Mistakes That Make Your Home an Unhealthy Place to Live

Mistakes That Make Your Home an Unhealthy Place to Live

The following contribution is from another author.

Life itself is a risky business. Everywhere you turn there’s an opportunity to get hurt, sick, or worse. That being said, most of us consider our homes to be the safe haven away from all of this risk. In fact, when you think about all of the things that could cause you harm, your home is likely to be at the very bottom of the list. However, there are, unfortunately, a lot of things that you can do to make your supposed safe haven an unhealthy place to live. To keep yourself stress and sickness free, here are seven mistakes that you don’t want to make.

Wearing Your Shoes Indoors

The outside world is full of dirt, bacteria, and harmful toxins, which can easily be picked up on your shoes. If you wear your footwear around the house, you then heighten the risk of tracking in these pollutants, contributing to an unhealthy home. The simple remedy to this issue is removing your shoes as soon as you get through the door. Make sure that there’s a place specifically designated to store them so that they don’t clutter up the entryways to your house.

Decorating With Many Textiles

Carpeting, decorative pillows, blankets, rugs, and upholstered furniture can all look great in a home, creating a more comfortable and cozy space. Unfortunately, they’re also magnets for all sorts of bad stuff, particularly dust mites. These love to bury themselves deep inside your textiles, which can lower the air quality in your house. To prevent this, you should limit the number of textiles you have so that these dust mites don’t have anywhere to live.

Using The Wrong Fan

On a warm summer’s day, nothing feels better than the breeze of a fan. However, you’ll find this to be even truer if you own a bladeless kind. Many wonder how does a bladeless fan work, as such, stick to a conventional one instead. Unfortunately, if you do this, keeping yourself cool could negatively impact air quality. This is because the blades of traditional fans collect dust easily, which is then spread around the room. This, thankfully, doesn’t happen without blades.

Owning Too Many Houseplants

Houseplants look beautiful and are a natural way to improve air quality inside your house. That being said, if you own too many of them, it could cause even more problems. This is because mold thrives in wet and warm environments, making your plant soil the perfect habitat for it to grow. To lower this risk, you should stick to one large plant in each room or two to three smaller ones. Plants used to low-water environments, like cacti, are also less risky than other varieties.

Not Airing Out Bathrooms

For very obvious reason, your bathroom produces and retains a lot of moisture. This can cause mildew and mold growth if you leave it to linger. What’s even worse is that the mold spores that are created can travel through the air to other parts of your home, making the entire place less healthy. For this reason, you should make sure that you use your ventilation fan during and for at least thirty minutes after showering. If you don’t have a fan, you can open a window instead.

Using Dirty Shower Heads

The one purpose of showering is to get clean. Unfortunately, what many people don’t realize is just how many bacteria can be living in your shower head. As it’s exposed to lots of unfiltered water, layers upon layers of microbes can form inside nozzle holes. This means that, when you turn your shower on, the bacteria enter the air and can be inhaled, harming your lungs. With that in mind, make sure that you clean your shower head at least once every three months. Here’s a great guide for getting your shower head clean.

Letting Clutter Build Up

Disorganization and clutter can be a major source of stress, causing further mental and physical health issues. It is also the perfect place for dirt, dust, and allergens to hide. For this reason, you need to make it a priority to declutter and organize your home a few times each year. Start by getting rid of anything you no longer want or need, including old newspapers and magazines, broken toys, and useless trinkets. It can take a while, but you’ll instantly see the positive results.

Improving your overall health requires much more work than simply exercising and eating right. For the best results, you need to work on the environment you call home too. By avoiding the mistakes listed above, you can make your house a healthier place to live.

Author

Eric is the creator of At Home in the Future and has been a passionate fan of the future since he was seven. He's a web developer by trade, and serves as the Director of Communication and Technology for a large church in Nashville, TN (where he and his family are building a high tech home in the woods).

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