Spring is in the air with green leaves and sunny days. It's officially time to say goodbye to winter blues and gear up for spring cleaning. Throughout the winter, the lack of airflow can make your home a host to mold, dust, and dander. Wiping off these health hazards should be the focus of your spring cleaning along with creating a sustainable healthy home.

Spring Cleaning Tips for a Healthy Home Environment

Simply cleaning your home does not necessarily make it healthy. Yes, it will remove dust and particles, but the stagnant indoor air can still trap floating pollutants and harmful chemical elements inside.

The key to a clean and healthy home environment is opting for green elements and creating connectivity to the nature outside. Follow these tips to freshen up your home this spring through direct and indirect natural methods...

Removing Dust and Dander

Your spring cleaning mission should kick off with removing two big "D"s — dust and dander. These particles trap themselves everywhere from carpets and rugs to upholstery and curtains. While you can use a vacuum to remove the dust caught in any large carpets, it's often recommended to wash your curtains and rugs if possible. Dusting and vacuuming at least once a week helps to avoid dirt settling in.

Clean or Change Air Filters

To ensure a flow of fresh air inside your home, keep an eye on the air filters in your heating, cooling and air purification systems. Springtime comes with high pollen counts and more dust in the air than the winter months. It is advised that you assess and potentially change your filters every 30 to 45 days during this season.

Use Natural Cleaning Supplies

Many of our household materials contain harmful volatile organic compounds (VOCs). Furnishings, craft supplies, paints, wood preservatives, dry-cleaned clothing, air fresheners, and many other things are sources of VOCs that cause adverse health effects.

Common household cleaning supplies can also have the same chemicals. So, when deep cleaning your home, it is beneficial to use less toxic cleaning products (or even make your own) in order to create a more long-lasting healthy home environment. Various combinations of white vinegar, lemon juice, baking soda, and water are effective in cleaning rust, water stains, grease, and dirty spots.

Opt For Natural Air Purification

It can be difficult to purge the home off of all toxic materials. So, the best way to remove the VOCs and other toxins from your home is to use natural air purification. While houseplants don’t clean the air through their leaves, as is traditionally thought, plants can be optimized to provide natural air purification through a process known as biofiltration. The Respira system leverages the natural purifying ability of plants by allowing the roots to come in direct contact with the contaminated air stream.

Spring cleaning should go beyond the basic washing and dusting of the home. With more eco-conscious planning, you can brighten your space with green elements, which are beneficial to both for design and our minds.