There are a lot of factors that can affect your Indoor Air Quality (IAQ). Here are 8 easy steps you can take to improve your indoor environment and overall home health!
Humidity levels that are too high or too low can have negative effects on both our home health and personal health. Keeping your humidity levels between 35-55% can help keep everything in check, and ensure that nothing too drastic is happening behind the scenes.
High humidity is considered 55% or more.
Signs of high humidity can include spots of mould or mildew, rotting of exposed wood, swelling of hardwood flooring or wooden doors, musty odours, and unexplained condensation.
If you are experiencing respiratory issues such as asthma or abnormal allergies, or if you’re feeling stuffy and clammy for no reason - make sure you’re checking your humidity levels.
Low humidity is considered a humidity level that is 35% or less.
Although low humidity won’t cause as severe damage as high humidity, it’s still going to cause problems in the long term that you’re going to want to mitigate right away. Signs of low humidity can include cracked walls, dried-out flooring, and peeling paint and wallpaper.
You can experience symptoms of sinus issues, dry skin, an irritated throat, and/or a bloody nose.
How to check your humidity
The easiest way is to use a hygrometer - which is a unit used to measure the relative humidity in the air. It is small, battery-powered, and easy to use. These are relatively inexpensive so you can easily have one for each floor or each area of concern.
Aur purifiers with HEPA filters can capture up to 99+% of air pollutants including airborne particles such as mould spores, dust, and pet hair - which is really beneficial. They come in all sizes so you can get larger or smaller ones depending on your space.
Air purifiers come in lots of sizes, and the size you choose will depend on the space you need them to operate in.
We actually have two air purifiers in our house, one is the Levoit Air Purifier, which we keep in our basement gym. Not only do we personally generate a lot of heat in the gym while we’re being active, but we also have a sauna and a shower down there which contribute to the overall heat and moisture content while they’re in use. This air purifier is small, and not overly noisy.
We use the IQAir HealthPro Plus Air Purifier- Medical Grade H14 HyperHEPA Filter on our main floor, and it covers up to 1125 sqft. Our main floor is open concept so this is why we chose this one. It’s a bit noisier, so we mostly run it at night when nobody is using the space.
Sometimes all it takes to get rid of stale air is to let some fresh air flow through. Fresh, cool, air can help reduce the chance of mould and mildew growth. Opening up multiple windows can help push the old air out, and replace your indoor air with a blast of freshness.
While cracking the windows is always really nice, you’ll want to make sure that your screens are in good shape and properly fit into your window opening so you don’t end up with additional allergens and dust inside.
Make sure you're running your exhaust fan while cooking on the stove, running laundry, showering, and all moisture-generating activities. This will help with humidity, and reduce the chance of mould and bacteria growth.
In addition to your exhaust fans, if the weather permits it, you can open a window in that room as well to assist in the moisture reduction process.
Choosing natural cleaners and personal care products helps eliminate the chance for toxic VOCs to seep into your indoor environment and affect your air quality.
Things like laundry products, kitchen and bathroom cleaners, air fresheners, hair spray, and perfumes are at the top of the list for VOC percentage in the products.
Read our blog purely on VOCs for more information in this!
You have to spend an insane amount of time vacuuming a carpet to remove dust particles and get it fully clean. Which, is it ever fully clean? There are so many areas where particles can hide and become trapped. It’s also harder to clean carpet under couches and beds, where our dust bunnies like to hide out.
Solid surface flooring such as hardwood and tile are much easier and way more efficient to actually get clean.
Taking your shoes off when you get home, and leaving them at the door will help to keep pollen, allergens, dirt, and dust at a minimum. This is especially important in the warmer months when allergens are at an all-time high.
Easier said than done when you have kids!
Routinely sweeping and dusting can help reduce the number of particles that end up in the air. Using a cleaning schedule, or making it a priority to sweep and dust on the regular is beneficial to your indoor air quality!
Read our blog on cleaning schedules to download a free version that can help you stay on top of cleaning in your own home!
I hope this helps you improve your indoor air quality!
Bailey
