5 Ways to create a Healthy Home in Castlecrag
Have you ever thought of your home as being healthy or unhealthy? While the concept of a healthy home may be brand-new to some of us, it is steadily acquiring popularity with property owners. A healthy home can include a number of elements from building products used to build your home to utilizing non-toxic cleaning products. Below is a list of 5 ways to help you in developing a healthy home environment.
1. Clean Air and Circulation:
Here are some little known realities about the air inside many of today’s homes:
Indoor air pollutant levels may be 2 to 5 times higher than the pollutant levels outdoors.
Indoor air pollutant is among the leading environmental concerns today.
Australians spend up to 90% of their time inside.
Indoor air pollutants such as tobacco smoke, pollen, mold, dust, and animal dander have the ability to create asthmatic and allergies.
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 wetness and chemicals from your home.
Update the air filters on your heating system with the pleated filters that capture smaller particles. Change the filters frequently as recommended by the manufacturer’s instructions.
You can likewise use indoor houseplants to help in cleansing 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 sensations in the eyes, nose and throat, nausea, 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 frequently with a wet fabric.
Dust your wood, tile, linoleum, and laminate flooring frequently with a dust mop or a vacuum made for hard flooring.
Vacuum carpets, rugs, and upholstered furniture frequently. Consider buying 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 exposure of dust when you change a bag.
Enclose 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 each 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 assure that the fragrances in your house are clean and fresh is to avoid utilizing harsh cleaning products, which can produce fumes that may remain for days. Try utilizing natural active ingredients such as baking soda, vinegar, club soda, 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 environmentally friendly products available on the marketplace today:
Organic cotton towels, linens, clothing
Mattresses bediing, pillows
Cork flooring, wool carpet
Couches, chairs, ottomans
Toys and games for any age
Pet products
Soap and laundry cleaning agents
Organic candles, home decoration accessories
5. Use Safe, Non-Toxic Interior Paints that have really low VOC (volatile organic compounds) contentno formaldehydelow odor
Try utilizing any of the above tips 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 sites, where you can find additional information.
If you need environment cleaning services in Willoughby East, Northbridge, Middle Cove, Willoughby, North Willoughby, Naremburn, Cammeray, Castle Cove, Artarmon, Chatswood and Castlecrag, call us now!
All Natural, Chemical Free At Home Dry Cleaning Approaches
Perchloroethylene, much better referred to as perc, is used by 80 percent of dry cleaners in Australia as a solvent to clean clothing that are “dry clean only.” Despite its effectiveness, the use of this chemical has been linked to a series of health adverse 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 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 cuts down the energy-burning, waste producing processes that the professionals use.
The first 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 poses a danger to our health. Perc is a main 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 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 appropriately aired out. Short-term contact can cause lightheadedness, headaches, nausea, and inflammation of the skin, eyes, nose, and throat, while long term 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 importantly, exposure to co2 has no health adverse effects. The only drawbacks for dry cleaning with CO2 are that it does not clean as well as perc does and the machinery required to use it is really costly, thus a higher cost is passed on to the consumer.
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 utilizing at-home dry cleaning kits for garments with smaller spots and stains or that need to be refreshed. Professional dry cleaning is a big process that uses 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 most states), these compounds are harmful. At-home dry cleaning involves no greater than a cleaning cloth and your clothes dryer. There are no harmful chemicals involved and no waste.
While perc remains the most efficient 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
Nobody would argue that there’s a growing awareness about the impact 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 reduce our carbon footprint, less attention has been paid to the impact that conventional 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 removed from consumer products, conventional 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 market.
Traditional Cleaning Products
Most conventional cleaning products contain a variety of possibly harmful chemicals, in part since they are largely uncontrolled and in part since there are couple of labeling requirements. For example, many cleaning products contain phosphates (which are also a primary element of many fertilizers), which can pollute water and rob lakes and rivers of oxygen. Likewise, many cleaning products with dyes and fragrances contain phthalates, and most incorporate other organic substances into their formulas. Together, these chemicals can have adverse effects 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 intensify the products’ effects on our health.
Green Cleaning Products
In reaction to the growing concern about the chemicals in cleaning products and their adverse effects on our health and on the health of our planet, green cleaning products are being touted. Some companies that make green products prohibit specific 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 absolutely possible to have a clean home without utilizing 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 environmentally conscious, one of the very 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. Using this kind of fabric means that you don’t have to use paper towels, which add to the waste that negatively affects the environment. Additionally, this ultimate fabric is usually guaranteedto last 5 years, making it extremely environmentally friendly. Due to the fact that it’s washable and bleachable, it can be used over and over again on virtually any surface, from windows and glass to stainless-steel and Corian. Essentially, you just damp it, wring it, wipe your surface, and walk away. This ultimate fabric saves time, saves money, and, most importantly, helps save the earth.
Don’t forget that we are based in Willoughby East, Northbridge, Middle Cove, Willoughby, North Willoughby, Naremburn, Cammeray, Castle Cove, Artarmon, Chatswood and Castlecrag