Would you believe that people in the United States spend close to $2 billion on air fresheners every year? That’s a lot of money to spend for the privilege of flooding the air in your home with synthetic chemicals of dubious quality and safety. Since commercial air fresheners aren’t produced for consumption, you don’t really have any way of knowing what’s actually in them – and since you don’t know what’s in them, you have no way to tell whether they’re safe for long-term use.
The worst thing about chemical air fresheners is that they don’t actually do anything about the unpleasant odors in your home. All they really do is cover odors temporarily by overwhelming your senses with even more powerful scents. That can’t be a healthy way to maintain the air quality in your home, and it’s also not a real solution for getting rid of unwanted odors.
Stop flooding your home with chemical air fresheners now and improve the air quality permanently by following these four steps.
Control the Things That Produce Foul Odors
Before you can begin improving your home’s air quality in a healthy and sustainable way, you need to do something about the things that produce unwanted odors. Here are a few tips that can help you deal with some of the most common causes of unpleasant smells around the house.
- Stop smoking. If you’re a smoker, quitting is the one thing you can do that will make the most dramatic difference in how your home smells. Go to a local store like Virginia Beach vape shop Vapor Chasers and buy some disposable vapes or a vape kit and a bottle of e-liquid. When you feel the urge to smoke, vape instead.
- Always clean pet messes promptly and thoroughly. After removing the mess, use peroxide or an enzyme-based spray to rid the area of organic particles that could encourage microbes to breed.
- Put moisture absorbers under sinks and in other areas that are likely to harbor mold.
- Keep your pets clean and groomed.
- Keep your garbage disposal and drains clean. Use enzyme drain cleaners periodically to dissolve food and grease particles.
Clean Your Home as Thoroughly as Possible
Once you’ve taken care of the biggest sources of unwanted odors, the next step is to clean your home from top to bottom as thoroughly as possible because no air freshener could possibly smell better than an environment that’s clean. Here are some of the most important areas that you should address when you give your home a deep cleaning.
- Giving your home a thorough vacuuming can always make a big difference in air quality because unpleasant odors tend to collect in piles of dust, crumbs and pet hair. Make a special effort to vacuum the places that you usually skip when you’re in a hurry, such as between cushions and behind furniture.
- Consider cleaning your walls and ceilings if you haven’t done so in a while. Even flat surfaces can harbor unwanted odors – especially if you’re a smoker.
- Rent a steam cleaner and use it to clean your carpets and furniture.
- Take down and wash your curtains and drapery. If you’re a former smoker and have just quit, consider replacing the curtains entirely. It’ll make a big difference in the way your home smells because fabrics are magnets for cigarette smoke.
- Replace the filter for your air conditioning system if you haven’t done so recently. Consider hiring a professional to clean your air conditioner’s coils and ducts.
Keep the Air Quality Under Control
Once you’ve removed sources of unpleasant odors from your home and done your best to remove dust and other debris, you should find that the air quality is much higher than it was before. All that you need to do from this point is maintain the air quality to the best of your ability.
- Open your home’s windows periodically to promote air circulation.
- Place bags of activated charcoal in places where the air is moist and stagnant. Activated charcoal works particularly well for controlling unwanted smells in closets, in bathrooms and under sinks.
- Buy some house plants. Since plants consume carbon dioxide and produce oxygen, they’re essentially natural air filters. Spider plants are particularly good for indoor air quality. They grow easily indoors, and they have large leaves that capture plenty of pollutants. It’s also fairly simple to grow more spider plants from clippings.
- Consider buying a high-quality air purifier to filter your home’s air. Air purifiers aren’t cheap, but they’re excellent for controlling unwanted odors and for reducing airborne allergens such as mold spores, pollen and pet dander. Don’t bother with inexpensive ionizers; they don’t work and may even harm indoor air quality. A good air filter should have a large activated charcoal stage for odor reduction and a HEPA filter stage for allergen reduction. In addition, an air filter will usually have a pre-filter that traps coarse dust to extend the life of the charcoal and HEPA filters.
Use Natural Products to Make Your Home Smell Nice
The best smelling home is a clean home, but you may still want to smell something other than plain air once in a while when you walk around your house. Even in this case, though, there’s still no need to use chemical air fresheners. Try scenting your home with natural products instead.
- Place a few drops of essential oil in an electric or candle-powered warmer. Essential oils are readily available online and in many stores that sell health foods and supplements.
- Buy some fresh flowers and put them in vases around your home. Flowers that are freshly cut will usually last at least a few days before they start to dry out and lose their scent.
- When fresh flowers aren’t available – or if you simply don’t want to spend a lot of money – try placing bundles of dried herbs around your home instead. Sage, for instance, has a fresh smell that’s very pleasing. Dried lavender flowers are also very effective for scenting your home naturally. They’re inexpensive and maintain their pleasant scent for a long time.
