Even if you don't suffer from asthma or allergies, poor indoor air quality can adversely affect respiration and cardiovascular health. Fortunately, there are many changes you can make to improve your home's air quality that will also benefit the environment. These are simple changes that won't be expensive to make, but they will have a significant and positive impact on your family's health.
Contact Your HVAC Contractor
Scheduling a seasonal inspection and tune-up of your home's HVAC system is one of the best ways to improve your indoor air quality. This type of service call will include cleaning or replacing your air filter. While you should be checking and replacing your air filter once per month, your HVAC contractor will ensure it is clean. A dirty air filter will increase energy usage and cause greater wear and tear on your system. More importantly, it will cause pollen, pet dander, and other contaminants to be redistributed into your home's air. Cleaning or replacing the air filter will prevent this situation. The system tune-up will also include cleaning ducts, vents, and registers to eliminate air contamination from those sources. Your HVAC system will run more efficiently, which means your home's carbon footprint will be smaller, and your family will breathe cleaner air.
Add Plants to Your Home's Decor
While it's understood that plants help us by removing carbon dioxide and adding oxygen to the air, there are other ways that plants boost indoor air quality. Many types of plants absorb harmful contaminants, such as ammonia and benzene. While these substances are harmful to people, certain plants thrive on them. When you do go shopping for potted plants to keep inside your home, ask your florist or landscaper about the best-potted plants to keep indoors. Professionals can give you a better idea of the plants that will do the most for the air quality inside your home.
Create a Mud Room
Few people realize how much they contribute to the poor air quality inside their homes just by entering. From your shoes to your jacket, you carry allergens and other contaminants in the fibers of your outdoor wear. You can keep your home's air cleaner by designating a closet or anteroom for outdoor wear. Keep footwear, jackets, hats, and scarves in this area. If you can't designate a specific room as a mudroom, invest in a portable closet that has solid doors. You should also keep a spray bottle with water and some rags in this area for cleaning off the paws of pets as they come inside. Your dog or cat will carry mud, insects, and other contaminants on their paws, so be sure to clean them each time they are admitted back into the house.
Buy Organic Produce
You should also think about your home's air quality when you go grocery shopping. Traditionally grown fruits and vegetables are sprayed with pesticides and other agricultural chemicals. Even if you wash produce before eating these foods, those chemicals will still emit fumes as you bring fresh produce into your home. You'll avoid this situation altogether by choosing organically grown foods. Since these fruits and vegetables are never sprayed with chemicals, you won't have to expose your family to the fumes those chemicals give off.
Switch to Eco-Friendly Cleaners
Traditional cleaning solutions also contribute to poor air quality by emitting powerful fumes into the air. In today's market, there are plenty of options for effective cleaning solutions that don't use harmful chemicals to disinfect and clean. You can find organic cleaning solutions that are entirely eco-friendly. These products aren't harmful to breathe and won't contaminate the surrounding ground or waterways. You can find organic floor cleaner, furniture polish, and tile cleaner to fulfill all of your needs. In a pinch, a little lemon juice mixed with warm water can be a great substitute for cleaning floors, countertops, and porcelain.
You can continue looking for more ways to improve the air quality in your home without adversely affecting the environment. In general, keeping a clean home that's free of allergens and chemicals will help your family breathe easier inside your home. As you adopt more eco-friendly ways of maintaining good indoor air quality, you'll find that your family will experience fewer respiratory illnesses.
You may also like
5 In-Home Upgrades to Boost Your Well-Being in 2022
Simple Solutions For Clean Air at Home
How to Make Every Room in Your Home Smell Amazing
How To Incorporate Feng Shui in Your Home