5 Easy Tips to Keep a Healthy Home

Host Lena Livinsky, shares her personal journey with concerning medical symptoms and how they led her to focus on maintaining a healthy home environment. 

Here are five easy tips she recommends to help keep your home healthy and safe, especially as the seasons change.

1. Airing Out Your Home

Indoor air quality can often be worse than outdoor air quality due to the accumulation of pollutants like volatile organic compounds (VOCs), dust, and mold. To improve air quality, it's essential to ventilate your home. Lina suggests opening windows for just 10 to 15 minutes a day to increase airflow and remove indoor toxins. For optimal results, open windows in different parts of the house to create a cross-breeze, allowing fresh air to circulate throughout.

2. Regular Dusting and Vacuuming

Dust contains allergens and pollutants that can affect your health, particularly for children with allergies or asthma. Regular dusting and vacuuming can significantly reduce exposure to dust mites, pet dander, and mold spores. Lina recommends using a vacuum with a HEPA filter and microfiber cloths for effective cleaning. While it may seem overwhelming, she emphasizes that vacuuming a room usually takes just a few minutes, making it manageable to do multiple times a week.

3. Using Healthy Home Cleaning Products

Many commercial cleaning products are marketed as "green" but may still contain harmful additives and fragrances. Lina advises opting for cleaner alternatives, such as Force of Nature, which uses vinegar and salt to create a natural cleaning solution. If budget constraints are a concern, simple ingredients like vinegar can serve as effective cleaning agents. Vinegar has antimicrobial properties and can be used to clean surfaces without the harmful fumes associated with bleach and other harsh chemicals.

4. Cleaning and Soaking Produce

Even organic fruits and vegetables can carry pesticide residues. To ensure your produce is clean, Lina recommends soaking it in a solution of water and vinegar. This method helps remove pesticides, dirt, and bacteria, making your food safer to consume. Research shows that vinegar can effectively reduce pathogens like E. coli and salmonella, providing an extra layer of safety for your family's meals.

5. Checking Ingredients in Food Products

With many children's diets consisting of over 70% processed foods, it's crucial to be mindful of what you're purchasing. Lina encourages parents to check ingredient labels and opt for organic products when possible to avoid harmful substances like glyphosate. If a product contains ingredients you don't recognize or can't find in your kitchen, it's best to avoid it. Educating yourself on reading labels and understanding what goes into your family's food can lead to healthier choices.

Conclusion

By implementing these five easy tips—airing out your home, regular cleaning, using safe products, soaking produce, and checking food ingredients—you can create a healthier living environment for you and your family. These practices not only help reduce allergens and toxins but also promote overall well-being. As Lina emphasizes, maintaining a healthy home doesn't have to be time-consuming or expensive; it just requires a little effort and awareness.

[00:03:08] Tips for a healthy home.

[00:05:16] Indoor air quality tips.

[00:07:34] Cold air benefits for health.

[00:12:00] Vinegar as a cleaning agent.

[00:15:55] Cleaning produce with vinegar.

[00:19:18] Importance of reading labels.

Send Lena a DM at https://

Disclaimer: This podcast is for informational purposes only and is not intended as medical advice. Always consult with a qualified healthcare provider before making significant dietary changes.

