Welcome to The Filtery!

The Filtery is a digital platform that provides curious citizens with well-researched and practical solutions for reducing toxins in their homes and bodies. Whether you’re looking for trusted non-toxic brands or answers to your questions about materials or ingredients, The Filtery is here to help.


🌎 Who Is The Filtery For?

Well, everyone!

Our aim is to provide information that is thorough yet understandable for all readers, regardless of lifestyle or level of experience with non-toxic living. 

This is a judgment-free zone. Our goal is never to judge, shame, or fear-monger. We understand that there are a lot of reasons why one may make a decision to use (or not use) a certain product.

Our aim is simply to save you some valuable time, energy, and stress by providing you with information and recommendations so that you can make the best decision for yourself and your family.


Meet the Founder

Hi! I’m Abbie Davidson, founder and editor of The Filtery.

I’ve worked in the worlds of sustainability and wellbeing for a decade. But then several years ago, I became extremely ill from a moldy air conditioning unit and was diagnosed with Chronic Inflammatory Response Syndrome (CIRS), which took a couple of years and quite a bit of effort to put into remission.

Even though toxic mold was the main culprit in my illness, it also triggered a sensitivity to other things, like perfume and smoke. This led to a pivot in both my personal and professional life as I transitioned to a lifestyle that was not only eco-conscious but also low-tox.

In the years following my diagnosis, I built on the foundation I’d gained working in sustainability and furthered my education with a number of courses about environmental toxins (listed below). I read book after book written by scientists, doctors, and investigative journalists, diving deep into topics like air and water pollution, flame retardants, pesticides, PFAS, and more. I am always continuing my education by reading more books, staying up to date on the latest research, attending lectures, and more.

Relevant Professional Certifications & Memberships Include:

LinkedIn | Instagram | Facebook | Pinterest


📬 Get In Touch:

Or send us a message on social:


A Few of My Favorites:


What one reader has to say:

“Hello Abbie,

I just wanted to e-mail you to say THANK YOU. I’ve been passionate about having a non-toxic lifestyle for years but it’s always felt overwhelming because of the amount of knowledge needed to even read product labels properly and so we just kind of inched along. But since I discovered your site, the journey has become less overwhelming and we’ve made so much more progress in a few months than in the few years before that. We are replacing our okay products with the great ones that you’ve recommended and the clear and concise way that you present information makes me feel empowered to make educated decisions. And when I can’t remember something, I have your website bookmarked in the browsers on all of my devices for quick reference. 🙂

You’ve truly been a blessing to our family and I’m so grateful for the work that you do.”

– Lorenza


📣 What Motivates You?

Everyone has their own reason for wanting to ditch the toxic chemicals in their home and switch to healthier ones instead.

  • For some people, it’s having their first child that changes their perspective.
  • For others, it’s a health condition that makes careful ingredient investigation a necessity.
  • For others still, it’s a love for this planet and a desire to preserve our natural ecosystems that motivates them to be more mindful of what’s actually in the products they buy.

And for most, there’s more than one reason!

Regardless of what your motivations are, we hope The Filtery can be a place you can return to again and again on your journey.


🍋 Subscribe to Filtered Fridays

If you want resources delivered straight to your inbox, sign up for Filtered Fridays. It’s our weekly email where we share quick tips, product recommendations, environmental toxin headlines, and some other random fun stuff.


🌱 Where To Start?

If you’re just starting out your low-tox lifestyle journey, you may want to download this simple guide, which will give you 25 things you can implement relatively easily and cheaply:

And if you’re looking for product swaps, here are some of our most popular shopping guides:

25 Easy Tips to Reduce Environmental Toxins TheFiltery.com-2
Free Checklist: Jumpstart Your Low-Tox Lifestyle
Reducing environmental toxins in your life doesn’t have to be super expensive or difficult! Sign up below to get my free checklist to jumpstart your low-tox lifestyle today. ☀️
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More About Our Approach

What does “non-toxic” even mean?! 

Unfortunately, the answer to that question is not always as straight-forward as we’d like it to be. There’s no objective standard that tells us whether something is ’non-toxic’ or not. Much like other buzz words like ‘green,’ ‘eco-friendly,’ ’natural,’ and ’sustainable,’ there really isn’t anyone holding brands accountable for their use of those words, and there are rarely any consequences for using them when they’re not truly applicable. 

Additionally, there’s often a spectrum involved. For example, one product may be more “natural” than another product, but still not be 100% natural. There is often nuance involved when we’re talking about “non-toxic,” “natural,” and “eco-friendly” materials and products. It depends on how the materials are sourced, how they’re manufactured, who is using them, and more.

