How to Improve the Air Quality of Your Home
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How to Improve the Air Quality of Your Home
How much effort do you put into keeping your indoor air clean?
Clean air inside your home supports better breathing, lowers the risk of illness, and may even protect cognitive function. It also helps prevent “sick building syndrome” [1,2] and removes irritants like allergens, dust, pet dander, chemicals, and mites that can affect your health.
In this post, you’ll learn simple but effective ways to improve the air quality in your home. Some tips take just minutes a day; others involve small, worthwhile investments.
Once you apply them, you’ll likely breathe easier, feel better, and enjoy a healthier indoor environment.
11 Simple Ways to Improve Air Quality at Home
The air inside your home can significantly impact your health and well-being, especially if you spend a lot of time indoors. Fortunately, there are simple steps you can take to reduce pollutants and breathe easier every day.
1. Clean Your House and Keep It Clean
One of the simplest yet most effective solutions for improving indoor air quality is to clean your house.
Dirty houses accumulate particulates—everything from food particles to higher levels of dust to mold. If you have pets, your home may also accumulate pet dander. Carpets and furniture, in particular, are “trouble spots” that will need more frequent cleaning.
Make it a point to clean your house thoroughly at least once a month to tackle indoor sources of pollution. Tidy up your carpets with a HEPA-filter vacuum cleaner weekly, air out your mattress every 2-4 weeks, change your sheets and pillows frequently, and give your hard floors a sweep and mop once or twice a week.
Pay close attention to drapes and curtains – they can collect allergens, especially in homes with pets. Bedding is another hotspot for dust mites, so consider using dust mite-proof pillowcases and covers to protect the place where you spend several hours each night.
A deep clean is a great start, but consistency is key. Regular cleaning helps prevent the buildup of allergens, pollutants, and irritants that can compromise your indoor air quality.
2. Declutter Your Living Spaces
Furniture offers convenience and storage, but it can also collect dust. The same goes for clutter—items left out of place or without a designated spot tend to gather around the home.
A cluttered space is harder to clean and gives dust, mold, and other particles more surfaces to settle on. Over time, these buildup areas can affect your indoor air quality, especially if they go untouched.
Time to give your house a thorough decluttering!
Walk through your home and identify items you rarely use or that don’t add decorative value. If you want to keep them, pack them away in storage. Otherwise, consider donating, selling, or giving them away.
A less cluttered home makes it easier to clean and can noticeably improve your air quality.
3. Regularly Replace or Clean Air Filters
If your house, like so many around the world, features a whole-home heating and/or cooling unit, you need to know that the filters are likely to become clogged with airborne irritants and pollutants. It’s just the nature of these systems—they swirl the air around your home and pull the particulate matter into their systems to be collected by filters.
If you don’t change your HVAC system’s air filters regularly, you could end up breathing a lot of the airborne particles, irritants, and pollutants that are trapped in the filters and air ducts. Every time the heater or air conditioner runs, a small amount of the filtered particulates is released back into the air and circulates through your home once more.
Replacing your filters regularly helps keep your indoor air clean. It ensures the air stays fresh and free of excess dust and allergens.
To do so, follow the manufacturer’s guidelines for your specific system. Most filters need to be changed every 1 to 6 months. The exact timing depends on the filter type, air quality, whether you have pets, and how often you use the system.
4. Increase Ventilation and Air Circulation
During milder seasons, when you don’t need constant heating or cooling, let in fresh air. Natural ventilation helps clear out indoor pollutants and improves air quality.
Open your windows to allow outside air in. Keep interior doors open as well to let air flow freely through the house.
Even in extreme weather, aim to ventilate daily. In summer, open windows early in the morning or late at night when temperatures are lower. In winter, try to air out the house around midday, when it’s warmest—typically between noon and 2 PM.
Good ventilation limits the buildup of interior moisture, eliminates particulates and chemicals, and brings in fresh, clean air that is healthier for you to breathe. That said, use caution if you are in surroundings with high pollen and you have bad seasonal allergies.
Throughout the day, keep air moving throughout your house to prevent the dust, pet dander, allergens, and food particulates from settling.
Here are a couple of other ways to do so:
- Run the stove vent to suck food particles from the air when you cook, and to keep smoke and odors in your home to a minimum.
- Use ceiling and standing fans as necessary to encourage good air flow and promote good air quality.
Note: Be aware that the air from outside may contain airborne pollutants from vehicle emissions or factories near your home, as well as allergens. Check the air quality index before opening your windows and doors.
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5. Use an Air Purifier
If you’re worried about clean air, it may be a good idea to invest in an air filter.
You can buy small, portable air purifiers for your bedroom, office, or game room. Or you can install a whole-home air purification system to improve air quality throughout your house instead of just one room.
Make sure your air purifier has a HEPA filter, which removes 99.97% of airborne particles. Without a HEPA filter, the purifier won’t perform at its best.
6. Add Indoor Plants for Natural Air Purification
Indoor plants can help purify the air. A 1989 NASA study found that houseplants remove toxins in closed environments. While more real-world studies are needed, houseplants still support well-being and help reduce stress.
Some of the best indoor plants for air purification include:
- Spider plants;
- Peace lilies;
- Chrysanthemums;
- Golden pothos (also called devil’s ivy);
- Rubber plants;
- Money plants;
- And more.
The best plant for your home is usually the one that’s easiest to care for. Spider plants, money plants, and peace lilies are among the most low-maintenance options.”
Note: It’s important not to use plants as your only air purification method; they don’t purify the air nearly as well as air purifiers do. Still, it’s important to remember the other benefits of having indoor plants in your space – from enhanced creativity and concentration to reduced fatigue and stress.
