The Ultimate Guide to a Home Detox: Ridding Your Home of Hidden Toxins

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Maybe it is hard to believe, but your home can make you sick. And why am I saying this? Because there are many hidden toxins in every home, even in the cleanest-looking houses. The air inside our homes may be dirtier than outside. It’s tiem to consider a home detox!

Many of us are oblivious to the toxins we are exposing ourselves to with our daily habits and products we use. But we should pay attention to these toxins because they can do serious harm to our body, especially in the long term. The only effective solution to get rid of the hidden toxins is by doing a home detox. If you don’t know how to do that and how to detect the hidden toxins, don’t worry. Here is the ultimate guide to a home detox!

NOTE: This is an extensive list to help you build awareness and take control of your health from the microscopic level. It is NOT meant to overwhelm you and make you feel like giving up on reducing your toxin exposure. As you read through these, remember that every small change you make is a decrease in toxic load on the body. In a world where many of us feel “blah” or “off” and don’t know why, this is huge! Don’t feel frustrated, just empowered 😉

Kitchen items

In the kitchen, you can find a lot of items that may be secretly toxic. The problem with these products is that they are at the place where you are cooking (and then eating!), and they can be dangerous for your health if you don’t use them correctly. Getting rid of toxins near our eating space is a no-brainer.

Disclaimer: This post may contain affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases

Aluminum foil and aluminum pans

Aluminum foil and aluminum pans are both commonly used kitchen items. But many people don’t know that aluminum can leach from the aluminum foil and the aluminum pan right into your food. This aluminum exposure can be harmful to your health, primarily causing neurological problems. Not to mention that cooking or storing acidic foods (for example, tomatoes) in aluminum can cause more aluminum leaching.

Solution: You can eliminate the aluminum exposure by avoiding cooking acidic foods in pots made of aluminum. Also, it is better to not store acidic juices like orange juice in aluminum containers. Cast iron and stainless steel pots have been shown to be the safest cooking options.

Gas stovetop

Gas stovetops may be a good choice when it comes to cooking but not so favorable to your health. Like any other gas appliances, gas stovetops can also emit various chemicals and compounds that may be potentially dangerous. Nitrogen-dioxide, carbon-monoxide, and formaldehyde are just a few of those hazardous chemicals that can cause respiratory problems and other diseases if the appliance is not vented appropriately.

Solution: Make sure that your gas stovetop has proper ventilation. You can also open the window and let some fresh air into the kitchen regularly. You should consider installing a venting range hood to provide a safe level of air quality, and a carbon monoxide detector to warn you in case of danger.

Plastic cutting boards

The next item on our list is plastic cutting boards. When doing home detox, you should check in your kitchen whether this product is in good condition. And why is it important? Because plastic cutting boards can harbor a lot of bacteria if there are deep crevices on the board which are difficult to clean. These bacteria can even lead to food poisoning, so it can be a serious health risk.

Solution: Clean your plastic cutting board properly, and go through all the crevices to get rid of the bacteria. If your cutting board is worn with plenty of deep fissures and you find it difficult to clean, you should invest in a new cutting board. When it’s time for a new cutting board, consider a marble or glass one.

Non-stick cooking pans

Non-stick cooking pans are practical, they make both cooking and clean-up easier. However, they can also be harmful to your health. When you use these PTFE-coated pans (polytetrafluoroethylene) and you heat them to a high temperature, they can emit toxic gases. Also, if you accidentally scratch these pans, some pieces of the coating can get into your food. I think there is no need to say but these can put your health at risk.

Solution: Try to not overheat PTFE-coated pans. If you can rather invest some money in a high-quality pan, so you will have a long-lasting pan for cooking. Use soft cooking utensils only on your pans and toss it immediately once it has become scratched.

Dish soap

Dish soaps often contain some kind of chemicals: dyes, toxins, and artificial fragrance. These chemicals have damaging effects on health because if you don’t use gloves when washing the dishes, they are in direct contact with your skin. Also, if you don’t rinse your dishes properly, and a little dish soap stays on the dishes, these chemicals can get into your body when you are eating. Therefore, these hazardous chemicals can lead to different illnesses.

