Five Ways to create a Healthy Home in Brighton-le-Sands
Have you ever thought of your home as being healthy or unhealthy? While the principle of a healthy home may be new to some of us, it is gradually gaining popularity with house owners. A healthy home can include a number of elements from building materials utilized to construct your home to utilizing non-toxic cleaning products. Below is a list of 5 ways to assist you in developing 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 one of the top environmental concerns today.
Australians spend up to 90% of their time indoors.
Indoor air pollutants such as tobacco smoke, pollen, mold, dust, and animal dander have the capability to create asthmatic and allergies.
Listed below are a couple of ways to improve the quality of your indoor air:
Consider an Indoor Air Cleanser. You can also install exhaust fans in restrooms to assist get rid of moisture and chemicals from your home.
Update the air filters on your heating system with the pleated filters that capture smaller particles. Change the filters regularly as recommended by the manufacturer’s directions.
You can also 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 cause watery eyes, burning feelings in the eyes, nose and throat, queasiness, coughing, chest tightness, wheezing, skin rashes, and allergies. Formaldehyde can be found in insulation, particleboard, paper products and many cleaning products.
2.Dust-proof Your Home:
Dust your rooms and knickknacks regularly with a wet fabric.
Dust your wood, tile, linoleum, and laminate flooring regularly with a dust mop or a vacuum made for hard flooring.
Vacuum carpets, carpets, and upholstered furniture regularly. Consider purchasing a vacuum cleaner with a HEPA (high-efficiency particulate air) filter. A HEPA filter is capable of removing a minimum of 99.97% of all particles that are 0.3 microns or bigger. In addition, consider utilizing a bag-less vacuum to avoid the direct exposure of dust when you change a bag.
Encase pillows, mattresses, and box springs in an airtight, dust-proof cover.
Dust/clean ceiling fans regularly to make sure they are not launching dust in the air whenever you run them.
Change 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 house are clean and fresh is to prevent utilizing harsh cleaning products, which can produce fumes that may stick around for days. Try utilizing natural active ingredients such as baking soda, vinegar, soda water, and lemon juice.
For example, to make a natural glass cleaner, mix:
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 environment-friendly products available on the marketplace today:
Organic cotton towels, linens, clothes
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 décor accessories
5. Use Safe, Non-Toxic Interior Paints that have very low VOC (volatile organic compounds) contentno formaldehydelow smell
Try utilizing any of the above tips to create a healthy home environment. Although the idea of a healthy home is relatively new to many, there are numerous resources readily available consisting of books, articles, and websites, where you can find additional info.
If you need environment cleaning services in Kyeemagh, Monterey, Rockdale, Kogarah, Banksia, Ramsgate Beach, Beverley Park, Ramsgate, Arncliffe, Bexley and Brighton-le-Sands, call us now!
All Natural, Chemical Free At Home Dry Cleaning Techniques
Perchloroethylene, better known as perc, is utilized by 80 percent of dry cleaners in Australia as a solvent to clean clothes that are “dry clean only.” Regardless of its effectiveness, the use of this chemical has been connected to a variety of health negative effects and has recently come under heavy public scrutiny. With heavy regulation from relevant agencies, professional dry cleaners are looking for the use of a more secure chemical– liquid co2– to provide a green laundry alternative. At-home dry cleaning kits such as are offering the option of cost effective & environmentally safe dry cleaning, that cuts down the energy-burning, waste producing processes that the professionals use.
The initial step to green dry cleaning is replacing hazardous 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 presents a threat to our health. Perc is a central nervous system depressant. Exposure to it can occur in the workplace or in the environment when it is released into air, water, land, or groundwater. It can also take place when people use products consisting of perc, spend time in dry cleaning facilities that use perc, live above or adjacent to these dry cleaning facilities, or bring dry cleaned garments into their home before they are properly aired out. Short-term contact can cause dizziness, headaches, queasiness, and irritation of the skin, eyes, nose, and throat, while long term direct exposure presents higher risks, 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 significantly, direct exposure to co2 has no health negative effects. The only downsides for dry cleaning with CO2 are that it does not clean as well as perc does and the machinery needed to use it is very costly, thus a greater cost is passed on to the customer.
A virtue of environmentalism is moderation. That being said, green dry cleanind is best achieved if you do not dry clean at all or restrict the use ofprofessional dry cleaning by using at-home dry cleaning kits for garments with smaller spots and stains or that need to be freshened. Professional dry cleaning is a big process that utilizes a lot of energy and produces a lot of waste in the form of powder residue, sludge and wastewater. If the dry cleaner is still utilizing perc (it is still allowed in many states), these compounds are dangerous. At-home dry cleaning involves no more than a cleaning cloth and your dryer. There are no hazardous chemicals involved and no waste.
While perc is the most reliable dry cleaning solvent, the use of 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
No one would argue that there’s a growing consciousness about the effect that we, as people, have on the environment. While much of the media’s focus has been on greenhouse gas emissions and the ways we can reduce our carbon footprint, less attention has been paid to the effect that standard cleaning products and methods have on our health and on the environment. Although chlorofluorocarbons have long been acknowledged as contributing to the depletion of the earth’s ozone layer, and have been largely eliminated from customer products, conventional cleaning products continue to have a destructive effect on the environment. To that end, there has been a wave of “green cleaning” products getting in the market.
Conventional Cleaning Products
The majority of conventional cleaning products contain a variety of potentially hazardous chemicals, in part because they are largely unregulated and in part because there are couple of labeling requirements. For example, many cleaning products contain phosphates (which are also a main component of many fertilizers), which can pollute water and rob lakes and rivers of oxygen. Similarly, many cleaning products with dyes and fragrances contain phthalates, and most integrate other organic compounds into their formulas. Together, these chemicals can have negative results on the neurological functions, respiration, and reproductive organs of people and wildlife. Our use of several different cleaning agents simultaneously (a window cleaner, a basin cleanser, and a toilet bowl cleaner, for instance) can worsen 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 prohibit particular chemicals, and others make it a point to fully disclose all ingredients on labels. What they don’t tell you, however, is that it’s definitely possible to have a clean home without utilizing any cleaning products at all. Cleaning without products may take a bit more elbow grease, but water alone will do the trick.
Why Water and a Cloth Functions Just as Well
For the environmentally mindful, one of the very 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. Using this type of fabric means that you don’t have to use paper towels, which add to the waste that negatively impacts the environment. Moreover, this ultimate fabric is normally guaranteedto last 5 years, making it extremely environment-friendly. Due to the fact that 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. Basically, you just damp it, wring it, wipe your surface, and leave. This ultimate fabric saves time, saves money, and, most significantly, helps save the earth.
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