You’ve decorated and curated, arranged and rearranged, and your home is a pleasure to live in and to look at. But what about the factors you can’t see? Fresh, clean air is as important to making your home a haven as good design — and one doesn’t have to come at the expense of the other. These five air-quality-improving moves will enhance your environment without compromising on style.
1. Convert Your Fireplace
A fireplace is a statement-maker in any room, but if yours is wood-burning, those cozy flames are also emitting dangerous soot particles and increasing the concentration of carbon monoxide and other harmful contaminants in your home. Installing a natural-gas insert will significantly lower the amount of toxins you’re taking in — without compromising on the visual appeal and warmth of real flames.
Another option: Reduce those emissions to near-zero by going electric. No, the fire in an electric fireplace isn’t real, but the technology has improved dramatically, resulting in realistic-looking colors and movement patterns for the faux flames.
If you’re not ready to relinquish the ambience of a real wood fire, you can curb indoor air pollution somewhat by burning only thoroughly seasoned wood and making sure the fireplace is well ventilated and regularly cleaned, advises the American Lung Association.
2. Add an Air Purifier (or Two)
Here’s a shocking statistic: Indoor air quality is at least five times worse than the air outside — and it can be as much as 100 times worse, notes Good Housekeeping home improvement and outdoor director Dan DiClerico, citing EPA studies. The reason? Today’s homes are generally very tightly constructed and not very well ventilated, so when you breathe the air inside them, you may also be taking in contaminants from building materials, paint, carpets, household cleaners, even cooking fumes.
If the thought of that leaves you gasping, don’t worry, there is a solution: an air purifier. Dyson’s purifying heaters include three models that contain integrated sensors and work on a sophisticated algorithm to automatically sense, capture and trap pollutants. Plus, they circulate purified air, allowing you to heat or cool it.
The Dyson Purifier Hot+Cool Formaldehyde HP09 even detects and destroys formaldehyde, a harmful gas commonly found in homes that can come from paint and varnish, electronics, even air fresheners and dryer sheets. The HP09 contains Dyson’s most sophisticated filtration system and generates enough circulation power to suck even distant pollutants out of your air.
And not only do Dyson purifiers perform pollution-removal magic — they look good doing it. There are plenty of big, bulky air purifiers on the market, but Dyson’s models have a sleek, modern design. They’re also compact and lightweight, making them both unobtrusive and easy to reposition at will.
3. Use Your Fans … Exhaustively
Do you run your bathroom fan only until the mirror is defogged? You may be missing an easy way to boost your indoor air quality. Not only should you switch on the exhaust system before you get in the shower, you should leave it running for at least 15 to 20 minutes afterward to rid the air of the moisture that encourages mold and mildew, two common airborne allergens.
But if your exhaust fans have ugly grillwork and sound like a 747 lifting off, you’re due for an upgrade. More current models blend seamlessly into your decor — some are even near-invisibly incorporated into a light fixture — and have ultra-quiet motors.
4. Be Careful With Candles
The scented-candle craze shows no signs of flickering out. They’re everywhere, from mall kiosks to chichi boutiques, and are the ubiquitous all-purpose gift (or regift). While some research has shown that paraffin candles, which are derived from petroleum, emit a bunch of bad-for-you chemicals when lit, the candle industry strongly disputes this, and most experts believe the amount emitted isn’t enough to harm you — especially if you always take care to burn your beloved scent-bombs in a well-ventilated place.
But if you do prefer to avoid petroleum products, beeswax or soy-based candles are a cleaner alternative — and you no longer have to tolerate that this-looks-homemade-and-not-in-a-good-way appearance. Sophisticated shapes and colors, subtle natural scents and luxe packaging mean they’re still an ideal way to thank your dinner-party hostess or butter up your kids’ teachers.
5. Curb “Pet Pollution”
If you’re a pet parent, your furry friends’ presence is likely as much a part of your living space as a prized Oushak rug or your great-grandmother’s mahogany breakfront. But along with the cuteness, cuddling and slobbery kisses come a positively hairy amount of pollutants swirling through the air.
Since your fur babies are pretty much a permanent fixture, do what you can to reduce their potential to spread pollutants: Vacuum often, groom them outdoors, bathe them and wash their bedding frequently —as well as your own, if you’re letting them sleep with you. And invest in a top-notch air filter. The Dyson Purifier Hot+Cool Formaldehye HP09, Dyson Purifier Hot+Cool HP07 and Dyson Purifier Hot+Cool Gen1 HP10 all are equipped with activated carbon filters to remove gases and odors and HEPA filters that capture 99.97% of particles as small as 0.3 microns — we’re looking at you, pet dander.
