BellaOnline Forums Home and Garden Natural Living What is Natural Living?

So many people are asking me - 'what exactly is natural living'?

My question to the site visitors/members --
What does natural living mean to you?

Looking forward to the responses!

Hi Colleen,

It's nice to see this site becoming active again. Welcome to bellaonline!

My family could do better when it comes to natural living, but we have been making changes gradually and are getting better all the time. We eat natural and organic foods, and buy in bulk from a co-op. Thus we use less packaging and don't promote the use of chemicals on the foods we buy. We don't use chemicals on our lawn or garden, though we have been known to spray poison ivy with weedkiller. Most of my family is highly allergic, and it takes over if we don't do something to keep it in check. Please let me know if anyone has a suggestion for getting rid of the stuff in a gentler manner. Burning is out, of course.

What else do we do? We compost our kitchen scraps, and recycle all plastic and glass. We reuse paper by writing notes or drawing on the back. We recycle our paper when we're done with it. We pass down clothing and toys that we no longer need; accept secondhand treasures from friends as they come to us.

I'm interested in hearing what other families are doing too.

take care-

Lorel

Hi Lorel,
Thank you so much for sharing what you do. I think what you said about making gradual changes is so important. I know we have been making changes over time. I think the birth of our daughter put us into a faster gear but it takes time.

As far as Poison Ivy -- my husband uses vinegar. We also heard mixing salt and soap works too. We have it bad and just started treating it naturally this summer. Hopefully it won't be back next year.

Sorry for the delay in responding. I'm not the techie I used to be!

Thanks again for your response and all the best,
Colleen

I think natural living is also a less consumerist mentality. Less buying things you don't really need. Maybe more of making things you need, buying used things, and lowering your environmental imprint overall.

Those are some of my ideas anyway. Not to say I live up to all of them at this point in my life, but I'm working on it (and my husband ).

I think Natural Living is something that definitely takes time. I think that we have all become a part of a disposable society, we use it once and throw it away. We need or want things quick and easy, hence the great number of fast food restaurants and 'convenience foods.' So to me my own living naturally probably isn't living completely naturally, but more like we have made certain changes in our lives, like recycling and composting, not using any products that contain chemicals, and I mean right from what we scrub our toilet with to what we kill ants with right to what we use to brush our teeth. I grow a veggie garden without pesticides or chemical fertilizer, and try to grow veggies that I will be able to consume at the time, but also be able freeze a portion to last at least partway through the winter.
I certainly hope to get much better at it some day, but believe that if all of us do a little bit, it will make a big difference to us and our children and so on!

Julie-great thoughts on natural living! I, too, have an organically grown garden and use no pesticides in my yard or home. There are natural ways to do things and many organic products out there now.

We can all make a difference, especially by raising kids who know what "natural living" is so they can go out and do even more than we did when they grow up.