Solution: You can very easily avoid using dish soaps that are filled with chemicals. There are different effective dish soaps available on the market that are free from toxic chemicals. Here is a list of non-toxic dish soaps. You can also prepare your own dish soap at home with non-toxic ingredients that mean no risk to your health.

Plastic storage containers and plastic wrap

I think many of us use plastic storage containers and plastic wrap at home because they are very practical when it comes to food storage. But there is a problem with these plastic boxes: when you put them in the microwave oven and you heat the food stored in them, potentially the chemicals from the boxes will leak into your food. Especially, if your food is rich in fats. One time use plastics like water bottles, Ziplocs, grocery bags, and produce bags are not made for long term use and can also leach chemicals into your foods as they’re stored.

Plastic storage containers and other plastic products can contain bisphenol-A (BPA) and phthalates. Both chemicals have significant health effects on the human body. They can change the levels of testosterone and estrogen in the body, and harm the development of reproductive organs. Moreover, they can be harmful to brain development.

Solution: Pay attention to how long and at which temperature you are heating your food in these plastic boxes. If hot food stays too long in the box, more chemicals can leach into your food. The best is if you can avoid using these plastic storage containers and plates for heating food. Rather use products made from ceramic or glass. For storage, you can also use stainless steel.

Canned foods

Not only plastic storage containers but also canned foods can be dangerous. The linings inside the can may contain BPA that – as mentioned above – can lead to reproductive issues.

Solution: Although it can be difficult to find BPA-free canned foods (but it’s getting easier!), there are some canned foods prepared for children that don’t contain BPA. But if you would like to play safe, try to avoid canned foods and look for fresh/frozen food instead. In case the frozen food comes in a plastic bag, avoid heating it in the microwave.

Microwaves

You may have noticed a common theme in all of the toxic products we’ve covered so far- they’re convenient! And we love items that make life easier- but at what cost?

Microwaves get the ultimate gold start for being convenient and super toxic at once. We often use containers that become toxic when headed in the microwave. Plus, microwaves emit radiation that is absorbed by your food and you if you are standing close by as it runs (which you probably are). Lastly, microwaves kill everything in the food- good and bad. This means that food with any nutritional value just lost all of it’s probiotic potential. It is also why breastmilk shoulder never be heated in the microwave.

Solution: Ditch the microwave! And clear up some major counterspace. When you need to re-heat, use the stove or oven. If you’re used to heating stuff up at work, start opting for cold lunches or bring a lunch sized crock pot warmer with you to plug in an hour before meal time.

Cleaning products

If you would like to rid your home of hidden toxins, you should also go through the cleaning products you use at home. Most of these products can be filled with many hazardous chemicals, therefore you should remove them during the home detox.

For some reason many of us associate harsh cleaning chemicals with better cleaning. Yet, gentler more natural options often clean just as well if not better than today’s standard cleaners. Plus, we don’t really want to live in a completely sterile environment either as this weakens the immune system and throws our own microbiome (such as the gut) out of balance.

Bleach

Bleach is one of the most commonly used cleaning products. It is great for whitening and disinfecting, but at the same time, it is maybe the most hazardous chemical in your household. Bleach can cause various health issues, starting from respiratory problems and skin irritation until more serious cases that can even lead to death. One of the biggest dangers that bleach can bring is a chemical reaction: If bleach gets mixed with ammonia, chloramine can evaporate into the air. In case you breathe in this chloramine, there is a great chance that it can kill you.

Solution: To avoid using bleach, make your own simple and natural alternative to bleach at home. Options include lemon juice, vinegar, tea tree oil, borax, and baking soda. It is super easy to prepare a mixture (and cheaper!) and you can get great results when using it. Don’t forget to ditch the Clorox wipes too! Simply have a spray bottle and reusable wipes for daily clean up.

Multipurpose cleaners

Most people like to use multipurpose cleaners because they can effectively clean different kinds of surfaces. However, similar to bleach, they can be very dangerous as well. These cleaners can cause skin irritation, sore throat (if you inhale these cleaners), but also serious organ damages (kidney or liver damage) can occur.

