For some, the living room can be classed as the most important room in the house. It is a place where families can wind down, relax and experience solitude all within the comfort of their own home. With this in mind, people are starting to invest in their living rooms in the form of new decorative styles and ideas. However, there are some uncommon and perhaps unknown factors to consider when planning for living-room and home renovations. One of which is indoor air quality. Air quality is simply how clean or dirty the surrounding air is that you breathe. According to the British Lung Foundation, the causes for poor air quality can consist of:
- Heating and cooking (burning coal)
- Damp and mould
- Smoke, cigarettes and vapour
- Cleaning and decorative chemicals
- Building materials such as fibreglass
In addition, we spend about 90% of our time indoors whether that be at home, work, school, or indoor leisurely activities like restaurants. Therefore, having exemplary indoor air quality is just as important as the living room decor itself. As such, this blog article will supply you with information regarding the 4 ideal tips to increase air quality in your living room and home decor settings.
How To Improve Air Quality
Tip 1 – Indoor Plants
To start our list to increase air quality in home decor settings is the use of indoor plants. This is because plants have this neat little function whereby they can absorb carbon dioxide – a gas harmful to humans, animals and the earth’s environment and release oxygen back to the earth’s atmosphere from their leaves. They are also inexpensive which is perfect for those on a home renovation budget and offer great colour palettes to your home.
As a side note, It is important to grow the right plants for indoor settings. Some plants are simply better at the air purification process than others and some are better at coping with a lack of sunlight. If you can imagine the typical English winter period where there are less daytime hours in a day, having a plant that can still thrive and operate under these circumstances is beneficial. Examples of ideal indoor plants to grow in your home are:
- Pothos
- Peace lily
- Spider plant
- English ivy
- Bamboo Plants
- String of pearls
- Rubber tree
- Philodendron
- Asparagus fern
Other tips to improve your air quality fromm indoor plants is to:
- Plant them in sterile soil
- Only water them when the soil is dry
- Use a fan to circulate air around the plant
- Trim dead leaves often
Tip 2 – Install and Maintain your Air Conditioning System
Tip number 2 consists of installing an Air Conditioning unit and furthermore, maintaining it. Air Conditioning (AC) is incredibly useful for improving air quality as it helps circulate indoor air – ideally clean air. In addition, most units contain a filter which removes pollutants and allergens from the air inside a room. As a result, if the system is clogged up with dust and dirt, you are automatically compromising the quality of air that is being circulated inside your house. Therefore, maintaining your AC system by calling a specialised AC technician is essential.
Steps you can take or enquire about in regards to maintaining the AC units are:
Changing the Filters Often –
As said earlier, if the filter is clogged up, you are only harming how useful your AC unit is at separating larger and unclean particles. By checking your filters at least once every two weeks it could help you improve air quality immensely.
Tightening and Cleaning Ducts
Ducts that are unclean blow dirt into your home more than you care to realise. The same goes for ducts that are open and not fitted properly. Ensuring that your ducts are tightly sealed and having them professionally cleaned eliminates any potentially dirt, dust and pollutants entering your home thus, improving your home air quality. It will also benefit you in the long run to have ducts tightened/cleaned as if they are not installed optimally, they can be prone to breaking which will be a costly repair.
Tip 3 – Get Into A Cleaning Routine
Tip number 3 consists of getting into a regular cleaning routine and cleaning often. While you may think leaving your dirty washing basket for an extra day won’t harm your air quality in your home, it actually does. By leaving items around the house (whether clean or dirty) it allows dust particles to accumulate. If the dust particles are blown into the air due to an open window for example, then they combine with the existing quality air in your home which you are likely to breathe in. Clearly something which is not desirable if the air is dirty.
In addition, using outdated vacuums can potentially harm your air quality due to them re-releasing dust and allergens back into the air. To prevent this, it is worth investing in new vacuum cleaners that have exceptional filters and can minimise re-releasing of dust particles in your home. Similarly, many pollutants enter buildings by latching on to people’s shoes. By incorporating mats in your home, it will help to trap and remove dirt before it’s carried throughout the house.
Tip 4 – Limit Use Of Air Fresheners, And Products That Use Chemicals
Finally, tip number 4 is to limit the amount of air fresheners and cleaning chemicals used around the house. Air fresheners may help mask bad odours but every squirt sprays over 100 chemicals into your home. Some of which are known as VOC’s (Volatile Organic Compounds) which contribute massively to indoor air pollution. By swapping to natural fragrances or even better fragrance-free products, you will improve your air quality drastically.
