If the thought of detoxifying your home is overwhelming, you’re not alone.
Tonya Harris, a Campton Hills resident and mom of three purged her entire home once she started researching the long-term effects ingredients in food and products she used on the regs could potentially have on her family's collective health.
When her children began to experience attention issues and learning disabilities, Tonya was driven to learn more and educate herself about using nutrition to help the body heal.
Like any driven mama on a mission to make life better for her kids, Tonya went back to school to get a Master’s degree and Board Certification in Holistic Nutrition so she could understand how toxic chemicals affect the body.
Further inspired by her own health journey as a childhood leukemia survivor, Tonya founded Slightly Greener, a podcast and online community offering women simple tips to reduce toxins without turning their family’s lifestyle upside-down.
In Tonya’s book, the Slightly Greener Method, she offers readers a practical approach to detoxifying our homes - without losing our minds and our budgets.
A pressure-free way to create a healthier home, Tonya’s approach is - “It’s not about perfection. It’s about creating a lifestyle that works for you.”
Interested in going slightly greener? Try these three simple and stress-free steps from Tonya:
The 80/20 Rule
"If you can buy safer products 80% of the time, then you don’t have to worry so much about the other 20% of the time when you don’t have control, or say you’re at an event, or even if you just want to treat yourself.
This can also apply to sticking to a budget, or when you’re traveling and you forget something and the store doesn’t carry your favorite safer version of that product.
And don’t worry if you can’t do the 80/20. Just start with 50/50 or 60/40, whatever works for you, your budget and lifestyle."
Find Dealbreaker Ingredients
"The second tip is to find your deal-breaker ingredients.
This is my favorite rule because it’s really what made shopping become automatic and easy for me when I first started out. Because a deal-breaker ingredient is just what it sounds like.
In terms of toxic ingredients, it means as soon as you see this ingredient name on a label, you know this product is not right for you."
Choose Your Top 2
"The third way to detoxify your home without losing your mind and your budget is to choose your top two. This means choosing your top two, or even your top one, most used, most consumed toxic products and replacing those first.
I recommend starting in the kitchen, then moving on to your personal care products and cosmetics, and then onto your cleaning products, because I believe that these are the three main areas of your home where you can see the quickest impact."
Follow Tonya on your favorite social or podcasting platform.
This article was originally featured in the 2023 MDW Holiday Gift Guide.
