The quality of air you breathe, whether indoor or outdoor, can have a big impact on your health. Though many people believe pollution happens only outdoors, our homes can be even more polluted than the outside.
Milliam Murigi explores natural and economical routes to go to cleanse what we breathe at home.
1. Using beeswax candles
Beeswax candles have the ability to ionise the air and neutralise toxic compounds and contaminants.
They can not only improve the quality of air in our houses, but as an added bonus, they even burn slowly, so they don’t need to be replaced often. In fact, absolutely pure quality of beeswax candles burns with almost no smoke or scent.
If you have asthmatic patients at home, these candles are helpful; they even remove common allergens such as dust from the air.
2. Using Himalayan pink salt crystal lamp
Himalayan pink salt is a natural air purifier that pulls toxins from the environment and neutralises them.
In fact, all salt crystal products reduce airborne irritants, allergens, and pathogens by pulling water vapour out of the air.
3. Grow some houseplants
Plants are nature’s air purifiers. They absorb carbon dioxide and release clean oxygen. Different kinds of houseplants can purify the air and they are one of the best ways to counter pollution indoors, especially if you are dealing with respiratory illnesses.
Keeping a houseplant at every 100 square-foot of our homes is an effective and efficient method for obtaining clean air.
The most effective plants that can filter toxins from the air are lady palm or broad-leaf palm, which prefer bright indirect light, and peace lily, which prefers very moderate light.
4. Opening your windows
It’s the simplest and cheapest thing you can do to improve your indoor air quality. Open your windows for even just five minutes a day to alleviate the accumulation of harmful air pollutants in your indoor air.
5. Cleaning your home regularly
This might seem obvious, but cleaning on a regular basis will make a difference. Vacuuming is particularly important, but not just the floors.
Walls, carpet edges and upholstered furniture also need to be thoroughly and regularly vacuumed.
In addition, air filters on air conditioners, heaters, furnaces, and vacuum cleaners need to be regularly cleaned so that they remain effective.
6. Storing charcoal in the house
Charcoal has for long been used in filters to purify water. It can also help to purify the air indoors. This is because it is an odourless substance that is highly absorbent, thus being able to effectively eliminate toxins and odours from your home.
7. Start a collection of essential oils
Essential oils are gaining popularity these days because they provide a more natural, holistic approach to treating common illnesses such as flu.
In addition to having medicinal properties, essential oils such as rosemary, cinnamon, oregano, lemon, and tea tree have the ability to kill bacteria, viruses, fungi, and mould making them excellent air purifiers.
8. Take your shoes off
Shoes can carry some really yucky stuff such as pesticides, pollen, fungi, bacteria, or faeces. When you walk inside your house, any or all of that could be on the bottom of your shoes, so it’s best to take them off at home.
Taking your shoes helps keep your air cleaner as well as your floors.
9. Increase ventilation indoors
A well-ventilated home will reduce moisture levels and will eventually improve air quality. This doesn’t necessarily mean opening all doors, windows, and other closed areas.
You can increase your ventilation indoors by installing more trickle vents to purify or rather improve the ventilation conditions indoors. Another alternative would be to install an exhaust fan to help you out with cleaning the air indoors.
10. Ditch your carpet
As much as you may love your wall-to-wall carpet, it may be introducing toxins and Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) to your home without your knowledge. These are compounds that have a high vapour pressure and low water solubility.
This is because the chemicals used in manufacturing carpets may release VOCs such as formaldehyde in a process called off-gassing, especially when they’re first installed.
They will continue releasing low levels of VOCs for years to come. Aside from that, carpets also trap pollutants such as dirt and dust mites. However, if you aren’t ready to let go of your carpet, you can choose to have plastic-lined carpets instead to make it harder for stains and pollutants to penetrate it.
