the comments! We’re all on this wild ride of striving towards toxin-free living, and any suggestions or ideas are appreciated my by yours truly and the rest of the M+M community.

– Amanda

Disclosure: Some of the links above are affiliate links, meaning, at no additional cost to you, I will earn a commission if you click through and make a purchase. No pressure, but I have a feeling you’re gonna like what I’ve taken the time to put my recommendation behind.