Home Quarantine Tips: Maintaining Good Air Quality

Table of Contents

1. Keep the House Clean
2. Keep the Plants Outdoor
3. Use Air Purifier
4. Change Your Filters
5. Improve Ventilation
6. Groom Your Pets
7. Avoid Using Air Fresheners
8. Dry Out Damp
9. Don’t Use Wood-Burning Stove
1. Final Thoughts

Are you looking for home quarantine tips? The air quality at home affects the health of the entire family. Bad air quality is linked to common symptoms like headache, fatigue, and allergies.

Now that many are under home quarantine, families should have the best practices to maintain good indoor air quality. This way, you can avoid more severe symptoms that can lead to long-term health effects.

Keep the House Clean

Cleaning the house has a lot of benefits. You can keep your home organized by cleaning regularly. Moreover, it is proven to reduce stress. More than these benefits, a clean home is the best way to improve indoor air quality.

You’ll find that keeping your house clean will help relieve your symptoms and make breathing more manageable if you have allergies or asthma. In addition, routine cleaning chores such as sweeping and dusting will help to eliminate dust mites, pet dander, and other airborne allergens that can cause cold and flu symptoms.

Keep the Plants Outdoor

Many believe that houseplants can improve air quality. Many people claim that they remove air pollutants inside your home. However, that is a myth that we should debunk.

Moreover, many would say that indoor plants absorb carbon dioxide and generate more oxygen in your house, thus keeping the air pure. But it’s also important to note that plants not only absorb but also give off carbon dioxide.

Throughout the day, plants absorb carbon dioxide and sunlight, emitting oxygen through a process known as photosynthesis. However, when photosynthesis stops at night, plants emit carbon dioxide through a process known as respiration.

Plants can make a home’s interior beautiful, but they aren’t that efficient in keeping its air clean. Plants may even contribute to poor air quality by producing toxins into the air. For example, some plants may emit volatile organic compounds (VOCs). Plus, bacteria, pesticides, and other contaminants may be present in the soil.

Use Air Purifier

Purifiers have positive health benefits, and the outcomes vary from person to person and rely heavily on the types of air pollutants present in your house.

Indoor pollutants can cause respiratory infections, neurological problems, or worsen asthma symptoms. So now, air purifiers can refresh polluted air, reducing the risk of the abovementioned health issues.

Generally, air purifiers with HEPA filters can eliminate 99.7% of the airborne particulate matter. Clearing these pollutants can have immediate and long-term health benefits, including improved quality of sleep and a longer life expectancy.

Change Your Filters

Dirty filters affect your indoor air quality by letting contaminants infiltrate your HVAC system and enter your home. Massive microbial colonies grow in dust buildup, particularly in humid environments. Contaminants in dirty filters such as mold, bacteria, and dust mites can trigger allergies and asthma attacks in people.

Other symptoms include fatigue, shortness of breath, dizziness, congestion, and eye irritation. It would be best to avail HVAC services from skilled professionals to replace filters every one to three months to keep the air in your home clean.

Improve Ventilation

The family suffers when the air quality in your home is poor. They will probably notice a decline in the quality of the indoor climate as they suffer from respiratory troubles.

You can enhance your home’s ventilation in many ways. Here are a few helpful tips.

• Putting dehumidifier in humid areas
• Using exhaust fans when you’re cooking or showering
• Installing attic fans
• Replacing air filters every three months
• Commercial air duct cleaning

Apparently, upgrading ventilation and the use of heating and cooling systems result in a fresher indoor environment and improved air indoor quality.

Groom Your Pets

Pet hair doesn’t contaminate the air, but allergens and air pollutants that thrive in pet hair negatively affect indoor home quality. In your pet’s fur, particles such as pollen, dust, and dander accumulate, contaminating the air in your home.

It’s helpful to regularly groom and vacuum your pet’s fur with a HEPA filter vacuum cleaner.

Avoid Using Air Fresheners

The air inside our home can be more toxic than the air outside. Not many know, but air fresheners are to be blamed for the bad air quality inside our home.

Air fresheners mask bad smells, but they also release toxic synthetic chemicals with every spray in your home. Aside from adding potentially hazardous pollutants to the air, air fresheners can affect indoor air quality. The use of air fresheners has been related to increased levels of volatile organic compounds (VOCs).

Additionally, air fresheners release or prompt the production of substances linked to negative health impacts such as cancer, neurotoxicity, and endocrine disruption.

Instead of buying air fresheners, you can create your DIY air freshener by combining baking soda and lemon juice with hot water. You can pour the mixture into an empty spray bottle for convenience.

Dry Out Damp

Respiratory infections can be caused by bacteria and viruses that grow in both high and low humidity levels. As a result, dust mites populate our homes, degrading the air quality.

When taking a hot shower, keep the door closed. Also, cover cooking pans and turn on the exhaust fan to get rid of steam, and always hang laundry outside to dry.

To prevent moisture from forming, keep windows as wide open as possible, especially while sleeping. Consider investing in a dehumidifier when it comes to rooms with poor insulation.

Don’t Use Wood-Burning Stove

Research suggests that using a wood-burning stove indoors risks your family to many air pollutants than waiting at congested roads during rush hour.

Toxic smoke released by wood-burning stoves, especially older models, can cause lung damage and result in long breathing problems. But if you have nothing to use aside from your wood-burning stove, open windows as often as possible to improve airflow.

Final Thoughts

We spend most of our time indoors now that we are advised to work and study from home. So now, it’s our responsibility to keep the environment at home conducive to our daily activities. By practicing the tips in this article, your home will be a place where your family can stay healthy together.

Thank you for reading!