5 Ways to Improve Indoor Air Quality

It may be surprising for some to know that the air we breathe inside our own home can often be more toxic than the air outside!

With all sorts of chemicals, glues, toxins, off-gasses, and dirt tracked inside our homes, it's important to consider making a few small changes to make a big impact for you, your family and your pets!

1. Replace Harsh Chemicals with Eco-Friendly products.

With the 'Go Green' movement moving full speed ahead, there are numerous companies creating better products for you and the environment. They do not contain harmul chlorine bleach, sulphates, and other poisonous and toxic ingredients. Most are made from corn alcohol,coconut, plant, mineral salts, citrus fruit extracts and have some wonderful essential fragrance oil blends to boot!

2. Bring some Green INDOORS.

By bringing some plants indoors, you will increase the quality of your indoor air. Plants are also a great way to add some color and life into your home too! Many plants do not require you to be a gardening expert or have a green thumb, nor do they have to be expensive.

3. Go PVC and Vinyl-FREE.

When it comes to shower curtain liners, must people are used to the plastic, vinyl type. Shower liners off-gas some nasty chemical fumes like polyvinyl chloride plastic (PVC). One of the chemical additives, DEHP, a phthalate, is a suspected carcinogen and has been linked to hormonal disruption in humans. An EPA study found that vinyl shower curtains can elevate air toxins in your home for more than a month.

Choose a natural fabric, such as cotton (organic if you can find it) or bamboo, for your next shower curtain and look for liners with the name EVA (ethylene vinyl acetate). They are virtually odorless and much more healthy than PVC and Vinyl and can be found at many local stores including Target!

4. Dual Doormats do Double Duty.

Outdoor welcome mats are a great way to stop dirt from entering your home and contaminating your home. However, adding a secondary mat inside at the front entry will provide double duty. Many Americans wear shoes inside their home, this is a sure-fire way to track in dirt, disease and chemicals like pesticides to a floor/carpet where your baby, child or pet might hang out.

5. Open a Window!

With heating and air conditioning keeping our homes at the perfect temperature, some forget to open up windows. Let the fresh air in! It will make your home smell better, release stale air that has been trapped all winter long and eliminate the amount of toxins in your home as well. Plus, who doesn't love the sound of a singing bird.

Living Green While Getting Your Home Clean

Okay, so you've heard about global warming, the importance of recycling and a lot of talk about organic food. You get the idea that going green is the wave of the future but are not sure how you fit in. By making simple changes you will not only help the environment but you'll save your family and pets from toxic chemicals that are present in regular household cleaning products.

Whether you know it or not there are many products on the market that are extremely harmful to your health and that of your family and pets. These can cause many irritations to the skin, eyes and nose. Not to mention, these chemicals linger for days and weeks after you are finished using them. You wind up creating a little toxic mixture in your own home that you're breathing in all the time. This is in part due to cleaning products but also the paints we use on our walls, varnishes on our furniture and the formaldehydes and glues in our carpet-but there is hope!

New products are revolutionizing the way we clean and live in our home. These days you can buy an eco-friendly home and install anything from flooring to window treatments that are better for both you and the environment. Yes, these options are a bit more expensive but well worth it in the long run. You can't put a price on your own health and that of your family. There are also wide ranges of fun cleaning products that smell great, are non-toxic, biodegradable and won't hurt our precious earth. These ingredients do not include the harsh chemicals, that regular products have such as bleach nor do they contain sulfates or petroleum-based contents, rather they have plant-based ingredients. Why is this important? Well, let's not forget that petrol is a non-renewable resource that is quickly being depleted. Sulfates cause an overgrowth of algae in our waters and kill off fish everyday. We can do something about this!

All of these next generation products are also usually made from recyclable plastics and are recyclable themselves. They can also be reused for your other homemade cleaning concoctions such as vinegar, or water while using baking soda.

There are many new companies providing products at the moment, you might have seen some recently on Oprah. Such companies are Method Products, Seventh Generation, Melaleuca, Shaklee, and Mrs. Meyer's Clean Day. Of all of these products, I can personally attest to using a variety of each. Of all, my favorite is Method Products. A girlfriend got me to try her hand soap and I was hooked! I soon explored the mint window wash for glass and windows as well as their all purpose cleaner in such great scents as cucumber, lavender and pink grapefruit. Who wouldn't want to clean with these fun-smelling products?! What I started to realize was that while I was making a difference to our planet, I actually looked forward to cleaning with these great solutions because they smelled so wonderful AND they cleaned phenomenally well to boot! For those of you who prefer fragrance-free they also offer a line called "naked" that does not have any scent at all.

They sell their products conveniently online and in your local Target stores and some drug stores carry a range of their products as well as Home Depot also. Easy to find, Easy to use and Easy on your skin, eyes and nose. So safe you don't even need to use gloves to protect your hands! Their wide range of offerings include soy-based candles, oil diffusers, dish washing liquid, dishwasher tablests that work better than anything else, laundry detergent and fabric softener sheets to all purpose cleaners, tub and tile sprays, toilet bowl cleaner and they now even include body wash and hand soaps! They have a product to match every regular product on the grocery store shelves without the chemicals. I love their micro fiber cloths, which eliminate the need for paper towel waste and provide a streak-free shine! Do you have a specialty surface like granite or stainless steel? They have you covered there too!

Check out their website today to see why Method Products are top selling eco-friendly cleaning products and why everyone is talking about them!
http://www.methodhome.com/

**Note: Method does not compensate me for my articles and promotion, this is strictly personal preference based on great results. I highly enjoy promoting their products to encourage others to make the right choices for both themselves and their environment.