Outdoor air pollution caused by vehicles and factories is a well-documented problem, but not a lot of attention is paid to the air we breathe inside our homes. Yes, the air in your house also contains pollutants like pesticides, dust particles, viruses and volatile organic compounds that can affect your overall health and well-being. There are various ways you can protect yourself from harmful pollutants by following these tips to naturally improve air quality at home.
Let’s check them out.
How to Improve Air Quality at Home
Following are some of the best ways to improve air quality at home.
- Ventilate
- Use a vacuum cleaner
- Activated charcoals
- Air purifying candles
- Indoor plants
- Use only eco-friendly cleaning products
- Salt lamps
Let’s discuss each of them in detail.
Keep your house well-ventilated
Keeping your house well-ventilated is one of the most affordable ways to improve air quality at home. If you have large windows at home, open them up to allow fresh air and push out the stale air containing pollutants and contaminants.
You can also switch on your ceiling fan and open up the window to help ventilate a room, if the weather permits. Always use an exhaust fan, especially when cooking food in the kitchen or in the washroom to circulate fresh air.
It is particularly important to follow these tips to improve air quality when you are involved in activities that generate high levels of pollutants – such as painting, using heaters or welding.
Use a vacuum cleaner
To breathe clean and fresh air that can keep you healthy, you need to get rid of allergy-causing bacteria. Make sure to clean the upholstery and carpets using a vacuum cleaner.
It is important to remove fine dust particles from carpets. To allergy-proof your home, it is wise to replace your wall-to-wall carpet with laminate or marble flooring. But if you can’t remove the carpet altogether, then having a vacuum cleaner is a must. Make sure to vacuum clean the house more often to remove all dust particles and allergens and purify the air in your room.
Activated charcoals
When you spray air freshener in a room, it doesn’t literally ‘freshen up’ the air, it just covers up the bad odour replacing it with an appealing smell. This tricks homeowners into believing that their house is now clean. In fact, many harmful volatile compounds are released from the air freshener spray which can cause skin and eye irritations and various allergies.
Activated charcoal is one of the best natural air purifiers that you can easily use at home. It absorbs impurities and bad odour, keeping the air clean of all toxins.
The normal charcoal needs to undergo an additional heating process during its manufacturing, which creates micropores in the charcoal making it more effective at trapping impurities from the air. Simply place a piece of activated charcoal in a place not accessible to children and let it do wonders!
There would come a time when the activated charcoal has enough impurities that all its pores get clogged. You don’t have to discard it once that happens. All you need to do is place the activated charcoal out in the sun so that the UV rays can reactivate it.
Air purifying candles
Beeswax candles act as natural air purifiers. A flickering candle in the room, near your bathtub or on the dining table creates a sense of calm and well-being. Help reduce your family’s exposure to harmful toxins by lighting a pure beeswax candle at home. Regular paraffin candles do more harm than good.
They release harmful pollutants like soot, benzene and toluene in the air. Pure beeswax candles on the other hand release no scent or smoke and on the other hand release negative ions into the air.
These toxins bind with the negative ions removing them altogether from the air in your room. Beeswax candles are particularly effective for people suffering from common cold, allergies and also for asthma patients as these candles remove dust and dander from the air making the air you inhale cleaner and safe.
Indoor plants
One of the best ways to purify air naturally is to have indoor plants at home. You can choose from a variety of indoor plants to clean the air in your house. Common house plants like aloe vera, chrysanthemum and snake plant not only spruce up your house décor but also function as some of the best natural air purifiers out there.
Use only eco-friendly cleaning products
House cleaning products contain some of the most harmful elements that can fill the air with toxins and volatile compounds. These can affect your health adversely. Just like air fresheners are harmful so are most of the house cleaning products.
It is important to resort to natural ways to clean the air at home. You must opt for eco-friendly house cleaning products for a clean home and a cleaner environment!
Salt lamps
One of the best natural ways to purify air at home is to use salt lamps, especially if you are an asthma patient. The salt lamp surface attracts pollutants in the air that can cause allergies and thus aids in breathing problems in asthma patients.
When the Himalayan salt lamp is lit, it releases negative ions into the air just like the beeswax candles. The salt lamp works against the positively charged particles suspended in the air that makes you feel stuffy. The salt crystals in the lamp act as a natural air purifier clearing the air naturally of all pollutants and allergens like pollen, dust, and other air pollutants.
It also traps bad odour aids in having a calm and peaceful sleep. Pakistan is blessed with the largest salt mine in the world and therefore we can easily buy a Himalayan salt lamp and reap the benefits!
So, these were some of the best ways to purify air at home. If you know of any other ways to improve indoor air quality, then do write to us at blog@zameen.com and we will surely get back to you. For more updates, stay tuned to the best lifestyle blog in Pakistan.
