Five Ways to create a Healthy Home in Balmain
Have you ever thought about your home as being healthy or unhealthy? While the principle of a healthy home may be brand-new to a few of us, it is gradually gaining popularity with homeowners. A healthy home can include a variety of elements from building products utilized to build your home to using non-toxic cleaning products. Below is a list of 5 ways to help you in creating a healthy home environment.
1. Clean Air and Circulation:
Here are some little known truths about the air inside many of today’s homes:
Indoor air toxin levels may be 2 to 5 times higher than the toxin levels outdoors.
Indoor air toxin is among the top environmental concerns today.
Australians spend approximately 90% of their time inside your home.
Indoor air pollutants such as tobacco smoke, pollen, mold, dust, and animal dander have the ability to create asthmatic and allergic reactions.
Listed below are a couple of ways to improve the quality of your indoor air:
Consider an Indoor Air Purifier. You can likewise install exhaust fans in bathrooms to assist eliminate wetness and chemicals from your home.
Update the air filters on your heater with the pleated filters that catch smaller sized particles. Change the filters frequently as recommended by the manufacturer’s instructions.
You can likewise use indoor houseplants to assist in purifying your home’s air. For example, Boston Ferns cleanse formaldehyde from the air. According to environmental experts, formaldehyde is a colorless, strong-smelling gas. When present in the air at levels above 0.1 ppm (parts in a million parts of air), it may trigger watery eyes, burning sensations in the eyes, nose and throat, nausea, coughing, chest tightness, wheezing, skin rashes, and allergic reactions. Formaldehyde can be found in insulation, particleboard, paper products and many cleaning products.
2.Dust-proof Your Home:
Dust your rooms and knickknacks frequently with a moist cloth.
Dust your wood, tile, linoleum, and laminate flooring frequently with a dust mop or a vacuum made for hard flooring.
Vacuum carpets, carpets, and upholstered furniture frequently. Consider purchasing a vacuum with a HEPA (high-efficiency particulate air) filter. A HEPA filter is capable of eliminating a minimum of 99.97% of all particles that are 0.3 microns or larger. In addition, consider using a bag-less vacuum to avoid the direct exposure of dust when you change a bag.
Frame pillows, mattresses, and box springs in an airtight, dust-proof cover.
Dust/clean ceiling fans frequently to make sure they are not releasing dust in the air every time you run them.
Replace dust-collecting blinds and long drapes with window shades or washable curtains.
3. Use Natural and Non-Toxic Cleaning Products:
One way to ensure that the fragrances in your home are clean and fresh is to avoid using harsh cleaning products, which can produce fumes that may linger for days. Try using natural components such as baking soda, vinegar, soda water, and lemon juice.
For example, to make a natural glass cleaner, combine:
2 teaspoons white vinegarone quart of warm water
Mix ingredients together and pour into spray bottle. Spray on surface and wipe dry.
4. Fill Your Home with Natural and Earth-Friendly Products. Below is a little list of eco-friendly products available on the market today:
Organic cotton towels, linens, clothing
Mattresses bediing, pillows
Cork flooring, wool carpet
Couches, chairs, ottomans
Toys and games for all ages
Pet products
Soap and laundry cleaning agents
Organic candles, home decoration accessories
5. Use Safe, Non-Toxic Interior Paints that have extremely low VOC (volatile organic compounds) contentno formaldehydelow odor
Try using any of the above tips to create a healthy home environment. Although the concept of a healthy home is relatively brand-new to many, there are numerous resources available including books, articles, and sites, where you can find additional information.
If you need environment cleaning services in Birchgrove, Rozelle, Balmain East, Woolwich, Pyrmont, Lilyfield, Drummoyne, Barangaroo, Millers Point, Waverton and Balmain, call us now!
All Natural, Chemical Free At Home Dry Cleaning Approaches
Perchloroethylene, much better called perc, is utilized by 80 percent of dry cleaners in Australia as a solvent to clean clothes that are “dry clean only.” Despite its efficiency, using this chemical has been connected to a range of health side effects and has recently come under heavy public scrutiny. With heavy regulation from relevant agencies, professional dry cleaners are seeking the use of a more secure chemical– liquid carbon dioxide– to provide a green laundry option. At-home dry cleaning kits such as are providing the choice of budget-friendly & ecologically safe dry cleaning, that reduces the energy-burning, waste producing procedures that the professionals use.
