Simple ways to purify the air in your home naturally
There are many ways to naturally purify the air in your home – try out these eco friendly ideas in your house.
Improving the air quality in your home can be simple
The quality of the air you breath can have an impact on your health. As we spend more and more time indoors, it has become more important to think about the quality of the air in our homes.
What causes indoor air to become polluted?
There are many reasons why the air in our homes can be polluted. Some furnishings such as sofas and carpets can release pollutants for a long time (called off-gassing). Other sources of pollutants may be short lived, such as smoke, cleaning products and even scented air freshener – which you might spray in an effort to clean the air in your home.
In this article, I’ve pulled together a list of ways to purify the air in your home in more eco friendly ways.
Nine methods to purify the air in your home in natural and environmentally friendly ways
1. Open a Window
A cheap and easy solution is to open a few windows! Open your windows for just a few minutes each day to ventilate your home with fresh air, and help remove any harmful toxins from your home.
They only need to be open for 5 minutes, in order to replace the stale air with fresh air. And the air doesn’t have to be cold to be fresh, so you don’t need the windows open for too long in winter.
Some people sleep with a window open at night, but that’s not for me – I don’t like the mosquitos in summer, and an not very comfortable with windows open in ground floor bedrooms.
2. Indoor Plants
Certain houseplants are natural air purifiers and can help remove pollutants and toxins from the air.
Plants use sunlight and the carbon dioxide we breathe out in the process of photosynthesis, making food for themselves and releasing fresh oxygen that we can breathe. They can also filter out common volatile organic compounds from the air. So a few houseplants around the home will help purify the air.
Some examples of houseplants that are particularly good at purifying the air include Spider plants, Peace Lilies, Aloe Vera, and Snake plants.
3. Vacuum and Clean Regularly
Regular vacuuming and cleaning can help remove pollutants and improve air quality in the home, especially if you have fluffy, hairy pets such as cats and dogs.
Carpets and rugs can trap dust, dirt and pollutant particles in their fibres. Remember to empty or change the vacuum bag and filter regularly too. Sweep and mop wooden and vinyl floors often too.
4. Essential Oils
Essential oils such as eucalyptus, lavender, lemon, and tea tree oil have natural purifying properties and can help improve air quality. You can use an essential oil diffuser to release the oils into the air, or add a few drops to a spray bottle filled with water to create a natural air freshener.
5. Beeswax Candles
Beeswax candles are a natural air purifier as they release negative ions when burned, which can help neutralize pollutants and improve air quality. They burn down slowly, so last a long time.
Candles do release soot into the air, so you will need to make sure you have good ventilation in your home. And don’t leave burning candles unattended.
6. Salt Lamps
Salt lamps are known for their natural air purifying properties, as they release negative ions into the air when heated.
Salt lamps contain Himalayan pink salt, which are natural air purifiers that absorb the toxins in the air and neutralizes them.
7. Baking Soda
Baking soda is a natural air freshener and deodorizer. You can place a small open container of baking soda in areas that tend to have unpleasant odors, such as in the fridge.
8. Use Air-Conditioners if you have them
Heat pumps / air conditioners are good at purifying the air in your home, as they pull in air from outdoors through a filter. The filters capture particles in the air, and pushes clean air into your home.
Remember to clean or replace the filters regularly – my heat pump filters can be cleaned with a vacuum cleaner, which is great, as I don’t need to replace or throw away the old filters.
9. Clean With Non-Toxic Chemicals
Often, store bought cleaning products contain toxic chemicals that can cause irritation to your nose, throat, lungs, eyes and skin.
There are more environmentally friendly options available in supermarkets now, which is great to see.
And you can try making your own cleaning products with simple ingredients such as vinegar, lemon juice, baking soda and essential oils. Search up recipes online – this article has a lot of information about homemade cleaners
Which of these 9 ways to purify the air in your home do you use?
With these 9 ways to purify the air in your home, you’ll have plenty of ways to purify the air in your home, for the health and wellbeing of your family.
It’s important to note that while these methods can help improve air quality, they may not be effective in removing certain types of pollutants, such as carbon monoxide. In those cases, it’s recommended to use specialized air-purifying equipment.
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I love having indoor plants for the air–my house is slowly becoming a greenhouse.
Same here! I have so many, and move them to different areas of the house often!
Thank you for these! I always open the window to purify the air – that seems to work quite well! I didn’t know that about wax candles – I don’t really like fake scents in the house – so maybe just burning a simple wax candle will help. I’ll try it and let you know 😉
Thank you for your comment – opening the window is the cheapest and easiest! And it doesn’t have to be open all day, just 30 minutes will replace the old air with fresh air.