5 Ways to create a Healthy Home in North Sydney
Have you ever thought about your home as being healthy or unhealthy? While the idea of a healthy home may be 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 used to construct your home to using non-toxic cleansing products. Below is a list of five methods to help you in developing a healthy home environment.
1. Clean Air and Circulation:
Here are some little known truths about the air inside many of today’s houses:
Indoor air pollutant levels may be 2 to five times higher than the pollutant levels outdoors.
Indoor air pollutant is one of the top environmental issues today.
Australians spend up to 90% of their time inside.
Indoor air pollutants 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 Purifier. You can also install exhaust fans in bathrooms to assist eliminate moisture and chemicals from your home.
Update the air filters on your heating system with the pleated filters that capture smaller sized particles. Change the filters regularly as recommended by the manufacturer’s directions.
You can also use indoor houseplants to assist in cleansing 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 trigger watery eyes, burning feelings 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 regularly with a damp fabric.
Dust your wood, tile, linoleum, and laminate flooring regularly with a dust mop or a vacuum made for hard flooring.
Vacuum carpets, carpets, 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 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 regularly 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 guarantee that the fragrances in your home are clean and fresh is to avoid using harsh cleaning products, which can create fumes that may remain for days. Try using natural active ingredients such as baking soda, vinegar, club soda, 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 environment-friendly products available on the market today:
Organic cotton towels, linens, clothing
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 decoration 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 suggestions to create a healthy home environment. Although the idea of a healthy home is fairly new to many, there are numerous resources readily available including books, articles, and sites, where you can find extra info.
If you need environment cleaning services in Lavender Bay, McMahons Point, Waverton, Milsons Point, Kirribilli, Wollstonecraft, Crows Nest, Neutral Bay, Kurraba Point, Cammeray and North Sydney, call us now!
100% Natural, Chemical Free At Home Dry Cleaning Methods
Perchloroethylene, much better called perc, is used by 80 percent of dry cleaners in Australia as a solvent to wash clothing that are “dry clean only.” Regardless of its effectiveness, making use of this chemical has been linked 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 much safer chemical– liquid co2– to provide a green laundry option. At-home dry cleaning kits such as are providing the option of inexpensive & ecologically safe dry cleaning, that reduces the energy-burning, waste producing processes that the professionals use.
The primary 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 presents 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 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 dizziness, 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, plentiful, 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 adverse effects. The only drawbacks for dry cleansing 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 higher price is passed on to the customer.
A virtue of environmentalism is moderation. That being said, green dry cleanind is best accomplished 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 sized spots and stains or that need to be freshened. 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 substances are hazardous. At-home dry cleaning involves no greater than a cleaning cloth and your dryer. There are no damaging chemicals involved and no waste.
While perc remains the most effective 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 effect 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 effect that traditional cleaning products and methods have on our health and on the environment. Although chlorofluorocarbons have long been acknowledged as contributing to the exhaustion of the earth’s ozone layer, and have been largely removed from customer products, conventional 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.
Conventional Cleaning Products
The majority of traditional cleaning products contain a range of potentially damaging chemicals, in part due to the fact that they are largely uncontrolled and in part due to the fact that there are few labeling requirements. For instance, many cleaning products contain phosphates (which are also a main element of many fertilizers), which can contaminate water and rob lakes and rivers of oxygen. Similarly, many cleaning products with dyes and fragrances contain phthalates, and most integrate other organic substances into their formulas. Together, these chemicals can have adverse effects on the neurological functions, respiration, and reproductive organs of human beings 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 worsen the products’ effects on our health.
Green Cleaning Products
In reaction to the growing concern about the chemicals in cleaning products and their adverse effects on our health and on the health of our world, green cleaning products are being promoted. Some companies that make green products prohibit specific chemicals, and others make it a point to totally divulge all ingredients on labels. What they do not tell you, though, 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 elbow grease, but water alone will do the trick.
Why Water and a Cloth Functions Just as Well
For the ecologically 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 kind of fabric means that you do not have to use paper towels, which add to the waste that negatively affects the environment. Moreover, this ultimate fabric is generally guaranteedto last five years, making it distinctly environment-friendly. Because it’s washable and bleachable, it can be used over and over again on practically any surface, from windows and glass to stainless steel and Corian. Generally, you just wet it, wring it, wipe your surface, and walk away. This ultimate fabric saves time, saves money, and, most importantly, assists in saving the earth.
Don’t forget that we are based in Lavender Bay, McMahons Point, Waverton, Milsons Point, Kirribilli, Wollstonecraft, Crows Nest, Neutral Bay, Kurraba Point, Cammeray and North Sydney