Your indoor air quality is pretty important; it’s the air you’re breathing every time you kick back and spend some time at home. If you’re sleeping, enjoying activities with family, working out, or cooking at home, you’re subjecting yourself to the quality of the air you have indoors. Improving your indoor air quality is important, and by doing so you could be saving yourself from experiencing some frustrating symptoms, or even contracting illnesses. Your indoor air quality has a lot to do with your duct and HVAC system, but that’s not all that goes into whether or not you’re introducing unwanted irritants into your home’s air.

A few ways that you can work to make your home’s indoor air quality even better are:

• Clean properly – When you dust with a feather duster, for instance, you’re simply taking dust off of one surface and pushing much of it into the air. While things may look cleaner, that dust is going to be inhaled or will settle, leaving you with poor air quality and a mess to simply be cleaned up later. Rather than reaching for the feather duster, use a rag you’ve dampened with warm water instead, and keep the dust from making its way into the air.
• Check your pets – Especially during the winter, your pets will spend quite a bit of time indoors. Their dander and fur can be swept up into the air quite easily, leading you to breathing in allergens and pollutants you may not even know are there. The best solution to this problem is to keep pets bathed regularly in order to keep their dander and shedding to a minimum.
• Plan your renovations – If you’re looking to renovate your home, plan the renovation for a time of year when windows can be opened and fresh air will be kept circulating. Dust of all sorts will be kicked up during these projects, and it may not have the proper outlet it needs if your windows are closed up during the winter.
• Keep the laundry going – Curtains, blankets, and upholstery can really attract and trap air pollutants, which then get thrown back into the air when the fabrics are moved. While it may not be the first thing on your mind, make sure to wash your home fabrics regularly to ensure they’re free from particles that will go into the air.

A home with poor indoor air quality will lead to family members with runny noses, scratchy throats, and even more frequent cases of cold or asthma attacks. By keeping your heating and cooling system clean, and being mindful to the allergens and pollutants that naturally attract around your home, you’ll be well on your way to the fresh clean air your home really wants!