8 Ways to Improve the Air Quality of Your Home

8.12.2024 0 comments

Author: Trisha Houghton, CNS, ASIST

How much effort do you expend into keeping the air in your home clean?

Clean indoor air has been linked to lower risk of disease and illness, improved respiration, and it can even protect your cognitive function and stave off “sick building syndrome” [1, 2]. Plus, it can eliminate allergens, toxins, chemicals, dust, dander, mites, and other irritants that could get into your lungs and cause problems.

In this blog post, we’ll explore a few simple yet highly effective ways you can improve the air quality of your home. Some will take just a few minutes every day, while others will require a small investment to get your home set up.

But once you’ve put these tips into practice, you’ll find you breathe so much easier and feel better because your air is cleaner and safer.

8 Ways to Improve the Air Quality of Your Home

1. Clean Your House…and Keep it Clean

One of the simplest but most effective solutions for improving your 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. Vacuum your carpets 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 special attention to your drapes and curtains, as they can attract allergens (particularly in pet-friendly homes).

Consider using dust mite-proof pillowcases and bedding to protect the place where you spend 6-8 hours a day.

Giving your house a good, thorough deep clean is just the first step. Make sure to keep up with your cleaning frequently to ensure the pollutants, allergens, and irritants don’t have time to build up.

2. Clear Out Clutter

While a lot of furniture can be convenient and offer storage space, it may also collect dust. The same can be said for clutter—items that are left out of their place, or simply don’t have a place so they get left strewn around your house.

The more cluttered your house is, the harder it will be to keep it clean. Clutter will also provide dust, mold, and particulates a place to accumulate, particularly if left untouched for long periods.

Time to give your house a thorough de-cluttering!

Go around your home and look for anything you don’t use frequently, or which doesn’t provide decorative value to your house. Pack it up in a box in storage if you want to keep it, or give it away, sell it, or donate it to charity if you don’t need it.

The less cluttered your house is, the better your air quality is likely to be.

3. Change Your 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 get filled with airborne irritants and pollutants. It’s just the nature of these systems—they swirl the air around your home and pull the particulate matters into their systems to be collected by filters.

If you don’t change your air filters regularly, you could end up breathing a lot of the airborne irritants and pollutants that are trapped in the filters. Every time the heater or air conditioner runs, a small amount of the filtered particulates are released back into the air and circulate in your home once more.

Changing out the filters ensures that your air remains as fresh and clear as possible. Follow the manufacturers’ directions and change the filters as often as necessary (typically, every 3-6 months).

4. Open Your House Up

During the months when you don’t need the air conditioning or heating running around the clock, try to open up your house to let in fresh air.

Open all the windows to allow the air from outside in, and make sure the interior doors are open to encourage free flow of air throughout.

Even during the very cold or very hot months, try to open up your house for at least an hour or two every day—during the summer, first thing in the morning and/or late at night, and during the winter, around noon to 2 PM when the day is warmest.

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.

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.

5. Keep Air Moving

Throughout the day, try to keep air moving throughout your house to prevent the dust, pet dander, allergens, and food particulates from settling.

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.

Try to prevent the air from growing stale or feeling enclosed as much as possible.

6. Buy 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 a small, portable air filter that you run in your bedroom, office, or game room (wherever you are). Or you can look into purchasing a whole-home air purifying system that will improve the air quality of your entire house rather than just one space.

Ionic purifiers can be particularly effective at capturing and eliminating many of the pollutants, irritants, and allergens that could impact your breathing [3].

Make sure your air purifier has an HEPA filter that can eradicate the majority (from 99.99% to 99.9999%) of airborne chemicals and particulates. That’s the best way to guarantee the cleanest possible air!

7. 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 in 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 unit’s 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.

8. Find and Eradicate Pollution Sources

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, get a home inspection to find out if your walls or ceilings have asbestos. If so, take active measures to seal off your home against these pollutants, or get rid of them entirely.

Another common source of pollution in your home is a gas stove. Thankfully, you can adjust the stove to decrease the emissions they give off, improving your air quality.

Overall, getting rid of the pollution sources is more effective—and cost-effective—than trying to purify your air with those sources still leaking pollution into the air.

Make this your last step in cleaning house, and you’ll do wonders to improve air quality.

In Conclusion:

The world around you is filled with so many toxins, chemicals, and pollutants that you’re exposed to on a daily basis. No matter what you do, every time you go outside, you come in contact with these contaminants. The risk to your health is very real and very present.

That’s why it’s so important that you take steps to protect yourself inside your home. You control the internal environment in your house, so you have full power to keep your air as clean as possible.

Using the tips above, you should have no trouble reducing pollutants, toxins, chemicals, dust, and allergens—maybe even eradicating them entirely. You’ll find the quality of your air drastically improves, and with it, your respiration and quality of life.

Resources:

[1] www.scientificamerican.com/article/we-need-to-improve-indoor-air-quality-here-rsquo-s-how-and-why/

[2] pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/7721522/

[3] www.health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/easy-ways-you-can-improve-indoor-air-quality

[4] www.epa.gov/indoor-air-quality-iaq/improving-indoor-air-quality

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