Five Ways to create a Healthy Home in Cremorne
Have you ever thought about your home as being healthy or unhealthy? While the concept of a healthy home may be new to some of us, it is gradually gaining popularity with homeowners. A healthy home can include a number of elements from building products utilized to build your home to using non-toxic cleaning products. Below is a list of 5 methods to assist 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 toxin levels may be two to 5 times higher than the toxin levels outdoors.
Indoor air toxin is among the top environmental concerns today.
Australians spend approximately 90% of their time inside your home.
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 few methods to improve the quality of your indoor air:
Consider an Indoor Air Cleanser. You can also install exhaust fans in bathrooms to help get rid of wetness and chemicals from your home.
Upgrade the air filters on your heating system with the pleated filters that capture smaller particles. Change the filters routinely 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 trigger 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 routinely with a wet cloth.
Dust your hardwood, tile, linoleum, and laminate flooring routinely with a dust mop or a vacuum made for hard flooring.
Vacuum carpets, rugs, and upholstered furniture routinely. Consider purchasing a vacuum cleaner with a HEPA (high-efficiency particulate air) filter. A HEPA filter is capable of getting rid of 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 routinely 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 guarantee that the fragrances in your house are clean and fresh is to avoid using harsh cleaning products, which can create fumes that may remain for days. Try using natural components 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 little list of eco-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 any age
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 using any of the above ideas 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 information.
If you need environment cleaning services in Neutral Bay, Mosman, Kurraba Point, Cremorne Point, Cammeray, North Sydney, Kirribilli, Lavender Bay, Milsons Point, Northbridge and Cremorne, call us now!
Natural, Chemical Free At Home Dry Cleaning Techniques
Perchloroethylene, much better referred to 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, using this chemical has been linked to a series of health side effects and has recently come under heavy public scrutiny. With heavy regulation from relevant agencies, professional dry cleaners are seeking the use of a much safer chemical– liquid co2– to provide a green laundry option. At-home dry cleaning kits such as are providing the alternative of inexpensive & environmentally safe dry cleaning, that lowers the energy-burning, waste producing processes 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 poses a hazard to our health. Perc is a main nerve system depressant. 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 effectively aired out. Short-term contact can trigger lightheadedness, headaches, queasiness, and irritation of the skin, eyes, nose, and throat, while long term direct exposure poses greater dangers, 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 importantly, direct 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 equipment needed to use it is very costly, therefore a greater rate is passed on to the consumer.
A virtue of environmentalism is moderation. That being said, 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 spots and stains or that need to be refreshed. 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 most states), these compounds are harmful. At-home dry cleaning includes no greater than a cleaning cloth and your dryer. There are no harmful 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 consciousness 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 methods we can decrease our carbon footprint, less attention has been paid to the effect that standard cleaning products and techniques 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 consumer products, conventional cleaning products continue to have a detrimental impact on the environment. To that end, there has been a wave of “green cleaning” products getting in the market.
Traditional Cleaning Products
Many conventional cleaning products contain a variety of possibly 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 contaminate water and rob lakes and rivers of oxygen. Likewise, many cleaning products with dyes and scents contain phthalates, and most integrate other organic 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 several different cleaning agents simultaneously (a window cleaner, a basin cleanser, and a toilet bowl cleaner, for example) can intensify the products’ impacts on our health.
Green Cleaning Products
In reaction to the growing concern about the chemicals in cleaning products and their unfavorable impacts on our health and on the health of our planet, green cleaning products are being promoted. Some companies that make green products ban particular chemicals, and others make it a point to fully 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 Functions Just as Well
For the environmentally mindful, among 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. Utilizing this kind of cloth means that you don’t have to use paper towels, which add to the waste that adversely affects the environment. Moreover, this ultimate cloth is normally guaranteedto last 5 years, making it extremely eco-friendly. Because 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 wet it, wring it, wipe your surface, and leave. This ultimate cloth saves time, saves money, and, most importantly, helps save the earth.
Don’t forget that we are based in Neutral Bay, Mosman, Kurraba Point, Cremorne Point, Cammeray, North Sydney, Kirribilli, Lavender Bay, Milsons Point, Northbridge and Cremorne