Bringing your baby home from the hospital is an exciting time. You have spent months preparing for their arrival- buying their new crib, bedding, a rocking chair where you spend all.the.nights feeding and soothing your little babe. You have all their new little onesies, clothing, and swaddles. Everything is perfect, but there is one thing you probably haven’t considered. All those new items, and even just your home on it’s own, brings in toxins, chemicals, and dust that clutters your air in creates poor air quality in your home. Babies are especially sensitive to the new world around them so you might be wondering how to improve air quality in your babies’ room and around your house.
Modern technology and energy efficient systems have benefited our society greatly, but they have also caused a decrease in the air quality of people around them. Our homes, offices, and bedrooms are compact which allows all the air to remain stagnant and the chemicals in the materials we use to fill the air. Some of the most common toxins you can find in your home are:
- Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs)
- Pesticides
- Mold and Other Fungal Toxins
- Phthalates and PVC (Polyvinyl Chloride)
- Dioxins
- Heavy Metals
- Polybrominated Diphenyl Ethers (PBDEs)
- Chloroform
Common air filters and purifiers are simply not enough anymore. People spend 90 percent of their time indoors, so the air we are breathing needs to be clean and purified. But how can we do that naturally and without spending large sums of money for bulky air purifiers that only clean a small portion of your home?
How to Improve Air Quality Naturally
There are several ways to help improve the air quality in your home naturally. You don’t have to use expensive machines that inevitably add to the problem to make sure the air in your home is clean for your family. Removing dust and dander is usually what most people consider to be the most important thing for cleaner air in their home, but the lower lying toxins mentioned can still hover around. Here are 6 ways you can naturally clean the air in your home.
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Use houseplants
A recent study done by NASA Clean Air found that houseplants are a natural way to clean the air in your home. However, you would need hundreds of houseplants to effectively improve air quality throughout your home. brēth is a new natural air-purification technology that cleans the air in your home naturally using just a few houseplants. This small but powerful plant system uses three brēth plants that activate an expedited photosynthesis process. This leaves you with the cleaning power of over 200 regular houseplants in just three brēth plants.
brēth is a miniature ecosystem that cleans the air around you quickly and efficiently. It targets harmful volatile organic compounds (VOCs) found in the items in you home like furniture, electronics, and even the paint on your walls. brēth captures these harmful chemicals like the VOCs and formaldehyde and delivers them straight to the plant roots of your brēth system. The plants then convert the toxins into organic compounds that nourish the plants and purify the air. This cycle continues day and night, improving the air quality in your home.
A recent study of brēth technology found that this small houseplant ecosystem was able to remove up to 70% of formaldehyde. It also cleans a 10×10 room up to 4 times per day, ensuring that the cycle of improving the air quality in your home continues.
2. Wash Out AC Filters
One easy way to clean the air in your home and prevent dust, mites, and other allergens to collect in your home is to wash out your AC filters. A simple rinse with an air dry every one to three months will help to keep allergens at bay. If you have allergies or are prone to sensitivities to dust or pollen, you should rinse or even change your filters every three weeks.
3. Air Out Your Home
There is something to be said about a stuffy house. Leaving your windows closed all the time doesn’t allow proper circulation and air flow. Once a week, open your windows and your doors and let the sun shine in! Letting fresh air circulate through your home as well as letting the sun come into the house will freshen the air, leaving your house smelling much cleaner and less stuffy.
4. Use Beeswax Candles
We all love a scented candle, especially since they can help remove those icky odors throughout our home. But normal scented candles contain harmful chemicals like petroleum and often emit benzene, toluene, and soot into the air. Pure beeswax candles ionise the air and neutralise toxic compounds and other contaminants. They remove common allergens and dust from the air, which is especially helpful for those with asthma or those that have sensitive lungs (like babies). Beeswax candles infused with essential oils can provide that scent that you may be missing.
5. Use an Essential Oil Diffuser
There are certain essential oils that help to purify the air in your home such as cinnamon, oregano, rosemary, thyme, grapefruit lemon, clove, and tea tree. These oils help to fight off bacteria, fungi, and viruses leaving your air cleaner and healthier for everyone in your home. They can be used in a diffuser, in home-made cleaning products, or even on your skin if diluted properly.
6. Beat Out Your Rugs
What happens when the dust settles? That’s right- it sits right in your rugs. Every 6 months or so, take them outside and take out your frustrations by giving those things a few good whacks. Beating out your rugs can get more dust out than traditional vacuums, and clearing them from all the dust particles trapped within the threads will help eliminate the dust and pollen that has been building up over time.
How to Improve Air Quality in Babies’ Rooms
New (or new again) parents have limited time and space. All of your baby’s new gear has taken over your house, and your time is filled with feeding, soothing, and catching up with your new life as parents. brēth allows for one less thing for parents to worry about when ensuring that they are keeping their baby safe and healthy by improving the air quality in their child’s room naturally.
brēth not only removes harmful toxins like VOCs and formaldehyde from your child’s room from the brand new furniture and gorgeously painted walls in his or her nursery, but it is also easy to maintain. Even the blackest of thumbs can keep these plants alive. The brēth plants only need watering every ten days and minimal trimming to keep them healthy and strong. The sensors in your system connect to the brēth app on your phone which will alert you when water levels are getting low- because as a new parent you probably don’t know what day it is much less if ten days have passed since you watered your plants. The app can also tell you how well the air is being purified.
The brēth system also blends in easily with your nursery and home decor. The soft light that gives light to the plants offers an aesthetic appeal and allows for a small night light for those nighttime feedings and sleepless nights. But no worries- the light can be turned off if you need it to, either manually or with a time. It also has 9 different plants to choose from so you can decide which combination goes with style.
brēth is a brand new system that is getting it’s start on Kickstarter now, but will be a game changer for improving air quality naturally in homes and offices. You can currently pre-order your brēth system for half off ($99) but don’t wait- the price will jump when the campaign ends.
To learn more about the brēth system and how to improve air quality in babies rooms (or your home or office) naturally, check them out at the links below:
Looking for some other nursery decor ideas? Check out How To Personalize a Nursery When You’re Renting
