Create a Healthier Home: Hazards to Avoid and Tips to Try

Your home should be the one place you can rely on to be clean and healthy. It’s up to you to take charge of making your home less hazardous for your health. To help you take steps toward a clean house, we’ve outlined various tips to create a healthier home. We want you and your family to step into your home and feel at peace, without the contaminants and chemicals that can lead to stress, illness, and more.

Why Is a Healthy Home Important?

Velux, a window and skylight manufacturing company, conducted a study and found that “around 90 percent of people spend close to 22 hours inside every day.” Because of this, it’s imperative that your home is clean.

As the world focuses on returning to a “green” state of mind, understanding the various hazards in a home and how those create an unhealthy environment is important. One thing to look out for is Multiple Chemical Sensitivity (MCS). Many people are at risk for MCS, as it’s triggered by harmful chemicals and environmental factors that surround us each and every day. Therefore, creating a safe zone in your home will make life much healthier for you and your family.

Hazards in an Unhealthy Home

Understanding the different risks you can find in your home is important to fully comprehend what creates a healthy home. Here are a few of the big hazards.

·         Smoking. We all know it by now: smoking and secondhand smoke have a direct correlation to asthma, respiratory problems, lung cancer, and more. The intermingling of the smoke in the air of your home leads to terrible indoor air quality.

·         Lead. Lead-based paint—even underneath new, lead-free paint—creates huge health hazards and can harm children’s brains in numerous ways.

·         Volatile Organic Compounds (VOC). These are gases released from various solids and liquids that have numerous short- and long-term health effects.

·         Radon. According to the EPA, “Radon is the number one cause of lung cancer among non-smokers.” Getting your home tested for radon every few years is imperative.

·         Moisture and Mold. Too much moisture indoors can lead to mold, which often leads to health problems like allergies and rashes.

15 Tips to Create a Healthier Home

General Tips

1.       Open the windows

You may not believe it, but indoor air is often much more polluted than outdoor air. Open your windows as often as possible to combat this pollution. Get your body in sync with nature and try to let in fresh air and sunlight at least three to four times a day.

2.       Paint with low-VOC paint

If you’re planning on painting anything in your home, use a low-VOC, low-odor paint. These types of paints are nontoxic and wonderful for your home, your health, and the environment. Even further, remember to think beyond zero-VOC. ECOS Paints recognizes that paint contains many chemicals—other than VOCs—that affect health, so we carefully select our ingredients. Choose paints that won’t cause irritation, discomfort, or illness.

3.       Ban smoking

Smoking is one of the biggest health hazards in a home—banning guests and residents from smoking inside or outside the home creates a healthier environment.

4.       Bring greenery inside

Including plenty of plant life inside your home can do wonders for the overall air quality. Most plants are neutralizers, meaning they will absorb various contaminants and chemicals and emit fresh, natural oxygen. They’re also stress-reducing, so the more plants, the better.

5.       Install a whole-house water filter

The water filter in your kitchen is a necessity, but so is a water filter for your shower, your faucets, and more. Since you use the water in your home for various things, you need to make sure your water is completely clean.

6.       Get rid of carpet and welcome wood

Carpet is a breeding ground for various contaminants, dust, and allergens. Swap out carpets for hardwood—bamboo is a wonderful, eco-friendly option—which will make cleaning easier. Opt for washable rugs to decorate and make more rooms comfortable as you see fit.

For the Living Room, Family Room, and Bedrooms

7.       Purchase an air purifier

A great option for bedrooms, purifiers will help control dust and other allergens. Along with opening bedroom windows at morning and at night, use purifiers to create a healthier living and resting space.

8.       Dust and sanitize regularly

Dust down rooms very regularly. Dust mites can cause a variety of health issues, like runny noses, watery eyes, asthma, and more. After dusting, make sure to sanitize surfaces with natural cleaning products to keep other germs at bay.

9.       Purchase dust-proof covers

For sofas, mattresses, and pillows, think about investing in dust-proof covers to keep out mites, dust, and other tiny allergens. Also make sure to wash these regularly, and vacuum sofas and mattresses when possible.

For the Kitchen

10.   Fill holes and cracks

When you spot any holes or cracks, fill them up as soon as possible to keep disease-carrying mice and insects from coming into your home. Even the tiniest of holes can let in pesky rodents, and they can cause a lot of problems.

11.   Get rid of plastic containers that contain BPA

Tupperware is a good alternative to nonrecyclable to-go containers. However, you should make sure your plastic containers are BPA-free—otherwise, these containers could leach the chemical into your food or drink.

For Bathrooms

12.   Dehumidify

Run your ceiling fan vent after every shower. If your bathroom doesn’t have one, get one as soon as possible. Otherwise, the moist air can cause mildew, mold, and other unhealthy environments.

13.   Clean with natural products

This is an important one because a lot of popular cleaning products contain ammonia or chlorine, and you don’t want that in your home. The harsh chemicals in a lot of cleaning products can irritate skin and lungs and provoke asthma.

For the Basement

14.   Check HVAC regularly

Schedule an HVAC checkup regularly to make sure that water heaters, boilers, and furnaces are properly venting out carbon monoxide.

15.   Replace furnace filters

Every few months, clean or replace your furnace or forced-air system filter. If you don’t, chances are you’re bringing a lot of allergens into your home.

As you strive for a healthier home, keep in mind that natural products are generally better. Natural hardwood, natural ingredients, natural cleaning products—all these things will lead to a healthier home for your family to enjoy.