Clean the Air Inside

Thankfully, there are some straightforward ways to tackle this, some are as easy as taking off your shoes! Check out these 10 ways to promote clean air in your house:

• Change the heating & air conditioning filters at least every three months. These filters do a lot to filter out dust and particles that make your air quality poorer, but when they are full, they cease to be effective and can even become fire hazards.

• While you’re at it, change your other filters. You have filters throughout your home that also get dirty like bathroom vents, the stove vent, your vacuum cleaner, and your dehumidifier. Check and switch them out ever few months.

• Leave your shoes outside. Shoes naturally carry with them a lot of dirt, dust, grass, and yes, chemicals and animal feces. Save your air quality by putting a mat at the door and ask your family to leave their shoes outside. If that’s not an option, place a thick door mat at the front door to encourage visitors to clean their feet before entering.

• Use your fans. In your bathroom and above your stove you have vents designed to take extremely humid, hot, burnt, chemically-laden air out of the house. Use them whenever possible.

• Try more natural air fresheners. There’s some question about what scented candles and air fresheners do to your air quality, so play it safe by creating herb sachets or dipping cotton balls in essential oil and putting them in your home.

• Vacuum once a week. This is good for your carpet and good for your air, as long as you’re vacuuming with a clean filter!

• Wash your sheets every week. Dust mites like to hang out in dirty sheets where there’s plenty of sweat and skin cells to make a home in. Yuck! Banish them by washing your sheets in hot water.

• Clean the mattress, too. There are several ways to clean a mattress: you can steam clean and let dry for several hours until there’s no dampness left or you can sprinkle it with baking soda, allow it to sit for a few hours and absorb the moisture and dirt in your mattress, then vacuum it away.

• Use houseplants. All houseplants purify the air, but some are better at it than others. Check online or ask your nursery for ones that are known to be helpful for cleaning the air.

• Switch to natural cleaners. Many more potent chemical cleaners release chemicals into the air you don’t want to breathe, so when possible, find more natural, safer alternatives.