Maintain Your Indoor Air Quality While Cleaning Your Home

Cleaning your home is something we all do. Some of us more than others, but it is a fact of life that our homes need cleaning. In general, cleaning and indoor air quality do not go together. The chemicals, scents and additives in many cleaning products are not conducive to good indoor air quality. Yes, your room might smell like lemons and flowers, but that typically comes with off gassing and other particulates being added to your air. There is hope however and we will take a look at what can be done to eliminate or at least lessen the negative effects of cleaning your home. Sorry, you will still need to clean, but let’s do it with less negative impact on your indoor air quality.

Use Natural Cleaners

There are a lot of cleaners on the market that claim to be natural. When we refer to natural cleaners, we are looking for ones that do not have dyes or perfumes added. That is generally where the “bad” stuff is located. There are three challenges to natural cleaners however. First, they are generally more and sometimes significantly more expensive than traditional cleaners. This can cause many people to move towards more traditional cleaners. Second, many just don’t clean or disinfect as well as traditional cleaners. Third, it is hard to determine which ones are actually natural. It seems like everyone says their products are all natural, yet when you look into it, you see a whole list of additives or you find out that what makes it a “green’ cleaner is they put it in a recycled bottle.

Ventilate While You Clean

One of the best strategies you can have no matter what type of cleaners you are using is to ventilate as you clean. Most homes will have at least one exhaust fan (bathroom exhaust fan or kitchen range hood). Utilizing an exhaust fan as you clean will help to remove the particulates being released into the air. Going room by room, here is how that would look:

Bathroom

Turn on the exhaust fan and leave it running for about 30 minutes after you are done cleaning. That will help to remove the initial release of chemicals during cleaning and any residuals after. If you don’t have an exhaust fan in the bathroom, open a window if the weather allows.

Kitchen

If your range hood vents to the outdoors, turn it on. As with the bathroom, this will remove the initial and residual release of chemicals. If you do not have a range hood that exhausts to the outside (many just recirculate the air back into the kitchen), open a window or door if possible. Something to keep in mind is the range hood can be very effective for removing particulates from cleaning the range, but also the floors, counters and other areas of the kitchen. We can sometimes think the range hood is only for the cooking surface, but it is also very effective for the other areas of the kitchen as well.

Laundry Room

This is a tougher one as many laundry rooms do not have ventilation fans in them. While we recommend that one be installed, we also understand that the costs and logistics of doing so, might be a deterrent. If an exhaust fan is not possible, opening a door or window if possible will help.

Other areas of the home

Many of us think, laundry room, bathroom and kitchen in terms of cleaning, but the rest of the home needs cleaning as well. That might be using a hardwood or tile cleaner on the floors, shampoo on the carpet, furniture polish and so forth. All of these can give off particulates. Opening a window or door if possible is a good first step, but have you considered the exhaust fans? Generally, these areas are in close proximity to an exhaust fan. Think about turning your range hood on when you are cleaning the living room right next to the kitchen. Turning the exhaust fan in the powder room on when you are cleaning the hallway. What about the exhaust fan in the master bathroom while you are cleaning the bedroom? The goal is to get the bad stuff out of the house and using exhaust fans is a very effective way to do so.

BONUS NOTE: Some will say to utilize a portable fan like a box fan while you are cleaning. While this would be effective to remove the particulates from the room, the issue is where are they going? If you are able to put the fan in the window and have it blow outside, that is very effective as you basically just created a very large exhaust fan. Even if you have the outside air coming in, you are at least diluting the particulates and making the air better to breath. The trouble comes when you are just pushing the particulates to other rooms of the home. Now instead of negatively affecting the indoor air quality of just one room, you are contaminating multiple rooms. Fans can be affective, just keep in mind where the air is moving and are you providing a way for the air to exit the dwelling.

The goal of this post is to get you thinking about what you can do (small or large) to better your indoor air quality while cleaning your home. Some of the items are very simple, some more involved. Ask yourself, what can you commit to do to make sure the air you are breathing is the best it can be. For more information about exhaust fans and range hoods, visit airkinglimited.com.