Furniture and household items have created more arguments between me and the various people I’ve lived with over the years then anything else.  The proper item of furniture can bring an often underestimated improvement to our lives.  The wrong piece of furniture can cause immense hardship for those of us with Multiple Chemical Sensitivity Syndrome (MCS).  Experimentation with a bar of soap or a pair of second hand pants presents very little investment and therefore little risk, a piece of furniture can be a different animal altogether.  Not only is there a greater investment in the purchase of furniture but it is often large, hard to move and if it is an MCS trigger for us it is a big MCS trigger.  If we get the wrong piece of furniture it is often not easy to get rid of or recoup our financial investment. 

 

As a person with MCS I like to have an environment that is trigger free.  Once I find a set of things that works for me I have a tendency to never want anything to ever change again.  It’s good, don’t mess with it, leave it alone.  Not only is this a less then thriving way to live life, it is impossible.  Try as I might, entropy will always catch up with my fears.  Things simply wear out and need replacing, life changes; sometimes I need new and better stuff. 

 

Bamboo has not let me down.  A large portion of my kitchen items are bamboo.  My dish rack, spatulas, spoons, etc. are all made from bamboo.  This is all great for the little stuff but I have yet to see a readily available bamboo chest of drawers and entertainment center.  For the bigger stuff I need to try something different.  For quite some time I would scour the second hand stores.  I would look for items that were old, and well ‘aired out’.  This strategy had some success but only a small fraction of what I bought would work out.  Even when it did work, I would be left with items that I really didn’t like but only used out of necessity.  I needed another strategy. 

 

Years ago I read an article about how theUShad a very different idea about what was a safe to use in consumer goods then the European Union.  Not only does theUShave a much longer list of approved chemicals, many of the chemicals on that list have been banned as harmful by other countries around the world.  Do those of us with MCS really want to use a wood glue/preservative that has been outlawed in the EU andJapan? Probably not. 

 

Fast-forward a little.  It’s time for new furniture.  What to buy?  I have a friend who is a bit of a ‘stuff guy’.  He likes his things.  In the last five years he had bought all new furniture.   His new furniture never seemed to be an MCS trigger for me.  Perhaps there is a clue here as to what to buy.  I knew he bought all his stuff from IKEA and IKEA is all made in the EU.  What I really needed was something I could use as storage and put my TV on.  My friend had something that would foot the bill, an Expedit.  It was time to take a leap of faith and a drive to IKEA.

 

I got what I need home with me and put it together.  This part of the process defiantly triggered MCS symptoms.  I knew it would, this is where the leap of faith really came in.  I had been around one of these pieces of furniture for hours on end on several occasions and it was not a trigger.  I had to have faith that this one would also work for me.  I set it up, wiped it down, vacuumed up the mess and took a shower.  It triggered symptoms pretty bad that night and the next day.  On the third day it started to lessen, after a week it was not a problem at all.  It had worked, I had brought a new piece of furniture into my living space.  I was using something I actually liked as an entertainment center.  This was pretty exciting. I liked it so much I bought a second one and used it as a shelving unit.

 

I’m not saying this particular piece of furniture will work for everyone.  It’s the process of discovery that might prove useful.  We all have to go out sometime.  Check out friend’s homes and what they have.  Where did they buy it?  Where was it made?  I’ve found that the EU andJapanoften better then theUSorChina.  Is it made only out of solid wood or is there particleboard or plywood in it?  Are you willing to put up with an MCS trigger in the home for a few days while it ‘airs out’?  Is there another safe place you could store it while it ‘airs out’?  In the end just find things that work for you but are not necessarily yours.  Buy what you like and be willing to try it out for a few days to a week.  If it works great!  If it doesn’t then Craig’s List is a useful way to recoup some of your financial loses from the purchase. 

 

Another option for discovery is to employ the muscle testing technique talked about a couple of posts ago.  As an example, say you want to try out some items from IKEA.  Buying one of everything you want is of course impractical.  Taking a small sample, perhaps in the form of a wood chip, from each different item will most likely get you kicked out of the store.  What to do?  I would suggest going down there and touching everything you want to try out.  The important thing is to grab the little slip of paper that has the name and item number of the object you want test.  When you get home do the muscle testing exercise on each slip of paper you brought back.  Your body will know what it good for you and what isn’t.  If an item shows up in the ‘very good’ category then you may want to go back and try it out.

 

I have found that furniture made with solid wood seem to work pretty well.  Pay attention to this, I’ve seen pieces advertised as solid wood but have plywood components to them.  Plywood is just particleboard stuck between two sheets of real wood; I have had no luck with this.  For me I find that one of the biggest challenges with furniture is to look beyond the immediate fear and have faith that the proper solution can be found.