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Money, as I think we all realize, has no value in and of itself. Money can not feed you, shelter you or clothe you. Unless you burn it in a fire, it won’t keep you warm, and I doubt it burns well.

There are only four things that money can buy — possessions, services, experiences and feelings.

So Just What CAN Money Buy?

Money Can Buy Possessions

Money can buy cars, clothes, homes and food.

It can buy all of the “stuff” that modern society tells us we need – iPhones and game systems, SUVs and McMansions.

However, it can also buy the necessities of life – and shelter, clothing and food are certainly necessities.

Money can not buy you security, belonging or self-esteem.

Clichéd as it may be, money can not buy us love. Money can help us meet our basic needs. After that, though, it is time to start looking at the other things for which we exchange money.

Money Can Buy Services

There are some services that most of us would consider basic needs.

In our oil-based economy, electricity and phone service are necessary.

Child care for those who work is necessary and most people can’t get it for free.

Taxes (which is an exchange of money for services) is a necessity, unless we want some free room and board courtesy of the government.

Insurance is frequently necessary.

Are all services a necessity?

There are times when paying for restaurant service is necessary.

There are times – for example, when paying $100 per plate at an exclusive restaurant – when you are not paying for a possession (food) or a service (cooking and cleaning up), you are buying, or attempting to buy, a feeling.

Again, there are people who hire housekeepers because they are paying for a service (cleaning), and there are others who are perfectly capable of cleaning their own homes but are attempting to buy a feeling.

Money Can Buy Experiences

Money can buy experiences.

Vacations, good food, quality time with friends.

These can be a good use of money.

Many people overpay, though, by not clearly identifying their purpose. There is no guarantee that the experience is worth the money spent.

Are you truly looking for an experience, or are you actually looking for the feelings that you will attach to that experience?

Money Can Buy Feelings Indirectly

In the end, the first three come back to feelings.

Belonging, love, security – money does not buy these directly.

By buying possessions, services and experiences, we generate feelings. It is possible to spend a little and get lots of good feelings and memories or spend a lot without getting them.

When you spend money, identify the possessions, services and experiences that you are acquiring, and decide whether or not the feelings generated by these are worth the price that you are paying.

Sometimes the answer will be yes, and sometimes it will be no, but that answer will be different for every one of us.

Maximize feelings and minimize spending.

Years ago, I read an article about the four things that money buys, and I forgot to write down the source. I took notes, in very, very simple point form, and this is the recreated version, written from notes I took well over a decade ago.

If it seems familiar to you and you know the piece from which I took the notes, please let me know! I’d love to give credit where it’s due.

A composting toilet seems like the very best answer to off grid living. Are they really? An honest – and graphic – review of our experiences with a pricey waterless toilet in our off grid home. Here is our BTS-33 Toilet Review.

Planning to buy an off grid toilet but you’re concerned about the price?

There are limited options when you are living off grid, and it’s hard to find an honest, unpaid compost toilet review.

We bought an expensive waterless non-electric toilet in the belief that it was the best option for our cabin since we had limited electricity and water.  Perhaps I can save you some time and money because this …. this review is definitely honest.

Give me a moment while I remove my rubber gloves and put away the bleach, and then I will review the BTS-33 Composting Toilet by Biolet.

** The BTS-33 is no longer sold on their website. I have no knowledge of the newer versions. **

When I was looking for a toilet for our off-grid cabin, I found many, many people who had this on their Pinterest wishlist but no one who had actually reviewed it after use. I should have been warned.

If you’re grossed out by the mention of feces, urine, maggots and other related stuff, you might want to stop reading this off-grid toilet review.

Have you learned how to make lavender soap yet? Nothing gross there.

And there will be some gross talk about poop, too, AND pictures of maggots. That’s a important part of the disclaimer for this post.

This is a LONG post – I had a lot to say about this toilet. You’re being warned. Almost 5000 words.

The specific composting toilet that I talk about here seems to be no longer available. After the first time this post went viral, the company removed it – and all mention of it – from their site.

There are a number of different ways to collect and dispose of human feces (and sometimes urine). Most likely, you can think of more, but just off the top of my head, I have come up with a list of six and ranked them based on ease and enjoyment of use.

Portajohn

The portajohn has come a long way.

I just got off the phone with someone who services them, and I was quite surprised. Government regulations (at least here in Canada) mean that portajohns must meet a high level of cleanliness. No insects and no smell – they must be emptied every other week. I asked about chemicals, and they are only used for odour, not for treating the waste.

As for the waste itself, it is taken to a sewage treatment site, so it is essentially exactly the same as a flush toilet but without the water waste. That’s why I rank it as the first. Exactly like a flush toilet but it doesn’t use water. Awesome.

Okay, it’s outdoors, so maybe it should lose points for that.

Flush toilet

Honestly, who can complain about the modern flush toilet?

This is the gold standard of toilets when it comes to convenience and ease of use. The only real problem is that it requires a frightful amount of water to do something as basic as wash away our urine and feces.

Seriously.

Granted, no one ever likes cleaning the toilet and it is hard to reach behind it, but it certainly can be scrubbed clean.

I have never heard of insect problems with a flush toilet.

Any problems tend to be water leaking, drain backups, or the flush not working properly.

Standard composting toilet

By this I mean the composting toilets that use really amazing technology to perform the same job as the flush toilet – that is, they make our waste disappear – but they also turn our waste into usable compost.

Some of them have rotating drums like outdoor compost bins. Some have a urine diverting system so that it never mixes with feces. The ones I’ve used in the past had inner lids that kept the solid waste covered and hidden when no one is sitting there.

Really, they have come up with some really ingenious ways to quickly compost human waste.

The problem, though, is that the self-contained composting toilets are designed for a single person or couple, and the large, family-sized ones require a tank in the basement.

These all use some kind of electricity since they are really not designed for an off-grid family. I found none of these fancy ones that, according to the manufacturers, were suitable for our family. All required a steady flow of electricity, or a basement tank, or they could not handle more than two people full time.

Outhouse

Really, it is just an outdoor bucket that is not easily emptied and cleaned.

Flies and odour are known issues, and no one really enjoys using them.

Granted, they don’t have to be disgusting, and a well-maintained outhouse is not a bad thing at all. However, they are pretty cold in the middle of winter, a night time trip means mosquitoes where you don’t want them and, really, how many people actually take good care of them? (I’ve been in a few. Blech!) And then there is the problem that the sewage isn’t being treated, composted or anything – it’s just being buried in a deep pit. That’s not the best option environmentally.

The best thing you can say about the outhouse is that it is outdoors, away from any dwelling, so it is kept away from where you eat and sleep.

Bucket system

As much as I disliked the bucket system, which we used from January 2015 until June 2015, the biggest problem is hauling the buckets out to the dump site. No one wants to do that, especially when the snow or rain is coming down hard.

However, a well-maintained bucket system actually has little smell and the buckets are easily cleaned with a bit of bleach, hot water and a toilet brush. We had people visiting our home when we were using the bucket system and no one noticed a strange smell.

Cathole in the ground and small shovel

This is the standard “poop in the woods” system and it works. The trick is to bury your waste.

However, I’d rather use an outhouse than go in the woods.

Honestly, I would have once considered this the least pleasant and least convenient option. About twenty years ago, I picked up a bacterial infection from going in the woods during the fall – peeing on a pile of decaying leaves.

My doctor said that bacteria can travel both ways along the urine stream, so expect that anything you are urinating on is actually touching your genitals.

That has made me very cautious about going in the woods or any other bacteria-laden place (and it meant that I emptied and cleaned our buckets often!)

I know – this is a LONG post. If you’re thinking about getting a composting toilet, you might want to read it through, though, since it will give you ideas on what to look for.

Biolet’s BTS-33 Composting Toilet

Perhaps I’m not feeling particularly generous, and I’ll admit that I am not very calm. To be fair, though, I spent an hour and seventeen minutes ranting to a sympathetic friend before I started writing this toilet review.

So I’m calmer than I was an hour and seventeen minutes ago.

Yes, the BTS-33 Waterless Toilet is at the very bottom of my list at this moment. By “waterless toilet”, they mean “composting toilet”, of course.

