DETOX YOUR HOME: HOW TO MAKE YOUR HOME HEALTHY

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Our homes are full of chemicals and pollutants that put our health at risk. So if you want to make your home healthy, you should learn some simple ways to detox your home!

When we think about ways to improve our health, we normally think of ways to improve our nutrition. We also think about exercising, ways to get better sleep, and how to reduce stress.

However, there are many factors we need to take into consideration for us to be healthy.

This includes figuring out a way to eliminate all the pollutants that are in our living spaces.

Some serious studies have found that the air inside most homes is three to five times more toxic than the air outside. Yet, we spend the majority of our time inside.

And did you know that 80% of cancers are caused by environmental factors?

The thing is, we can take action on these environmental factors!

It’s been a topic that I’ve been passionate about for years now. I have researched many ways to detox our homes to make them healthier places to live in.

Here are 7 tips to detox your home, to make your home healthy!  

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Detox your home: How to make your home healthy

1 – Stay away from fragrances

So many products contain fragrances nowadays.

Air fresheners, household cleaners, skin care products, perfumes, candles…

And the list still goes on.

Products with fragrances are likely to contain dangerous chemicals that you shouldn’t use in your home or your body.

Companies often use this term because they aren’t compelled to disclose what ingredients are behind the word.

It may seem that it contains only one ingredient, but most of the time, it represents a mix of many substances.

Companies can use as many ingredients as they want when they use this word.

Fragrances have been known to put human health at risk.

They might cause contact dermatitis, skin rashes, or other serious allergic reactions like asthma or headaches.

And if you get an allergic reaction due to fragrance, it’s very hard for physicians to understand what ingredient you may be allergic to.

So, to detox your home and improve your health, stop using products that have fragrance in them, whether that’s air fresheners, makeup or skincare products.

Don’t forget to check the ingredients list when intending to purchase a product.

If you want your home to smell better, diffuse some essential oils in a diffuser instead of air fresheners, or start enjoying an odorless home.

2 – Fill your home with plants

Houseplants are popular home decor, but mostly, they are very efficient detoxifiers for your house. They have the power to make your home healthy to live in.

Plants are good air purifiers, meaning that they absorb gases through pores on the surface of their leaves.

They can absorb carbon dioxide, but also a long list of volatile organic compounds and other indoor air pollutants.

Many kinds of houseplants are air purifiers. For instance, you can look for spider plants, dracaenas, pothos, snake plants…

I love houseplants, they add some greenery to our homes and help clean the air which is very important for our health.

Many are easy to maintain, which is great if you’re someone who struggles to keep your plants alive.

3 – Use non-toxic cleaners 

Most conventional cleaners we find in stores are filled with chemicals that can harm our health.

Brands use marketing strategies to make us think that we need their products for our homes to be clean.

They are advertising how their products can clean tough stains, really dirty surfaces and that they will give our homes a fresh smell.

However, using chemical cleaners can be dangerous. They can contain endocrine disruptors, allergens, or skin and respiratory irritants.

The great thing is that it is easy to replace conventional cleaners with non-toxic ones.

You can buy natural, eco-friendly cleaning products with very few ingredients in them.

The brand Dr. Bronner’s makes multipurpose natural cleaners that are good for your health and the environment.

But, my favorite swap is to make homemade cleaning solutions. Chances are you already have all the necessary ingredients at home.

You can clean everything in your home with white vinegar and baking soda. These are very efficient cleaners, and they are 100% natural and non-toxic.

I regularly use lemon as well to help remove stubborn grease stains.

You can DIY multiple natural cleaners yourself, and they are easy to make.

Another great way to detox your home is to make your own DIY laundry detergent and switch to more sustainable alternatives to dryer sheets.

You can make any cleaning product that you may need, entirely with natural ingredients! 

Read more: The only 9 minimalist cleaning supplies you need

4 – Open your windows

This tip is really important to make your home healthy to live in!

To refresh and clean the air in your home, I highly recommend that you open your windows as often as possible.

