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Rewilding Your Home: Series

  • Writer: Becky
    Becky
  • Mar 11, 2022
  • 5 min read

How to make your home more natural- better for you and the planet. Including tips on detoxing your home, improving your circadian rhythm and living more like our ancestors.


Here is the full series of Rewild Your Home, a weekly mini-class that I delivered on Instagram @rewilding_our_lives.


REWILD YOUR KITCHEN


Kitchens are full of plastics, food contaminants and cleaning chemicals which are harmful to our health and the planet. Here are some tips to rewild our kitchen:


  • Stop reheating food in plastic (the chemicals leach into food). Try glass or ceramic instead.

  • Ditch non-stick pans (due to PTFEs & PFOAs), switch to stainless steel or cast-iron cookware.

  • Switch to natural cleaners, good staples to have are: lemons, white vinegar, bicarb of soda, castile soap or Marseille soap.

  • Avoid these chemicals: undisclosed fragrance (AKA parfum or perfume), artificial dyes (think bright washing up liquid), 1,4 dioxane, PEGs, parabens, galaxolide, ammonium compounds, monoethanolamine. Visit madesafe.org for more info.

  • Make your own white vinegar and citrus peel cleaner, it’s a great all-rounder!


BENEFITS: you’re avoiding hormone disruptors, carcinogens and respiratory irritants and letting your body do its thing!

Our fall down is the occasional plastic ping meal! Which will you tackle first?



Image description: a peak at our van kitchen which looks a little bare after a clean. At the bottom of the picture there is a black camping oven and a (purposely) stained pine kitchen surface, with a forest green cupboard door underneath. The wall is a minty green, has a black and white hand-painted canvas by my sister of foot and paw prints, and a leafy garland above.


REWILD YOUR LIVING ROOM


Rewilding your home is all about living more simply and intuitively. Try incorporating a couple of these rewilding principles into your home!


  • Have low lighting options for the evening (dimmer lights, lamps or fairy lights).

  • Bring nature in! Showcase your favourite finds like shells or feathers, hang up nature photography or art, or make pine cone bunting etc.

  • Take the focus off the telly! Other animals don’t sit in front of light boxes, and it would be unethical of us to make them, so why should we? Put a table cloth or cute little throw over it to reduce screen time and temptation. Another way to take the focus off of the telly is to rearrange furniture to face each other, encouraging conscious connection with your loved ones!

  • Have screen-free entertainment in sight- books, musical instruments, crafts or card games.

  • Trial floor sitting if accessible to you.


BENEFITS: reducing lighting in the evening helps aid your circadian rhythm (inner clock) which can help you sleep better!


We are working on less screen time and love adding to our nature-based art work wall! What will be your first step to rewilding your living space?


REWILD YOUR GARDEN OR BALCONY


Rewilding is all about returning ourselves to a more natural state and living more intuitively and in tune with nature! Here are two simple tips for the garden:


  • Make more space for wildlife: window or hanging bird feeders are a great choice if you have an apartment with no garden. Other options are window boxes, bug hotels, wildflowers and container ponds.

  • Make more space for YOURSELF! Create a space for you to enjoy, reflect on and soak in nature- try a log stump, deck chair, bench or swing!

  • Make your access to your green space better! If your access in not mobility friendly, or it’s too cold in the winter etc. Set up a proper place by a window to appreciate the view- blankets and a camping chair or space for your wheelchair or rearrange your furniture to face the garden instead of the telly. Extra points if you can open the window or pop on some nature sounds.

  • Reduce the amount of bright lights on at night- whether they’re solar, LED or the classic old garden lights- switch them off as much as you can. White light is distracting and disturbing to nocturnal animals. Pop your lights on just when you’re putting the bins out or when your dog needs the loo. If you use torches a lot, switch to a red light- far less disruptive to nature.


BENEFITS: more contact with nature results in lower blood pressure, heart rates and stress levels!

Personally, I’m going to make our window seat cosier so we can watch the wildlife outside our tiny home!


How are you going to rewild your outdoor (or indoor) space?



Image description: Winnie is sat by the window of the van on her spot on the bench. The bench is covered in navy blankets to protect the cushions from the winter battle with mud. Behind her is one of the mustard yellow curtains which separates the bedroom from the main living area.


REWILD YOUR BEDROOM


Our bedrooms should be a cosy space to unwind; looking at other animals and their sleeping spaces, they are often dark, quiet and full of nature.


  • Have low lighting for before bed (fairy lights, lamps, dimmer bulbs).

  • Choose natural colours when you can- greens or earthy tones.

  • Diffuse essential oils in a passive or active diffuser for nature’s aromatherapy.

  • Bring nature in- your favourite hiking photos, foraged wall hangings, jar of acorns and conkers etc.

  • Declutter for a visually slow and simple space, with room for mindfulness.

BENEFITS: lower light levels and aromatherapy can improve your sleep and a simple space can reduce mental noise. Darker environments before bed improve your circadian rhythm.


We would like to get round to choosing a passive diffuser I’ve made for our bedroom as a way to use essential oils! What will your first step to a wild, intuitive bedroom be?


REWILD YOUR BATHROOM


The modern bathroom contains thousands of synthetic chemicals which have been found to be hormone disruptors, carcinogens and respiratory irritants! Use the info below to help switch you to more natural products, for your body and the environment.


Chemicals to avoid:

Undisclosed fragrance/ perfume/ parfum, artificial dyes, SLS, ALS, phthalates, triclosans, BPAs, BPS, DEA, parabens, dixane, propylene glycol, sulphates (to name a few!).


Our favourite natural brands:

Easy ones to switch first: hand/ soap, shampoo, hand sanitiser.

Easy to ditch completely: aerosols, perfumes and air fresheners.


BENEFITS: better physical wellbeing, less toxic loading, lower impact on the environment.



Image description: a peek at our van bedroom. The king sized bed is covered in lots of patterned pillows and covers, with a navy cotton throw in the bottom of the picture. The van looks super blue as the LED fairy lights are on a dim white, shining below the leaf garland that hangs between the wall and ceiling.


REWILD YOUR RUCKSACK


Here are some quick and easy swaps to reduce your toxic loading and rewild your body with your travel essentials!


  • Hand sanitisers: some don’t even have an ingredients list! Choose one without undisclosed fragrance, parabens and PEGs. I trust Neal’s Yard (you can shop using this link [https://uk.nyrorganic.com/shop/rebeccaspencer] which is no extra cost to you, but does support me as my chronic illnesses reduce my income opportunities).

  • Water bottles: make the switch to metal! Glass is cute but not practical. Plastics affect your hormones, health and the planet.

  • Ditch the aerosol body sprays and synthetic perfumes! Choose DIY or ready-made plant-based roll-ons or spritzes.

  • Reduce the amount of plastic used with your food and snacks.


BENEFITS: less exposure to hormone disruptors.


For us, we struggle with packaging on food as we are limited for kitchen resources in our van! Which of the above have you done already, or do you struggle with?


I hope you liked this series on how to rewild your home, with simple and manageable tips to make your space more natural, cosy and healthy. For more rewilding activities and tips, have a look under the Rewilding tab on the blog page of this website and follow us on Instagram @rewilding_our_lives.

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