At this very moment, a cathole in the woods seems better. This is a long post, but I think you’ll find it’s worth the read.

As an important note – you can’t buy one anymore.

Biolet has removed the product from their website and scrubbed all references to it. I’m guessing I wasn’t the only unhappy customer. They still have self-contained composting toilets that use electricity. Keep reading if you’re considering getting one of their electric toilets – this toilet review also has a few things to say about their customer service.

Installing The Biolet BTS-33

We chose the Biolet BTS-33 composting toilet because the company representative assured me repeatedly that:

•  yes, it could accommodate our entire family, as long as we used an extra bin (and so we got an extra two, just to make sure, at a cost of $100 each),
• no, their composting toilet did not require electricity or water and
• yes, it would work.

I had multiple long conversations with them ahead of time to verify that the toilet would work in our off-grid cabin.

Well, for $1050, I expected it to do something pretty impressive.

And I had a stupid moment and never once registered (until it showed up on my credit card) that $1050 is a lot more when converted from American to Canadian dollars. The composting toilet was getting pricey, so expectations were high.

This would solve all of our off-grid toilet needs.

The following quotes were taken from the BTS-33 specific user manual, which they have since removed from their site.

Rated at 4 people full-time use and 6 people part-time use, the BTS 33’s capacity can be increased by adding optional composting bins. Each bin increases the capacity of the system by 2-3 people. Biolet Website

We installed it with the help of a very experienced retired contractor – my dad – to make sure it was in correctly. In fact, that’s part of the delay – we waited to install it until we had someone on hand who knew what he was doing.

As with all toilets sold by BioLet Toilet Systems the BTS 33 is “easy to install by anyone with basic handyman knowledge in just a couple hours with common household tools”.

Dad is better than “anyone” and he has a pretty impressive collection of tools. The website, by the way, mentions a few times that the waterless, non-electric toilet is easy to install.

It was definitely installed correctly.

However, nothing that goes through the wall or the roof is an easy install.

Just sayin’.

When we installed Biolet’s BTS-33 Composting Toilet, I held off on posting a review because, quite honestly, I was underwhelmed.

The toilet went in, my father left, I looked at EJ and I said, “It’s a big, fancy bucket.”

“Well … there’s a vent pipe and drain tube. Buckets don’t have that. And it looks nice.”

Yup. He’s right. They don’t. Although they could, if you wanted to rig that up.

And – it does. The toilet bowl looks very pretty, especially since he put down new tile during installation, greatly improving our little bathroom.

However, I admit that I expected it to be more than, well, a pretty bucket bolted to the floor.

First impression – it’s a bucket I can’t easily empty (outhouse!), bolted to the bathroom floor, that is INSIDE my house.

We slipped the urine tube into our septic pipe so that liquid waste goes to the septic system, while solid waste gets turned into nice, healthy compost eventually. Right? Right?

Hurray for not burying all of our waste! After all, that’s why we were installing a composting toilet – a very, very expensive composting toilet, so that we could compost our waste and use it for fertilizing trees and such.

What I wasn’t expecting was that I’d the compost pile in my bathroom.

Hey, don’t stop now. My no-holds-barred toilet review is just getting good. Or gross. Good and gross? Let’s compromise on interesting.

My Questions and Concerns Regarding the Biolet Toilet

Still, I had nagging questions. Some of them are probably occurring to you, too. Am I right? Come on and keep reading for the rest of this crazy experience.

Like – is urine truly going to follow the suggested path instead of pooling at the bottom of the large, immovable base?

And – how exactly is an open bucket full of feces and urine supposed to not stink?

I have used composting toilets in the past and it wasn’t an open bucket – there was an inner lid, like in airplane toilets. Other composting toilets have drums that you rotate manually just like garden compost bins. This had nothing like that. No inner lid, no rotating drum, just an open bucket.

Its proven batch composting system combined with constant air circulation proves an excellent solution to almost any situation.

In case you’re wondering what “proven batch composting system” is, it means that you collect a bunch of stuff and THEN move it somewhere else to complete the composting process, after you’ve collected enough of it.

So it sits in your bathroom until an appropriate amount as been gathered – which means several weeks.

And – shouldn’t there be something diverting the urine so it doesn’t mix with the feces? Because that … that isn’t going to smell good if the urine has to seep through feces and mulch to reach the drain pipe.

I’ve raised animals – dried out poop doesn’t stink nearly as much as poop and pee mixed together.

And sitting for weeks – let’s not forget sitting for weeks.

And – how often am I supposed to clean this, and exactly how am I supposed to do it? It’s not going to be as easy as lifting the lid and seat on a regular toilet.

And – won’t there be urine underneath the composting tray at all times? A standing puddle of urine in the bottom is not going to be a good thing.

Equipped with a convenient drain tube, the BTS 33 drains off any excess liquids to an auxiliary container, French drain or leach field. Since liquids are not a limiting factor, the BTS 33 will allow for applications where a larger capacity may be needed.

That means it will hold more poop because the pee is supposed to defy gravity and flow off outside.

It does not. But that what they say it should do.

Using The BTS-33

At any rate, we followed the directions and put down a 2” layer of mulch.

In for a penny, in for a pound. Okay, far more than a pound.

The price tag on this state-of-the-art composting toilet was $1,549, but on sale for $1049, plus $200 for the two extra bins. (It’s a longstanding sale, by the way, because it’s been listed that way for nearly two years …. just lower your price already.) That’s US dollars, by the way, so with the two extra bins it came out to something a bit over $1800 CDN.

“Did we check the price of this mulch, dear? Because this much at the bottom and then a half cup every time someone poops – we’re going to go through this stuff pretty quickly.”

So I checked. $39 USD for the 8 gallon bag bag, which “will last 2 people using a unit full-time for approximately 3 – 4 months”.

Oh, wait – there are five of us. I don’t like that math.

Now, the people using the toilet in our home right now are EJ, me, a 7 year old boy, a 5 year old girl and a 2 year old girl. Give the baby a year and she’ll be using it, too. (Edit: make that six months.)

The directions said to add 1/2 cup of that very expensive peat moss mixture after each fecal movement “or 1 quart per person per week”.

With only 32 quarts in the bag, and about 2 quarts added at the beginning, it was looking like we’d be replacing that bag every 5-6 weeks. Oh, dear.

This is looking like it will be costing us about $10 per week. Not for toilet paper or cleaning products, but just for stuff that makes the toilet work.

Over $500 a year just to use the toilet?

According to them, using anything other than their special blend, which includes Canadian sphagnum peat moss (because “ALL PEAT MOSS IS NOT THE SAME”), will introduce insects and cause the toilet to work poorly.

That is important to note, by the way.

Anyway, what was with “or 1 quart per person per week”? Did they mean to let everything build up, open feces with nothing at all covering it, and only add the bulking agent once a week?

We were starting to see some real problems with this composting toilet.

Immediate Problems with the Composting Toilet

Swallow your bile, folks, we went with 1/2 cup after after fecal movement. And then sometimes a little more because … well, because it really was an open bucket and it quickly started to smell.

Let’s make it a little more vivid.

Some of the provincial parks have outhouses, and by the end of September, they desperately need to be cleaned or buried or whatever it is they do with the outhouses at the end of a busy season. The pile is sometimes so close it almost touches your bottom.

That’s the feeling I was getting with this toilet. Composting toilet, hm?

Bucket of rotting poop in my bathroom.

“I’m sitting a foot above everyone’s poop from yesterday. And it still looks and smells like poop.” The little sprinkle of peat moss does little to disguise the fact that there’s a pile of smelly poop just under your bottom. A half cup isn’t much, remember.

I don’t care how much you love your husband. You don’t want to sit on the toilet with his poop right there under a sprinkle of peat moss.

After the second day, the composting toilet began to stink.

No. I mean really, really stink.

The bathroom window was opened wide because the smell was unbearable otherwise. We tried scented candles, but I forgot that chemical scents and I do not get along well.

No one can accuse me of being squeamish. I’m a mom with lots of kids, so I’ve dealt with diapers, vomit, nosebleeds, and more. I’ve lived in small spaces with multiple people and limited water. I managed with a bucket system for six months.

Honestly – the buckets, with a lid, changed daily (and sometimes more often) did not actually smell bad. People could come into my house and they wouldn’t know unless we told them.