Multipurpose cleaners may contain:

ammonia,
2-butoxyethanol,
perchloroethylene,
sodium hydroxide.

All these chemicals can put your health at risk, as they are hazardous if you inhale or ingest them.

Solution: If you want your home to be free from toxins, after conducting your home detox, don’t use these multipurpose cleaners anymore. Prepare your own cleaning solution from natural cleaning substitutes. Here are a few great recipes to make cleaners at home for different surfaces from natural ingredients. There are also a lot of natural products on the market these days too, such as Meyers.

Detergents

Whether we’re talking about dishwasher or washing machine detergent, most standard options are filled to the brim with toxins. Ammonia, formaldehyde, sulfates, phosphates, chlorine, bleach, and synthetic scents are just a few of the health affecting ingredients in detergent. When washing clothes, skip the stain spot removers and dryer sheets altogether- they are the most toxic of all.

Solution: Castile soap is my favorite cleaner for everything and can be throw in in your washers too. Look for natural made products- more are on the market all the time (but check the ingredients!). Try baking soda or vinegar as natural spot removers and try a wool dryer ball to remove static and soften your clothes.

Tap water

Mainly due to environmental contamination, our tap water is not as pure as it was before. To provide an admissible level of contaminants in our tap water, the water is treated with many chemicals. They also sanitize the water with chlorine to kill the most hazardous germs and fill it with hazardous fluoride for our dental “health.” The sad thing is that even after the decontamination, a lot of by-products and residues can be found in the tap water.

Just a few from these contaminants:

heavy metals,
viruses, bacteria, and parasites,
pharmaceuticals,
pesticides and herbicides,
chlorine,
fluoride,
organic solvents,
sewage sediment.

Of course, it won’t kill you right away if you drink tap water or you use it for bathing every day, but the contaminants found in the water can have long-term effects on your health. Unfortunately, there are not so many studies conducted about the long-term health effects, but you can imagine that the results would not be pleasant (possibly neurological issues, cancer-causing side effects). Additionally, many of the symptoms associated with toxin exposure are low level and chronic and may be hard to pinpoint.

Solution: You can use a water filtration system to reduce the chemicals in your tap water (reverse osmosis is the top recommended option). These systems are a little bit expensive but it is worth spending some money on them. At the very least, purchase a countertop filter for drinking water. Inexpensive options are available for directly filtering shower water also.

Related Read: How to Boost Immune System Naturally

Bathroom products

Hand soaps, body washes, and facial cleansers

Most hand soaps, body washes, and facial cleansers contain a lot of toxic ingredients. Therefore, if you want to do a thorough home detox, you must check the products you use to keep yourself clean. All these products can harm you due to the chemicals they include. The 4 most common ingredients that may be harmful are parabens; fragrance, sulfates, and triclosan. These ingredients can get into your body through your skin, and they can cause hormonal problems, allergies, reproductive issues, heart disease, and you may also have a higher risk of cancer.

Solution: Check the ingredients, and buy products that are free from these chemicals. You can also try to make your products by yourself using natural, toxin-free ingredients. For hand soaps, also make sure to avoid anti-bacterial options too.

I used toxic and harsh facial cleansers most of my life and was nervous to change to natural products with my skin. Now, I’m happy to use natural soap that I can use for my hair, hands, and face with no worry for my health. After all, hygiene should be about staying healthy- right?!

Makeup

Unfortunately, when we talk about makeup, the biggest problem is the lack of regulation in the cosmetics industry. If you see written on a product “natural” or “unscented”, it doesn’t mean too much because the regulation behind it is missing. A lot of natural makeup brands use ingredients that include heavy metals in a higher concentration. For example, they can make these makeup products using clay. The most common heavy metals found in makeup are aluminum, mercury, lead, cadmium, and arsenic. These heavy metals can have a negative impact on your health in the long term, therefore it is better to avoid products that contain them.