7. Avoid Smoking Indoors
Smoking indoors severely harms air quality.
According to the Environmental Protection Agency, secondhand tobacco smoke contains over 7,000 substances, including butane, formaldehyde, and ammonia. The CDC and U.S. Surgeon General report that 69 of these are known carcinogens, and about 250 others pose additional health risks.
Common health issues linked to secondhand smoke exposure include:
- Lung cancer;
- Ear infections;
- Heart disease;
- Pregnancies resulting in children with low birth rates;
- Asthma;
- Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).
To reduce these risks and keep your indoor air cleaner, avoid smoking inside your home. Ask visitors to smoke outside as well.
8. Minimize Use of Harsh Cleaning Products
Many people prioritize a clean home—and that often means stocking up on cleaning products. That’s fine, as long as those products don’t contain harsh chemicals or volatile organic compounds (VOCs), such as:
- Bleach (including in laundry detergents);
- Ammonia ;
- Lye (found in oven cleaners and paint stripping agents);
- Chlorine.
*There are other VOCs to watch out for – learn about them in this American Lung Association resource.
If your cleaning products contain harsh indoor air pollutants, try to limit their use to protect your air quality.
Why? Because certain cleaning products can trigger or worsen asthma and other respiratory issues. They may also cause headaches and allergic reactions. These chemicals are harmful on their own and can react with others in the air, making the problem worse.
Parents should be especially mindful, as children are more exposed to household cleaning products than adults. They spend more time near the floor, where pollutants accumulate. They also breathe faster and take in more air relative to their body size. On top of that, they touch the floor more often.
To reduce this risk, replace your current cleaning products with safer alternatives.
9. Inspect and Address Mold or Dampness Issues
For many people, mold and dampness are persistent and frustrating problems. Fungi occur naturally outdoors and can affect air quality to some extent. Indoors, however, they should be avoided entirely. Mold spores begin to grow when they land on damp surfaces.
According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), inhaling mold can lead to a range of health problems, including:
- Asthma attacks;
- Allergic reactions;
- Red eyes;
- Skin rashes and irritation;
- Hay-fever symptoms;
- Nose and throat irritation.
Mold exposure can also weaken your defenses against respiratory viruses, making upper respiratory infections more likely.
To improve your indoor air quality, inspect and address mold or high humidity as soon as possible. Start by having a mold specialist check your home and identify the source of the moisture. Mold growth always stems from a water-related issue. Have a mold remediation professional remove any mold, then fix the underlying moisture problem to prevent it from returning.
Note: The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) says you can use household products to remove mold, but professional help often yields better results.
10. Eliminate Sources of Indoor Air Pollution
The EPA states that “Usually the most effective way to improve indoor air quality is to eliminate individual sources of pollution or to reduce their emissions.” [4]
For example, schedule a home inspection to check for asbestos in your walls or ceilings. If asbestos is suspected, a licensed professional must test and remove it. Never try to remove or disturb asbestos yourself because it’s hazardous and requires expert handling.
Gas stoves and other gas appliances are another common source of indoor air pollution, as they produce carbon monoxide, which can be harmful or even deadly. To reduce emissions and improve air quality, ensure proper ventilation and have the stove professionally serviced on a regular basis.
Overall, removing indoor pollution sources is more effective—and more affordable—than trying to purify the air while pollutants continue to spread.
11. Upgrade Your Weatherproofing
While you do want to let in fresh air throughout the year, there will be times when you want to keep air from outside, out.
For example, if there are wildfires raging near your city, smoke and ash can drift into your home and negatively impact your respiratory system. Or if you’re close to highways, freeways, or industrial plants, there may be certain times of the day or year when more pollution, airborne poisons, or excessive smog is present in the air.
Being able to lock your house up tight makes it possible to keep only purified air indoors and polluted air out. But to do that, you have to make sure your house is fully weatherproofed.
Check the seals on your windows and around your doors to make sure they’re not leaking. Replace any leaking seals as needed.
Inspect your attic to make sure no air is leaking through your ceiling or any attic windows or vents. Have an inspector examine the seals, keeping your home’s air conditioning and heating systems’ ventilation from leaking.
A thorough inspection will show you if there are any places where outside air is leaking in. Fix those leaks to make sure you can block polluted outside air if or whenever it’s necessary.
Conclusion: The Long-Term Benefits of Cleaner Indoor Air
The world around you is filled with so many toxins, chemicals, and other pollutants which you’re exposed to on a daily basis. No matter what you do, every time you go outside, you come in contact with outdoor air pollution. The health risk is very real and very present.
That’s why it’s so important that you take steps to protect yourself from the health effects of air pollution, specifically inside your home. You have the most control over the internal environment in your house, so do what you can to keep your air as clean as possible.
Using the tips above, you should have no trouble reducing pollutants, toxins, household chemicals, dust, and allergens—maybe even eradicating these health hazards entirely. You’ll find the quality of your air drastically improves, and with it, your respiration and quality of life.
Even with cleaner indoor air, your body still works hard to process everyday toxins from the environment. That’s why supporting your internal detox pathways is just as important as managing your external surroundings.
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Sources
We Need to Improve Indoor Air Quality
Easy ways you can improve indoor air quality
Can Plants Purify the Air in Your Home?
Secondhand Tobacco Smoke and Indoor Air Quality
VOCs in Household Cleaning Products
Cleaning Supplies and Household Chemicals
Cleaning products: Their chemistry, effects on indoor air quality, and implications for human health
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