My allergies have been acting up recently and I am not sure why. Got them to calm down a bit with some antihistamines. I would not consider myself to be chemical sensitive where any chemical causes my body harm, but my lungs and nose do prefer a clean environment.

As a child, I had allergic reactions to many things such as dust mites, mold, and dust, plus other common elements in the air of most houses. As I grew older (and more educated), I realized that I had sensitivities to VOCs and HAPs. Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) are solvents or other chemicals that are found in most components of the house and in cleaners and other household chemicals. Whenever I use Windex or or types of cleaners that have harsh chemicals in them, I sneeze.   Sometimes, this will trigger and allergic reaction that will cause my nose to be sensitive to other items like dust or perfume that usually do not bother me.

Sidenote: I have been studying the household cleaners even more over the past few years since we are a green builder and I have come to realize that they chemical may be making your home sicker!  Many of our greener client just use vinegar and water.  This solution may even kill more bacteria that antibacterial cleaners that you are using now!

While I have been using this as an excuse to not clean up since it makes me sick, I could not use this excuse yesterday for my wife’s birthday. It was her special day and I wanted to help her out so she would not have to work at all.

I went to Home Depot to get a new steam mop to do quick hygienic clean ups for our office and I came upon some microfiber rags in the cleaning section. The package stated that all I need was water and the rag would not leave any residue and the surface would be clean. Before I took the rags to the office for the quick clean ups, I tried them on our kitchen. For once, I could clean up the kitchen without sneezing! Plus the microfibers worked so well on the different surfaces, that we are now able to get rid of the chemicals since they clean better with just water.  They had special rags designed for glass, stainless steel, and general purpose that all exceeded my expectations when I used them.

In the past, I was accused of being allergic to work.  Now I have proof that I am just allergic to the harmful chemicals that so call help us clean!

Have you had a salesperson tell you that all of your problems will be solved with one little gadget? OR- specifically on your home- ads tells us the replacing windows will cut you energy bills in half. Or that upgrading your HVAC can do the same. A few years ago I decided to investigate and the math did not add up. How can one product be the solution? Is every house or building the same?

What made these claims even sillier to me is when I started getting more green certifications and learning different techniques to help solve the requests that we get from our clients. I truly did wish that I could find a special pill to solve my client’s problems, but over time still had to look at each issue as being unique and the solution would be custom for that specific problem.

Here is one example:
You see these air cleaner that we can buy on TV or off the shelf at the store to help clean your air. Sounds good to me. Deep down I wanted to believe that this is all I had to do to help my clients breath better. Fortunately, since I am an engineer at heart and I resort to the scientific method for solving problems and offering solutions.

The problem is excessive dust which affects your health and your indoor air quality. The solution could be as simple as stopping the source of the dust and/or installing a whole house air filtration system.

A couple of solutions (for free- we usually charge for our consulting):
Problem: In new homes- if you have recessed can lights that not air tight and have fiberglass or cellulose insulation in the attic, then you probably cannot dust enough to keep up!

DIY Solution:
In this order..

1. Call a contractor to do all of this or
2. Count the number of recesses lights and either order new airtight trims online or go to your local suppliers to get what you need.
3. Take out the light bulbs (if they are incandescent or halogen you can take this opportunity to replace them with CFLs and save on lighting costs!
4. Remove the old leaking trim and install the new airtight trim. I make this sound easy, however the first couple will take much longer to figure out. The rest should take 15 minutes or less if you do them consecutively.
5. Reinstall the old light bulb or new Energy Star light bulb
6. Not only are you reducing the amount of dust your energy bills should decrease as well since your air leakage should diminish with the new air tight trims.

Note: if you see large gaps around the drywall- caulk them while the trim is off. If you have the time it makes sense to caulk any small gaps that you see as well. All of this will help cut down on the dust and air leakage

Yes, I know that Winter just officially started so why I am talking about “Spring cleaning?”  We are spending much more time indoors right now and unfortunately it may not be in an environment that is that healthy.  As a Home Performance contractor we get to see quite a spectrum of sick houses out there.  Actually, since I am a bit more sensitive to the environments that I live in- most houses make me sick.  I have a bit congested tight now since I have been exposed to several sick environments within the last few days.

Since indoor air quality can be many times more polluted than the outdoor air we would like to give you a few tools to make a difference.  If you live in Atlanta, you are in luck.  There are more and more green cleaning services that are available for you to choose from.  One such company is A Peaceful Space.  We are fortunate enough to have them clean our office using non toxic cleaners.   Many of the chemicals that smell great, actually can do more harm than good because of the solvents that are in them.  These chemicals aka VOC’s should be avoided if possible.  There are cleaning agents that you can make yourself from non-toxic household items such as vinegar and baking soda.

Here are some green cleaning tips from A Peaceful Space: more…