Homes are where we spend most of our time. Especially now, with our new Work from Home (WFH) lifestyles, chances are we spend most of the time sitting at home. But, have you ever thought of your own home as a polluted place to stay? Do you think your home is healthy?
In fact, the air inside our homes can be much more dangerous than outside. But don’t worry, with these six simple tips, you can improve the quality of your home in no time.
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1Keep your place squeaky clean
Cleanliness is important to have a healthy house. Cleaning helps you cut down on a lot of dust, dander, and bacteria, thus improving your indoor air quality. Some of you might feel confident thinking that you’re doing a great job cleaning your house. However, there are certain places you wouldn’t expect to be full of dust and bacteria.
So, the list below will show you a brief guide on the areas that should be cleaned often:
Living room
Keeping the living room clean is important because that’s where your family, as well as your guests, spend most of their time together. Therefore, you should pay attention to keeping the entryway to the living room clean. Also, the carpets, rugs, floors, shoe racks are some places in your living room that you should check often.
Kitchen
Kitchens can be the most troublesome area in your house. Every kitchen surface can attract bacteria, germs, insects, and other pests. That’s why you should clean and sanitize all surfaces of countertops before and after cooking. This step will help you say bye to food bacteria and insects from feasting on the leftovers left on the counter. Other areas that need extra cleaning are your kitchen sink, dishwasher, and kitchen bin. Keeping these places shiny can positively impact your overall health.
Bedroom
Whether you share a bed with someone or not, you’re never sleeping alone. Unfortunately, dust, mites, and pet dander (if you live with a pet) will always keep you company. These little bed bugs come together and worsen the air quality in your bedroom, which might affect your quality of sleep. To get rid of dust mites, you should wash all your bedding with hot water once a week and vacuum the room regularly. Being picky when you buy a new mattress can also help you improve the health of your bedroom.
Bathroom
Your bathrooms contain more bacteria and germs than you think. Sure, everyone knows to keep the toilet bowl and seat clean, but do you know that the flush handle also needs to be cleaned? It’s a place where lots of nasty pests and viruses can live. So, remember to keep the flush handle clean and sanitize it with a disinfectant.
2Invest in an air purifier
Air purifiers can do wonders for your space! They refresh stale air by catching pollutants, allergens, and toxins inside your homes. Air purifiers may also help capture any infected respiratory droplets from coughs or sneezes that may contain bacteria and germs. This is essential to protect your health, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. If you’re unable to control the source of low-quality indoor air (e.g., unwilling to give up a family pet), investing in air purifiers is the way to go.
3Declutter
Messy areas are more likely to cause stress and depression. So, it’s important to take some time off in the week to declutter and re-organize the storage areas in your home. You won’t believe how much joy and motivation you receive from having a clean and organized space. Keeping surfaces free of clutter helps promote calmness and relaxation, which is needed for us now that we’re spending most of our time at home.
Decluttering can take lots of time and effort, so you may start by clearing surfaces and investigating the boxes that store items you don’t use regularly. After that, you can sort through those items and gather the things that aren’t serving you anymore. Finally, you can either donate to charity or pass them to a friend or family member so they can continue and use them.
4Change your filters
Having frequent check-ups on your air-conditioning filter system is also important to improving your home’s air quality. The job of an air-conditioner is to cycle through the room to give us that perfect air temperature. However, the dust and pollutants can get trapped inside the air-conditioner and be recirculated throughout your home. So, make sure that your filters are checked and changed frequently. You should pay more attention to this if you are allergy-prone or live in big cities with high pollution levels.
You should also check the filters in your other household appliances, such as vacuum cleaners, clothes dryers, and kitchen vents. They should be cleaned or replaced every few months.
5Add greenery to your space
If you haven’t already, now is the perfect time to say hello to some plant friends! Plants help us purify the air inside, making our homes cleaner and healthier. Additionally, not many people know about plants’ effect on our eyes. Some scientists and researchers have proven that our eyes are less strained when looking at green. This means that looking at green objects such as plants can help to relax our nervous system, which is super helpful to people who have to work in front of laptop screens.
However, keep in mind that indoor plants can also increase mold growth. If you have problems with indoor allergens, you should keep your plants outdoors to protect your health.
6Let the fresh air in
Even on cold days, try and open your windows and doors to allow fresh air to move into the house. Pollutants are often released from things such as fireplaces, water heaters, and gas ovens. Once they are released, these pollutants are all trapped in your home.
Of course, you can let your air purifiers do the job of filtering pollutants. However, a simple task like opening the window can help to circulate fresh air into our home. This works best if you do so once a day, for at least 5 – 10 minutes, and keep them open in the early morning, when the weather is cooler and cleaner.
Conclusion
Having a well-kept home means you’re taking care of your physical and mental health. I hope that the six tips above can inspire and help you turn your own space into home heaven. Good luck with making your home healthier than ever!