The BTS-33 manual warns not to have the window open because that will cause it to smell. (The stink came first!) It seems that almost anything can throw off the way that stink vent works, including an open bathroom window.

Let’s really let this register – if you install a BTS-33 composting toilet, you are never supposed to open the bathroom window or have a fan or exhaust in the bathroom.

Better hope you don’t have a moisture issue in that tiny room filled with …. hot, steamy water, as of course bathrooms are wont to be.

“Perhaps it needs time to settle into its compostiness?” I asked EJ. “…. Does that mean we put up with a couple of weeks of stench every time we change the bucket thing? This thing smells bad.”

Finally, after ten days of putting up with the reek of this disgusting pseudo-toilet, I had had enough.

In a full-time residential setting, the compost bin should be emptied when the bin is about 3/4 the way full or once every six months.

Ten days. That’s close enough to six months, right? This has to get out of my house.

When a compost bin fills, the manual tells us, just remove the bin and move it outside for further composting and place the next bin inside the unit.

Anytime someone tells you to “just” do something, run. It is never going to be a simple task. If you have a strong stomach, keep reading. This is when the **it gets real.

Changing The Bin

REALLY GROSS PICTURES AHEAD!!!

In order to change the bin or clean inside, the entire top of the composting toilet must be removed, and it is pretty large and awkward.

I removed it and placed it in the bathtub (yes, it’s that large), put the lid on the composting bin without really looking at anything, and carried it through the kitchen and outside.

The manual tells us – Use a sponge or sponge style toilet brush and liquid soap or some other mild detergent when cleaning your BTS 33.

The composting bin, it should be noted, leaked a delightful mixture of urine and liquid feces as I walked through my bathroom and kitchen. Gee, how did I see that coming? There are holes in the bottom of the composting bin, after all.

*Insert late night bathroom and kitchen floor washing*

Back in the bathroom, I notice that there are little … lines? Strings? all over the inside of the composting toilet’s base. I look closer and they wiggle.

Maggots. Huge gray maggots.

Oh. My. Goodness.

Blowfly maggots are covering every interior surface of the toilet.

I have pictures  …. this is where you can be happy it’s pictures and you’re not in the room.

The bottom of the base is covered with a disgusting mixture of urine and liquid feces, with maggots swimming in it.

Rubber gloves.

Bleach.

Hot water.

I know, I know, I know – with the urine dripping down to the septic, I just hit my septic tank with a few cups of bleach.

I know.

It’s very bad.

But I don’t really care. Hundreds of blowfly maggots in my bathroom, in my toilet!

It is important to note that we had been using this toilet for ten days.

That’s all.

TEN DAYS.

And we had been using their special moss and everything.

The base of this composting toilet is IMPOSSIBLE to clean completely. It’s like cleaning the water out of a plugged bathtub (except a plugged bathtub full of dead maggots).

Hurray, I’m learning new, earth-friendly ways to kill maggots. That should prove useful … never.

Why isn’t the drain pipe just at the bottom like any other drain pipe ever? It is at the back with a stupid wall around it to prevent everything from going down. It took me hours to get those dead maggots down the drain, and then I had to get a ladle to scoop out the last of it.

Now at least I understand where the flies I couldn’t get rid of were coming from.

Maggots in my toilet.

According to the manual, if I find insects (insects sound so nice, why don’t we call them blowfly maggots and larvae?) inside the composting toilet, I am to hang a “no pest strip” which lists Dichlorvos as the ONLY active ingredient in there. And since “only” really is written in capital letters, they seem pretty serious about it.

Well, um, that doesn’t sound like something I want on my property.

Dichlorvos is an insecticide used on crops, animals, and in pest-strips. Acute (short-term) and chronic (long-term) exposures of humans to dichlorvos results in the inhibition of an enzyme, acetylcholinesterase, with neurotoxic effects including perspiration, vomiting, diarrhea, drowsiness, fatigue, headache, and at high concentrations, convulsions, and coma. No information is available on the reproductive, developmental, or carcinogenic effects of dichlorvos on humans. A study by the National Toxicology Program (NTP) reported an increased incidence of tumors of the pancreas, mammary glands, and forestomach in animals. EPA has classified dichlorvos as a Group B2, probable human carcinogen.

What do you think? I feel bad enough when I use bleach. (And I mean that in two ways – I am cautious and concerned about it, but I also find it physically difficult to be around things like bleach).

So what do I recommend – after living with a bucket system, a toilet we had to flush with a pail and the very expensive BTS-33 Waterless Composting Toilet?

Keep reading to hear my final thoughts on this.

Composting Toilet Review – My Recommendation

Right now, I would not recommend this toilet to anyone, not even if it were free.

I’m disgusted and discouraged.

For less than $100, we could have built a very nice humanure toilet using a couple of easily-changed buckets, with separate buckets for urine and feces, mulched with inexpensive and abundant wood shavings. A cheap composting toilet that could be easily emptied and thoroughly cleaned.

That would be my recommendation if you can’t run a standard electric compost toilet system (which would have a separate, not-in-your-bathroom composting chamber).

A humanure toilet won’t look as pretty, but:
a) you can change it daily,
b) you can use any bulking agent you like and/or have available
c) it won’t cost you *thousands* of dollars
d) a lid on the bucket will keep flies out
e) easy to separate urine and feces
f) easy to clean

Follow Up

Sleep finally overwhelmed my disgust at 3am, but at least the bathroom was clean, with the offending bin outside.

The next day was Inspect The Toilet day.

As far as we can tell, everything is installed correctly.

We added the 2” of bulking agent again, with a new bin in the very clean base, hung more fly strips in the bathroom, and are diverting urine directly to the septic pipe. I still feel that mixing urine and feces is a bad idea and that the urine is what attracts the flies. EJ put a screen over the stink vent as that was the only reasonable way the flies got in.

After two days, I checked – no maggots yet.

On day four, no maggots, but I woke with the stench of sewage through my house again. I opened the toilet top to check and gagged on the smell.

A phone call to the company’s customer service department was painful.

We must have installed it incorrectly, they insisted.

Except that we didn’t. This is not rocket science, their own website says that “anyone” can install it with a few common tools, and my father has built multiple houses.

He continually asked me if we had used “90 degree elbows” to vent it outdoors.

I said, “We used ONLY what came in the box.” Those were 45 degree elbows.

Well, we still must have installed it wrong. Stupid pipe goes out the back of the toilet, through the wall and up. As I said, not rocket science.

Right now, it seems that we might need more pipes for the stink pipe, to make it higher than the highest point of our house (which would be the chimney). And we need to buy the pipes, of course. (Rememeber how expensive the toilet was?)

Or perhaps we need an electric fan attached to our non-electric toilet. Which we would need to buy, along with a solar panel and battery to run it.

Or maybe, because it’s so windy here in Nova Scotia, we need a special wind directional cap, which they sell for only $99 USD.

“It’s like being a scientist!” he says. “Trial and error until you figure it out.”

“Great,” I replied. “And in the meantime, your disgusting toilet is costing me a lot of money and stinking up my house.”

“Oh, it’s a good toilet. We have them installed all over the world.”

People all over the world have low standards, and this company needs better customer service.

As I said, they’ve removed this toilet, and all mention of it, from their website.

The one good thing about the conversation is that he admitted that the only really necessary parts of the bulking agent are peat moss and wood shavings. The rest “makes it a superior product”.

Today I removed the bin again. It was full and heavy – no, nothing dehydrates, it just piles up. EDIT: after about a month outdoors, the contents shrink by about half.

It leaked, too, just like last time, so I once again cleaned liquid feces off my floor. Since there are holes in the bottom of the bin, when you carry them across your kitchen floor and out the door, liquid feces drips everywhere.

And, wouldn’t you know, there were maggots. Not as many as last time, but still plenty.

This time I didn’t panic – boiling water kills them, too. They don’t like straight vinegar much, either.

Hurray, I’m learning earth-friendly ways to kill maggots. There’s a useful life skill.

We now have two full bins outside which are not going to biodegrade anytime soon, one in the composting toilet and only one left. At this rate, we’ll be switching out for the fourth one in less than two weeks.

