During warm weather, we’re more likely to open the windows and doors and spend time outside which can track dirt and allergens inside the home. Increased use of air conditioning can also impact the air quality within the home.
What can we do to keep the air quality and overall health inside the home clean?
Here are 5 tips in the form of a spring cleaning checklist inside the home that you can enact now.
Clean the air inside your home
How frequently do you change your furnace filter? They should typically be changed every 3 months and as you go from using your furnace to air conditioner, it’s a good time to change the air filter to ensure it’s clean.
If you live in a particularly dusty or otherwise pollen-filled area, you may change them more frequently especially if you suffer from allergies.
Some other tips:
- Switch to fragrance-free detergents for your clothes. Many fragrances
are considered trade secrets so manufacturers don’t list the actual ingredients on the label so it’s hard to know exactly what you’re breathing in. - Get rid of scented candles. Again, the ingredients for the fragrances used are often hidden and the burning wax gives off contaminants inside the home. With cheaper candles from overseas, who knows what is contained in them?
- Move away from harsh chemical cleaners and look for bio products. A study showed that only 7% of cleaning products properly disclosed their contents.
- Familiarize yourself with the natural benefits of baking soda, lemon juice and white vinegar for cleaning which we’ll talk about more below.
- Reconsider your use of an indoor wood-burning fireplace given the contaminants that they give off even when you use a stove with a tightly shut door.
Get rid of dust mites and reduce allergens
Dust mites collect in bedding and mattresses and also be found in pillows, cushions, sofas and other cloth and fabric products. Vacuum each one weekly especially if you have allergies. Don’t forget to wash all bedding in hot water and dry on a hot dryer cycle preferably weekly.
Keep an eye out for signs of bed bugs too. This is another reason to vacuum your mattress while you are washing your bedding each week.
Fabric softeners and dryer sheets can aggravate allergies when used in laundry so be careful if using them.
For longer term chemical reduction, remove carpets and rugs and replace with tiles or wood. Broadloom that hasn’t been steam cleaned in some time collects dirt, bacteria and allergens especially if you don’t vacuum regularly or efficiently.
You can help keep dust mites away and allergies down by keeping your home at a reasonable temperature and humidity. Aim for 70° F and keep humidity below 50% by using a dehumidifier if needed.
Reduce your hazardous chemical usage
Learn to read the labels of chemical products but also remember that manufacturers aren’t legally required to disclose all ingredients and as a result, they don’t.
Also use a microfiber cloth rather than a cotton mop when cleaning floors. Microfiber clothes used in conjunction with plain water have been shown to kill up to 99% of bacteria and are much more efficient at removing bacteria than cotton mops.
And don’t just think about actual chemicals that you use. Teflon-coated pans that you cook with in the kitchen usually start peeling after significant use and there is some concern with the material they’re made from. While a direct link to cancer hasn’t been established, cancer.org has written on the current situation and how the non-stick coating ingredient polytetrafluoroethylene has caused at least some concern.
Clean the places you don’t think of cleaning
There are plenty of places that often get neglected or that you simply don’t think about cleaning.
Coffee maker: Wash the water receptacle regularly with soapy water or pop it in the dishwasher if it’s suitable. Run your fingers inside a coffee water dispenser and if it’s slimy it needs to be cleaned. Same goes with your water filter jugs.
Hood range: The hood range is the fan over top of your stove that takes the steam away when you’re boiling or frying something. The oilier and spicier the foods you prepare, the more clogged and greasy your range hood filter will get. Check out my page on hand washing your range hood filters or pop them in the dishwasher too after manually cleaning them to clean them out properly, if they’re dishwasher friendly.
Door handles: Although we now know that COVID is passed more frequently through air than by touching a surface infected with it, it doesn’t hurt to wipe down door handles in your home from time to time with an anti-bacterial wipe or other cleaning method.
Kitchen area: Your cutting boards, microwave, fridge, stove, kettle and kitchen sink all need to be cleaned from time to time.
Tip: If you live in an area with hard water, you might find water scale appearing on faucets, taps and in your kettle. Boiled water can taste bad and you can get scale in your tea or other hot drinks if your kettle isn’t taken care of and cleaned.
If you have scale in your kettle, fill the kettle part way with water, pour a splash of white vinegar in, boil the water and let it sit for 20 minutes. After 20 minutes check the inside of the kettle to see if it’s clean. If so, drain the water and rinse it out. If not, boil it again and let it sit for another 20 minutes or until the scale is gone.
You can also substitute a slice of lemon in the water in place of vinegar.
Vinegar is a very good and cheap way to remove scale. Pure lemon juice can be used to clean scale off faucets too.
Cleaning tips to do moving forward
- Replace kitchen sponges more frequently. Studies shown that up to 75% of sponges develop some form of coliform bacteria from overuse and under washing. You can also wet the sponge and pop it in the microwave to sterilize it every few days. You can also switch to a biodegradable cellulose sponge that is easier on the environment too.
- Wash your tea towels regularly as they get dirty and if you give them a whiff, you’ll often smell it. If you wash them in the washing machine don’t use fabric softener or anti-static sheets as they can add a layer of film to towels that prevent them from getting really clean.
- Clean the inside of your stove sooner than later. If you have a self cleaning oven it’s pretty easy to do. But if you manually clean your oven, don’t wait until it’s really dirty. If you want to avoid using a smelly chemical product: Wet the inside of your oven with a cloth, and sprinkle baking soda on. Rub it all over the stove and let it sit. Scrub it off and wipe off the excess.
- Deodorize carpets with baking soda. If you have smelly carpets, vacuum them and then sprinkle baking soda on the smelly areas. Let it sit for at least 3 hours and preferably overnight and then vacuum up the next day. Baking soda is a deodorizer that can remove odors from carpets, furniture, mattresses and more.