4 Tips to Maintain a Healthy Home for Your Family

Did you know that there’s a whole month dedicated to keeping your home healthy and safe? National Healthy Homes Month occurs every year in June to spread awareness and information about maintaining a healthy home. Here are some tips to keep you and your family healthy in your own home!

Keep Your House Clean

A clean home is a happy home. Freeing your home from dirt, grime, and clutter will create a peaceful environment and decrease the stress levels of all family members. Parents: don’t take on all the cleaning by yourselves! Make cleaning fun for the kids by adding in music, and some dance moves, you get the idea. However, a “clean” house doesn’t only mean a decluttered house. Living in a clean house can also mean that you use non-toxic products. Harsh chemicals can sneak up on you by contaminating your cleaning and personal care products. Unfortunately, products that are advertised as “non-toxic,” “toxin-free,” or “natural” are underregulated. It’s your job to educate yourself about toxic ingredients and look out for them in your household products.

Remove Contaminant-Infested Materials

Do you live in an older home built before 1980 with an outdated popcorn ceiling and chipped paint? If so, it might be time to get rid of the toxic materials that were probably used to build your home. As ready as you may be to take down that ugly popcorn ceiling, it is known to contain asbestos, toxic fibers that you don’t want to disrupt. Asbestos exposure can lead to more than one type of mesothelioma cancer. Symptoms may not show up for 10-50 years, which means taking preemptive measures to avoid potential illness down the line is a safe bet. This includes calling professionals to perform an abatement test. 

Another extremely dangerous toxin that may be lurking in your home is lead. This is one to look out for especially if you have young children. Ingesting lead can cause serious developmental delays and organ damage in children. Children can be poisoned by eating peeling paint chips or ingesting the paint dust that builds up in window sills or soil outside your house. If you don’t know if your home contains lead, hire a professional to test your paint and soil. In the meantime, it’s important to clean the areas that tend to collect dust and keep your children away from peeling paint chips.

 Improve Indoor Air Quality

What does improving your home’s air quality mean? This basically means that your home should have pure, filtered air without any pollutants; these can cause allergies, asthma, or other illnesses. Fortunately, consistent cleanings and toxin removal will help you out! If you tackle those, you’re two steps closer to clean air, but you’re not done just yet. 

Air purifiers, air handlers, and ventilation systems are all mechanisms that purify your air by expelling any pollutants floating around. Have you ever used a humidifier in your room to offset your home’s dry air? You can also get a whole-house humidifier that will prevent any mold or pollutant build-up throughout your entire home. Even simple HVAC maintenance, like a cleaning or filter change, can really improve your indoor air quality.

Eliminate Hazards for Small Children

It’s pretty normal for little kids to act out, get into trouble, or simply do things they aren’t supposed to do. We typically see children playing in their mom’s makeup drawer, reaching for a bobby pin to play with, or trying to put things in their mouths. We can chalk this up to their curious nature. However, what may seem harmless can actually turn into children accidentally shutting the makeup drawer on their fingers, sticking the bobby pin in an outlet it was next to, or choking on objects too small to teethe on. It’s essential to take the proper measures to prevent those situations. Childproofing your home works wonders to protect your children from injuries. You can lock doors and cabinets, install gates above stairs, and never leave small objects just lying around.

As summer sneaks up on us, so do allergies, busy schedules, and more playtime for young children. Prepare yourself for this upcoming season and beyond by taking the time to create a safe and healthy environment for you and your family.