In the meantime, we received a bill today from Fedex – $262 CAD for customs and duties. And we’re completely out of their proprietary bulking agent.

Where’s the shovel? I’m heading to the woods.

EDIT – In the spring, BEARS are attracted to this pile of non-composting poop and toilet paper. Be warned. It’s kind of disgusting and dangerous. So I never discovered how long it takes to decompose.

EDIT – After we moved out of the cabin and left the toilet bin alone for SIX MONTHS, it still was sitting there looking like a pile of poop and toilet paper. Six months after that, in the late summer, it was a pile of poop and paper with abundant insect activity.

To wrap up – I am extremely unimpressed with the BTS-33 Composting Toilet.

The proprietary bulking agent is expensive and unsustainable.

The design of the base means that a urine overflow causes a disgusting mess that attracts flies and is difficult to clean. Any toilet that relies on dichlorvos to prevent a fly infestation is not eco-friendly.

And one final, nitpicky issue.

They designed the toilet to look like a regular toilet. The problem, though, is that the bumps and grooves and indentations on a regular toilet all have a purpose.

With the BTS-33, the only purpose I can see is making the composting toilet harder to clean. The back is too low to lean back against, so why is it there except to collect dirt? There are ridges around the outside of the base that simply …. collect dirt.

The people who design these things should have to spend a month cleaning them.

P.S. I really hate this composting toilet.

• $1830 CAD
• $262 customs/duties
• $32 for a 6′ length of pipe to extend the stink chimney
• either an electric fan or a turbine vent or a wind directional vent.

At least wood shavings are free because I’m not paying $39 USD for their “proprietary blend”. Oddly enough, it stinks less with plain wood shavings!

Have you ever thought have keeping livestock in your backyard? Depending on where you live, it might be a real option.

More and more, cities and towns are allowing people to have small flocks of chickens, for example. With a few chickens, you can have fresh eggs daily, and you can even have organic, free range meat for a lot less money than buying it from the store.

But what if your zoning is less restrictive? Where we are, just ten minutes outside of town, we fall into “county” zoning, which means that we can have small backyard livestock, and my children are already making plans to get us back into meat-raising.

But what livestock are suitable when you don’t live on a farm?

Raise Sheep if You Have a BIG Backyard

This won’t work on your typical quarter acre lot, but maybe you have a larger property? Many people in semi-rural areas do. While they’re not your typical backyard livestock, they might be just what you need.

My great-grand-grandfather’s will left “twenty-five sheep and the chickens” to his daughter who was raising a son on her own. I thought it was strange until my dad pointed out just how valuable an inheritance that was – it meant food, clothing, and income.

If you have at least an acre of open land, plus a few acres of woods, you can raise sheep for wool, milk and meat. A flock of eight to ten should be more than enough for a family, with plenty to spare.

You do need the right climate for sheep – it can’t be too hot in the summertime. That’s why they do so well in cool climates like the Canadian Maritimes. Sheep are great foragers and not nearly as inclined to spontaneously die as goats.

And here’s my confession time, something you definitely don’t know about me. When I was about three or four, I climbed into the sheep pen of people my parents were visiting. Yes, I was a curious child. I’m not totally sure how old I was, but I was shorter than the sheep.

Those huge, terrifying, and very smelly creatures chased me relentlessly around the pen while I screamed in fright. After an eternity, my parents rescued me. I assumed their laughter was some sort of charm to scare off the monsters.

And I’m still scared of sheep. I like goats much better.

Laying Hens are Perfect Small Backyard Livestock

If you can build protective pens, and have plenty of room for them to lay eggs in the chicken coop, you can raise hens for eggs.

A family of four to six can keep about 14 hens to keep them in eggs most of the year with plenty to spare.

Not only will you have eggs, but you’ll also have fewer bugs and plenty of compost for your garden. Each hen will lay about one egg a day when healthy.

Become a Bee Keeper

You may not have thought of bees as backyard livestock, but it’s still something even people with the smallest yards might consider. They might not be for you if you’re allergic to bee stings, though.

You can easily set up a backyard hive and what’s great is that they do not require a lot of upkeep to get over 100 pounds of honey each year. If you know how much honey costs, this is a tremendous savings over the cost of about 500 dollars to get started with your backyard hive.

A good side effect of keeping bees is that you’re helping the environment which is short of honey bees. The more bee keepers we have the better, as plants need honey bees to live.

Raise Some Rabbits

Even people with small yards and lots of restrictions can often get away with raising rabbits.

You don’t need a lot of space, and all you have to do is keep them clean and fed.

They reproduce fast so once you get started you can get about 80 pounds of meat each year. You can also sell their pelts that are used on coats and for other purposes, or you can use them to make things like fur blankets and mittens.

Getting started is inexpensive, but it can be time consuming with cleaning the cages, protecting them from predators and controlling the expansion of your litters.

Grow Some Pigs

Using scraps from your garden and kitchen you can turn your investment in one or two hogs into a great meat yield each year. Okay, you might need a bit more – but pig feed is still inexpensive and you can certainly supplement with leftover bread from a local bakery and some foraging.

Buy them as weanlings each year and raise until full sized (about 200-250 pounds). You’ll need to keep them fed and watered, of course. Good food for your pigs will translate directly into better quality meat.

Check with your state, city and county regulations before embarking on any of these suggestions. Each area has its own rules and regulations. It’s best to know for sure about permission before you waste any time or money on the project. Being self-sufficient can happen right in your own back yard if you know what to do.

Fifteen commonly used disposable items that you can replace with eco-friendly permanent reusable products and stop buying.

Have you ever wondered how to make reusable products that replace the disposables that normal, hygienic people usually use?

Have you found yourself searching the stores for reusable paper towel only to stomp home in frustration?

Here, my friends, is the ultimate list of how to find these mind-blowing new 😛products – reusable versions of every day disposable items.

Disposable Items to Stop Buying

Who knew that so much was made that didn’t need to be tossed after each use?

Reusable versions of products that are properly – hygienically – decently – disposable? This must be the work of those strange crunchy granola people, right?

When did they ever come up with these strange ideas?

You know what I’m talking about, right? Ewwww!!

Hang on, my friend, I’m going to rock your socks.

This post is also packed full of sarcasm and snark. Be warned. 😛 (This is an important disclosure!)

Reusable Toilet Paper

Yes, I’m going to go here. It’s probably best to get this one out of the way.

Reusable toilet paper does not exist, no matter how many people talk about it, and if you claim to use it, I don’t want to come to your house. You can’t actually reuse toilet paper.

Come on, wrap your head around washable toilet “paper”. The paper part is, by its very nature, disposable, and that’s a good thing. A very good thing.

In fact, it’s also burnable in the wood stove, and compostable in the compost pile out back.

Do not, please, attempt to reuse your toilet paper.

There is an actual alternative that doesn’t involve paper at all – not even in the name.

It’s generally called Family Cloth.

That’s kind of an unfortunate name, since it brings to mind those nasty shop rag dispensers that are used by everyone. I’m surely not the only one who thinks those are disgusting?

Supposedly the cloth is white. I’ve never seen them white, though. Have you EVER seen shop rags that are white?

Anyway, family cloth does NOT mean one rag that gets passed around for everyone to use. That would be really disgusting.

It means pieces of absorbent, washable cotton cut in pieces ideally about 5″ square.

Small, absorbent face cloths work well. Those cheap ‘baby wash cloths’ that absorb nothing and smear things around, though – they don’t work.

Some families use them for #1, some use them for everything. Treat them just like cloth diapers – toss them in a diaper rinse solution until laundry day, rinse and wash. They can even be hand washed.

The really surprising thing about urine and feces is that they do come off – cloth or your hands – with soap and hot water.

Shocking, isn’t it?

If you’re wondering, we have used Family Cloth. There was no strange odour, no extra illness and, in fact, a reduction in irritation. It’s actually a lot cleaner than toilet paper. Actually, it smelled better than the expensive, waterless, non-electric composting toilet that we used out at the cabin!

However, I will admit that even those who are absolutely Reusable devotees can sometimes shy away from this one.

Hang on, though, there’s more than you ever thought possible!

Reusable Diaper Wipes

Reusable diaper wipes are just wash cloths. Emphasis on … cloth.