The primary step to green dry cleaning is replacing harmful chemicals with natural cleaning products. Perchloroethylene (perc) is a synthetic chemical that is made from a reaction between ethylene and chlorine. Like many syntheitic chemicals, it postures a threat to our health. Perc is a main nervous system depressant. Direct exposure to it can happen in the workplace or in the environment when it is released into air, water, land, or groundwater. It can likewise occur when people use products consisting of perc, spend time in dry cleaning centers that use perc, live above or adjacent to these dry cleaning centers, or bring dry cleaned garments into their home before they are effectively aired out. Short-term contact can trigger lightheadedness, headaches, nausea, and inflammation of the skin, eyes, nose, and throat, while long term direct exposure presents greater threats, including liver and kidney damage and cancer.
Liquid carbon dioxide
Liquid carbon dioxide (CO2) seems the most practical green dry cleaning solvent to replace perchloroethylene. It is cheap, abundant, naturally occurring and can even be recycled from the industrial wastes from the manufacture of chemicals such as ammonia. Most notably, direct exposure to carbon dioxide has no health side effects. The only disadvantages for dry cleaning with CO2 are that it does not clean as well as perc does and the equipment required to use it is extremely pricey, thus a higher rate is passed on to the customer.
A virtue of environmentalism is moderation. That being said, green dry cleanind is best accomplished if you do not dry clean at all or limit the use ofprofessional dry cleaning by utilizing at-home dry cleaning kits for garments with smaller sized spots and stains or that need to be freshened. Professional dry cleaning is a large process that utilizes a great deal of energy and produces a great deal of waste in the form of powder residue, sludge and wastewater. If the dry cleaner is still using perc (it is still allowed in most states), these compounds are dangerous. At-home dry cleaning includes no greater than a cleaning cloth and your clothes dryer. There are no harmful chemicals involved and no waste.
While perc is the most effective dry cleaning solvent, using natural cleaning products and at-home dry cleaning can only be beneficial to our health and our environment.
Green Cleaning Gets a Boost with the Ultimate Cloth
Nobody would argue that there’s a growing consciousness about the effect that we, as human beings, have on the environment. While much of the media’s focus has been on greenhouse gas emissions and the ways we can decrease our carbon footprint, less attention has been paid to the effect that traditional cleaning products and techniques have on our health and on the environment. Although chlorofluorocarbons have long been recognized as contributing to the exhaustion of the earth’s ozone layer, and have been largely eliminated from customer products, traditional cleaning products continue to have a harmful impact on the environment. To that end, there has been a wave of “green cleaning” products entering the marketplace.
Conventional Cleaning Products
The majority of traditional cleaning products contain a range of possibly harmful chemicals, in part because they are largely uncontrolled and in part because there are few labeling requirements. For example, many cleaning products contain phosphates (which are also a primary element of many fertilizers), which can contaminate water and rob lakes and rivers of oxygen. Also, many cleaning products with dyes and fragrances contain phthalates, and most incorporate other organic substances into their formulas. Together, these chemicals can have negative effects on the neurological functions, respiration, and reproductive organs of human beings and wildlife. Our use of several different cleaning agents simultaneously (a window cleaner, a basin cleanser, and a toilet bowl cleaner, for instance) can intensify the products’ impacts on our health.
Green Cleaning Products
In reaction to the growing concern about the chemicals in cleaning products and their negative impacts on our health and on the health of our planet, green cleaning products are being touted. Some companies that make green products ban certain chemicals, and others make it a point to totally reveal all ingredients on labels. What they don’t tell you, though, is that it’s absolutely possible to have a clean home without using any cleaning products at all. Cleaning without products may take a bit more effort, but water alone will do the trick.
Why Water and a Cloth Functions Just as Well
For the ecologically conscious, one of the best cleaning tools is a cloth – some would say the ultimate cloth – that utilizes mirafiber to produce a streak free, spot free, lint free, and dust free finish. Utilizing this type of cloth means that you don’t have to use paper towels, which contribute to the waste that adversely impacts the environment. Furthermore, this ultimate cloth is typically guaranteedto last 5 years, making it distinctly eco-friendly. Because it’s washable and bleachable, it can be utilized over and over again on practically any surface, from windows and glass to stainless-steel and Corian. Generally, you just wet it, wring it, clean your surface, and walk away. This ultimate cloth saves time, saves money, and, most notably, helps save the earth.
Don’t forget that we are based in Birchgrove, Rozelle, Balmain East, Woolwich, Pyrmont, Lilyfield, Drummoyne, Barangaroo, Millers Point, Waverton and Balmain