By Mary West

Guest Writer for Wake Up World

The market is flooded with “air fresheners” touted to make your home smell like a citrus grove or bower of flowers. However, their fragrance creates a dangerous illusion.  Instead of  improving the indoor air quality of your home, they worsen it by emitting an array of harmful chemicals.

The winter season in colder climates presents an added challenge, as people tend to keep their doors and windows tightly shut. While this practice helps keep homes warmer, it traps pollutants indoors; and the prolonged exposure to mold, dust and chemical toxins can be detrimental to anyone’s health.

The good news is – it is easy to reduce the pollutants in your home and infuse it with a delightful scent through natural ways.

Here are 9 easy ways to improve your indoor air quality.

Natural Ways to Improve Your Air Quality

1. Clean Away Odors and Pollutants

Use natural means to keep your home clean. Baking soda, vinegar and  lemon  juice are effective general household cleansers; and they work to eliminate odors and pollutants without toxic chemical effects.

Carpets can trap many kinds of indoor pollutants, so once a week use a vacuum with a HEPA filter. Invest in a steam cleaner, and every two months deep clean the carpet with a white vinegar and hot water mixture. You can also keep your hard floors clean through mopping frequently with a vinegar and water solution. Additionally, keep a doormat inside your home’s entryways, and ask family members and guests to remove their shoes before coming inside.

2. Clean Heating and Air-Conditioning Filters and Vents

Heating and air-conditioning filters and vents that are not regularly cleaned can trap pollen, dust and other allergens. They are easily accessible in many systems, but if yours are in a difficult-to-reach area, have a professional  cleaning  service take care of them periodically.

3.  Scent Your Home with Essential Oils

Essential oils will impart a wonderful scent into your home, and many have anti-fungal and antibacterial properties that can enhance indoor  air quality. Use diffusers but place them on a high shelf out of the reach of children. Good ones to try include citrus, eucalyptus, thyme or peppermint. A nice one for the bedroom is lavender, which has an intoxicatingly fresh scent that promotes relaxation.

4. Avoid Aerosols, Chemical Cleaning Agents and Synthetic Fragrances

Aerosol sprays, including household cleansers and deodorants, can fill your home with toxicity. Be wary of using cleaning agents with added fragrances as well as any type of synthetic home fragrance. Some household fragrance products contain phthalates, chemicals that are hormone-disruptors. Moreover, many synthetic fragrances are derived from petroleum, a chemical that has not been tested for safety when inhaled. One study found a plug-in  air freshener  released 20 volatile organic chemicals, seven of which are regulated under U.S. laws as hazardous or toxic.

Don’t use conventional laundry detergents, dryer sheets and fabric softeners because they emit chemical laden gasses. Look for fragrance-free laundry detergents instead.

5.  Invest in House Plants

Plants can filter out many indoor pollutants  while adding beauty to your indoor areas. A small palm tree houseplant can effectively help remove formaldehyde, a toxin lurking in homes from various sources. Aloe vera helps clear away benzene and formaldehyde, but it needs to be in an area that gets direct sunlight. Spider plants are easy to care for and can help you get rid of carbon monoxide, formaldehyde, xylene and benzene. Gerber daisies require lots of sunlight but are effective at removing benzene and trichloroethylene, a byproduct of dry cleaning.

Other good choices include Chinese evergreens, plants that thrive in the shade, and English ivy, a plant that does well in cooler climates. If you have small children and pets, check to see if the plants are non-toxic when eaten.

Bonus!  It seems plants clean the air so effectively that they can actually increase productivity! See the infographic below for details.

6.  Let Fresh Air into the House

Unless it is bitterly cold, once a week open the windows and, if your house needs help circulating air, run the fans for a while. This lets out accumulated indoor pollutants

7. Test Your Home for Radon

You can’t see or smell radon, but it can significantly increase your risk of lung cancer. Granite countertops emit this harmful gas, but it can also come from other places within your home. Testing for radon is easy and inexpensive.

8. Maintain a Healthy Level of Humidity

High humidity can breed mold, bacteria and mildew; and low humidity can dry the skin. The Environmental Protection Agency recommends an indoor humidity level of 30 to 60 percent. You can use either a humidifier or dehumidifier to achieve the ideal level.

9.  Make Your Home a No-Smoking Zone

Protecting your home from second-hand cigarette smoke is the most important thing you can do to improve indoor air quality. Cigarette smoke has more than 4,000 chemicals and is linked to a spectrum of health problems, so eliminating cigarette smoke from your indoor environment is crucial to your air quality.

Sources:

http://www.webmd.com/lung/features/12-ways-to-improve-indoor-air-quality

http://www.thealternativedaily.com/seven-ways-improve-indoor-air-quality-winter/

http://www.mnn.com/health/healthy-spaces/photos/15-houseplants-for-improving-indoor-air-quality/aloe-aloe-vera

http://www.rodalenews.com/natural-air-fresheners?page=0%2C3

Previous articles by Mary West:

• 4 Ways to Know if Your Body Is Overwhelmed By Toxins
• Hugs: The Ultimate Mind-Body Medicine
• Study Finds Exercise Literally Makes Your Brain Grow
• Can One Extra Hour of Sleep Affect Your Day? The Answer Might Shock You
• Big Pharma’s Clinical Drug Trials Are Killing Thousands Overseas
• The Link Between Antidepressants and Murder
• 4 New Reasons to Avoid Pesticides
• Toxic Gene Discovered in GM Crops Shows Approval Process Is Fatally Flawed
• 5 Newly Discovered Health Powers of Asparagus
• Coconut Oil Could Help Fight Tooth Decay
• 8 Ways to Maximize Telomere Length and Increase Life Expectancy

About the author:

Mary West is a natural health enthusiast, as she believes this area can profoundly enhance overall wellness. Ms. West is the author of  Fight Cancer Through Powerful Natural Strategies, and  the creator of  alternativemedicinetruth.com,  a natural healing website where she focuses on solutions to health problems that work without side effects.

This article was republished with permission from  Live in the Now, one of the fastest growing natural health newsletters. Visit  LiveInTheNow.com  to browse their complete library of articles, or join the nearly 60,000 readers subscribed to  their Newsletter.