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Everyone wants to be healthier, and this includes keeping a healthy home. We often focus on what we eat, what we drink and how we live. This is where most of expert advice is focused on. However, we often neglect the places we spend the most time in. Your house and even work space often has just as much effect on your health as what you consume.
So, are you ready to make your home a healthier place for you and your family? Read on to learn more.
What is a Healthy Home Environment?
A healthy home environment is a place that is designed and maintained in a way that contributes to the health of people living there, without harming them. This is important to everyone on this planet, no matter if you live in a rental house, apartment or you live in your own house.
Health home environment is a concept of having a home without harmful components, especially to children. This means that it takes into consideration your habits, behavior as well as how your home was created and how it’s maintained.
If you want to quickly assess your own home, you can follow the seven main principles of a healthy home:
1. Keep your home dry – Wetness is linked to various health issues because of what it creates. Stuff like mold, fungus and bacteria all prosper in wet environments and can cause respiratory problems, injuries and asthma.
2. Keep your home clean – Cleanliness is one of the main principles of a healthy home. This means making sure that you are not exposed to dangerous chemicals and that you are not setting up a good environment for pests. Have the family pitch in for weekly chores or rotate a schedule with roommates.
3. Keep your home free of pests – This is closely related to the points above and you should make sure that you remove everything that could make it easier for pests to live in your home.
4. Keep your home safe – Injuries often happen at home. So, you should do your best to prevent any falls, poisoning, burns and tale care of problems as they arise.
5. Keep it free of contaminants – Make sure that your home doesn’t have any lead, radon, tobacco smoke, carbon monoxide, asbestos, pesticides and so on. Get your own checked if you're unsure of the year it was built.
6. Keep your home well ventilated – The most important thing for your children is that your home has plenty of fresh air. It also reduces moisture so that’s very healthy.
7. Keep your home maintained – Make sure that your home is properly maintained in order to keep any moisture out and accidental injuries away.
How Can You Detoxify Your House?
Many people do various types of detoxes for their body. This is a common trend nowadays. However, not too many people know to do something about the toxins within their own homes.
There are numerous toxins in everything we use – from household products to body care products. These have a bad effect on your nervous system and on your immune system too. It can also have negative effects on your reproductive systems and endocrine systems.
Did you know that an average home contains more than 1,000 chemicals? Many of them we can’t feel on our own, but we can feel the effects in our health.
Indoor air can also more polluted than outdoor air because of the insulation that keeps all of the toxins in. The carpeting also keeps a bunch of toxins in.
Cleaning products we use are full of toxic chemicals as well as many products we use to care about our bodies.
However, this doesn’t mean that you have to strip your home of carpeting and insulation or throw away any products you have in your home. It’s important to learn about these and then learn how to manage them.
Here are some tips:
Don’t track outdoor shoes throughout your home
Place your welcome and indoor mats vertically so that you can easily and more accurately wipe your shoes. Ask visitors to stow their shoes in a convenient basket near your front door and task your family with putting their shoes away right when they get home.
Keep your windows and doors open as much as possible. Have plants in your home and clean your air ducts and vents frequently.
Use clean, greener household cleaning products, made from natural and non harmful ingredients rather than with chemicals.
Clean up your beauty routine and replace your skin care products with more non-toxic options.
Avoid using plastics and when you do, be smart about it and avoid using those with BPA plastic.
Avoid non stick pans and other kitchenware since teflon has been proven to be bad for our health.
Clean the dust in your home frequently.
Avoid moisture in your home – clean and vent as much as possible.
Get a shower filter and a water filter.
Avoid things that are advertised as stain-free or stain guarded because they often contain harmful chemicals. When in doubt, double check the label and research any ingredients you don't understand.
Make sure your pet care products are clean and non-toxic.
Replace your pesticides and harmful gardening supplies.
See, you can easily reduce the toxicity of your home when you know the right things to do and when you have the right tools. Most of all, create a happy, harmonious environment in your home to remove emotional toxicity too.
Top 10 Ways to Make Your Home Healthier
When you want to improve your health, it’s important to focus both on your body and your home.
Here’s how to take care of your home health:
1. Buy an air purifier
Make sure that your family is breathing healthy air. An air purifier can help you here and prevent any health issues that you can get from being in polluted indoor air.
2. Use soy candles
Scented candles make your home smell great but they pose a potential risk for your family because they emit chemicals as they burn. Switch to natural soy candles instead.
3. Avoid products with chemicals
You should avoid using any products – cleaners, body care products, pesticides – that are based on chemicals. Use basic soap, water, plant-based products and essential oils instead. For example, baking soda, lemon juice and ACV make for a pretty good cleaner mix.
4. Control the light you use
If you live in the city, you should get window shades that will allow you to sleep properly. Turn all of your devices off and make sure that you get plenty of darkness when you sleep.
5. Clean your pantry
Your pantry should be cleaned of all the junk food and similar foods. Switch those for healthier options.
6. Plant your own garden
This is where you can grow all sorts of wonderful plants and herbs to help you eat better and have a healthier lifestyle in general. This can be a stress-free activity for the entire family.
7. Get a pet
Several studies have confirmed that having a pet has many health benefits for your family, from mental to physical. Making sure your pet is well taken care of can prompt us to make healthy changes in our lives, too!
8. Clean your dust
There’s plenty of dust in any home, but you should do your best to clean it all out whenever you see it.
9. Filter your water
Get a shower and tap water filter so you can get some healthy water without any chemicals or toxins.
10. Store your food in glass containers
Plastic containers are not the healthiest option so it’s best to go for glass or ceramic containers. It’s also better for the environment.
11. Get rid of teflon
It’s infinitely easier to cook with teflon cookery but you should know that there are many chemicals in teflon that could harm you.
How Can You Avoid Toxic Chemicals in Your Home?
Using products based on chemicals every day means exposing your family to toxic chemicals. These can cause serious health problems right now and in the future.
However, you can remove these from your life in an easy and simple way. Here are some tips:
Make your own cleaning products – Making your own cleaners is easy because you can use some of the basic materials you have in your kitchen. These homemade cleaners are completely non-toxic for you and your environment. Most are based on vinegar and baking soda which are completely healthy for your family and won’t cause any health problems while still cleaning perfectly.
Avoid things with fragrance – When you go shopping, of course you are looking for the best smelling shampoos, detergents, softeners and so on. But, this is precisely what is causing many health problems. Look for products without fragrance and add some essential oils on your own. Don’t use air fresheners either.
Switch to different beauty products – Read the labels of all of your products and then you will probably want to throw them away. Most of those chemicals are really bad for your health. Use less products and when you do, make sure that you buy products without toxins
Remove all BPA from your life – Throw away any plastics you have in your home and ditch all of the canned foods because the cans contain BPA too.
Keep all of the bad ingredients out of your home – Take your shoes outside of your home and keep them there, use floor mats, dust frequently and vacuum your home frequently.
Spread the word – Make sure that you teach your children and family about the pitfalls of using products that are full of toxins. Talk to them and then show them what happens when you use these products that contain chemicals. Be smart about what you use and warn people about how harmful these can be.
Sources:
http://www.healthyhomescoalition.org/what-is-a-healthy-home
https://www.bewell.com/blog/20-ways-to-detox-your-home/
https://www.womensvoices.org/avoid-toxic-chemicals/ten-ways-to-avoid-toxic-chemicals/
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