Just like Family Cloth, they are pieces of soft cotton cut in squares of a nice size to wash baby bottoms or …. anything else.

They don’t actually need to go in a special container and they can go right into the washing machine like everything else.  If they get particularly poopy, rinse them out before putting them in the wash.

Ewwwww ….. poop!

You can get nice wash cloths made from cotton, and they’re not even terribly expensive. For the price of a box of wipes, get a dozen wash cloths and use them until your child is washing her own bottom.

Reusable Paper Towel

Reusable paper towel is an interesting item. At one time, it was called dish cloths, dish towels, dish rags or simply rags, depending on the use. I suppose we could say that paper towel is amazing because it replaced so many different things, but the fact is that all of those different things are all kind of …. the same thing.

And, believe it or not, there are millions of people still using them every day. Millions of people who haven’t figured out how wonderful and liberating it is to just toss your garbage to … well, to …. to wherever garbage goes …..

The originals are all just rags and cloths made of various materials, generally rough -textured so that they can scrub. And they can be used for almost anything, even those nasty oil spills that can’t be washed out. For those, you use the older ones.

Yes, when dish rags and rags become so ratty and nasty after so much use that you wonder what you can do with them, they can go into a separate marked box and become disposable. (If they’re cotton, and they should be, they are compostable!)

That’s the cool thing about the non-disposable towels – they have a lifespan and can go from bath towel to wash cloth to cleaning rag to disgusting-mess rag.

Paper towels have a lifespan of “wipe and toss”. That is, after all, what they were made for.

DIY: Jessica at 104 Homestead has a very easy tutorial on making Unpaper Towels. Chris, at Jubilee Farms, also has a great post about ditching paper towels.

You can even purchase nice cotton “reusable towels”!

Reusable Dishes

Reusable dishes are, everywhere else in the world, simply called dishes. Plates, cups, bowls and cutlery. They last a very long time – I’m still using dishes that my parents bought me when I left home in 1991.

Why? Well, unfortunately I suffer from what the French call a “surfeit des choices” – too many choices. I stand in front of a dish display and just lose my cool. EJ stops me after a while and says I can’t have them all and since I can’t decide on one, I live and go back home to my old set.

It’s a serious problem, so stop laughing at me. I want a dish closet like some women want a shoe closet.

You can even get reusable versions of styrofoam and paper coffee cups. They’re made of glass, plastic or metal. Insane, isn’t it?

I don’t leave the house without my metal Thermos brand travel mug full of coffee (which I make at home and take with me).  If you have a travel mug and you don’t find that it keeps your coffee/tea/hot chocolate hot, then you need to try this one. Of all the dozens and dozens of travel mugs that I’ve used over the years, I’ve always had a complaint (or six) about them – until this one. (I love my YETI mug but it really doesn’t hold the heat as long and it doesn’t fit in my car’s cup holder)

I can leave my coffee in the car and go to church – three hours later (yea, we socialize after), I can come back to hot coffee. There are no spots for water to get inside. It’s dishwasher-safe. Sixteen ounces is a lot of coffee. It stays cool to the touch. The lid is easy to drink from. In short, Thermos came out with the perfect travel mug.

Reusable Napkins

Reusable napkins are again, a piece of soft cloth. These don’t even need to be washed after each use. Again, you’ll want something cotton and absorbent.

Reusable Diapers

Reusable diapers are ridiculously easy and the only mystery is created by diaper companies (including, to be honest, some cloth diaper makers!). Wrap soft flannel around the wet/poopy areas and wash them out when they are soiled. Yes, there’s the shocker – it’s another piece of cloth.

Okay, maybe there’s more to it than that (although my mother says I was diapered in my father’s undershirt more than once as a baby, when they were away from home and ran out of clean diapers). You can buy such an incredible variety of cloth diapers. Personally, I like flat diapers or pre-folds, since they can be easily washed and dried.

I have used the all-in-one type and ended up giving them away – they MUST be dried in a clothes dryer and your power bill skyrockets.

Danielle, my friend who writes at DIY Danielle, has a post on how to make cloth diapers and, since you really do need more than one, on making diapers in bulk.

Reusable Sanitary Supplies

Oh, yes, I’m going there. There really are options to tampons and disposable sanitary pads. Not only are there menstrual cups but there are all sorts of options in cloth sanitary pads.

Reusable Tissues

And you thought I couldn’t get any more disgusting. Did you know that there are reusable versions of those tissues we use to blow our noses? Whoever came up with this crazy idea of blowing noses on …. cloth?

I swear, there must be an entire subculture of strange people who want to hang on to their snot (okay, okay, they claim in comes out in the wash, but do washing machines actually clean anything? That’s why we toss out our underwear after each use, amirite?)

Anyway, there’s an amazing variety of these reusable “tissues”. Handkerchiefs, they call them.

They come in every variation from organic cotton to utterly gorgeous organic bamboo handkerchiefs to flannel (okay, I bet that would feel nice when you’re sick!).

You can even get linen handkerchiefs, if you’re willing to pay the cost. Linen is an incredible fabric that lasts for an incredibly long time becomes softer with use.

However, I cry sexism when it comes to these reusable tissues because apparently we women are supposed to blow our noses on lace or, worse, on embroidery. That can’t feel good.

Reusable Nursing Pads

Those little cotton pads that get full of milk and stick to you? (I always hated them) Well, not only did our grandmothers not use them, but they had a much better version. Cotton. Reusable. Washable. Head back to my friend Danielle to find out how to make your own nursing pads.

Actually, at this point, I really should point out that Danielle has written a book on making and using reusable cloth products.

Diapers, wipes, everything.

She’s kind of awesome like that, and I’ve been waiting anxiously for her to put out this book. The Complete Guide to Using, Laundering and Sewing Reusable Cloth Products.

(Seriously – what ARE you waiting for?)

Reusable Lunch Bags

Actually, all things “lunch” come in permanent versions.

Years ago, our fathers would take metal lunch cans to work. They were sturdy, lasted forever, and could be sterilized with boiling water. Nifty, no?

When EJ was working road safety, I got him this much more modern version.

If you don’t need a full lunch bag, there are adorable snack bags, too. Let’s call them Reusable Plastic Baggies.

Reusable Plastic Bags

Okay, so they’re not always plastic, but they’re usable, and washable, and they’re far better than any thin plastic shopping bag out there.

If you’re still using plastic shopping bags … why? Jessica at 104 Homestead has a post listing several lifetime shopping bags that you can make with even the most basic sewing skills. One of them is a fabulous way to upcycle all those thin plastic shopping bags you’ve been collecting.

Reusable Coffee Pods

Hey, if you’re a fan of those single cup coffee makers to minimize waste, do you realize that you are not minimizing waste, at all? Those plastic pods are pure garbage. I’ve noticed that some of them are becoming more recyclable – but they still come in bags that are still pure garbage. There are options.

Crazy, I know.

If you already have a single cup coffee maker, get a package of reusable pods. This is one way to get rid of the wasteful pods and save yourself a ton of money. You can even get paper filters (quite biodegradeable) to minimize cleanup. Toss the filter and coffee grounds in your compost.

I have a Hario cloth coffee filter that my father gave me and I absolutely love it. It’s supposed to come with a special pot, but to be honest, I just make mine in my coffee mug. If you don’t want to guess at how full your mug is, though, it’s probably best to get the filter and pot.

You need a kettle, too, to boil the water.  I dislike electric kettles. No reason. I just don’t like them!

DIY: If you make coffee in a full sized coffee maker and you know how to sew, you can make your own filters. They’re washable and infinitely reusable.

Reusable Fabric Softener Sheets

Fabric softener sheets, before some bright guy figured out to make it create garbage, was a bit of vinegar in the wash water. No worries about buying the unscented variety, either. Another option is the Downy ball, filled with either fabric softener or vinegar. I always loved filling that for Mom when I was a child. Or – try wool dryer balls!

Reusable Baby Dishes and Cutlery

I’ve seen disposable baby dishes, spoons, cups, etc, but I’ve never bought them. Please don’t. See above. Yes, they make real versions of all of these.

Looking for stuff that travels? Oh, yea, that exists, too.

