Category Archives: Tips & Tricks

Two Easy Tips for a Lower Waste Lifestyle

Does the idea of a more natural and lower waste lifestyle sound appealing, but daunting all at the same time? It doesn’t have to be a monumental task! I started this series in October 2018, and then took a break for the holidays. January and February, I posted some products that I love and make a lower waste lifestyle easier. Now I’m back, to give you two more super simple tips to help lead a lower waste and more natural lifestyle!

For the first three easy tips, see my October 2018 post.

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When Life Hands You Lemons, It’s Okay to be Angry About It

“When life gives you lemons, make lemonade.” A common phrase almost all of us have heard at least once in our life. (At least I know it’s common here in the western USA, let me know in the comments if it’s common in your neck of the woods!) Even though it’s common, it’s a phrase I do not like. At all.

The phrase is supposed to mean “make the most out of a less-than-ideal situation.” Yes, it’s a good idea to take whatever circumstances life has handed you and try to make the best of it. However, I’ve found it gets used a lot to minimize or dismiss uncomfortable feelings. Using this phrase, or other phrases, to dismiss the negative feelings that come up when life gives us negative situations does far more harm than good.

When life hands you lemons, it never hands you the sugar needed to make the lemonade. It’s alright to be frustrated, or even angry, that now you have to go track down some sugar and take the time to make the lemonade. If life had handed you the oranges you had ordered, you would already be enjoying your citrus-y snack!

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Three Easy Tips for a Natural Lifestyle

Most people nowadays want to live a more natural and lower waste lifestyle, but it can feel daunting trying to get started! There’s a lot of conflicting information available, and conflicting opinions. Is it necessary to “go big or go home?” Or will small changes make enough of a difference to be worth it? Why are some of these “small changes” so intimidating? Making a bazillion small changes can be scary, difficult, or even impossible. But it can feel awful to continuously wonder if you could be doing more. Over the next few months, I want to help share some simple tips and tricks for slowly introducing a more natural way of life and helping you reduce your waste. This post will have three tips to start out, and then each post in the series will have a few more easy changes. After you utilize the tips for a month, it will be easy to carry out the next few!

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Head-to-Head Science: OnGuard Cleaner Concentrate vs Lysol Toilet Bowl Cleaner

I love science experiments, and have always been fond of Petri dish experiments! There’s something satisfying in getting a definite visual result in the Petri dish.

Dan and I decided to try a Petri dish experiment of our own. The toilets in our house needed cleaning, and we wanted to see if there was a difference between the usual cleaner we’ve been using, Lysol Toilet Bowl Cleaner, and the On Guard Cleaner Concentrate. I can’t actually use the Lysol Toilet Bowl Cleaner – it messes with my asthma and gives me migraines. When we clean the toilets with the Lysol, the vent fans have to be on full and we have to open the powder room window. The On Guard Cleaner Concentrate doesn’t mess with my asthma and doesn’t give me migraines, so I was hopeful that it would clean well so that I could actually help with this household chore.

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Infection Survival Guide for the Chronically Ill (and “Normal” People, too)

Respiratory infections, sinus infections, ear infections – oh my!
Gastrointestinal infections, viral infections, bacterial infections – oh, die…

Currently, I’m extremely ill. I have some sort of awful infection in my head and GI system. I’ll spare you all of the TMI details, but let’s just say I’m a giant ball of disgusting. Lots of phlegm is involved, nausea, and too many trips to the restroom. There’s also severe full body aches and bone crushing fatigue. It’s not pretty.

It got me thinking, what are some must-haves for surviving a nasty infection like this? Here are my product recommendations (and why I recommend them) for surviving an infection while dealing with chronic illnesses. Continue reading →

Top 6 Tips for Dealing with Summer Pain Flares

beach-1867524_1920For me, summer equals significantly more physical activity. I’m sure most people that live in an area that experiences winter will agree: when the weather is “nice” we do as much as possible to try to make up for being inside all winter. When you are chronically ill, however, more physical activity can also equal significantly more pain.

My fibromyalgia is the main cause of my pain in the winter, but I experience different pain in the summer. I haven’t been able to figure out how big a role each of my conditions plays into the summer pain, but I have developed a few tricks for dealing with it. My summer pain is extreme muscular fatigue, joint pain, and an all over bruised sensation; I do experience nerve pain, but it’s usually do to a pinched nerve thanks to my joint problems instead of due to my fibromyalgia. I also have to juggle my dysautonomia which includes a lot of problems with temperature regulation (leading to overheating) and swelling. Continue reading →

How to Clean with a Moderately Severe Dust Allergy

I’m allergic to dust. Yes, you read that properly, dust. Everyday house dust. (Read post 1 and 2 about this allergy.) As you can imagine, this makes things very complicated. Doctor’s orders say I’m supposed to stay away from dust, especially airborne dust, which also means keeping my house as dust free as possible. Do you see the catch?

Cleaning is very complicated due to the dust issues. First of all, let me emphasize the importance of good air filters if you have a dust allergy or sensitivity. Air filters are CRUCIAL!!! They are also necessary when cleaning. airfilterI have two different types of air filters, three filter units total. I have two Winix True HEPA filters, and love them. After we got them, we cleaned thoroughly, and it took significantly less time for a dust layer to accumulate. They also automatically sense air quality and will adjust the fan speed as necessary (if on “auto”) and can be put on a quiet “sleep” mode for overnight. We have one Winix on the main level of our house, and one in our bedroom. We also have a small Holmes HEPA mini-tower air purifier (I bought it from Target about 5 years ago). We buy the best filters we can for the Holmes, and it runs 24/7 in the office. All the air filters run 24/7. I’m not getting anything for these links, but these are the ones we use and I definitely recommend the Winix ones.

How to Clean and Dust Your House When You’re Allergic to House Dust

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Tips for Winter Pain Flares

The links in this article are not affiliated links, they’re just so you can find things quickly if you are interested. I literally get nothing from them being in my post (sadly, hehe).

I’m sure many people with fibromyalgia (and probably other chronic pain conditions) experience discomfort when the weather changes. For me, cold weather causes a lot of discomfort: extremely overstimulated nerves, painful joints, muscle stiffness, muscle aches, extreme fatigue, etc. I think part of the overstimulated nerves comes from the dry skin I get in the winter.

Even though I only got officially diagnosed with fibromyalgia in January 2013, I have been having symptoms for most of my life. Thankfully, having symptoms most of your life helps you come up with some tricks. I’m still working on an effective routine, but I have a few things that will help when I need some relief.

Chronic Pain Relief in Winter – at Home

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So I took a ton of photos at Zion National Park. Here are a few of my favorites:

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Zion National Park Photos