More Ways to Improve the Health of Your Home
As well as eliminating harmful chemicals, there are other ways to improve the health of the home. The more time you spend creating a healthy home environment, the healthier and happier you and the family will be.
Not sure where to start? Below, you’ll discover more ways to improve the health of your home.
Invest in an air purifier
Ensuring the home’s air is clean is one of the most important steps when making the home healthier. This can be achieved with a good quality air purifier. These help to eliminate fine particle matter from the air. This has been linked to heart disease and lung issues. However, when purchasing an air purifier, make sure you’re getting the best quality. Some won’t be able to remove the smaller fine particle matter.
Open your windows regularly
Good ventilation is also important for the health of the home. For this reason, you’ll want to make sure you open your windows frequently.
Even in winter, you should open the windows once each day to allow fresh air to circulate around the property. If you have air filters in the home, you’ll also want to replace these frequently to ensure they are working correctly.
Take shoes off outside
Taking your shoes off after a long day is one of the nicest feelings. However, do you tend to take them off inside the home? Most people remove their shoes inside, but this means you may have trodden some harmful toxins into the home.
Instead, it’s best to remove your shoes before you get into the house. This may not be easy when it’s raining and wet outdoors. However, you could always take them off on the welcome mat just inside the home.
Add more plants to the home
Plants are one of the best natural ways to remove harmful toxins from the home. They can help to purify the air and eliminate carbon dioxide.
Not all plants and flowers will boost the quality of the air. So, you’ll want to focus on ones that do such as Areca palms, rubber plants, peace lilies and Aloe vera.
Switch to soy candles
Do you frequently use scented candles to enhance the smell of the home? If so, you could be unknowingly adding harmful chemicals into the environment. The Petroleum based paraffin candles are the worst culprits for toxic fumes. Instead, opt for 10%% soy candles or other vegetable-based candles. These don’t produce any harmful chemicals at all.
Give the home a spring clean
When was the last time you gave your home a full spring clean? If you can’t remember or it was a long time ago, now’s the time to give it a big clean.
Cleaning the home regularly is one of the easiest ways to reduce harmful chemicals in the home. It eliminates dust, dirt and debris which could be a haven for bacteria. Ideally, you’ll want to try and do a big clean once a month. However, if this isn’t possible every few months should be enough.
Filter tap water
Tap water can contain a lot of nasty chemicals. To ensure yours isn’t contaminated, it’s worth investing in a water filter. When you drink the filtered water, you can rest in the knowledge that it doesn’t contain anything harmful.
As you can see, there are plenty of ways to improve the health of the home. Paying attention to the cleanliness of the home, while focusing on air quality will help to make it a much safer space. The more effort you put into cleaning the home and making it a healthier place to be, the better your quality of life will be.
Natural Alternatives to Harmful Chemicals
As harmful chemicals are typically found in everything from our food to our cleaning products, it’s easy to think they are unavoidable. However, did you know there are some great natural alternatives you can use?
If you’re looking to limit your exposure to harmful chemicals, below you’ll discover some great natural alternatives to consider.
Stainless steel cookware
Most homes take advantage of the convenience of non-stick cookware. However, did you know it can give off toxic gases when being used?
Brands such as Teflon, use Polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE), which is what gives the cookware its non-stick properties. However, studies have shown that when heated to high temperatures, toxic gases are released. This can lead to problems such as production issues and potentially even cancer. Instead, it’s best to use stainless steel cookware. If you can’t live without your non-stick cookware however, it’s best to cook with them over lower temperatures.
Use glass, rather than plastic bottles
Plastic water bottles tend to be the go-to option. However, they can also contain numerous harmful chemicals such as BPA. These can leak through into the water, then absorb into the body when you drink from them.
Instead of using plastic bottles, aim to switch to glass bottles instead. These don’t contain harmful chemicals and they are reusable which means they are also better for the environment too.
Natural cleaning products
Cleaning products are a huge source of harmful chemicals. However, did you know you can now purchase natural cleaning solutions?
There are more natural cleaning solutions out there than ever before. When you consider traditional chemical cleaners contain bleach and ammonia, it’s worth looking into natural alternatives. The fumes released from cleaning products can lead to respiratory issues and they are also extremely dangerous for children.
There are lots of natural alternatives you can try. As well as pre-mixed natural solutions, you can also choose to make your own. Vinegar, baking powder and lemon juice are the main natural ingredients used in alternative cleaning solutions. Take a look online and you’ll find lots of natural cleaning product recipes to try out.
Natural insect repellents
As the weather warms up, all kinds of bugs can start to invade the home. Ants, wasps and flies are common pests that we typically tend to kill off with insect repellent.
Insect repellents are known to contain harmful chemicals. This is why they often have instructions to spray them, leave the room for a set time period, and then air the room out afterwards. They may be effective, but they could seriously harm your health.
Like natural cleaning solutions, you’ll also find lots of recipes online for natural insect repellents. Did you know for example, lemon juice and vinegar can be off putting to certain insects? Simply do an online search for natural insect repellents, followed by the pest you’re having trouble with, and it will show you the best natural products to use.
Flowers instead of air freshener
If you like to keep the home smelling fresh, it’s common to use cans of air freshener. However, these too contain harmful toxins which can build up in the home.
