5 Ways to create a Healthy Home in Glebe
Have you ever thought about your home as being healthy or unhealthy? While the idea of a healthy home may be new to some of us, it is progressively acquiring popularity with house owners. A healthy home can include a variety of elements from building materials used to build your home to using non-toxic cleaning products. Below is a list of five 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 houses:
Indoor air contaminant levels may be 2 to five times higher than the contaminant levels outdoors.
Indoor air contaminant is one of the leading environmental issues today.
Australians spend approximately 90% of their time inside.
Indoor air contaminants 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 moisture and chemicals from your home.
Update the air filters on your heater with the pleated filters that catch smaller particles. Change the filters regularly as recommended by the manufacturer’s instructions.
You can also use indoor houseplants to assist in cleansing 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 feelings 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 regularly with a wet fabric.
Dust your wood, tile, linoleum, and laminate flooring regularly with a dust mop or a vacuum made for hard flooring.
Vacuum carpets, rugs, 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 larger. 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 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 guarantee that the fragrances in your home are tidy and fresh is to prevent using harsh cleaning products, which can produce fumes that may linger 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, clothes
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 using any of the above suggestions to create a healthy home environment. Although the concept of a healthy home is relatively new to many, there are numerous resources available including books, articles, and sites, where you can find additional information.
If you need environment cleaning services in Forest Lodge, Ultimo, Camperdown, Darlington, Pyrmont, Haymarket, Chippendale, Annandale, Eveleigh, Newtown and Glebe, call us now!
100% 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 wash clothes that are “dry clean only.” Despite its efficiency, making use of this chemical has been connected to a variety of health adverse 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 safer chemical– liquid carbon dioxide– to provide a green laundry alternative. At-home dry cleaning kits such as are providing the alternative of inexpensive & ecologically safe dry cleaning, that cuts down the energy-burning, waste producing procedures that the professionals use.
The primary 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 presents a threat to our health. Perc is a main nervous system depressant. Exposure to it can take place in the work environment or in the environment when it is released into air, water, land, or groundwater. It can also occur when people use products consisting of perc, spend time in dry cleaning facilities that use perc, live above or adjacent to these dry cleaning facilities, or bring dry cleaned garments into their home before they are properly aired out. Short-term contact can trigger lightheadedness, headaches, nausea, and irritation of the skin, eyes, nose, and throat, while long term direct 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, direct exposure to carbon dioxide 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 needed to use it is really expensive, hence a greater price 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 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 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 many states), these substances are harmful. At-home dry cleaning involves no more 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, 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 impact 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 minimize our carbon footprint, less attention has been paid to the impact that traditional cleaning products and techniques 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 customer products, traditional 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.
Traditional Cleaning Products
A lot of conventional cleaning products contain a variety of possibly harmful chemicals, in part since they are largely unregulated and in part since there are couple of labeling requirements. For instance, many cleaning products contain phosphates (which are also a main component 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 natural 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 simultaneously (a window cleaner, a basin cleanser, and a toilet bowl cleaner, for instance) can exacerbate the products’ impacts on our health.
Green Cleaning Products
In reaction to the growing concern about the chemicals in cleaning products and their adverse impacts on our health and on the health of our world, green cleaning products are being promoted. Some companies that make green products prohibit particular chemicals, and others make it a point to fully 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 ecologically mindful, 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. Utilizing this kind of fabric means that you do not have to use paper towels, which contribute to the waste that negatively impacts the environment. Moreover, this ultimate fabric is usually guaranteedto last five years, making it extremely environmentally friendly. Because 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. Generally, you just damp it, wring it, clean your surface, and leave. This ultimate fabric saves time, saves money, and, most importantly, assists in saving the earth.
Don’t forget that we are based in Forest Lodge, Ultimo, Camperdown, Darlington, Pyrmont, Haymarket, Chippendale, Annandale, Eveleigh, Newtown and Glebe