The products we trust in every room of our home.

If you can smell it, it's already in your bloodstream

Chemical scents from cleaners, fragrance, and air fresheners off-gas VOCs that absorb through your lungs and disrupt hormones in seconds. We use one bottle of Branch Basics concentrate diluted to different strengths for cleaning, dish washing, and hand soap. One product, no fragrance, fewer bottles — and we honestly think the house is cleaner this way.

Anything scented goes

No perfume. No cologne. No candles. No plug-ins. No air freshener. No hairspray. No "natural" sprays. The word fragrance on a label is a legal black box that can hide hundreds of undisclosed chemicals — many endocrine-disrupting. If a room needs freshening, we open a window.

Get the plastic out

Plastic is the worst offender in most homes. Microplastics, phthalates, BPA, BPS — all of it leaches into food, water, and dust. Replace plastic baskets and bins with wood, cane, glass, or metal. It's not an overnight switch, but every swap counts. Start with anything that touches food.

Skip the microwave

Microwaving food in plastic releases plasticizers directly into your meal. We heat things up on the stovetop in cast iron, in the oven, or in a glass dish. It takes 3–5 extra minutes and avoids a whole category of contamination.

Read the produce sticker

That little PLU code on every fruit and vegetable tells you how it was grown:

• 5 digits starting with 9 — organic
• 5 digits starting with 8 — GMO
• 4 digits — conventional (likely synthetic pesticides)

When you can, choose the 9. We do this religiously.

Scan before you buy

Before any new food or home product comes home, we scan the barcode in Yuka, Think Dirty, or Oasis. Two minutes in the aisle saves a year of wondering what's in your body. The apps catch what your eyes don't — trust them more than the front label.

Don't touch receipts

Thermal-paper receipts are coated in BPA or BPS, two of the most studied endocrine disruptors. They absorb through your fingertips in seconds — and the absorption rate doubles if your hands have lotion or hand sanitizer on them. Studies show measurable BPA in urine within hours of holding a receipt. Say "no receipt please" or have it emailed. If you must take one, don't store it next to your skin.

Bottled water is almost always worse

Almost every brand of bottled water tests positive for microplastics, and many for PFAS. The plastic bottle leaches into the water before you ever crack the seal — especially after sitting in a warm truck or store. We carry stainless-steel bottles everywhere and fill from our home filter before we leave. If you must buy bottled, scan it on Yuka first — the scores will surprise you.

Snake plants in every room

Snake plants (Sansevieria) were one of the top air-cleaners in NASA's Clean Air Study — they pull formaldehyde, benzene, and trichloroethylene out of indoor air. They're also one of the rare plants that release oxygen at night instead of CO₂, which makes them perfect for bedrooms and nurseries. They're also nearly impossible to kill, which matters when you have a baby and you forget to water them.

What's legal here is banned everywhere else

The U.S. has some of the loosest food and ingredient rules in the developed world. Red 40, Yellow 5, BHA, BHT, potassium bromate, brominated vegetable oils — all legal in the U.S., all banned in the EU, UK, Canada, Japan, and Australia. The pattern is hard to miss: countries with public healthcare have the strictest food laws.

Before any packaged food comes home, we scan it on Yuka or Oasis. We also started baking our own bread — store-bought wheat here is often bleached, brominated, and sprayed with glyphosate. Made at home it's just flour, water, salt, and yeast.

If you have a sweet tooth, walk past the snack aisle and head straight to the fresh bakery. Bakery items have to print every ingredient on the case label — no hidden preservatives, dyes, or stabilizers. You can read the list before you buy.

Undyed beats dyed — every time

Your skin is the largest organ in your body, and dyed fabric leaches chemical pigments into it the entire time you're in contact — sheets, pillowcases, towels, baby outfits. Conventional textile dyes can include heavy metals, formaldehyde finishes, and azo dyes that release carcinogenic amines.

We use undyed, natural-color cotton wherever we can: sheets, bath towels, pillow covers, Nia's at-home outfits. The certification we trust is GOTS (Global Organic Textile Standard) — it requires cotton to be grown organically and processed without toxic dyes, finishes, or heavy metals. 100% organic GOTS cotton on a label means what's touching your skin is what was actually grown.