Indoor air quality is a major concern for everyone, and that’s particularly the case in this age of hotter summers and colder winters. Regardless of the season, it’s likely that you spend much of your time in your home with the windows closed and the climate control system on. On top of that, there’s a good chance that you work from home at least part of the time – so you spend more time than ever cooped up inside. If you find yourself sniffling or sneezing excessively at home – or you simply find that your house doesn’t smell quite as clean as it should – it means that you need to do something about the air quality.
If your home doesn’t smell like the inviting environment that you’d like it to be, this is the article for you. Over the last several years, the world’s top companies have been hard at work developing new technologies to improve indoor air quality. In addition to those new technologies, there are also some older technologies – some of which are surprisingly affordable – that you can implement right now to make your home smell cleaner almost immediately.
Are you ready to get rid of those pesky sniffles for good? Here’s how to make your home smell better fast.
Stop Smoking and Switch to Vaping
If you’re a smoker, there’s a pretty good chance that you’re sick of people telling you that you should quit. After all, you’ve probably already tried quitting – perhaps even more than once. If it was easy to quit smoking, there wouldn’t be any nicotine addicts left. Here’s the good news, though – across the world, nearly 100 million former smokers have managed to rid themselves of tobacco by switching to vaping. Modern devices like the Crystal Bar disposable vape make it easy because they’re ready to use right out of the package. With a disposable vape, all that you need to do is take the device out of the box and puff on it when you crave nicotine – that’s it.
Quitting smoking is the best thing that you can possibly do for your long-term health, but that’s not the only reason why you should quit – it’s also the best thing that you can do for the air quality in your home. There is no way to make a house smell clean if someone is actively smoking in it.
Give Your Home a Thorough Cleaning
If you’re not a smoker, giving your home a thorough cleaning is the best thing that you can do to improve the way it smells. You produce much more dust and debris throughout the day than you might realize, and doing something as simple as dusting the surfaces and vacuuming the floor every day can make a dramatic difference in the way your environment smells. If you’re the type of person who puts off vacuuming because digging the vacuum out of the closet and plugging it in feels like a major chore, you should consider buying a battery-powered vacuum. Today’s cordless vacuums last much longer and are significantly more powerful than they were in the past, and it’s important to remember that the best vacuum is the one you actually use.
At least once a month, make it a point to vacuum the hard-to-reach areas that you usually skip, such as behind the furniture. Otherwise, dust and debris will collect in those areas and hamper your cleaning efforts.
Buy an Air Purifier
If you’re concerned about the air quality in your home, an air purifier is one of the best things that you can possibly buy. An air purifier is a deceptively simple device, but it can make a dramatic difference in the way your home smells. An air purifier consists of a fan and a series of filter elements. Most commonly, there are three filters. A coarse filter prevents dust, crumbs and hair from entering the system. An activated charcoal filter absorbs odor-causing airborne molecules, and a HEPA filter traps fine particles such as pollen and pet dander to alleviate allergy symptoms. The fan forces dirty air to enter the filter, and clean air comes out the other side. It’s even possible to find air purifiers that connect directly to your home’s ventilation system.
Add Plants to Your Home
Home gardening has been a major trend over the past several years, clear evidence of the fact that people are more concerned about indoor air quality than ever. A landmark 1989 study conducted in part by NASA showed that in a controlled environment, plants can filter a measurable volume of volatile organic chemicals from the air. It’s possible that the microbes in potting soil also play a role in plants’ ability to purify the air.
Unfortunately, more recent studies have shown that the effect of plants on indoor air quality is minimal compared to simply allowing a cross breeze to exchange the air in your home with the air on the outside. However, you shouldn’t let that stop you from adding plants to your home because even a small reduction in harmful toxins will help you breathe more easily. Leafy plants like ferns are the best for indoor air cleaning.
Eliminate Musty Odors with Moisture Absorbers and Activated Charcoal
In every home, there are some areas that will continually acquire musty odors despite your best efforts. Those areas might include a basement or attic, inside your closets and under your sinks. There isn’t a great deal that you can do about this problem because no home is perfectly sealed. Moisture is bound to accumulate in some areas, and excess moisture leads to mold growth and unpleasant smells.
If you have difficulty controlling the moisture in your home, you should consider putting moisture absorbers and bags of activated charcoal in those areas. A moisture absorber is a large bag or canister filled with a desiccant material that reduces humidity in a small space by absorbing water from the surrounding air. When the bag or canister fills with water, you’ll replace the moisture absorber with a new one. Combined with activated charcoal – which absorbs and traps airborne odor-causing molecules – moisture absorbers can be very effective for eliminating musty smells in enclosed spaces.