The Living List

Cleaning Products

• All-purpose sprays; multi-surface:
  • Branch Basics
  • Thieves
  • Aunt Fannie’s Cleaning Vinegar
  • Meliora
  • Glass spray bottles for mixing concentrate cleaning solution with distilled water
  • Dirty jobs: Seventh generation disinfecting spray but trying to get away from this and mostly trusting we don’t need to always sanitize and disinfect!
• Clothing & washer/dryer:
  • Molly’s Suds 
  • Molly’s Suds stain remover 
  • Distilled white vinegar
  • Baking Soda
  • Biokleen Oxy Bleach Plus
  • Branch Basics Oxygen Boost
  • Biokleen Bac-Out stain and odor remover—for very dirty stinky jobs only
• Cleaning washer:
  • Washing Soda
  • Borax
  • Baking Soda
  • Branch Basics Oxygen Boost
• Dishes/kitchen:
  • Planet
  • Ecover zero
  • Molly’s Suds
  • Biokleen dish powder
  • Rosesy dishwasher detergent
• All-around/DIY:
  • Distilled white vinegar
  • Baking Soda
  • Hydrogen peroxide
  • Many simple recipes to make yourself using these basics
• Handsoap:
  • Bronner’s Organic Sugar Soap
  • Everyone
  • Bar soap

Personal Care – Skincare, Makeup, Oral, Kids, etc.

• Avoid: parabens, phthalates, fragrance (essential oils are generally ok), petroleum/mineral oil, aluminum, PFAS/PFCs/PFOAs, PEGs, to name a few big ones.
• Makeup:
  • Ilia
  • Alima Pure
  • Good resource for online shopping beauty is Roots Beauty
• Skincare:
  • DIME Beauty—pregnancy safe, has rewards program and deals
• Shampoo /conditioner:
  • Under Luna—their Luna Clear safe for all ages (from babies up) and in our family we share. A little goes a long way and it lasts for a long time!
• Soap:
  • Bronner’s—however, castile soap like in bronners can be drying and more harsh on skin; tend to avoid regular use especially in winter
  • Goat milk-based soap—we like Bend Soap Co
  • Probiotic soaps—we’ve tried clearwatercultures.com
• Skin, balms, salves and lips:
  • Badger Balm
    • Lip balm I love
  • Earth Mama—safe products such as sensitive skin sunscreen and nipple butter (which we now use as a balm/salve and in place of vaseline).
  • Motherlove—like Earth Mama, lots  of non-toxic, clean safe products for pregnancy, postpartum, mama and baby.
• Deodorants—Aluminum free natural:
  • Native
  • Crystal
  • TOMS
• Lotions:
  • Bronner’s—uses coconut oil; I like to avoid seed oils in lotions
• Toothpaste/Oral care
  • Primal Life Organics
    • Toothbrushes: We also have their electric toothbrushes and charcoal bristle bamboo toothbrushes, both of which are great for kids too!
  • Bronner’s
  • Biocidin Botanicals Dentalcidin—available on Fullscript with our exclusive discount
  • Designs for Health PerioBiotic Silver—available on Fullscript with out exclusive discount
  • Young Living Thieves

Kitchen, Cookware and Food Storage

• Cooking:
  • Stainless steel—pots, pans, cookie sheets and muffin tins
    • All-Clad
    • Calphalon
  • Ceramic
    • Xtrema—we got their 10 quart pot to replace a crockpot
  • Enameled cast iron
    • Le Crueset Dutch oven
  • Cast iron
  • Glass pyrex
    • Great for non-toxic baking
  • Loaf pans
    • We have glass, cast iron, SS (we use a variety)
• Food storage, accessories, cups, etc
  • Glass
    • Snapware, yes they have plastic lids but not worrying about it 😉
    • Pyrex for cooking and storage (larger volume meals, etc)
  • Stainless steel
    • Munchkin —for kids snack cups, drinking cups
    • Hydroflask—SS drinkware (too many athletes use plastic too often!)
      • my fave water bottle for everywhere I go (and I’ve tried a lot of bottles through the years)
      • Kids bottles are great and well-made
    • Yeti—another option for SS drinkware
      • my all-time fave coffee mug for home and travel
      • Jr bottle is also something we have and love
    • PlanetBox
      • We have the Rover classic
    • Bentgo
      • We have the kids stainless steel box and use interchangeably with Planetbox
    • JaceBox
      • SS food storage that we bought during our vanlife era when glass was too heavy and bulky
    • Kitchen Aid accessories
      • Often they include aluminum or paint-coated with appliances, we upgraded to SS for our stand mixer, which is something we use all the time
  • Silicone, natural wood, bamboo—great non-toxic alternatives to plastic and when you prefer to avoid SS or breakable/fragile materials.
    • Kitchen utensils, eg tongs, spatula, wood spoon/spatula
    • Baby/toddler plates (wee sprout)
    • Baby feeding sets
    • Storage, lids, etc.
    • Salt container
    • Fruit bowls
    • Molds
    • Even baking!
  • SodaStream—DIY carbonated water with glass bottles
  • Mason jars
    • We use these for everything! All shapes and sizes (wide-mouth preferred); big glass jugs for bulk storage, liquids, general drinking glasses, etc.

Water

• Aquasana shower filter
• Drinking water (options we’ve used or are considering):
  • Premier RO system
  • SpringAqua
  • Pristine Hydro

Home Goods & Healthy Home Environment

• A Healthier Home by Shawna Holman
• Look for OEKO-TEX label for cleaner items that have been tested for and are free of harmful substances
  • There are different levels and categories of this but it’s overall becoming more widely prevalent making non-toxic more mainstream and accessible
• GOTS for top of the line
• Natural materials like wool, cotton (over synthetics, polyester, etc)
• Air filters:
  • Air Doctor
• Rugs—try to get those without backing, made with more natural fibers (e.g. cotton, wool, jute)

Avoid

• Air fresheners, plug-in air fresheners
• Scented candles, go for beeswax and if needing scent EOs
• Plastic liners in crockpots or cooking anything
• Foil—use parchment paper instead, good for baking up to 420-450 deg F; or butcher paper
• Plastic wraps, try beeswax wrap!