We need to let our homes breathe and get rid of the numerous toxins that live in it. In the summer, I like to keep the windows open for the whole day and let the air circulate.

In the wintertime, it’s a bit more complicated to open windows when it’s cold outside. So, I suggest that you put a warm coat on and open your windows for 5 to 10 minutes.

It will help clean the air and get rid of pollutants that are in your home. Air quality is a key element if we want to stay healthy over the long term.

5 – Don’t use paraffin wax candles

In this blog post, I already mentioned that to detox our homes, we should stay away from products that contain fragrance.

This applies to scented candles of course. However, in this tip, I also want to warn you against paraffin-based candles.

The major part of candles you can buy at stores is made from paraffin wax.

The problem with paraffin is that it is a byproduct of petroleum, and the oil industry is harmful to the environment. But oil-based products can also be dangerous for your health.

When you burn them, many harmful and carcinogenic fumes are released into the air you breathe.

For instance, a common compound that is released is benzene, which can cause lung cancer. I advise you to stay away from those types of candles!

Don’t buy them again and try to look for other alternatives such as coconut wax or soy wax candles, which are eco-friendly and a lot healthier.

If you’re not vegan, you can also use beeswax candles.

The nice thing is that they are naturally aromatic, so no need to use fragrance in them, which is ideal.

Not using paraffin wax candles will highly improve air quality, so it’s a great way to detox your home.

Read more:

• 12 best non-toxic candles on Amazon to make our homes cozy
• 8 non-toxic candle brands to create a cozy atmosphere

6 – Get rid of dust on a regular basis

Dust can build up in our homes if we don’t clean it regularly.

Dust may seem to be harmless to most people, but the reality is that it can contain a variety of toxic compounds, including flame retardants.

Flame retardants are chemicals that are commonly found in furniture, textiles, and many other household items.

Exposure to flame retardants can cause major risks to our health, including the disruption of brain development as well as hormone systems.

So, the more dust you have in your home, the more you risk breathing highly toxic flame retardants.

Excessive dust can also give you allergies, asthma, and dermatitis. So, it is important to get rid of dust on floors and surfaces in our homes.

Doing it at least once or twice a week is a great way to detox our homes. This will help make your home healthy!

7 – Don’t store your food in plastic

Plastic containers can leach harmful chemicals into your food such as phthalates or BPA.

These are endocrine disruptors, so you don’t want any of those substances to enter your body. So, storing your food in plastic Tupperware can put your health at risk.

But more importantly, you shouldn’t reheat your food in plastic, because that is the best way to make plastic chemicals migrate into your food.

There are different options to swap your plastic containers such as glass or stainless steel containers.

You can put them in the dishwasher without risking ruining them, whereas putting the plastic ones in the dishwasher might change their shape.

This tip also applies to water bottles. Store your water in stainless steel or glass instead of plastic bottles. 

If you want to swap more plastic products, check my blog post about 15 easy zero-waste swaps for beginners.

Reducing your plastic consumption also tremendously helps the environment. So, it’s a win-win situation to make these swaps!

And mostly, it will help detox your home and reduce the number of chemicals that go into your body.

Read more:

• How to store food (in a sustainable way) to reduce food waste
• The best eco-friendly alternatives to Ziploc bags

Final thoughts on how to detox your home and make your home healthy

I hope you found this blog post about how to detox your home useful!

I think that it is important that we take better care of our health. This means that we need to take action on the different environmental factors that influence our overall health.

Eliminating toxic products from our homes is a great step toward living a healthier life.

You can make very easy swaps and change a few habits, but it will be worth it!

Actively trying to detox your home will help you reduce allergies and significantly improve air quality.

And it can have some environmental benefits as well!

If you liked this article, you might enjoy the following one as well: 8 eco-friendly, non-toxic shower curtains & liners for a sustainable bathroom.

What are you doing to make your home healthy? Do you have other ways to detox your home?

Let us know so that we can learn from each other!

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