5 Ways to create a Healthy Home in Sans Souci
Have you ever thought about your home as being healthy or unhealthy? While the principle of a healthy home may be new to a few of us, it is gradually gaining popularity with homeowners. A healthy home can include a variety of elements from building materials utilized to construct your home to using non-toxic cleansing products. Below is a list of 5 ways 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 toxin levels may be two to 5 times higher than the toxin levels outdoors.
Indoor air toxin is among the leading environmental concerns today.
Australians spend up to 90% of their time indoors.
Indoor air contaminants such as tobacco smoke, pollen, mold, dust, and animal dander have the capability to create asthmatic and allergic reactions.
Listed below are a couple of ways to improve the quality of your indoor air:
Consider an Indoor Air Cleanser. You can also set up exhaust fans in restrooms to assist remove wetness and chemicals from your home.
Update the air filters on your heater with the pleated filters that capture smaller sized particles. Change the filters routinely as recommended by the manufacturer’s guidelines.
You can also use indoor houseplants to aid in purifying 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 cause watery eyes, burning feelings 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 routinely with a damp cloth.
Dust your wood, tile, linoleum, and laminate flooring routinely with a dust mop or a vacuum made for hard flooring.
Vacuum carpets, carpets, and upholstered furniture routinely. Consider buying 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 larger. In addition, consider using a bag-less vacuum to avoid the exposure of dust when you change a bag.
Frame pillows, mattresses, and box springs in an airtight, dust-proof cover.
Dust/clean ceiling fans routinely 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 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 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, clothing
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 very low VOC (volatile organic compounds) contentno formaldehydelow odor
Try using any of the above tips to create a healthy home environment. Although the concept of a healthy home is reasonably new to many, there are numerous resources readily available including books, articles, and websites, where you can find additional information.
If you need environment cleaning services in Sandringham, Ramsgate, Dolls Point, Carss Park, Kogarah Bay, Beverley Park, Ramsgate Beach, Monterey, Carlton, Allawah and Sans Souci, call us now!
100% 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 clothing that are “dry clean only.” Regardless of its efficiency, using 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 seeking the use of a safer chemical– liquid carbon dioxide– to provide a green laundry alternative. At-home dry cleaning kits such as are offering the alternative of cost effective & environmentally 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 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 poses a threat to our health. Perc is a central nerve system depressant. Direct exposure to it can take place 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 appropriately aired out. Short-term contact can cause dizziness, headaches, queasiness, and inflammation of the skin, eyes, nose, and throat, while long term exposure presents higher hazards, 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 importantly, exposure to carbon dioxide 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 required to use it is very pricey, hence a greater price is passed on to the consumer.
A virtue of environmentalism is moderation. That being stated, green dry cleanind is best attained 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 sized spots and stains or that need to be refreshed. 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 the majority of states), these compounds are dangerous. At-home dry cleaning includes no greater than a cleaning cloth and your 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 consciousness 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 ways we can lessen 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 exhaustion of the earth’s ozone layer, and have been largely removed from consumer products, traditional 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 marketplace.
Traditional 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 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 component of many fertilizers), which can contaminate water and rob lakes and rivers of oxygen. Also, many cleaning products with dyes and scents contain phthalates, and most incorporate other natural substances into their formulas. Together, these chemicals can have negative effects 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’ results on our health.
Green Cleaning Products
In response to the growing concern about the chemicals in cleaning products and their negative results on our health and on the health of our planet, green cleaning products are being promoted. Some companies that make green products prohibit particular chemicals, and others make it a point to fully divulge all ingredients on labels. What they do not 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 Works Just as Well
For the environmentally conscious, among 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 cloth means that you do not have to use paper towels, which add to the waste that adversely affects the environment. Furthermore, this ultimate cloth is usually guaranteedto last 5 years, making it decidedly eco-friendly. Since 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 damp it, wring it, wipe your surface, and walk away. This ultimate cloth saves time, saves money, and, most importantly, helps save the earth.
Don’t forget that we are based in Sandringham, Ramsgate, Dolls Point, Carss Park, Kogarah Bay, Beverley Park, Ramsgate Beach, Monterey, Carlton, Allawah and Sans Souci