However, I’ll let you in on a secret – jam jars and half-pint jars make fabulous break-resistant cups for little hands. It’s what we use with little ones at our place.

Water Bottles

Honestly, I love that there is such a selection of these. Ecovessel sells insulated water bottles and even insulated sippy cups.

Next thing you know, they’re going to come out with reusable clothing and shoes!

Seriously, though, sometime in the last fifty years, we got the message that disposables are the norm and standard by which to compare.

In fact, it’s the opposite – disposables are the replacement for many very good, money-saving, long-lasting items that were once in every home.

Now that you’ve found and fixed the leak in your basement, it’s time to tackle the next challenge: how to dry wet carpet prevent a moldy, toxic mess!

Your finished basement flooded and now you have a soggy wall to wall carpeting disaster. You held it together through finding the leak and fixing it.

But now you just want to cry.

Save those tissues because we can handle this together.

Fixing the leak was probably the hardest part, but there’s no time to waste. Wet carpet quickly becomes moldy carpet if left for more than two days. You’ll need to free up some time over the next few days to get it completely dry before mold and mildew set in.

How to Dry Wet Carpet in Your Flooded Basement

How long do I have to dry that wet carpet?

Two days.

I know, it sounds like too short of a time. If your basement floods and you have wall to wall carpet, then you have about 48 hours to suck out and dry all the puddles before the carpet starts to smell terrible and grow mold.

Maybe less if your basement is very warm.

And you’ve probably already used up a few hours finding and dealing with the leak. Time is of the essence.

How long will it take to deal with my flooded basement – start to finish?

The good news is that you don’t have to get everything done in that 48 hours. You can’t.

It takes probably two full weeks to completely get rid of water in your basement and prevent mold growth in your wall to wall basement carpets.

This includes about one week of active work, such as vacuuming and cleaning, and another week of passive activities such as running fans and dehumidifiers to speed up carpet drying.

Step by Step – How to Dry Wet Carpet After a Flood

1. Relocate belongings to higher ground. Get it all out so that you can clean properly.
2. Vacuum up excess water – use a shop vacuum. Your regular one won’t do this.
3. Bleach and sanitize. Mold is disgusting.
4. Run a dehumidifier. Again, remove all moisture.
5. Apply baking soda.
6. Dry vacuum.
7. Steam clean.
8. Run fans.
9. Remove mildew using an enzyme cleaner.

How to Dry Wet Carpet with a Wet Vac

Wet-vacuuming is your first, and possibly your most important, step in the process of removing water from your basement.

Before starting, note the slope of your basement floor. If for example, you have a dip in the middle, then all the moisture is going to flow toward that dip over the course of the next several days. Spots that were not wet the first day may become wet by the third or fourth day.

This is why it’s important to take care of this quickly.

First things first.

Move your belongings to higher ground, and relocate as much as you can to an upper level of the house so that you can remove water, clean and sanitize every inch of the basement carpet, flooring and walls if they were affected.

Get a Wet-Dry Vac!

Never use a regular, upright vacuum to suck up water puddles.

A wet-dry vac is meant for this purpose.

Any prepared household should own a wet-dry vac. In fact, if you’re helping your child set up housekeeping, remember that you can dry vacuum with a wet-dry vac, but you can’t wet vacuum with a regular vacuum!

If you don’t have one, call around to find one that you can borrow, or check with a local rental place.

And then buy one. It’s not a tool that you’ll never every day, but when you need one, you NEED one.

Check the filter and hoses

Before using a wet vac, switch the filter from paper to foam.

The paper filter is meant for dry vacuuming, and we’re going to be sucking up water – that requires a foam filter.

The main feature of the wet vac that you really need right now is good suction.

Clamp the lid on tightly, and securely attach the hose. Be sure there are no holes for air or water to leak out of. If there are, duct tape will do in a pinch, but it’s really best to have a wet-vac that’s functioning correctly.

Try out different attachments to see which ones seem to work the best for sucking up all the water on your basement floor and rugs.

Vacuum bare floor first

Tackle the puddles on any bare floor first.

This will allow you to get a good feel for how the wet vacuum function works, and what you need to do to get the most water up in the least amount of time possible. Try dragging the suction hose/attachment along the floor to wick the water into one spot before sucking it up.

Or, maybe switch to a different attachment if, for example, you’re working in a corner or along an edge.

Empty early and often

When the wet-vac accumulates a few gallons of water, dump out the bucket before it becomes too heavy to lift.

If you already waited too long and you can’t lift the bucket, grab some kind of scooper apparatus to remove the water from the bucket. When it’s light enough again, you can lift and dump the remaining water into the nearest large sink.

Wet-vac your basement carpet next

To remove water from the rugs or wall to wall carpets, place the wet-vac’s hose with chosen attachment on the floor and pull it toward you so that it’s sucking up the water from the carpet and the floor beneath it.

If you notice that a lot of liquid is coming up in one spot, you may want to press down harder and hold the vacuum in that spot so that it can draw all the water there before sucking it up and into the vacuum tank.

Remove as much water from the floor and carpet as you can in one sitting. This may take more time than you expected, but it’s really worth it if it means saving your basement from becoming a disgusting mold pit.

All finished and your steam cleaner needs … well, cleaning? DIY Danielle has a post on how to deep clean your steam cleaner!

Now you know how to dry wet carpet and avoid having a moldy mess.

There is something about the fresh, crisp air of spring, the return of abundant sunlight, and the warmth, that makes most of us want to start spring cleaning.

The problem is, though, that most of us know what it is, and we want to do it, but … we’re not really sure HOW.

It’s been a couple of generations, after all, since all the housewives were doing their spring cleaning at the same time and teaching their daughters to do it, too.

So let’s look at what the professionals say about spring cleaning. These are the people who are still coming into homes and freshening everything up from top to bottom.

The One-Year Principle

Most professionals have at least a variant of this particular rule, which says that if you have not used an item for at least one year, you probably shouldn’t keep it. There are exceptions to this rule, but it is a good general idea.

Yes, that refers to all that junk you pushed into a corner of the basement. Box it and get it out of your home!)

When deciding whether to keep or toss an item, think about when you last used it, and if it has been too long, it is likely useless and taking up valuable space.

Top to Bottom

This is a basic rule that is always wise.

When spring cleaning (okay, to be honest, when cleaning at any time of the year), begin cleaning at the top of each room and continue on toward the bottom.

For example, begin with washing walls, then cleaning furniture and tables, and finally give the floor a thorough cleaning.

If your mother taught you to wash the dining room table, do the dishes, and then finish up by sweeping the kitchen and dining room floor (which is what my mother taught me and I’m teaching my children), that’s why. Top to bottom.

Most particles generally fall downwards, and this tip ensures that you will not clean the floor, only to have dust, crumbs, and other junk fall from furniture as you move to the next step.

Keep, Donate, Trash

When you are going through anything from old clothing to extra clutter, keep this simple rule in mind: keep, donate, or trash.

Always divide the items into three piles as you sort them.

Keep the items you love, donate the items that are in good condition but someone else can put to better use, and trash anything with damage. This makes every pile easier to deal with and to organize.

Don’t Work Alone

Even the most ambitious and organized professional will tell you that it is almost always easier to get a job done with a little help.

If possible, include family members by giving everyone their own personalized “to do” list.

If you are not getting enough cooperation from immediate family members, or you live alone, consider doing a cleaning swap with friends, or give thought to hiring a professional.

Don’t underestimate the value of having a friend help. I have a friend who currently can’t do much physical work, but she can sit and talk with me as I fold clothes and clean.

And when other friends of mine were packing to move, I’d bring my computer over to get some writing done while offering encouragement and advice. In that case, having someone who has moved house a few times say “Oh, there’s not a lot. Here, we can get this done in a few hours” can really help someone who is feeling that the job is huge.

The same thing works when spring cleaning. Get help – professional if you need it, or a friend who can physically help, or even a friend who will encourage and keep you company.

Work in Sections

One tried and true method for making spring cleaning easier to handle is by working in segments in your home.

If you attempt to tackle everything at once, you will soon be overwhelmed.

Move through your home room by room, and corner by corner. In no time at all, you will have completed your entire list.

Minimize

The fewer items you have, the less you will have to clean and organize later on.

