5 Ways to create a Healthy Home in Clontarf
Have you ever thought about your home as being healthy or unhealthy? While the concept of a healthy home may be brand-new to some of us, it is gradually getting popularity with house owners. 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 methods to help you in creating 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 pollutant levels may be two to 5 times higher than the pollutant levels outdoors.
Indoor air pollutant is among the top environmental concerns today.
Australians spend approximately 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 allergic reactions.
Listed below are a few methods to improve the quality of your indoor air:
Consider an Indoor Air Purifier. You can also install exhaust fans in bathrooms to help get rid of wetness and chemicals from your home.
Update the air filters on your furnace with the pleated filters that catch smaller particles. Change the filters routinely as recommended by the manufacturer’s instructions.
You can also use indoor houseplants to aid in purifying your home’s air. For instance, 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 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 moist cloth.
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 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 larger. 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 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 assure that the fragrances in your home are tidy and fresh is to prevent using harsh cleaning products, which can create fumes that may linger for days. Try using natural ingredients such as baking soda, vinegar, soda water, 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 small list of environmentally friendly products available on the marketplace today:
Organic cotton towels, linens, clothes
Mattresses bediing, pillows
Cork flooring, wool carpet
Sofas, chairs, ottomans
Toys and games for all ages
Pet products
Soap and laundry detergents
Organic candles, home décor accessories
5. Use Safe, Non-Toxic Interior Paints that have very 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 fairly brand-new to many, there are numerous resources available including books, articles, and sites, where you can find extra information.
If you need environment cleaning services in Balgowlah Heights, Seaforth, Balgowlah, Fairlight, North Balgowlah, Mosman, Manly Vale, Cremorne, Manly, North Manly and Clontarf, call us now!
Natural, Chemical Free At Home Dry Cleaning Techniques
Perchloroethylene, better called perc, is utilized by 80 percent of dry cleaners in Australia as a solvent to wash clothing that are “dry clean only.” Despite its efficiency, making use of this chemical has been linked 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 more secure chemical– liquid co2– to provide a green laundry option. At-home dry cleaning kits such as are providing the choice of cost effective & 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 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 positions a danger to our health. Perc is a central nerve system depressant. Exposure to it can happen in the office 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 correctly aired out. Short-term contact can cause dizziness, headaches, queasiness, and inflammation of the skin, eyes, nose, and throat, while long term exposure poses greater 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, plentiful, naturally occurring and can even be recycled from the industrial wastes from the manufacture of chemicals such as ammonia. Most notably, exposure to co2 has no health side 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 expensive, thus a greater cost is passed on to the customer.
A virtue of environmentalism is moderation. That being stated, green dry cleanind is best attained if you do not dry tidy at all or restrict 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 large 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 using perc (it is still allowed in many states), these compounds are dangerous. 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 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
Nobody would argue that there’s a growing consciousness about the impact 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 reduce our carbon footprint, less attention has been paid to the impact that standard cleaning products and methods 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 removed from customer products, traditional cleaning products continue to have a destructive effect on the environment. To that end, there has been a wave of “green cleaning” products entering the marketplace.
Traditional Cleaning Products
The majority of traditional cleaning products contain a variety of potentially harmful 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 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 natural compounds into their formulas. Together, these chemicals can have unfavorable results on the neurological functions, respiration, and reproductive organs of human beings and wildlife. Our use of several different cleaning agents at once (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 response to the growing concern about the chemicals in cleaning products and their unfavorable results on our health and on the health of our world, green cleaning products are being promoted. 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, 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 elbow grease, 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 type of cloth means that you do not have to use paper towels, which contribute to the waste that negatively impacts the environment. Moreover, this ultimate cloth is typically guaranteedto last 5 years, making it distinctly environmentally friendly. Because it’s washable and bleachable, it can be utilized over and over again on virtually any surface, from windows and glass to stainless steel and Corian. Essentially, you just wet it, wring it, wipe your surface, and leave. This ultimate cloth saves time, saves money, and, most notably, helps save the earth.
Don’t forget that we are based in Balgowlah Heights, Seaforth, Balgowlah, Fairlight, North Balgowlah, Mosman, Manly Vale, Cremorne, Manly, North Manly and Clontarf