19 May How Our Vacation Rental Gave Us an Unexpected Surprise

After over a year of staying at home, my family and I finally had the chance to travel. The kids wanted to go to the beach, so we headed to Florida for a little rest and relaxation. For the past several years, when travelling, we’ve chosen vacation rentals. I find you get personalized treatment, so much more for your money, and I love the fully equipped kitchen, laundry availability, and this time, the massive pool. This year, as we settled into our home for the week, our vacation rental gave us an unexpected surprise.

For several years now, I have worked at creating a toxin-free environment in our home. This is a massive undertaking, and we are by no means perfect. But when you spend a week in someone else’s home, it quickly becomes apparent how far you have come!

You Don’t Need Air-Fresheners When You Live on the Beach!

It started the moment we entered our rented condo. We were met with the choking smell of air-fresheners. If you’re not used to artificial fragrances, they can be incredibly overwhelming and repulsive. I got an instant headache, and my children started coughing. Air-fresheners are made of really harmful ingredients, that will often never be fully disclosed because of concerns around trade secrets. We do know, however, that artificial fragrances are a toxic soup that can cause all kinds of damage to our bodies, including respiratory issues, allergies and cancer.

We quickly located a plug-in in each major room and buried them in a drawer until we left. I can’t even imagine why someone thought this was necessary. One of my favorite parts of spending time near the beach is the smell of the ocean and salty air. Why would anyone put air-fresheners throughout the place when you can open the patio door which overlooks the ocean and breathe in the fresh air?!

At home, in suburbia, if I want to deodorize the air, I’ll put on a diffuser with essential oils. Essential oils actually clean the air and benefit our health. Or I’ll simply open a few windows if it’s not too hot.

Skip the Gummy Floor Products

I haven’t used commercial products on my floors in years. I typically stick to water, maybe adding some vinegar and Thieves Household Cleaner. It had been so long since I’d used any other product that I’d actually forgotten how nasty they feel. The wooden floors of our condo looked beautiful as we walked in, but when I removed my shoes, I immediately felt a gummy, sticky layer covering the floors. It made dirt stick to the floor and to our feet.

When you are using these toxic types of products everyday in your home, you actually have no idea what it feels like to be truly clean! Since we’ve removed all toxic cleaners from our home, I actually find that I do not have to clean as much – now I know why. There’s not a gummy layer of nasty sludge covering the floors, attracting all kinds of dirt!

Sticky Bed Linens

As we crawled into our beds on the first night, exhausted from travel, we encountered what may have been the most disgusting surprise of all. Although sparkling white, the bed linens were covered in a tacky, pasty coating causing them to be almost sticky. I don’t know what the host uses for laundry detergent, but it was gross! Thankfully, I had brought our own natural, clean laundry detergent, so the next morning we stripped the beds and washed our linens, which solved the problem.

Laundry products are some of the most toxic and harmful products in our homes. What makes things worse is that most detergents contain ingredients made to hold scent. This ingredient causes the sticky coating. We are then wearing these clothes all day and laying on the linens all night, absorbing these ingredients through our skin.

This was just another reminder of how our efforts in ridding our lives of common toxins, and working at creating a toxin-free lifestyle was paying off. Once again, when you live with this, you may not be aware of it. It’s not until you get some distance between yourself and these products that you are going to notice the massive difference!

Filmy Dishes From the Dishwasher

The nasty coating theme continued, even to our dishes. I’ve seen many dish soap advertisements over the years, claiming to leave dishes squeaky clean. If dishes are squeaky clean, it’s because a nasty chemical coating is left on them and now you are eating and drinking from them! Every dish in our rental had, of course, been put through the dishwasher and was covered in a nasty film of chemicals.

Once again, I had packed our own clean, natural dishwashing soap, which we used. I don’t know if it actually removes the coating from previous washes, but we did our best.

This experience in our vacation rental gave us an unexpected surprise, but it was also a wonderful reminder of how all of the small changes we’ve made in our home add up. You may not see the effects immediately. You may not even recognize that there are effects! But you can be sure that each step is a step in the right direction, and each change is contributing to your family’s health.