It seems that once your body's systems are overloaded by one chemical, you become more sensitive to other chemicals as well. The ideal option is to remove all contact with all chemicals, but this might be impractical, especially in the long term. You can however minimize contact with many offending chemical concoctions by replacing them with less harmful "green" alternatives.

 The first thing to do is take a good look at all the chemicals in your home. Go through every room and get all the bottles, cans and boxes of chemicals and put then on the counter in the kitchen; don’t forget the laundry. If you are like most people you will be amazed at the collection you have built up.

Now have a good look at you pile of chemicals and locate any that you just do not need. These could be items you purchased that you have decided do not work, or items you purchased due to some slick advertising, but that you have never really found a use for. I once did this project with a person and found that they only ever used half of the chemicals that they had in the house. The next step is to get rid of any of those unused chemicals. If you have not been using these chemicals in the recent past, then that is ample evidence that you can do without them.

Now you have to replace all the remaining chemicals with products that are less toxic to human life but still get the job done. It may take you some time to do this as people use different products and have different expectations. For example, I no longer use bleach in my laundry, but then again, I do not expect a sparkling white in my laundry, and, over time, I have replaced my white clothing with natural cotton clothing, which is actually a light cream colour.

Home Made

The basic building block of cleaning products is soap. Pure soap is the best thing you can get if you want to cut out the chemicals and reduce the chemical sensitivity problems in your life, not to mention the great impact you will be having on the environment. Don’t forget if its toxic to you, it is toxic to the environment as well. Soon I will post a simple soap recipe you can begin with. Once made, this soap can be used to wash everything, including yourself. The soap can be cut into bath bar sized pieces, it can be grated and mixed with water to create a liquid, and it can also be grated and added as an ingredient for washing powder.

Commercial Alternatives

Not all of us have the time to make soap so there are commercial alternatives to this. Sunlight makes a good pure soap that is great for cleaning. If you grate the soap and mix it with water you make a liquid that can be added to other ingredients for other cleaning products. If you do not have the time to even grate your own soap, then there is a great product on the market called "Lux, Pure Soap Flakes". This product is a little more expensive, by weight, but sill a money saver when you think about all the money you have been spending on the different cleaning products available today.

Dishwashing Liquid

So now we have to clean the house and we do not have any chemicals to do it with. Lets start with the kitchen. Every day we have to wash the dishes. Begin with a no frills dishwashing liquid you can live with, or make your own with soap flakes, or grated soap and water. I add a few drops of lemon juice when I make my own liquid soap from soap flakes, as it helps to cut the grease.

Surface Cleaner

After the dished are done there are all the other surfaces in the kitchen to clean such as counter tops and the sink area itself. I make a paste out of my liquid soap and Bi Carbonate Soda. Just get a small plate or saucer and mix the two ingredients into a past and use it for all your kitchen surfaces. I use this same paste for the bathroom and toilet. It is slightly abrasive because of the Bi Carbonate Soda, but will do no damage to your enamel surfaces.

Another product that causes a great amount of problems with both in chemical sensitivity and pollution of the environment is clothes washing powders and liquids. No mater how well you rinse your clothes out, some of the chemicals in these products are going to remain in the clothes and, therefore, are going to be in direct contact with your skin. A great replacement you can make yourself, for less than most commercial products on the market, is a simple three-part recipe.

Remember that there is no bleach in this homemade product and you can not expect to get the super white you get with bleach. You have to decide what is important to you and add bleach if you must. My advise is don’t do it. Living green is about changing you life style and this is one of those changes that may take a little getting used to. As I mentioned earlier, bright while features less and less in my wardrobe, and natural cotton, which is a cream, colour is on the rise.

Someone trying out the new homemade laundry powder once told me that she missed the perfumed smell of her laundry. Unfortunately that same perfume was creating her skin problems and it had to go. My recommendation for fresh smelling clothing is an old as the hills. Make lavender satchels and place them in your draws with your clothing and hang them in the wardrobe with your hanging cloths. There are a few other herbs that people like as well if you prefer, rosemary is excellent or even cinnamon sticks.

Laundry Stain Remover

Stain removing in the laundry is always a problem, especially if you have kids. There are several good books on the market on how to get just about any stain out of anything. I recommend getting a book that promotes natural stain removal solutions. One of the best things I have found is a mixture of Bi Carbonate Soda and lemon juice. I rub this mixture into a stain and leave it. I do this to my daughter Angela’s while school uniform shirts and it works wonders.

Even if you used the above methods most of the time and then only occasionally compromised and reverted to a chemical solution when nothing natural seemed to work, you would still be making a huge difference in your chemical exposure and consumption. That reduction in chemical exposure will have a direct effect on the "Chemical Sensitivity" levels for yourself, and the reduction in chemical consumption will help the environment as well.

I have with time become less sensitive to cleaning chemicals that even a few months ago would have "set me off", but does this mean that I am going to start using them again ??? Heck NO, I am hoping, or at least my brother is hoping that I won't react as bad as I did 12 months ago to ordinary acrylic house paint, as we have more renovations coming. In the meantime I am staying away from as many chemicals as possible, hoping that my body will settle down and I won't have to live in a tent during the painting.