Did you read my blog post last week about flame retardants and other good things in your furniture and in your bed?
There is a lot of bad chemistry in the things you buy and put in your house. It is in your furniture, your bed, in electronics, kitchen appliances and everything else. And all the chemistry continuously degasses and binds to the dust in your home.
That's why you should have a lot of respect for dust and it's not bad at all to have dust on your brain or to have a mild form of cleaning frenzy :-) Because if you make sure to clean regularly and thus remove the dust, then you've also removed/minimized your family's exposure to all kinds of boring chemicals: flame retardants, fluorine substances and mold shelf. In this blog post you will get 3 good advice to improve your indoor climate and thus reduce your family's predisposition to bad chemistry.
The first recommendation concerns vacuuming. And in fact, the recommendation is vacuuming at least once a week. As thoroughly as is now possible. If you are pregnant, I would put the man to the task, as it is quite important to minimize exposure to dust and chemicals during pregnancy. And remember to ventilate well after vacuuming.
I could easily vacuum once a week when I was on maternity leave with my children. Because I suffer from cleaning madness. However, the problem starts as soon as I start work again. Because spending a weekend day cleaning, it just doesn't fit in with the needs we have as a family. I just really want to be with the family when I finally have time off. So the solution here in the house was cleaning help. Our cleaning lady comes for a few hours once a week and makes sure to keep the dust down. It can really be recommended, but it is clear that it is a matter of priority, so you have to cut back on other things instead.
In addition, we have Ruth. Ruth is a robot vacuum cleaner that we switch on when we think it needs it. And so it does quite often with a mother with a cleaning frenzy and small children in the house. Ruth is really nice and completely reliable:-) She starts when we ask her to and tells herself when she is tired:-)
If you can say check for vacuuming once a week, then you are really doing well. The next recommendation is, however, for some, a little more challenging. Especially at this time of year. It is about ventilation. Because the dust flies around in the air as soon as it is stirred up and it is inhaled by us who are in it. In addition, we cook, sleep and bathe in our homes and this emits a lot of particles and lots of water – so venting is really a good idé. In fact, it is recommended to ventilate 3 times a day with drafts for approx. 5 minutes at a time. Try to incorporate it into your regular routines. At home, we air out when we get up, when we get home from work and before we go to bed. In this way, it has quickly become part of our everyday routines.
A final recommendation for a better indoor climate concerns degassing of furniture. It might sound a bit hysterical, but it really makes sense. As I said in my last blog post, most furniture is filled with flame retardants, fluorine substances and formaldehyde. All substances that disrupt our hormone levels and are suspected of being both cancer- and allergy-causing. And most of the substances degas the most at the beginning. Therefore, it makes really good sense to let your new sofa degas for a few weeks outside before you use it. If you have a garage, a covered terrace or something else, I would recommend that you use it for this purpose. Of course, preferably when the weather is right :-)
Finally, it obviously makes good sense to buy good furniture in pure natural materials: wood and untreated surfaces. If this is not possible, then prioritize buying used. Then the furniture is well degassed when you take it over.
If you want to know more about your indoor climate and what else you can do, see more at Tænk Kemi here.