Do you sometimes find yourself walking into a room in your home and thinking, “Oh my, what is that stale, unpleasant odor?” Laundry rooms, basements, closets, pantries, bathrooms, attics and garages can often provoke a response like this, but any room can harbor stale air, mustiness or disagreeable odors. The common culprit is usually poor ventilation, so any areas in your home that don’t get a lot of circulation are typically the most likely to fall victim to a “bad air” day. (And, it may be a lot more than a single day. Bad air, which is often related to stagnation, can last weeks, months or even longer.)
Bad air, be gone
If you experience bad air, the first thing you should do is open the windows and let in fresh air. Open two windows, if possible, preferably one at each end of the room. This creates a natural draft known as cross-ventilation. In many cases, establishing adequate cross-ventilation may be all you need to solve your bad air problem.
Of course, the musty room may not provide you with a convenient way to create cross-ventilation. It may not even have a single window, much less two. The areas most commonly prone to bad air tend to be devoid of windows at all.
Fresh air, naturally
If no natural ventilation exists for a certain area, using air fresheners and air purifiers can make all the difference. But buyer beware: there are air fresheners on the market that contain a host of environmentally unfriendly ingredients, some of which may even lead to adverse health effects. The last thing anyone needs in their home is a product that supposedly cleans or refreshes the air you breathe, but in fact compromises your health. When it comes to the air you breathe, choose all natural, non-toxic, environmentally friendly products that can help you freshen up the air, while also supporting your health.
Let’s take a look at five options for cleaning up and refreshing the air in your living space:
Attitude Natural Air Purifier. This great product is made with activated carbon and essential oils. It can help to purify the air in your home by absorbing pollutants and eliminating many common odors. It comes with a variety of essential oils, including lavender-eucalyptus and passion fruit. These products are free of artificial ingredients and carcinogens, and they are also biodegradable.
Earth Friendly UniFresh Air Freshener. This is an effective, natural non-aerosol formula that’s made with citrus oils. It’s recommended that you spray this product liberally into the air in order to neutralize various unpleasant scents or odors that may be present in any room or small space, such as a camper van, car, kennel, laundry room, or closet.
Aura Cacia Electric Aromatherapy Air Freshener. Made with lavender, lime or bergamot, this product can help promote a peaceful, soothing scent, as well as enhance the air quality in any part of your living space. This is a small device that conveniently plugs right into a standard wall outlet and allows you to experience the sensation of a fresh essential oil scent wafting through your hallway or any room of your choice. It doesn’t work by overpowering strong odors, but rather by creating a more subtle shift in your olfactory environment.
Citrus Magic Solid Air Freshener. This may be the perfect choice if you need a strong air freshener to treat basements, closets, or rooms that have the lingering scent of smoke or mildew. While its natural citrus scent fills the air, this product absorbs odors with a unique formula that contains baking soda. It is capable of absorbing unpleasant odors in a 350-square-foot space for a period of as long as eight to ten weeks. You will probably want to use several of these units if you need to cover a larger space, and for best results place the units next to a circulating air source. There is also a version of this product designed specifically for treating pet areas, including litter boxes and pet beds.
Dr. Singha’s Feng Shui Spray. This handy product can be used to help detoxify and cleanse the air with a fragrant mist that contains tea tree oil, eucalyptus oil, camphor, witch hazel and water. The essential oils in this product are great for treating overwhelming and undesirable scents, and they also have some properties that can help with mold issues. It’s recommended that you use the spray carefully, as exposure to your mucous membranes or eyes can be very irritating.
