Indoor Air Quality Tips for a Cleaner Home
Indoor air quality is easy to ignore until the house feels dusty, stale, smoky, damp, or hard to breathe in. Most causes are ordinary: cooking, pets, moisture, fireplaces, cleaning products, furniture, and a heating or cooling system that has not been maintained in a while. This guide is about everyday indoor-air habits. For dust inside the ductwork itself, use our air duct cleaning guide instead.
Indoor sources such as gas stoves, fireplaces, and other appliances like furnaces can release extremely hazardous toxins into the air, such as natural gas and carbon monoxide, that are a danger to your overall well-being, even though they are such common household tools. Particulate matter, such as dust, pollen, mold spores, etc., is a part of everyday life that will naturally accumulate in your house. Even furniture contains chemicals that are regularly released into the air without your knowledge. So how can you get ahead of this issue and fight against the indoor air pollution in your house? In this article, we will take a look at what causes indoor air pollution in the first place, as well as all of the different steps you can take to clean the air in your home and avoid things like respiratory diseases while living comfortably indoors.
Causes of Indoor Air Pollution
One of the biggest reasons indoor air can be so contaminated is from everyday household products, such as stoves, floor coverings (rugs, carpets), cleaning products, and furniture. These items release indoor air pollutants that can’t be seen from these indoor sources. Building materials also have toxins within them that are released into the house and affect air quality. These are released continuously, which is why it is important to stay on top of your indoor air quality so that you can battle against these toxins and other unavoidable debris in the air.
Candles and fire burning are another source of air pollution, as are pets, which can cause hair and other small particles to float through the air. Spraying air fresheners is also incredibly harmful to your indoor air quality. These chemicals can cause significant health issues and are not a good solution to actually improve indoor air quality. Then there are the natural airborne pollutants from everyday living, such as dust mites, mold, and dander.
The good news is that you do not have to start with a major project. Better filters, cleaner surfaces, controlled moisture, fresh air when weather allows, and a properly maintained HVAC system can all improve how the home feels.
Steps To Improve Poor Indoor Air Quality
While attempting to improve indoor air quality in your home might sound like a lot of work, there are some tasks you can perform regularly that are incredibly simple. Here are some of the best steps to follow when trying to improve the indoor air quality in your home in the healthiest way possible.
Open Windows
Opening windows can be an easy and effective way to get ventilation in your home when trying to get fresh air. Rather than using something like air fresheners that can be harmful to indoor air quality, simply opening windows to get fresh air is a great alternative. There are specific times when the outdoor air quality is not healthy and you should not open the windows (during fires or heavy pollen days), but opening them at night, even just a crack, can greatly improve air quality and breathing inside your house by circulating outdoor air in to freshen the air in your home.
Buy Houseplants
Plants will actually help increase the oxygen levels in your home as well as purify the air from volatile organic compounds. Like a furnace filter, they can filter out some of the harmful toxins floating through the air. Spider plants are an example of a plant that can actually reduce volatile organic compounds (vocs) like formaldehyde and nitrogen dioxide. Even toxins like carbon monoxide can be removed by plants if the levels are low enough, greatly improving indoor air quality.
Remove Shoes Inside
There are millions of dirty and toxic dirt particles we pick up on our shoes throughout the day, and continuing to wear our shoes inside the house tracks all of these small particles inside. Removing or switching out of your shoes into a pair of indoor shoes is a great way to not only keep your floors cleaner but to keep the air cleaner by not having the outside particles tracked all over your house.
Keep Pets Properly Groomed
Particulate matter, such as hair and skin cells from pets, can be especially rampant in the air inside your home. Pet fur and pet dander can cause respiratory diseases if breathed in constantly, so it is vital that you keep all pets groomed. Clean them regularly and brush out their fur outside if possible so that you can reduce the amount of debris around the house. If you can, use a HEPA filter when you vacuum to be sure you are cleaning up as much of the debris left by pets as you can.
Keep the HVAC System and Filters Maintained
A central heating and cooling system usually recirculates indoor air through a filter while it heats or cools the home. That makes filter choice and maintenance important. Replace dirty filters, use a filter your system can handle, and have the equipment checked before heavy heating or cooling seasons. If dust comes back quickly, rooms smell stale, or airflow feels weak, the issue may be deeper than a filter.
