Five Ways to create a Healthy Home in Burwood Heights
Have you ever thought of your home as being healthy or unhealthy? While the idea of a healthy home may be brand-new to some of us, it is gradually acquiring popularity with property owners. A healthy home can include a number of elements from building products used to build your home to using non-toxic cleansing products. Below is a list of 5 methods to help you in creating a healthy home environment.
1. Clean Air and Circulation:
Here are some unknown truths about the air inside many of today’s houses:
Indoor air contaminant levels may be two to 5 times higher than the contaminant levels outdoors.
Indoor air contaminant is one of the leading environmental issues today.
Australians spend up to 90% of their time indoors.
Indoor air toxins such as tobacco smoke, pollen, mold, dust, and animal dander have the capability to create asthmatic and allergies.
Listed below are a couple of methods to improve the quality of your indoor air:
Consider an Indoor Air Purifier. You can also set up exhaust fans in restrooms to help get rid of wetness and chemicals from your home.
Update the air filters on your heating system with the pleated filters that catch smaller sized particles. Change the filters regularly as recommended by the manufacturer’s directions.
You can also use indoor houseplants to aid in purifying your home’s air. For instance, Boston Ferns clean 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 sensations 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 damp cloth.
Dust your hardwood, 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 with a HEPA (high-efficiency particulate air) filter. A HEPA filter can removing a minimum of 99.97% of all particles that are 0.3 microns or bigger. In addition, consider using a bag-less vacuum to avoid the direct exposure of dust when you change a bag.
Enclose 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 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 guarantee that the fragrances in your home are clean and fresh is to avoid using harsh cleaning products, which can create fumes that may linger for days. Try using natural ingredients such as baking soda, vinegar, club soda, and lemon juice.
For instance, 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 eco-friendly products available on the market today:
Organic cotton towels, linens, clothing
Mattresses bediing, pillows
Cork flooring, wool carpet
Sofas, chairs, ottomans
Toys and games for any age
Pet products
Soap and laundry cleaning agents
Organic candles, home décor accessories
5. Use Safe, Non-Toxic Interior Paints that have extremely low VOC (volatile organic compounds) contentno formaldehydelow smell
Try using any of the above ideas to create a healthy home environment. Although the idea of a healthy home is relatively brand-new to many, there are numerous resources readily available including books, articles, and sites, where you can find additional information.
If you need environment cleaning services in Enfield, Croydon Park, Croydon, Burwood, Ashbury, Strathfield South, Strathfield, Ashfield, Belfield, Campsie and Burwood Heights, call us now!
Natural, Chemical Free At Home Dry Cleaning Techniques
Perchloroethylene, much better called perc, is used by 80 percent of dry cleaners in Australia as a solvent to wash clothes that are “dry clean only.” Despite its effectiveness, making use of this chemical has been connected to a variety of health side 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 much safer chemical– liquid carbon dioxide– to provide a green laundry option. At-home dry cleaning kits such as are providing the option of inexpensive & ecologically safe dry cleaning, that lowers the energy-burning, waste producing procedures that the professionals use.
The first step to green dry cleaning is replacing damaging 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 positions a threat to our health. Perc is a main nervous system depressant. Direct exposure to it can occur in the work environment 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 centers that use perc, live above or adjacent to these dry cleaning centers, or bring dry cleaned garments into their home before they are properly aired out. Short-term contact can cause dizziness, headaches, queasiness, and inflammation of the skin, eyes, nose, and throat, while long term direct exposure poses higher dangers, 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, plentiful, naturally occurring and can even be recycled from the industrial wastes from the manufacture of chemicals such as ammonia. Most importantly, direct exposure to carbon dioxide has no health side effects. The only disadvantages for dry cleansing with CO2 are that it does not clean as well as perc does and the equipment needed to use it is extremely expensive, therefore a greater rate is passed on to the customer.
A virtue of environmentalism is moderation. That being stated, green dry cleanind is best accomplished 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 sized 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 using perc (it is still allowed in the majority of states), these substances are dangerous. At-home dry cleaning involves no greater than a cleaning cloth and your dryer. There are no damaging chemicals involved and no waste.
While perc is the most reliable dry cleaning solvent, making 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 awareness 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 methods we can minimize our carbon footprint, less attention has been paid to the effect that conventional cleaning products and methods have on our health and on the environment. Although chlorofluorocarbons have long been acknowledged as contributing to the exhaustion of the earth’s ozone layer, and have been largely eliminated from customer products, conventional cleaning products continue to have a detrimental effect on the environment. To that end, there has been a wave of “green cleaning” products getting in the marketplace.
Conventional Cleaning Products
The majority of conventional cleaning products contain a variety of potentially damaging chemicals, in part since they are largely uncontrolled and in part since there are few labeling requirements. For instance, many cleaning products contain phosphates (which are also a main element of many fertilizers), which can contaminate water and rob lakes and rivers of oxygen. Similarly, many cleaning products with dyes and scents contain phthalates, and most incorporate other natural compounds into their formulas. Together, these chemicals can have unfavorable effects on the neurological functions, respiration, and reproductive organs of human beings and wildlife. Our use of a number of different cleaning agents at the same time (a window cleaner, a basin cleanser, and a toilet bowl cleaner, for example) can worsen the products’ results on our health.
Green Cleaning Products
In reaction to the growing concern about the chemicals in cleaning products and their unfavorable results on our health and on the health of our planet, green cleaning products are being touted. Some companies that make green products ban specific chemicals, and others make it a point to totally disclose all ingredients on labels. What they do not tell you, however, is that it’s definitely 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 mindful, among 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. Using this type of cloth means that you do not have to use paper towels, which contribute to the waste that negatively affects the environment. Additionally, this ultimate cloth is typically guaranteedto last 5 years, making it decidedly eco-friendly. Because it’s washable and bleachable, it can be used over and over again on essentially any surface, from windows and glass to stainless steel and Corian. Generally, you just wet it, wring it, clean your surface, and leave. This ultimate cloth saves time, saves money, and, most importantly, assists in saving the earth.
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