5 Ways to create a Healthy Home in Canterbury
Have you ever considered 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 getting popularity with homeowners. A healthy home can include a variety of elements from building materials used to construct your home to using 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 facts about the air inside many of today’s homes:
Indoor air contaminant levels may be 2 to 5 times higher than the contaminant levels outdoors.
Indoor air contaminant is one of the top environmental issues 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 ability to create asthmatic and allergic reactions.
Listed below are a few ways to improve the quality of your indoor air:
Consider an Indoor Air Cleanser. You can likewise install exhaust fans in bathrooms to help eliminate moisture and chemicals from your home.
Update the air filters on your heater with the pleated filters that capture smaller sized particles. Change the filters routinely as recommended by the manufacturer’s directions.
You can likewise use indoor houseplants to assist 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 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 routinely with a damp fabric.
Dust your hardwood, tile, linoleum, and laminate flooring routinely with a dust mop or a vacuum made for hard flooring.
Vacuum carpets, carpets, and upholstered furniture routinely. Consider purchasing a vacuum cleaner 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 bigger. In addition, consider using a bag-less vacuum to avoid the exposure of dust when you change a bag.
Encase pillows, mattresses, and box springs in an airtight, dust-proof cover.
Dust/clean ceiling fans routinely 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 assure that the fragrances in your home are clean and fresh is to avoid using harsh cleaning products, which can create fumes that may remain for days. Try using natural active ingredients such as baking soda, vinegar, soda water, and lemon juice.
For instance, 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 small list of environmentally 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 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 smell
Try using any of the above recommendations to create a healthy home environment. Although the idea of a healthy home is fairly brand-new to many, there are numerous resources readily available including books, articles, and websites, where you can find extra info.
If you need environment cleaning services in Ashbury, Hurlstone Park, Campsie, Earlwood, Croydon Park, Dulwich Hill, Clemton Park, Bardwell Park, Ashfield, Summer Hill and Canterbury, call us now!
Natural, Chemical Free At Home Dry Cleaning Approaches
Perchloroethylene, better referred to as perc, is used by 80 percent of dry cleaners in Australia as a solvent to clean clothes that are “dry clean only.” Regardless of its efficiency, using this chemical has been linked to a range 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 alternative of inexpensive & environmentally safe dry cleaning, that reduces the energy-burning, waste producing procedures that the professionals use.
The initial 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 postures a threat to our health. Perc is a central nerve system depressant. Direct exposure to it can occur 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 correctly aired out. Short-term contact can cause dizziness, headaches, queasiness, and irritation of the skin, eyes, nose, and throat, while long term exposure poses higher risks, including liver and kidney damage and cancer.
Liquid carbon dioxide
Liquid carbon dioxide (CO2) appears to be 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, 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 required to use it is extremely costly, hence a greater price is passed on to the customer.
A virtue of environmentalism is moderation. That being stated, green dry cleanind is best achieved if you do not dry clean at all or limit 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 refreshed. Professional dry cleaning is a large process that uses 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 the majority of states), these compounds are hazardous. At-home dry cleaning involves no greater than a cleaning cloth and your clothes dryer. There are no damaging chemicals involved and no waste.
While perc remains the most reliable 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
No one would argue that there’s a growing awareness about the effect that we, as humans, have on the environment. While much of the media’s focus has been on greenhouse gas emissions and the ways we can lessen 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 depletion of the earth’s ozone layer, and have been largely removed from customer products, traditional cleaning products continue to have a destructive impact on the environment. To that end, there has been a wave of “green cleaning” products entering the marketplace.
Traditional Cleaning Products
Most traditional cleaning products contain a range of possibly damaging chemicals, in part due to the fact that they are largely unregulated and in part due to the fact that there are couple of 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 fragrances contain phthalates, and most integrate other natural substances into their formulas. Together, these chemicals can have unfavorable results on the neurological functions, respiration, and reproductive organs of humans and wildlife. Our use of a number of different cleaning agents at once (a window cleaner, a basin cleanser, and a toilet bowl cleaner, for example) can worsen the products’ effects on our health.
Green Cleaning Products
In response to the growing concern about the chemicals in cleaning products and their unfavorable effects on our health and on the health of our world, green cleaning products are being touted. Some companies that make green products ban certain chemicals, and others make it a point to totally divulge all ingredients on labels. What they don’t 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 Works Just as Well
For the environmentally conscious, one of the best cleaning tools is a cloth – some would say the ultimate cloth – that uses mirafiber to produce a streak free, spot free, lint free, and dust free finish. Utilizing this kind of fabric means that you don’t have to use paper towels, which contribute to the waste that negatively impacts the environment. Additionally, this ultimate fabric is typically guaranteedto last 5 years, making it distinctly environmentally friendly. Because it’s washable and bleachable, it can be used over and over again on practically any surface, from windows and glass to stainless steel and Corian. Basically, you just damp it, wring it, clean your surface, and walk away. This ultimate fabric saves time, saves money, and, most significantly, assists in saving the earth.
Don’t forget that we are based in Ashbury, Hurlstone Park, Campsie, Earlwood, Croydon Park, Dulwich Hill, Clemton Park, Bardwell Park, Ashfield, Summer Hill and Canterbury