Use Non-Toxic Cleaning Products
Keeping in mind what ingredients are in the cleaning chemicals you use is important. Homemade cleaners are a good alternative, like baking soda, vinegar, and citrus juice. Air fresheners can be especially harmful and cause poor indoor air quality. When you are cleaning, and if you can’t avoid using some unhealthy cleaning products, try opening windows to lessen the harmful chemicals lingering within the air of your home. There are even some cleaning supplies out there from companies that use healthier products so that you can have a clean home and clean air.
Keep Track of Mold
Staying on top of mold spores that can pop up around your house can help you clear out a lot of harmful toxins in the air. Mold can grow wherever too much moisture gathers, such as in the bathroom, laundry room, basement, and around the windows. Instead of letting it gather for long periods of time, use chemical-free cleaning ingredients to clean it up so that it reduces the harmful toxins in the indoor air. Use the exhaust fan in the bathroom when showering in order to reduce moisture and musty odors and to remove the humid air that can cause a mold problem.
Air Out the Furniture
Since there are many harmful chemicals that are put in common household furniture, it can be a good idea to let any new furniture you buy air out in the outdoor air before bringing it indoors to preserve clean air inside. The brand new furniture can emit fumes that are unhealthy for your indoor air quality, so it can be helpful to leave them outside, in the garage, or even in a room with all the windows open for a week or so.
Use the Kitchen Exhaust Fan
When using gas stoves, there are tons of toxins that are emitted into the air and can cause serious human health problems. natural gas increases nitrogen dioxide and particulate matter in the air. Using the exhaust fan above the stove is a way to draw out the harmful air and keep it from floating around in indoor environments. Much like how a bathroom fan can draw out the stale, humid air and prevent mold from growing.
No Smoking Indoors
Tobacco smoke is harmful to everyone’s health and can definitely contribute to poor air quality. You should ideally stop smoking completely to reduce life-endangering health effects such as lung disease and cardiovascular disease. But until you can make the step to quit completely, keep the smoking outside of your home so that the air in your home can be free of the unhealthy smoke that can settle into things like your clothes, carpets, and furniture. Secondhand smoke is harmful to others as well, so it is best to keep tobacco smoke outdoors and close the windows to the house so that the smoke does not float back inside.
Beware of Scented Products
Though they can add a more pleasant smell to your home, the unfortunate truth is that a lot of scented items contain harmful volatile organic compounds (vocs) that can pose a great risk to your health and will harm indoor air quality. These products can be cleaning supplies, makeup, perfume, and candles. The harmful chemicals contained within many of these can include things like benzene, formaldehyde, and toluene, which can have severe health effects.
Get an Air Purifier or Air Cleaner
You can put an air purifier or air cleaner in a room to try to reduce the amount of particulate matter or gases in the air. An air cleaner will take in the unhealthy air and filter it back out, removing a large percentage of the pollutants. You will have to change the filter of an air cleaner regularly to be sure it does not become clogged with particulate matter, but this can be a great way to have clean air within individual rooms if you feel there are heavier air pollutants in one area of the house. An air cleaner is also a great option if you are unable to open the windows of your house for ventilation. Though an air cleaner won’t rid your home completely of air pollution, it will help you breathe cleaner air while inside. It is important to get air filters that are big enough for the room and will fit in the specific air cleaner you purchase.
Clean Indoor Environments Regularly
Dust furniture with either a damp cloth or a microfiber cloth, vacuum carpets, clean filters, and clean the windows from mold regularly. Even if you follow the above steps and do everything you can to reduce the number of air pollutants in your home, you should always have a regular cleaning schedule where you can take care of the natural dust, debris, and mold that will accumulate in your home. It is also good to check on things like cooking vents to be sure that they are cleaned and working correctly so that you don’t run the risk of carbon monoxide emissions. Clean your furnace filter regularly as well to reduce things like dust and pet dander from being recirculated through your home’s indoor air.
Indoor air quality is important because of how much time indoors we spend on average, which is about 90%, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. If we are not continuously breathing in healthy air, it could have a severe effect on our health in the long term, so it is crucial that we find ways to make the air cleaner in our homes. There are chemicals that are inherently going to be present in your home, but there are things like an air cleaner, a furnace filter, and even houseplants that can reduce carbon monoxide and debris particles. Having carbon monoxide detectors is also a good idea for safety in case there is a leak, since this gas is poisonous and cannot usually be detected through sight or smell. If you find that you must use scented products, unhealthy chemicals, or have a fire or candles burning inside, an air cleaner can be a good option to improve indoor air quality.
Following even a few of these habits can make a home feel cleaner and less stale. If the basics are not enough, John Owens Services can look at the HVAC system, filters, ventilation, and ductwork and air-flow issues so you are not guessing at the cause.