How to Clean the Air in Your Home Naturally
The air in your home can be filled with various harmful contaminants such as dust, pollen, pet dander, mold, and more. Keep reading to discover how to clean the air in your home naturally.
Many people use candles and air fresheners to improve the odor in their homes. But just because your home smells good doesn’t mean the air in your home is clean.
Actually, products like candles and air fresheners can be really bad for the air quality in your home.
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Indoor air quality in most homes is typically much worse than outdoor air quality.
Even though you cannot see it with the naked eye, the air in your home can be filled with various particles such as dust, pollen, endotoxins, pet dander, mycotoxins, mold spores, and so much more.
Many people spend more time indoors than they do outdoors, which means constantly breathing in these various toxins, which can have a significant impact on your health.
Poor indoor air quality can cause allergies, ear, nose, and throat issues, an increase in autoimmune symptoms, headaches, and more.
The health issues that poor indoor air quality can contribute to depend greatly on the type of contaminants that are in the air.
Contaminants such as pet dander, dust, and pollen typically cause allergy symptoms like sneezing and watery eyes while contaminants such as mold or mycotoxins can cause much more serious health issues such as asthma, extreme fatigue, brain fog, and more.
All of this information might feel a little overwhelming and scary, especially if you’ve never really thought about your indoor air quality, but the good news is there are many different ways to clean and purify the air in your home.
How do I Get Rid of Bad Air in my House?
The first step to improving the air quality in your home is to stop contaminating the air with harmful substances.
You may not even realize it, but there are things you may be doing regularly that can contribute to the poor indoor air quality of your home.
Below are several things I recommend you stop doing in order to improve the air quality in your house.
Stop Using Toxic Cleaning Products
Many store-bought cleaning products contain dangerous chemicals. When you use these types of cleaners to clean your house, those dangerous chemicals get dispersed throughout the air in your home.
These chemicals can cause headaches, irritate the throat and eyes, and cause respiratory problems. Some have even been linked to cancer.
Breathing in chemicals from household cleaners can cause damage to the lungs.
Studies have shown that women who work around cleaners showed a greater decline in lung function than women who haven’t been exposed to cleaners regularly.
You can check out the study here.
One of the simplest ways to reduce harmful contaminants in the air is to use natural cleaning products. You can make your own or buy them.
I love to make my own cleaners. You can check out some of my go-to cleaning recipes below.
- Best Homemade All-Purpose Cleaner Recipe
- The Best DIY Thieves Cleaner Recipe
- All Natural DIY Glass Cleaner
You can also check out this post – The Ultimate Guide to Eliminating Harmful Cleaning Products From Your Home – which is full of homemade cleaning recipes as well as store-bought recommendations.
Stop Burning Candles
When you burn candles, volatile organic compounds and particles are released into the air.
Extended exposure to these volatile compounds and particles can actually lead to heart and lung problems.
Not to mention, burning candles made from paraffins releases soot into the air. Breathing in too much of any kind of soot or smoke can be potentially dangerous to your health.
Burning scented candles is even worse because many scented candles contain formaldehyde, which can be released into the air when burned.
So, if you want to clean the air in your home, stop contaminating it by burning candles.
Essential oils are a great alternative to candles. You can check out this post – How To Use an Essential Oil Diffuser – to learn all about diffusing essential oils.
And if you really, really want to burn a candle, make your own non-toxic candles. You can check out this post – DIY Scented Candle Recipe – to learn how.
Just burn them every now and then, not every day.
Stop Using Air Fresheners
Air fresheners are another way that people unintentionally contaminate the air in their homes.
Air fresheners are filled with endocrine disruptors, carcinogens, allergens, and many other nasty things.
They can really wreak havoc on your health and the health of your family and pets!
Synthetic fragrance overload can actually trigger allergies and even asthma. Air fresheners, like some candles, may also contain formaldehyde, a well-known carcinogen.
If you are looking for a non-toxic alternative to air freshener, I recommend checking out the posts below.
Stop Wearing Shoes in the House
Wearing shoes in the house can contaminate the air with pesticides, mold, dirt, bacteria, and so much more. Think about it – whatever is on the bottom of your shoes, you are spreading throughout your home if you choose to wear shoes in the house.
Taking your shoes off the moment you walk through the front door can significantly cut down on many harmful indoor air contaminants.
How Can I Purify My Home Air Naturally?
Open the Windows
Opening your windows and allowing fresh air to circulate throughout your home is one of the easiest ways to improve indoor air quality.
That said, if the outdoor air quality isn’t great due to pollution, pollen, or smoke, it may be best to keep your windows closed until the outdoor air quality improves.
Clean Carpets & Rugs Regularly
Rugs and carpets tend to collect pet dander, dust, and other particles that can contribute to poor indoor air quality. It is important to clean rugs and carpets regularly.
It’s also important to use a vacuum with a HEPA filter to ensure the contaminants that you’ve sucked up don’t get redispersed throughout the air.
Dust Your Home on a Regular Basis
Dusting your home on a regular basis will greatly reduce the number of contaminants in the air.
But avoid using a feather duster to dust your home, which essentially removes the dust from surfaces and redisperses throughout the air.
Use a damp rag or a microfiber cloth to dust surfaces instead.
Declutter Your Home
Decluttering your home is important if you want to clean the air in your home naturally because it eliminates surface area where dust, dander, and other particles accumulate.
Use an Air Purifier
One of the most effective ways to improve indoor air quality is to invest in an air purifier.
An air purifier is a device that uses a fan and a filter to pull in particles and contaminants from the air to purify the air.
Air purifiers are by far one of the best things that you can use to improve the indoor air quality of your home.
But with all of that being said, not all air purifiers are created equal.
I’ve spent a lot of money on air purifiers over the years, mainly due to living in Southern California, where we are all too often exposed to poor outdoor air quality due to wildfires.
I wanted to ensure the indoor air my family and I were breathing was safe and smoke-free, but unfortunately, most of the air purifiers that I purchased were a waste of money.
They either broke after only a few months, were way too loud, or just simply didn’t work well.
But I didn’t give up on my quest to find a powerful, effective, and quiet air purifier, and eventually, I discovered the AirDoctor which is what I use now.
You can read my full AirDoctor review to learn more about it and why I love it so much.
Groom Your Pets Regularly
I love animals, but indoor pets can contribute greatly to the poor indoor air quality in your home. They can carry dust, mold, pollen, and other particles in their fur.
But that doesn’t mean you have to get rid of them. If you want the air in your home to be clean, just be sure to groom them regularly.
Get Houseplants
NASA discovered in 1989 that houseplants can absorb harmful contaminants from the air. You can click here to learn more about their discovery.
Plants are a great way to filter the air naturally, but some plants purify the air better than others. The best houseplants to have for the purpose of air purification are the Peace lily, dracaena, and the snake plant.
Change the HVAC Filters on a Regular Basis
HVAC filters help to filter dust, pollen, pet dander, and other small particles that are in the air in your home. They are a great way to help clean the air.
But they have to be replaced regularly in order to do their job. They should be changed at least every 90 days.
What is the Fastest Way to Clean the Air in Your House?
The fastest way to clean the air in your house is by using an air purifier like the AirDoctor. So, if you don’t want to do everything that is on this list, I would highly recommend investing in an air purifier.
The entire goal of the air purifier is to clean the air in your home. It is an incredibly simple yet powerful tool to reduce the harmful contaminants that are in the air.
Well, I hope these tips help you to keep the air in your home fresh and clean. If you like this post, I recommend checking out the posts below.