Instead of using air freshener, there are plenty of natural alternatives you can try. Fresh flowers are a great option. Not only do they smell divine, but they also help to brighten up the home. There may be a lot of harmful toxins found in traditional products, but there is also a lot of natural alternatives out there. The above are just some of the natural alternatives to harmful chemicals you can start using today. It’s also worth looking into natural based cosmetics and baby products too.
Common Toxins to Remove from the Home and Get Rid of them Safely
Although it’s practically impossible to eliminate your exposure to chemicals completely, there are ways to minimize the risks.
Some toxins are much more harmful than others so eliminating from the home is essential for your health. Here, you’ll discover some common toxins to remove from the home and how to get rid of them safely.
VOC’s (Volatile Organic Compounds)
VOC’s can come from a range of sources in the home. They vaporize easily and add gas pollutants into the environment. The amount of VOC’s in the home has been recorded as being over 400. As they are found in so many household products, VOC’s tend to be more common inside than outside of the home.
The most common risks they present to your health include:
⦁ Eye or respiratory tract infections
⦁ Dizziness
⦁ Headaches
⦁ Increased risk of cancer
⦁ Damage to the liver, kidneys or central nervous system
They are often found in new home furnishings and carpets, plywood, interior paints, cleaning fluids and deodorants to name just a few.
The main way to safely eliminate VOC’s from the home, is through ventilation. Ensure you open your windows frequently, particularly if you have just painted the home. You’ll also want to keep the humidity and temperature of the rooms low.
Another tip is to look for products which are advertised as low VOC. Mold is a common household problem, yet it can be extremely harmful to the health. Caused by excess moisture levels and a lack of ventilation, mold can quickly grow and spread throughout the home.
Many people are sensitive to the effects of mold. However, symptoms are usually mild including coughing and wheezing, nasal stuffiness and skin irritation. If left untreated, the health effects experienced could be much more severe, particularly for those with asthma.
The earlier you spot and treat a mold problem the better. Leave windows open at least once a day, invest in a dehumidifier if you live in a moisture prone area and fix any leaks as soon as possible to prevent it from forming.
Pesticides are commonly used to keep pests under control in the home. However, they can also be found in other unexpected areas too. Some pesticides have been detected in around 50% to 95% of foods in the US. So, you could be consuming them as part of your daily diet.
Avoid using bug sprays and lawn pesticides wherever possible. You’ll also want to pay attention to the labels of the food you purchase and try and find foods which don’t contain this harmful chemical.
Heavy metals Over time, harmful chemicals found in heavy metals such as lead, aluminum and cadmium, can gather within the soft tissues of the body. The trouble is these metals are commonly found throughout the home.
Some of the most common sources of heavy metals include types of seafood, drinking water, antiperspirant, lead paints and preserved wood. They can lead to health problems such as Alzheimer’s Disease, nausea, abnormal heart rhythm and fatigue.
To limit your exposure, make sure you install water filters in the home, avoid eating high mercury content fish and avoid buying treated wood products. You’ll also want to check for lead paint in the home, as well as avoid buying any products constructed from PFC.
These are just a small selection of the most common toxins to remove from the home. All of the toxins mentioned above can have a severe impact on your health in the long term. So, eliminating them now will ensure you and the family stay safe indoors.
Remember to Declutter Your Mind
When you start decluttering one of the things you notice is how so much of the clutter in your house reflects the clutter in your mind. If you’re hanging onto to clothes that don’t fit, or the ugly vase your mother gave you for Christmas or the exercise bike you might get around to using, you don’t just have a problem with too much stuff. You have a problem letting go. Chances are you’re also hanging onto a whole bunch of bad feelings, ill-founded assumptions, old grievances and future worries.
If it feels good to declutter your house, it feels even better to declutter your mind. Here are some useful expert tips to make some space in your mind.
Use some meditation techniques
You don’t have to do the full sitting on a cushion in a darkened room thing to benefit from meditation techniques. If you’re feeling overwound, some simple breathing techniques can help you calm down and focus. For a few minutes, focus only on your breathing and nothing else. If your mind wanders or gets back into the worrying groove, you must put that aside and come back to focus on your breath.
It can help to write down anything that’s on your mind. Once all those worries are down on paper, you can prioritize them and work out a plan to deal with them. You can also assess them to identify what’s essential and what isn’t. When you can see what’s important, you can focus your energy and free up some of that mental space!
Stay in the present
Brooding over the past and worrying about the future take up a lot of space in your mind and achieve precisely nothing. Let go of regret over past mistakes or resentment of past slights and move on. Keep your focus on what you can influence right here, right now.
Do one thing at a time
Multitasking is not only overrated (it’s very inefficient), it also leads to greater anxiety, and you never do any one thing properly. Focus on doing things methodically and thoroughly. As you finish one task, move onto the next.
Control all the incoming data
We talk about being available 24/7 and the 24-hour news cycle, but there is only one person who can control that. You. You can choose to switch off your computer, smartphone, and tv and control the amount of data your brain is trying to process.
Decluttering your mind will pay off in all sorts of ways you hadn’t imagined. You will be more productive, less stressed and more motivated.
Helpful Ways to Declutter Your Mind and Home =