Although heathy living is typically thought of as diet and exercise, it really goes beyond that. Heathy living should also includes your daily habits, the way you live, products you use and how you care for your home.
We are all looking for ways to create a healthier, happy home for ourselves and our family but knowing where to start and doing so without spending a ton of money can be hard. Here are 8 Ways to Create a Healthier Home And Healthy Living while not breaking the bank.
Open The Windows:
The inside of our homes can contain more pollution than the outside air. You may be thinking how is this possible, but studies have shown that it is! These pollutants can be cause by everything from furniture to carpets, and chemical cleaning products to perfumes. When the weather is nice enough open your windows and doors to create a cross breeze to help circulate fresh air into your home. Even if you can’t open them all, just getting some fresh air in can make all the difference.
Dust And Vacuum Regularly
Dust and other particles around our home are actually full of chemical particles like pesticides, flame retardants, and lead that have been linked to health problems. To help create a healthier home it is important to dust and vacuum at least once a week. Make sure to get those often forgotten places like the fan and walls. By keeping your home dust free and dry moping or vacuuming regularly, you will have a healthier home.
Get More Plants
Having real plants in your home aren’t just great as decor, but also include a lot of health benefits. Plants help reduce carbon dioxide levels, increase humidity, can reduce levels of pollutants and can help reduce the amount of airborne dust in your home. If you don’t have a green thumb but want to add more plants in your home, look into plants like succulents, spider plants, ferns and aloe. It is also fun to grow things like rosemary or basil to use in your meals.
Wash And Clean Your Produce
Everyone knows that you are suppose to wash your produce before you eat it, but do you? When you wash it, are you giving it a good clean or are you rinsing it under water? A study showed that produce is typically touched by 20 different people before you purchase it from the store. That is 20 people who may or may not have sneezed into their hand then touched it. A kid who just finished picking their nose then proceeds to touch every apple on the isle, or even someone who hasn’t washed their hands in the last 10 hours. Pretty gross when you think about it! Even your organic fruits and vegetables are going to have bacteria and germs when you purchase them so finding a good healthy chemical free way to wash your produce is so important. For your berries, grapes and leafy items use a produce wash, for your apples, oranges cucumbers and other similar items, use a cloth that scrubs to remove the wax and dirt. Make sure you are also cleaning things like melons because as you cut into them to remove the skin, you are going to be transferring whatever is on the outside, in!
Remove Your Shoes
As you walk through the grass that has been sprayed with chemicals, on the road that has oil and gas spilled on it, throughout buildings that have been spray for pest control, you are collecting it all on the bottom of your shoes. You are also collecting things you can see like dirt and grime. Take off your shoes at the door and ask guests to do the same to help keep those unwanted items off your floors and out of your house. This will help keep your house cleaner, and if you have kids who play on the floor, it will keep them healthier. If you need extra support as you are walking through your home, consider getting a pair of slippers or shoes that are just for inside.
Replace Your Air Fresheners
It has been said the the “fragrance” industry is todays tobacco industry and will be worse for our health than second hand smoke. If you have those plugin air fresheners, room sprays or burn lots of candles, you may want to consider switching them out for a healthier option. Although our brains have been programed otherwise, a clean home doesn’t have a smell. If you love a smell circulating through your home and can’t imagine living with out it, consider getting an essential oil diffuser and pure essential oils instead of the chemical plugins. You can also put the oils into a spray bottle and spritz fabrics for a pick me up between washings.
Get Rid Of The Junk Mail Clutter
Do you have stacks of junk mail, magazines, and newspapers in your home? Recycling these items and opting out of any services you no longer need will not only keep your home looking cleaner but will also help you create a healthier home. Believe it or not, the ink on the mail and magazines can be toxic to your health and having them sitting around your home can release those toxins into the air you breath. If you get tons of junk mail, look into an opt out service to help you cut back.
Ditch The Chemicals
A lot of us grew up cleaning and doing laundry with chemical filled sprays, laundry detergents and dryer sheets. These cleaning supplies are now replaceable with greener cleaning solutions. Switching to a new cleaning routine and ditching the traditional toxic cleaners is one of the best ways you can create a healthier home. This includes looking at your laundry detergents and finding a replacement for dryer sheets. The traditional cleaners today have so many more chemicals then they did when our mothers and grandmothers used them with little to no testing done to assure that those chemicals are not cancer causing. It’s time to ditch the chemicals!
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