WAYS OF IMPROVING AIR QUALITY

Clean Fresh Air

CLEAN, FRESH AIR flowing through your home is important to health. One of the best ways of letting fresh air into the home - and circulating it is to ventilate the home naturally by opening windows, especially on crisp, sunny and windy days. But many homes today are virtually sealed units. Opening the window for adequate airing or ventilation is not always feasible and much double or triple glazing is not designed for opening, although, if you are installing double glazing, try to ensure that some windows can be opened. The outside air too may be polluted, so you need to concentrate on ensuring pure air quality within your home. Poor and polluted air in the home can cause cold, headaches, ear, nose and throat infection. These can be intensified if you undertake large-scale redecoration and structural alterations, which stir up dust and other pollutants. You can test for humidity and air purity yourself and then introduce purifiers and humidifiers as needed.

If pollutants is a problem, you obviously need to try and remove pollutants but you can also use air purifiers in the home or an ionizer, which will suck up smoke, cooking smells or traffic fumes, house dust mites and so on.

House plants can also help to improve the environment by increasing oxygen in the atmosphere, acting as humidifiers and even filtering the air. The popular spider plant, for instance, actually removes formaldehyde and other pollutants from the atmosphere.

Ways of Improving Air Quality and Introducing Natural Fragrances Into The Home

Air room daily by opening windows and doors or using extractor fans, especially in the bathroom and kitchen.

Make your home a non-smoking zone, or set aside one room for smokers that can be aired easily. Alternatively, banish smokers to the garden with an ashtray.

Remove all synthetic materials from your home such as plastics, nylon, vinyl, laminates, medium density fiberboard and replace them with natural woods, cottons and other natural materials.

Use natural materials such as scented beeswax for cleaning and polishing wooden furniture. Beeswax candles also produce a marvelous scent.

To remove cooking smells, boil pieces of orange, lemon or lime peel, cinnamon sticks or cloves in a small saucepan of water. Keep the kitchen well ventilated and close doors while cooking cauliflower or other strong smelling vegetables. A piece of stale bread in the cooking water or steamer will help to absorb smells.

Burn scented candles, joss sticks, incense or scented oils in pottery burners. Used scented lamp oil. Sprinkle a few drops of oil onto a light bulb or vaporizer ring to permeate the air with a mood enhancing fragrance.

Add drops of scented oil to humidifiers or bowls of fresh, tepid water to freshen the air and keep it humid. Change the water daily. Float scented candles in bowls of water, especially when family or friends gather.

Hang sweet smelling flowers or bunches of herbs in the kitchen or dinning room. Bay leaves, rosemary, sage, lavender, and bergamot smell particularly wonderful. Hang dried herbs in the cupboards or use them to make pot-pourri or herb pillows.

Place fresh flowers throughout the home, an inexpensive way of introducing natural scents. Make posies from bay, sage, rosemary, lavender and orange blossom for bedrooms and bathrooms. Fill dishes with pot pourri and with a few dried culinary herbs, whole cloves and cinnamon sticks or bark.

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