And honestly, the whole thing can get kind of frustrating sometimes. We get it!

Our goal at The Filtery is to provide you with in-depth yet understandable information about these topics so that you can make the best decision for you. (And sometimes that might mean we can’t really give you a black and white answer to a question.)

Although words such as “non-toxic” are nuanced and subjective, we choose to use them because it’s what consumers like you are looking for. Depending on the specific subject or type of product, “non-toxic” might actually mean “less toxic.” Depending on what’s available on the market, we may be able to suggest several great truly non-toxic brands OR we may only be able to offer you options that may not be 100% non-toxic, but rather are simply better than most conventional brands.

To use an example, there are plenty of laundry detergent brands available that we can confidently recommend as truly non-toxic. When it comes to things like outdoor furniture, however, the options are much slimmer. For that category, you might have to choose the better option instead of something perfect.

You can read more about these nuances in the following articles:


Our Process

You’ll notice plenty of “Best of” product recommendations on The Filtery, from the best couches to the best makeup for tweens, and more. We go through several different steps as we choose which brands to recommend and which ones to skip.

It starts with considering the lay of the land with regard to that specific category. As mentioned above, the consumer market may offer better or worse options depending on the product. When you read each article, you’ll be able to get a better idea of how much nuance might be involved and hopefully that will help you make the best decision for you.

Then we take a deep dive into the ingredients and materials used. Our first priority is transparency: does the brand actually make their ingredient, material, and sourcing information available on their website and/or product labels? Do they answer our questions when we reach out to them for more info? We believe consumers deserve to know what’s in the products they buy, and transparency is a crucial part of that.

After we look for transparency, we dive deep into the ingredients and materials used. You could say we are pretty picky with our choices, even leaving out some brands and ingredients that others have deemed “clean”! We look for products that are free from known and suspected carcinogens, endocrine disruptors, allergens, and other potentially problematic toxicants. If products that are completely free from these types of chemicals are not available, then we look for the best options available, while providing you with the nuanced info of the pros and cons.

Next comes the field testing. Most of the the products we recommend have been tested by our team, along with friends, family, colleagues, and even readers! For categories like deodorant or all-purpose cleaner where we can easily test every brand over the course of a few months, our team actually uses tries out each brand. For categories that are more difficult to test out (like furniture, for example), we lean more heavily on things like customer reviews and brand reputation.

Finally, our content is continually being updated and improved upon. If a brand changes its formulations (for better or for worse!), we will update our recommendations accordingly. When we find a new brand we love, we’ll add it. If a brand gets exposed for not doing what they say they are, we’ll remove it. We strive to give you the most updated and accurate information as possible.

Once again, our ultimate goal is not to tell you what the “right” or “wrong” answer is, but to give you the information you’re looking for so that you can make the best decision for you and your home. If you have input on how we can do a better job of that, please don’t hesitate to reach out and let us know at hello[at]thefiltery[dot]com.


Resources

We gather information from a wide variety of sources, including the PubMed database, governmental bodies like the US EPA (Environmental Protection Agency), UN WHO (World Health Organization), ECHA (European Chemicals Agency), as well many different non-profit and research organizations including the Center for Environmental Health, Campaign for Safe Cosmetics, Toxic-Free Future, Green Science Policy Institute, MADE SAFE, Environmental Working Group, International Living Future Institute, and more.

We look for consensus among these organizations, and where there is none, we seek to understand why and to recognize nuance.


Giving Back

The Filtery is a member of 1% For the Planet, which means we give 1% of revenue to environmental non-profit organizations. You can stay updated on the specific organizations we’ve donated to here.


Want to Support Us?

If you have found our work helpful and would like to say “thank you” with a monetary donation, you can do so via one of the buttons below. You can read more about this here.


You will probably notice that we use affiliate links on the site, which means that if you decide to make a purchase, we may earn a commission (at no extra cost to you). It takes a lot of time, energy, research, and resources to run a digital media platform, and using affiliate links to our recommended brands helps us “keep the lights on.” That being said, we only ever make genuine recommendations for brands and products we truly believe in. We never make decisions based solely on whether or not a brand has an affiliate program or not. This is why we also have ads from a third-party network on the site. These ads keep us from having to rely solely on affiliate commission and give us more freedom to recommend brands that we truly believe in, even if they do not have an affiliate program. Thus far, this is the best way we’ve found to provide you with free information while being able to keep things financially sustainable.