Eco-Friendly Holiday Tips to Scent Your Home

Perfumes and traditional air fresheners are not only bad for the environment, they're also bad for you. They contain all kinds of chemicals that would never be found in nature. Many of these chemicals are carcinogens when used in larger quantities. Many of them are byproducts of other manufacturing processes.

By scenting your home with home made scents and eco-friendly scents, you take market share away from those big corporations. You improve the air quality in your own home and make the world a greener place.

So how do you scent your home in an eco-friendly way?

1. Use Essential Oils

Cedarwood Essential Oil (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Essential oils are probably the easiest and simplest way of making your own scents. Add a few drops of essential oils to water and you'll instantly have a very fragrant, very healthy mixture.

Then all you need is a fragrance disperser. These dispersers allow you to put whatever solution you want in them and it'll mist it out at set intervals. Add your mixture to the disperser and your home is scented!

What's more, this method is much more affordable than buying perfumes or cans of Febreeze. A tiny bottle of essential oil can last you for up to a year!

2. Make Soy Candles

Making your own soy candles can be an exhilarating adventure. Soy candles are a lot healthier than traditional candles. Traditional paraffin candles have up to 11 different carcinogen compounds. In California, these substances are actually considered toxins.

Soy candles on the other hand are much healthier. If you're making them yourself, you know exactly what's going in the candles. Your home and your family are safer.

To make your soy candles scented, just add a few drops of essential oils. You can very easily make your home smell like whatever you want.

3. Buy All-Natural Candles and Scents

Two good places to buy naturally made, chemical-free candles and scents are Etsy and Whole Foods.

Etsy is an artist-driven marketplace. A lot of candle makers make fantastic natural candles and sell them on this site.

You can also find natural, chemical-free scented candles at Whole Foods and other health and natural food stores. Make sure you read the labels for the ingredients before you buy. Don't buy anything with an ingredient that you don't recognize.

Cinnamon sticks. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

4. Boil Spices

You can also make scents without essential oils. For example, you can make a wonderful holiday potpourri scent by boiling 1 ounce of cinnamon sticks with a handful of cloves and a handful of spice mix. Throw in some orange peels and heat for 20 minutes. Simmer in just enough water that the spices don't burn, so the water absorbs as much fragrance as possible.

You can vary this technique however you want. Once the water is done simmering, pour it in a fragrance disperser. Simple and easy.

Scenting your home shouldn't put you and your family's health in danger. Use these techniques to create fresh and healthy fragrances that will make your home smell great for the holidays!

Safe & Eco-Friendly Ways to Improve Your Indoor Air Quality

Did you know that according to some surveys, most of us spend as much spend over 90% of our time indoors? And every moment of that time we're indoors, we're breathing. Whatever is in the air is going in and out of our bodies constantly.

Air quality is an important consideration for everyone; but it's especially crucial for the elderly, for children and for anyone with health conditions.

Fortunately, you can improve your home's air quality - And do it in an eco-friendly way. Here's how.

1. Turn Off Your Air Conditioner

Air conditioner (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Air conditioners are huge energy hogs. It's hard to be truly eco-friendly when you're running air conditioners. They can also be very detrimental to your health.

Mold, even invisible mold, often grows inside air conditioners. AC units give mold the perfect environment to grow in: It's dark, it's moist and it's cool.

When you turn your AC unit on, that mold gets blown into your home. It can cause allergic reactions as well as worsen asthma. Instead, open up the windows and let in the fresh air! It will do wonders for your health as well as your mood!

2. Buy Some Plants

Nature built us an incredible air cleaning system: Plants. They are one of the most incredible filtration systems in the world.

Other air filtration systems can only filter out particles that are a certain number of microns or larger. Plants can basically filter out anything. They even turn the carbon dioxide you breathe out into fresh oxygen.

Plants also look fantastic. They can really add a sense of nature and joy to any house.

(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

3. Work on Your Ventilation

Having good ventilation can go a long ways towards improving your home's air quality.

Install fans near windows and other sources of outside air. Open windows instead of using air conditioning. Install windows in rooms that might otherwise feel stuffy, such as the kitchen or the bathroom.

If heat loss is a concern, you can install air to air heat exchange systems that allow you to get fresh air while not losing heat.

4. Install an Air Filter

A high-efficiency particulate air filter (HEPA filter) is an extremely effective way of cleaning the air of any dust particles or allergens. It's a bit pricier than its cheaper counterpart, ionic filters, but does the job much better.

When buying air filters, make sure you do your research to see which devices are ozone-producing air filters. Ozone can be irritating to the lungs, but actually smells like fresh air. People often think their air is clean, when really it's not.

Make sure you change your filters on a regular basis, or else your air filter can end up spreading pollutants around instead of cleaning them out.

These are just a few eco-friendly ways you can keep your air clean and your home fresh.

Why You Need Fresh Air Daily

In today's technological world, most people spend a lot of time indoors every day - especially during the colder months. Kids spend at least six hours a day in school. Many adults spend at least eight hours inside of the buildings where they work. We spend all night in our homes: eating, playing, and sleeping. When do we take the time to enjoy the “great outdoors”? Fresh air is highly underrated - and highly important for your health. Getting out of doors on a regular basis can improve one’s health and sense of well-being.

The air that we breathe on the inside is not as fresh as we need it to be. Dust is a fact of every day life. It collects on every surface. As we try to get rid of it, the dust swirls around us and makes its way into our respiratory system via nose and mouth. In your homes, if you cook and occasionally burn a meal or two, those fumes get inhaled also. We need a break from the indoor air. Companies try to sell us products to clean our home or office air, but really there is just no substitute for fresh air.

Get fresh air even in winter! (Photo credit: tonynetone)

Fresh air cleans our lungs. Especially when it's cold outside, we may cough a bit at first as our lungs are getting rid of the impurities and toxins that we suck up on a weekly basis. But, after a while we’ll begin to breathe deeper and deeper which brings more oxygen to our cells, which helps them cleanse and detoxify. The increased oxygen also brings with it increased energy to do the things we need to do. More oxygen brings greater clarity to the brain, which needs twenty percent of our body’s oxygen to function. We can think better than we could before.

Exercises performed outdoors in fresh air offer increased aerobic benefits. More clean air in, helps improve our breathing technique. Better technique increases stamina. More oxygen to the muscles reduces that lactic acid build-up in the muscles which leads to cramping.

Fresh air cannot be found everywhere outdoors. In large cities where factories operate day and night, spewing smoke and particles into the air, fresh, clean air is at a premium. For these people, getting out of the city and into nature as often as possible will bring their bodies the detoxifying and energizing benefits of fresh air.

The Fresh Air Fund (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

A program called The Fresh Air Fund was started in 1877 by a non-profit organization. Their goal was to introduce disadvantaged children living in the inner cities to the “great outdoors”. The program was started in New York to benefit the city’s youth. A man, by the name of Reverend Parsons asked his parishioners to volunteer to host inner city youth for a time away in the country. They agreed and The Fresh Air Fund was born. The program still flourishes today, offering a choice of five camps in upstate New York for the city’s children to enjoy time away and learn about country life. Look for a program like this in your area if you live in a large city, and get your kids involved.

Fresh air produces a healthy mind and body, cleaner lungs, and a calmer constitution when we actively breathe it. Getting outdoors should not be a chore, but a privilege. Enjoy the earth and get your dose of fresh air today!