5 Ways to create a Healthy Home in Lewisham
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 acquiring popularity with property owners. A healthy home can include a number of elements from building products utilized to build your home to utilizing 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 unfamiliar facts about the air inside many of today’s homes:
Indoor air contaminant levels may be two to 5 times higher than the contaminant levels outdoors.
Indoor air contaminant is among the leading environmental concerns today.
Australians spend up to 90% of their time inside your home.
Indoor air contaminants such as tobacco smoke, pollen, mold, dust, and animal dander have the ability to create asthmatic and allergic reactions.
Listed below are a couple of methods to improve the quality of your indoor air:
Consider an Indoor Air Purifier. You can also install exhaust fans in bathrooms to assist remove wetness and chemicals from your home.
Update the air filters on your heater with the pleated filters that capture smaller particles. Change the filters frequently as recommended by the manufacturer’s instructions.
You can also use indoor houseplants to help 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 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 frequently with a moist fabric.
Dust your hardwood, tile, linoleum, and laminate flooring frequently with a dust mop or a vacuum made for hard flooring.
Vacuum carpets, carpets, and upholstered furniture frequently. Consider purchasing a vacuum cleaner with a HEPA (high-efficiency particulate air) filter. A HEPA filter can getting rid of a minimum of 99.97% of all particles that are 0.3 microns or larger. In addition, consider utilizing 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 frequently to make sure they are not releasing 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 ensure that the fragrances in your home are clean and fresh is to avoid utilizing harsh cleaning products, which can produce fumes that may linger for days. Try utilizing natural ingredients such as baking soda, vinegar, club soda, 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 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 decoration accessories
5. Use Safe, Non-Toxic Interior Paints that have very low VOC (volatile organic compounds) contentno formaldehydelow odor
Try utilizing any of the above ideas to create a healthy home environment. Although the concept of a healthy home is relatively brand-new to many, there are numerous resources readily available consisting of books, articles, and sites, where you can find extra info.
If you need environment cleaning services in Summer Hill, Petersham, Dulwich Hill, Haberfield, Leichhardt, Ashfield, Stanmore, Hurlstone Park, Marrickville, Ashbury and Lewisham, call us now!
Natural, Chemical Free At Home Dry Cleaning Methods
Perchloroethylene, better known as perc, is utilized by 80 percent of dry cleaners in Australia as a solvent to wash clothes that are “dry clean only.” Despite its effectiveness, making use of this chemical has been linked to a range 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 carbon dioxide– to provide a green laundry option. At-home dry cleaning kits such as are providing the option of economical & ecologically safe dry cleaning, that lowers 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 main 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 also take place 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 effectively aired out. Short-term contact can cause lightheadedness, headaches, queasiness, and irritation of the skin, eyes, nose, and throat, while long term direct 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, direct exposure to carbon dioxide 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 required to use it is very expensive, therefore a greater cost 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 utilizing at-home dry cleaning kits for garments with smaller spots and stains or that need to be freshened. Professional dry cleaning is a large process that utilizes 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 utilizing perc (it is still allowed in a lot of states), these substances are hazardous. At-home dry cleaning involves no more than a cleaning cloth and your dryer. There are no harmful chemicals involved and no waste.
While perc is 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
Nobody would argue that there’s a growing awareness 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 lessen 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 eliminated from customer products, conventional cleaning products continue to have a harmful impact on the environment. To that end, there has been a wave of “green cleaning” products getting in the marketplace.
Conventional Cleaning Products
The majority of traditional cleaning products contain a variety of possibly harmful chemicals, in part because they are largely unregulated and in part because there are few labeling requirements. For instance, many cleaning products contain phosphates (which are also a main element of many fertilizers), which can infect water and rob lakes and rivers of oxygen. Likewise, many cleaning products with dyes and scents contain phthalates, and most integrate other natural compounds into their formulas. Together, these chemicals can have unfavorable effects on the neurological functions, respiration, and reproductive organs of human beings and wildlife. Our use of several different cleaning agents simultaneously (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 planet, green cleaning products are being touted. Some companies that make green products prohibit certain chemicals, and others make it a point to completely reveal all ingredients on labels. What they do not tell you, though, is that it’s definitely 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 ecologically conscious, 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. Using this kind of fabric means that you do not have to use paper towels, which contribute to the waste that negatively affects the environment. Furthermore, this ultimate fabric is usually guaranteedto last 5 years, making it distinctly eco-friendly. Due to the fact that 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. Essentially, you just wet it, wring it, clean your surface, and walk away. This ultimate fabric saves time, saves money, and, most significantly, helps save the earth.
Don’t forget that we are based in Summer Hill, Petersham, Dulwich Hill, Haberfield, Leichhardt, Ashfield, Stanmore, Hurlstone Park, Marrickville, Ashbury and Lewisham