Interior and Health

Sure, your home interiors can reflect your style and your sense of taste. They can say a great deal about you. However, your interiors also have a profound effect on your health. Good air quality indoors can mean a healthy respiratory system, fewer allergies, and fewer headaches. Poor air quality, the other hand, can put you at risk for some cancers, and can wreak havoc with your respiratory system. Bad indoor air quality can make you quite ill.

How can you create a healthy home interior? You can start with these tips:

1) Look for household products with low levels of volatile organic compounds (VOCs). For example, buy paints, stains, lacquers, and sealants that don’t emit VOCs. Use water-based adhesives for home renovation projects, or buy floors, cabinets, and furniture that comes pre-glued and pre-assembled so that you don’t have to use adhesives with a lot of chemicals in them. If your furniture is packaged in boxes, let it air outside before bringing it into your home – this allows you to bring fewer VOCs in.

2) Avoid rugs. Carpeting gives off thousands of chemicals, and under padding allows mold and chemicals to become trapped. Opt for hard surface floorings or choose area rugs that you can clean frequently.

3) Choose natural over synthetic materials when selecting cabinets, furniture, and other products for your home. Many particleboards and plywoods contain formaldehyde as well as other dangerous chemicals. If you must use synthetic materials, make sure that all edges are sealed or laminated in order to prevent these chemicals from escaping. However, hardwood or soft wood is generally a better choice.

4) Watch out for chemicals that you bring into your home. If you usually clean your jewelry at jewelry stores or get your clothes cleaned at the dry cleaners, ask about the chemicals used to clean your things. Look for retailers who use natural cleaning products, or air your things carefully before bringing them into your home.

5) Buy quality and natural air fresheners, Votivo candles, and other scented products. Low-quality scented products often contain additional chemicals, and some of these products made overseas contain chemicals which are not legal here. For example, some low-cost candles made in China may contain lead.

6) Reduce the number of harmful chemicals that you use in your home. Choose all-natural and organic cleaning products, or make your own cleaning products from household items such as vinegar and baking soda – many websites show you how. Not only are these often as effective, that they have fewer harmful toxins. Similarly, avoid using pesticides ant insecticides in or near your home. You only track the chemicals into your home, and you can be sure that if something kills plants and animals, it’s not ideal for your health, either.

7) Clean frequently. No matter how clean and organic your home is, you are still tracking in certain chemicals from outside. Plus, even natural things — such as molds and dust — can wreak havoc with your health and allergies. Clean often, using a high quality vacuum cleaner, and dust frequently. This will help ensure your overall health and will of course make your home look much nicer as well.

Molds are microscopic fungi that grow very rapidly in moist conditions. Molds are sometimes good news – penicillin comes from a type of mold, and some drinks and foods are made from molds. However, when molds grow in an uncontrolled way in your home without your knowledge, they can be bad news. Molds create an unpleasant odor, unsightly mildew, and even potentially dangerous health conditions.

More than 270 species of mold might be growing in your home right now. All molds need to thrive is nutrients and moisture. Mold can develop your home if your home is not well ventilated or if you have leaks in your home, structural damage, or produce lots of moisture from daily activities such as cooking, washing up, and doing laundry. If your home is poorly ventilated, moisture cannot escape your home and becomes trapped, creating perfect conditions for mold to grow.

Mold can damage your possessions but can also release chemicals and spores that can be hazardous to your health. Mold can aggravate allergies and can also exacerbate respiratory ailments. Children, the elderly and the ill are especially vulnerable to its effects.

If you notice discoloration or a mildew odor in your home, you may have mold. You can also have an environmental assessment of your home conducted to find out whether you have mold. If you have small patches of mold, clean the spots with a detergent solution, but be sure to wear a dust mask for protection. You might wish to light some candles after cleaning to get rid of mildew odors and the odors of the cleaning chemicals. If you have larger amounts of mold, you will need professional help.

If your home has lots of mold, if your home is very damp, if you cannot deal with the mold yourself, or if you or your family are having health problems as a result of the mold, you may need to evacuate your home until your home can be made healthy again. This might be a chance for you to look into Orlando vacation packages or a temporary vacation home. Do not return to your home until a professional tells you that your home is safe.

You can prevent your home from becoming moldy by keeping your home dry. Run a dehumidifier in areas that are very damp. Remove excessive clutter from your home, since clutter creates hidden places where mold can grow. If you have lots of shelving, for example, mold can grow behind the shelves without you knowing about. Get some storage space and remove many of your possessions from your home until you can get the mold under control. Throw away or thoroughly clean any items in your home that are affected by mold. If you do not, mold can easily reappear. Also, be sure to clean regularly and vacuum all surfaces with a High Efficiency Particulate Air (HEPA) filter vacuum. This can help remove spores and traces of mold. Fix any water leaks at once to help prevent moisture in your home. If you have any doubts about the mold in your home, call a professional at once.

A recent episode of the Oprah Winfrey show focused on the health impact of too much clutter. Hopefully, the show will emphasize what health professionals have known for years — an unhealthy home can mean an unhealthy body and mind. Although most of us know that clutter is unsightly, few of us realize the health impact it can have on us. When relaxing, cleaning, or decorating up our homes, we do not always take into consideration the heaps of clutter — the unused decorations, the old collectibles, burnt out candles, the extra stuff — that each of us have in our homes.

The truth is, though, clutter can mean an unhealthy breathing environment as well as poor health overall. Clutter can mean:

1) Poor sleep. If you cannot find your things because they are buried under piles of junk, you may not be able to get through everything on your to-do list every day, and this can mean you start heading to bed later and later. If you cannot make your dinner until you clean off the table encounters, or if you cannot complete your take-home work until you’ve cleared off a space for yourself in your office, you are wasting time, and that can cut into your sleeping time. Poor sleep, in turn, can lead to fatigue, headaches, irritability, and increased blood pressure.

2) Breathing problems. If you have lots of clutter, you can be sure that you also have lots of dust — and possibly other pests as well. The truth is, clutter easily accumulates dust and other allergens. Plus, clutter provides an excellent space for bacteria to grow and an excellent nesting space for pests such as mice, spiders, and other unwanted guests. All of these problems can impact your sinuses and can lead to allergies, asthma, and other respiratory problems. If you notice that your air quality does not seem to be quite what is should be, try lighting some candles to eliminate any odor of associated with dust. Then, get cleaning and start getting rid of unwanted items quickly.

3) Stress. Just looking at piles of unwanted items is stressful. It is even more stressful if those items are keeping you from doing what you need to do. For example, if you no longer work out because your treadmill is covered with piles of clothes, or if you no longer use your kitchen for making healthy meals because the kitchen is too cluttered, you may be experiencing stress – and your clutter may be coming between you and a healthy lifestyle. This in turn can mean high blood pressure, can cause you headaches, and can result in many other ailments. If you are stressed out, start by de-cluttering your home as much as possible. This does not have to be unpleasant. Light a candle, put on some soothing music, and try filling up just one garbage bag a day to take to either a local charity or the local junkyard. Set aside 15 minutes a day to relax with some candlelight and some soothing music or tea while you appreciate your new surroundings. This will go a long way towards reducing the level of stress you may be living with right now in your cluttered home.