5 Ways to create a Healthy Home in Middle Cove
Have you ever thought of your home as being healthy or unhealthy? While the principle of a healthy home may be brand-new to a few of us, it is progressively gaining popularity with house owners. A healthy home can include a number of elements from building materials utilized to construct your home to using non-toxic cleaning products. Below is a list of five methods to assist 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 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 up to 90% of their time inside your home.
Indoor air toxins such as tobacco smoke, pollen, mold, dust, and animal dander have the ability to create asthmatic and allergies.
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 assist eliminate wetness and chemicals from your home.
Upgrade the air filters on your heater with the pleated filters that capture smaller particles. Change the filters regularly as recommended by the manufacturer’s instructions.
You can also use indoor houseplants to help in purifying 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 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 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 direct exposure of dust when you change a bag.
Frame pillows, mattresses, and box springs in an airtight, dust-proof cover.
Dust/clean ceiling fans regularly to make sure they are not launching dust in the air each time 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 assure that the fragrances in your house are clean and fresh is to avoid using harsh cleaning products, which can produce fumes that may remain for days. Try using natural ingredients such as baking soda, vinegar, soda water, and lemon juice.
For example, 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 environment-friendly products available on the market 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 detergents
Organic candles, home decoration accessories
5. Use Safe, Non-Toxic Interior Paints that have extremely low VOC (volatile organic compounds) contentno formaldehydelow smell
Try using 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 available including books, articles, and sites, where you can find additional info.
If you need environment cleaning services in Willoughby East, Castlecrag, North Willoughby, Castle Cove, Willoughby, Northbridge, Killarney Heights, Roseville Chase, Chatswood, Naremburn and Middle Cove, call us now!
100% Natural, Chemical Free At Home Dry Cleaning Techniques
Perchloroethylene, 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 connected to a series of health negative 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 alternative. At-home dry cleaning kits such as are offering the choice of budget-friendly & environmentally safe dry cleaning, that lowers the energy-burning, waste producing procedures that the professionals use.
The first step to green dry cleaning is replacing damaging 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 hazard to our health. Perc is a main nervous system depressant. Direct exposure to it can happen in the workplace 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 cause lightheadedness, headaches, nausea, 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) seems 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, direct exposure to carbon dioxide has no health negative 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 extremely expensive, hence 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 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 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 dangerous. At-home dry cleaning involves no more than a cleaning cloth and your clothes dryer. There are no damaging chemicals involved and no waste.
While perc is the most effective 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
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 methods we can reduce our carbon footprint, less attention has been paid to the impact that conventional cleaning products and techniques have on our health and on the environment. Although chlorofluorocarbons have long been recognized as contributing to the depletion of the earth’s ozone layer, and have been largely removed from consumer products, traditional cleaning products continue to have a destructive impact on the environment. To that end, there has been a wave of “green cleaning” products getting in the marketplace.
Conventional Cleaning Products
A lot of conventional cleaning products contain a variety of possibly damaging chemicals, in part due to the fact that they are largely unregulated and in part due to the fact that there are few labeling requirements. For example, 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. Also, many cleaning products with dyes and fragrances contain phthalates, and most integrate other organic compounds into their formulas. Together, these chemicals can have negative results 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 worsen the products’ effects on our health.
Green Cleaning Products
In response to the growing concern about the chemicals in cleaning products and their negative effects on our health and on the health of our planet, green cleaning products are being touted. Some companies that make green products ban certain 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 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 Functions Just as Well
For the environmentally 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 don’t have to use paper towels, which add to the waste that adversely impacts the environment. Moreover, this ultimate fabric is generally guaranteedto last five years, making it extremely environment-friendly. Due to the fact that 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, clean your surface, and walk away. This ultimate fabric saves time, saves money, and, most notably, helps save the earth.
Don’t forget that we are based in Willoughby East, Castlecrag, North Willoughby, Castle Cove, Willoughby, Northbridge, Killarney Heights, Roseville Chase, Chatswood, Naremburn and Middle Cove