As mentioned before – when you are going through your home during spring cleaning, think about what you can live without. Get rid of unnecessary items whenever possible.

Spring cleaning is not always an easy task, but if you follow a few simple principles, you will make it much easier on yourself.

Have you considered how many chemicals are around you every day? They’re in your food, water, personal care items, closets, and other things. It’s easy to forget that many products are made with chemicals that can be harmful to your health.

How can these chemicals harm you?

Your skin absorbs the chemicals you come into contact with – even from the air around you.

Your lungs absorb more chemicals from the air you breathe.

Your digestive system absorbs chemicals from your food.

Many health experts assert that these chemicals may be responsible for many of the ailments that are so prevalent today, such as autoimmune diseases, respiratory issues, ADHD, autism, cancer, and many more.

Fortunately, there are natural ways to reduce the number of chemicals in your life.

Try these tips to reduce the amount of chemicals you come into contact with that can negatively affect your health:

Get rid of perfumes, colognes, dryer sheets, and air fresheners

These products may smell nice, but they’re filled with toxic chemicals.

Perfumes and colognes can have many harmful chemicals such as acetone, camphor, ethanol, ethyl acetate, and linalool. They usually have synthetic substances made from petroleum.

Some of the health concerns linked to perfumes and colognes include respiratory issues, asthma, and allergies. In addition, many researchers admit that most of the chemicals in these products haven’t been tested long-term, so no one knows how they affect people over time.

Instead, use natural essential oils for your fragrances. Be sure to read the ingredients in all products you purchase, even if the label says it’s a natural product. Avoid chemicals you can’t pronounce.

Avoid toxic makeup and other personal care products

Makeup and other personal care products, such as soaps, shampoo, and deodorant, are filled with toxic products that can harm your health.

Your lipstick, blush, foundation, or eyeliner may have chemicals such as lead, arsenic, formaldehyde, or aluminum.

It’s easy for makeup to get inside your body because lipstick and lip gloss are on your lips throughout the day. You can also rub off foundation or powder and get it on your hands, which you later use to eat.

The chemicals in makeup and other personal care products can increase the risk of cancer. They can also lead to skin issues, lesions, allergies, respiratory issues, irritation, and reproductive issues.

Instead, look for natural brands with no chemicals. Also, try to make your own makeup from beeswax, salves, essential oils, and safe food dyes.

Change your cleaning supplies

One of the biggest sources of chemicals in the home is cleaning supplies.

Cleaning supplies are filled with toxic chemicals that can affect your brain, liver, kidneys, lungs, and skin. They may cause allergies, irritation, skin issues, asthma and respiratory issues. They may also increase your risk of getting cancer.

Substances such as ammonia, chlorine, or phthalates can be harmful.

Some cleaning products can cause permanent burns on your skin even if a drop lands on you.

Instead, use natural cleaning supplies or make your own. Vinegar, water, baking soda, baking powder, and cornstarch can be combined in many ways to make safer cleaning products at home.

Avoid processed foods

Your food can be a big source of chemicals in your life. Toxic substances can lurk in many grocery products.

Artificial sweeteners in your baked goods or candy can lead to a higher risk of diabetes or cancer.

Trans fats can clog arteries and cause cardiovascular disease.

Preservatives like sodium benzoate and potassium benzoate are sometimes made from benzene, which has been linked to thyroid issues and cancers.

Even food coloring can be dangerous because it’s been associated with hyperactivity, brain issues, and allergies.

Fortunately, you can make positive changes by reading labels and avoiding products that aren’t safe. Switch to more organic and natural food. Use products as close to nature as you can get, such as fresh fruits, vegetables, and meats.

Chemicals surround you.

They’re in your breakfast and go with you to work. They’re in your conference room at the office, cleaning closet next to your cubicle, and in all the lunch menus.

However, you can cut down on the chemicals in your life by taking positive steps and making changes toward more natural living. In return, your body will thank you with more vibrant health!

The thought of going on a trip or a family vacation fills me with dread. In fact, any time I need to go to a place I’ve never been, my anxiety flares up.

It’s not that I don’t know how to enjoy myself. I’m a friendly person and I love doing fun things, seeing new places, and meeting people.

The problem is that when I’m around scented products and environmental chemicals, I get headaches, wheezing, stomach pains, and even brain fog that makes me seem intoxicated or drugged.

And heading off to an airport, staying at a hotel, or traveling just about anywhere means that I’ll be assaulted by synthetic fragrances, cleaning products, and other airborne toxins that most people don’t even notice.

It’s not just me, of course, There are many of us who deal with Multiple Chemical Sensitivity. Here are some tips and helpful items to take along in order to minimize your exposure to everyone’s smells.

Your own, unscented household products

• Travel-sized personal bars of soap.
• Your preferred shampoo that you’re able to tolerate.
• Unscented laundry detergent
• Hand and dish soap that are not antibacterial.

You can put together a travel kit that is ready to go on short notice.

If someone suggests you use their scented products, you can politely explain that you tend to get migraines, so you brought your own minimally scented products.

“Migraines” is something that most people can grasp the concept of, rather than trying to explain confusion, lethargy and brain fog. Even people who have seen me exposed to toxins and speaking in a stream of consciousness brain fog have trouble grasping how serious my reaction is.

Portable fan

Some people find that keeping the air circulating helps them deal with scents, so packing a small portable fan is a good idea.

Use your portable fan in the room where you’re sleeping or any place where smells seem to be an issue.

Granted, it might annoy your spouse, so make sure they can sleep with the fan going.

Your own sheets, blankets and pillows

Sleeping at other people’s houses may mean that you’ll be forced to try and get some shut-eye while tossing and turning in sheets that have been washed in fragranced detergent– or worse, neurotoxic fabric softener.

Eliminate this problem by bringing your own cotton sheets, bed pillows, and even a blanket or two.

You may feel slightly awkward telling people that you plan to use your own bedding, especially if they’ve taken pains to accommodate you. However, you can explain that you get rashes from most laundry detergents, so you brought your own bedding.

Most people won’t question this, and it will save you from getting weird looks over something they can’t really understand.

Extra changes of clothes

If you’re expecting to need clothes for 4 days, then pack for 6.

This is because you never know when you may get something on your clothes at a time when you won’t have the opportunity to wash them.

For example, campfire smoke leaves me struggling to breathe, and I’m not the only one.

Rather than spend the night sleepless due to the smell of firewood clinging to your body, you can simply change into a clean tee shirt and pants or shorts. Remove the odorous items from the room where you’ll be sleeping. Ask your spouse to do the same.

How do you deal with a flooded basement? Stop crying, find the source and stop it from happening again!

“Mama! The basement floor is wet!”

It’s an awful feeling.

Even if it’s a cement basement, or  the horrendous mess of outdoor-carpet-glued-on-cement that we inherited in our new home, it’s an awful feeling.

My heart sank as I thought about all the things that were sitting on the basement floor, and the prospect of figuring out exactly where the leak came from – oh, I wasn’t looking forward to that at all! We had just moved in the house a month earlier and we still didn’t even know how to turn off the well pump.

When yours is a finished basement, used as a play area or entertainment space, then you probably have a wall to wall carpet down there, with furniture sitting on it. Our flooded basement room was just full of stored food … you know, nothing important!

Water in the basement carpet = lingering moisture, mess, musty smell… and eventually, mold.

If you’ve never had a problem with basement drainage before, then you’ve got some researching and investigating to do. If the basement leaked this time, that means it’s going to leak again – maybe soon – unless you figure out what happened.

It can seem nearly impossible to track down the source of the incoming water. When ours flooded, all we could tell at first was that it came out of the walls. But where was the source?

Don’t worry – there are some things you can do to help solve the problem. Let’s make sure we all know what to do when we get hit with a flooded basement.

A flooded basement starts with a leak!

What part of the basement is wet?

Start by investigating whatever’s in the immediate area.

Is it a cracked water pipe?

A hose connection gone bad?

Or is the water coming in from a crack in the foundation wall?

This first clue will help you figure out what to do next. You may have to call a plumber, a foundation expert, or a water mitigation specialist. They’ll be able to guide you from this point on, so you can solve your problem, but being able to locate the source of the leak is the first step.

