4 Ways to Keep Your Air at Home Clean

When we talk about keeping the air clean, we’re usually thinking about the environment and doing our best to stay green. But the air inside your home matters just as much, especially for your health. So in honor of National Clean Air Month, let’s look inside.

Fortunately, cleaning your apartment air is much simpler than closing a hole in the ozone layer. By throwing out bad cleaning chemicals and fighting dust mites, you can keep irritants out of your lungs and live a healthier life.

Cut the Chemicals

It’s a bit of a pickle: You need to clean up pet dander, junk, and dust, but cleaning products can often contain lung irritants. Even walking into a freshly cleaned home can hurt your lungs, and wearing a mask won’t always help. If you use chemicals sparingly, you should be okay, but even better would be to start using vinegar and regular soap with water—anything without fragrance. You should also stay away from glues, paints, hair spray, perfumes, and—believe it or not—air fresheners if possible.

Keep Dust Mites Away

Dust mites love to burrow down into your mattresses and bedding. Using mattress covers, however, and bug-proof pillowcases can be very effective. When choosing your pillow, pick the kind that is made out of foam rubber—not feathers or goose-down. Washing your linens in water above 130°F once a week will also help keep those pesky dust mites away.

Stay Away from Smokers

In the US alone, cigarette smoking is responsible for more than 480,000 deaths per year. That includes more than 41,000 deaths from inhaling secondhand smoke. To protect our residents, we are a smoke-free zone. While you won’t have to worry about smoke inside your apartment, try to stay away from smokers. If you smoke (outside of the apartment, of course), now’s the time to work towards quitting—for the sake of your family, the community, and the air we breathe.

Just like the food you put in your body, you have to be careful about the quality of the air you breathe in your home. Reevaluate your cleaning supplies, fight dust mites, and stay away from smokers. Remember, no one has ever regretted taking care of their health before.