Solution: It is difficult to know which products contain harmful ingredients because heavy metals are not listed amongst the ingredients. Always buy your makeup products from trusted brands and sellers at least to reduce the chance of buying products filled with heavy metals. Or simply use less makeup (you’ll find you need way less when you start changing your health habits!).

Perfumes and body sprays

It may sound scary, but smelling good can cost your health. Fragrances contain a lot of hazardous chemicals that can lead to hormone disruption and allergic reactions. Asthma, wheezing, and headaches are the most common symptoms. With the clouds of spray some people subject themselves to, it can lead to some serious long term consequences for hormone balance and lung health. This also includes odor eliminating sprays and air fresheners.

Solution: Listing all the chemicals used in the perfumes and body sprays is impossible on the packages. Therefore, it is hard to spot products that contain harmful chemicals. What you can do is to opt for fragrances made from natural ingredients. Here is a list of non-toxic perfumes. Or even better, ditch the fragrances and embrace your own smell! 🙂

Feminine care products and diapers

Sadly, feminine products for hygiene and menstration are now well regulated. Tampons, pads, douches, and sprays can contain toxic fragrances, bleach, a phthalates that disrupt hormones, increase risk of cancers, and more. This is especially scary since women are chronically exposing themselves to these chemicals directly for over 40 years of their life. Even scarier, most of these toxins are also found in standard diapers.

Solution: Today there is a huge movement for clean feminine and baby products. Search or organic cotton, chemical free, and bamboo items. You can also opt for reusable items like cloth diapers, cloth pads, period panties, and menstral cups.

Mold

When you are doing a home detox, you have to verify whether you have mold in the house. If there is more moisture in the air, or you previously had water damage in your home, there is a high chance that you will find mold somewhere hidden on the walls, in household appliances, or on furniture. Mold exposure can cause rhinitis and asthma. Due to the mycotoxins produced by the mold, you can have a higher risk of cancer, immune deficiencies, and other diseases.

Mold can be so harmful because you don’t need to touch it to be exposed to it. Mold releases small spores that contaminate the air, so you can breathe in the hazardous chemicals.

Solution: You have to get rid of the mold. In some cases, you can simply remove it with household cleaners, but for extensive mold issues, you should consider hiring professionals. Some air purifiers can also destroy mold spores in the air. To prevent mold, keep the air fresh and circulating daily. You can spot mold in some common trouble spots like the bathroom. However, you can also order a mold test kit to see what spores are present in your home.

Dust

Dust is every housewife’s nightmare because it can be found everywhere in the house, and it must be cleaned very often. So if that’s not enough, I will give you one more reason to hate dust: dust can trap toxins and it keeps them in your home longer. It can trap the chemicals from your multipurpose cleaner or your air freshener, and then this dust filled with chemicals gets into the air and exposes you to the toxins. The sad reality is that dust is one of the main reasons why children are exposed to harmful chemicals.

The dust has many negative health effects, such as hay fever, sneezing, coughing, irritation of the eyes, or asthma.

Solution: Dust your home regularly. Wipe down the electronics, countertops, bookshelves, and vacuum your carpet, floor, and mattresses. Also, frequently wash your curtains and linens. You can invest in an air purifier to get rid of the dust in the air as well. Also, when purchasing or remodeling a home- consider ditching the carpet that often traps dust no matter how well you clean it! Lastly, don’t forget to replace your pillows at least every 5 years to prevent dust and mold growth.

Fabrics

Even your clothes can have hidden toxins? Yes, they can. In fashion manufacturing, there are thousands of synthetic chemicals used, and many of them contain hormone disruptors and carcinogens. Some of the top toxic brands are sadly the most popular too. Luckily, many brands have now committed to detoxing their products (see the link).

Stain resistant, waterproof, wrinkle free, and fire resistant fabrics are also harmful to your health. They may seem more convenient but have been linked to cancer and other adverse effects.

Solution: Instead of conventional cotton, choose organic fabrics made of cotton, synthetic recyclables or hemp free of hazardous dyes- they are not only better for your health, but also the environment. Also, avoid synthetic fabrics, leather, black clothing, denim, and azo dye. It’s a perfect excuse to wear comfy and cute clothing.