If you can’t seem to locate the source of the leak from inside, then your next step is to go outside.

Take a look at your gutters.

The gutters line the edges of your roof. Water collects in them and then flows into the drain pipes and down to the ground. Where does the water go next after this?

If you’ve never paid attention, now is a good time to start.

Look at your gutters

The best time to check your gutters is while it’s actually raining.

Next time you get a good downpour, go outside with your camera or phone – and someone to hold the umbrella!

Look to see if the water is flowing properly. Is it pouring over the sides of the gutter? That’s bad – it could mean that debris or an obstruction of some kind is blocking the proper flow of water.

Do you see water drizzling down from a hole where a screw once was?

Small problems can quickly become big ones when it comes to water, which might be why you now have a flooded basement!

Is something stuck in your gutter?

If you have tall trees on your property, it’s quite likely for something to get stuck in your gutter and need removal. Figuring this out needs a birds-eye view of your gutters.

That’s fine if you live in a bungalow, or if you’re very comfortable with ladder-climbing and roof-walking.

For most of us, though, inspecting the gutters from above requires a gutter professional.  While she’s up there, your gutter expert can also tell you if it’s time to make some repairs or maybe even replace your gutters if they’re old and worn out.

What do the down spouts look like?

Some people bury their gutter down spouts in the ground where the rain water collects in a mini holding tank.

Others use a little pan or gutter tray (it looks like a small slide – some call this a “gutter down spout splash block”) to route the water away from their house. They’re not very expensive.

It’s possible that you had a splash block at the end of your drain pipe, but it got somehow moved out of the way.

This may have allowed the water to pool close to the foundation of your house and make its way in through cracks, which led to your flooded basement.

Maybe you have a water barrel, if you live in a place that allows the collection of rainwater? In that case, is your rain barrel overflowing – again, wetting and damaging the foundation of your house?

Examine the foundation of your home

Look for cracks in the foundation that may have worsened with the possible shifting of the ground beneath your home.

How does the soil around the perimeter of your house look?

Is it mounded up in a way that would allow water to collect at the base and flow toward the foundation?

Use a garden shovel to dig around the soil at the perimeter of your home.

Landscaping can be a contributing factor, especially if you have large mounds of mulch piling up around the edges of your house.

You may be surprised at what you find at the place where the water came into your basement. It could be a channel of water that made its way in through some loose soil and continued along the foundation wall and in through a crack. You can actually remedy this type of situation.

First you need to fill any cracks in your foundation. You can do this using a special caulk that’s available at home improvement stores.

Tamp down the soil. The soil around the perimeter of your home should be well packed. The tighter packed and more clay-like it is, the less likely rain water will pool at the foundation and make its way in through cracks.

You can purchase extra bagged soil and use a tamper to make sure the soil is packed as tightly as possible. You may have to remove some landscaping in order to do this correctly.

Better to have fewer plants than a wet and moldy basement that smells bad, ruins your belongings and makes your family sick!

Replace mulch beds with small stones

Mulch holds moisture, which is a good thing in your garden.

It’s not a good thing piled up against your foundation, especially if it’s mounded too high and too close.

If you have mulch against the side of your house, you should replace it with small stones. This helps to keep water away from your house, and it also prevents termites and other pests.

Add a down spout extension

Attach heavy duty tubing to the drain pipes to help channel water away from your home.

To do this, you’ll need to measure your drain pipe so you’ll know what diameter tubing or piping to purchase.

The length of the tubing or piping should be about 3 feet. This is enough for the water to run through but not become stagnant in the piping because it’s too long to expel. Most home improvement stores carry down spout extension kits designed especially for this purpose.

Check the flow of rainfall

Next time it rains, get outside and observe where the rain falls now that you’ve made some changes.

Is it still drizzling or pouring over the sides of your gutters? Gutters are there to help the water from getting in through the basement of your home. If they aren’t functioning properly then as mentioned earlier, it’s time for cleaning and maintenance – and possibly replacement. Gutters are relatively inexpensive, while basement foundations are not, so don’t be “penny wise and pound foolish”

If you’ve done a good job rigging up your down spouts so that no water is allowed to collect at the base of the spout, then the next good rain will confirm this. Your added down spout extension pipe will channel the water away from your house so that the basement stays nice and dry.

So now you’ve figured out the source of your flooded basement, tracked down the cause, and hopefully fixed it!

The next step is going to be taking care of that wet mess the flood left you.

Laundry!

I don’t know about you, but with a family of four children at home, that’s a chore I have to do every single day. Luckily, it was one of the easier places where I could go green – and save money in the process.

How to Have Earth Friendly Laundry

Water temperature

Just heating the water to wash your laundry uses a lot of energy.

But it’s such an easy solution to turn that dial to cold and save on energy.

A lot of people worry that their clothes won’t come clean. Most of the time, though, your clothes don’t need hot water. If you’re trying to get oil or grease off clothes, you want it hot. Hot water is also a good idea for underwear because there are a lot of germs that hang out around there.

Unless I’m purposely trying to disinfect something that has bodily fluids on it, I use cold water. The best water – washing in cold helps prevent a lot of stains from setting in and keeps colours from bleeding to other clothes.

Full loads only in the wash

Washing large loads will save water and save energy.

You use 40 gallons of water whenever you do laundry so if you can do one less load of laundry a week, then you’ll save 10% on your energy and water bills.

Just remember that full doesn’t mean overloaded. Never cram clothes into the machine.

The exception – if you have a newer machine that adjusts the water setting to match the amount of clothes, you probably aren’t saving water. However, a small and large load use the same amount of electricity.

Upgrade your machines

There are many energy-efficient laundry machines out there that can save you so much on your energy costs.

If you aren’t in the market for new laundry machines, then don’t go out and buy them, but if it’s time for an upgrade get the most energy-efficient one you can afford.

Change your laundry detergent

Using natural detergents and stain removers is great for the environment.

You can even make your own. I’ve done it, and it’s not difficult, but I haven’t had the success other people claim. I end up with gray and grimy clothes.

Natural detergents that you can buy (like Seventh Generation) are free of chlorine bleach and synthetic fragrances, are generally made out of plants and are specifically made to perform well in cold water. Read the fine print, though.

Non-chlorine bleach

Chlorine is not good for the environment.

Switching to a non-chlorine bleach is simple and it works just as well. A bleach made with peroxide instead of chlorine does the job right and it doesn’t have to be a name brand either. This really adds up to helping the environment and it’s so easy.

Say no to dryer sheets

The chemicals in dryer sheets and even fabric softener are not only bad for the environment, but they’re also bad for our skin.

To keep that static cling down, either find a eco-friendly dryer sheet, or use a wool dryer ball tossed in the dryer. It will remove that static cling with no chemicals.

We switched to dryer balls a while ago and I’ll never look back. For people like me, with multiple chemical sensitivity, the chemicals in even ‘unscented’ dryer sheets can be toxic.

Hang to dry

You know you love the smell of your clothes when they have been outside drying in the sun.

There’s the added bonus of the sun; it’s a natural bleach.

If you have a stain in something, spray it with a little lemon juice and hang it to dry and it will help get the stain out. Nothing gets more natural and eco-friendly than that.

If you live in a cold climate, have no fear; you can still hang to dry on a drying rack indoors and it will double as a humidifier that way. Put your rack over your heat source and you’ll moisten the air while drying your clothes.

Use what you have

Baking soda is a deodorizer and lemon will help remove stains.

Vinegar is a very effective natural cleaner.

Whip up your own detergents for great cleaning products that cost less and help the environment.

Hand wash

Skip the washing machine altogether when you can and wash by hand.

Wash the least dirty clothes first to use the water longer.

Use a large bucket, but it’s even easier if you have a large utility sink.

Okay, admittedly, it’s not anywhere near as easy as washing in the machine, but if you only have a small amount of clothing to wash, this can be a fabulous earth-friendly option.

Plus it can double as your work out for the day. 😛 Hand washing uses a lot of physical energy.

Wear clothes longer

You don’t have to wash pants after every wear unless you spilled something on them. Wearing clothes longer means less to wash of course.

Taking these steps to eco-friendly laundry will not only save you money, but will make a difference on your carbon footprint and the environment.