Related read: 10 Habits That Make You Look and Feel Old

Bed linens

Bed linens can be made using dangerous chemicals just like any other fabrics, like dyes, bleaches, and other toxins. These chemicals are bad for the environment, and also bad for you. Do you know those wrinkle-free beddings? Although they are very practical, they are treated with formaldehyde, which is a toxic chemical. This chemical can cause allergic reactions.

Solution: Choose bed linens that are Oeko-Tex certified. This certification guarantees that there were no harmful chemicals used during the production, therefore fewer toxins may be found in the sheets you use in your bed. Also, consider what fabrics your bed itself and pillows are made out of- always choose organic when possible.

Bleached items

Bleach may hide not only in the bottle of the bleach in your home but also in many other products you use daily: paper towels, toilet papers, coffee filters, tampons, paper napkins. These products are bleached using dangerous chemicals, most likely chlorine bleach. Bleached items are surely bad for our environment, and possibly also for our health.

Solution: Get rid of these bleached products and go green, use environmentally friendly alternatives. You can change paper napkins to ones made from clothes, and also you can choose toilet paper that is easy to recycle, etc.

Blue light

As part of the home detox process, it is recommended to do a blue light detox or screen detox as well. The blue light coming from your devices (smartphone, tablet, TV, computer, LED lights) slows down the release of the hormone melatonin, the hormone often called the sleep hormone, particularly when watching it at night before bedtime. The blue light can also cause digital eye strain that has many symptoms: blurry vision, headache, irritated and dry eyes, lack of deep sleep, neck/back pain, problems with concentration, etc.

Solution: Try to minimize the exposure to artificial blue light at least 30 minutes before bed (ideally 60 + minutes). Do a blue light detox by reducing screen time, wearing blue light filtering glasses, or downloading a blue light filter app on your phone or device.

EMF signals

Your electronic devices (cellphones, computers, Wi-Fi routers, microwaves, etc.) create electronic and magnetic fields (EMFs). When you are exposed to these EMFs chronically, you are possibly putting your health at risk. We are not sure about how EMF exposure affects the human body, but some studies show that it can cause mood disorders and sleep problems.

Solution: Try to reduce the usage of your electronic devices. Keep electronics out of your room at night or turn them on airplane mode. Keep your Wi-Fi router at least 5 feet from bedrooms and consider turning it off at night. Lastly, use headphones when using your cell phone to make a call to keep it way from your skull.

Other Random Sources of Toxin Exposure

Outside of these more obvious household items, here are a few other items that you might consider reducing exposure to with your home detox:

Receipts (high in BPA)
Pizza boxes
Plugin air fresheners- including unscented and “natural”
Mosquito repellent
Bug killer sprays
Oven cleaner
Pet flea and tick products
Deodorants with aluminum, fragrance, and other synthetic ingredients
Toothpaste with fluoride, flavors, dyes, and more
Plastic shower curtains
Baby products such as high chairs and cribs treated with off-gassing flame retardant
Dry-cleaned clothing
Sunscreens made with oxybenzone

Are you Ready to Start a Home Detox?

This home detox list may have come as a shock to you, or maybe you’re already aware! Either way, the bottom line is that toxins are hidden everywhere if we don’t take the time to pay attention to what we’re purchasing and exposing ourselves too. Thankfully, natural product companies are becoming more common place nowadays. However, never trust a label that says “natural” without looking at the ingredients and doing a little background research on the company.

It’s important to remember that most household products (outside of food) are not required to report all the ingredients in their products. If you are sensitive to chemicals, are experiencing poor health, or want to maximize your health- really know who you’re buying from or even consider making your own products- they’re easier to make than you think. I hope this article helps you feel informed!

Doing a home detox can bring a huge change in your life. You will see that ridding your home of hidden toxins will be beneficial for your health and the environment as well.

Have you ever done a home detox before? What small step can you take today to reduce your chemical exposure?

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The Ultimate Guide to a Home Detox: Ridding Your Home of Hidden Toxins