Transcript

Hey, welcome back! I'm so happy you're here listening in and tuning in to the Living Sky podcast. It's just me today, it's just Lina, because there's something really important that I wanted to talk about. I have been dealing with some weird medical symptoms, so things like Um, a little bit of like swallowing issues. And to me, that's a big red flag as a speech language pathologist, because I work with swallowing. Um, but there's many reasons behind that, that I'm still trying to figure out what's happening, but it's one of the symptoms. Um, some dizziness, some tongue tingling I've been feeling. Like my thyroid has been very active almost, like almost feeling it in my neck where I'm aware of it versus I never was before. So there's just little things that are happening, little or big things. Um, oh, I'm breaking out in hives and having allergic reactions. So I'm trying to get to the bottom of it. It's been kind of nerve wracking and I'm being really honest here, what I've been kind of going through, but I am intuitively, I know it's nothing major to worry about. But one of the things that I am suspecting is, um, having like a reaction to mold. So when we went to California a few weeks ago, last month, um, we stayed at an Airbnb, which had amazing ratings online. Um, it was like a guest favorite. It looked great. It was renovated, but when we got there, it was definitely not clean. And I could definitely feel the stuffiness and perhaps some dampness. So we were in that house for, um, for a week. And one night I woke up and I started like my head was spinning and I started feeling very dizzy. So I am suspecting maybe I was exposed to mold. It's giving me this really active reaction, but. I am getting tested to kind of figure out what's going on. I went to an allergist today and she said that a lot of these symptoms are actually like the swallowing and kind of the feeling of something being stuck in my throat. It's called a globus sensation. That could be due to reflux, silent reflux. That is pretty common actually. And she has been having a lot of people coming in with hives. Um, so it's interesting. She'll have like three to five patients a day actually. And she has said there's a patient next door with the same symptoms as me. So she thinks it's viral, like post infection kind of symptoms. Um, and that's so interesting. Are you experiencing these symptoms? Have you been feeling weird lately as well? Is there some kind of weird virus going on? I don't know. I don't know. Maybe. Um, It is pretty scary though, let me tell you, because these symptoms are not typical. Like, you know, when you start getting sick and you start to feel like, oh, something's wrong, like my back's bothering me, my throat, my head, um, you get stuffy, like it's nothing like that. So it definitely sends you into high alert. So one of the ways I've been dealing with this, um, I have been especially thinking that it could be mold related. You know, I have been trying to keep a very healthy home. So this is exactly what I came to talk to you about. I want to share five easy tips to keep a healthy home of what are some things you can do, um, in a very low tox or non-tox way, um, to help your environment be healthy so that you can really enjoy being in your home. Uh, because you know, the seasons are changing. If you're in a Northern hemisphere, you're going into fall in the Southern, Um, going into spring, coming out of winter. Um, so all these things taken into account, you know, there is a lot of allergens and a lot of things in our air, a lot of dust and mold as well, right? Mold is everywhere. It's impossible to escape. Um, but it's how we keep up with our home, um, that we can really make sure that we're keeping everything in check, um, and trying to keep us healthy of an environment for us as possible, especially having kids. Right. Because yeah, we can get sick, but it doesn't matter to us as much if we suffer. Right. I mean, it should, but at least for me, I care more if my son gets sick and I don't know if that's a healthy thing to do or not. Maybe I should be caring for myself more. Um, but I hate it when he gets sick. So this is why. I want to make sure that I do a lot of full cleaning. So I actually did that last week, last Friday. I worked morning to night, just cleaning my entire downstairs, um, area. Um, and I still have to do the upstairs, but. There are some things that are pretty easy to do though, that where they don't require as much cleaning and as much effort, because let's be serious, not all of us have time to do that all the time. Um, nor do we like to do that. I definitely don't. Um, I love the effects of it. I love an organized and clean home, but having it, you know, cleaning the cleaning process, it gets to me sometimes. Um, it can be therapeutic though. I have to say it's a love and hate relationship for me. But there's some easy things you can do. There are easy swaps to really help keep a healthy home. So one of the first things that I wanted to talk about is airing out the home. So indoor air quality can often be more polluted than actually the outdoor air quality, because there's a lot of buildup of pollutants like the VOCs, dust, and like I said before, mold. So studies actually show that proper ventilation can reduce airborne pollutants and they can improve air quality and lower the risk of respiratory issues. So what you want to do is kind of open as many windows as you can in your home. And it doesn't have to be the whole day. It could be 10 to 15 minutes a day just to increase the airflow and remove indoor toxins. And I do like to have like, a window open in one part of the house and then another in the other part of the house. So it can kind of have like this free flow, uh, area through the window. So it's not just open in one room versus, um, not the other, although that's helpful as well, but at least this way, the air, the air can really filter through the whole home. So that's really easy. And then another thing with that, with airing out the home is keeping um a really good filter on hand so i do have three air doctors right now at home so i keep one in our living area because that's where we spend most of our time and then also in our bedrooms and i do believe that makes a very big difference in terms of quality of air quality so like a HEPA approved filter that collects a lot of these um particles and the pollutants and the mold and the dust and it really really works because every time i go to clean the air doctor oh my gosh it's just filled with dust and dirt so i know it's working i feel better having it um in our home and it makes me feel just safer so it's an investment though so if you don't have that in your budget right now And there's also all our other filters you can look at you just want to make sure they're good quality But if you don't have it in your budget right now, that's totally fine. Just really work to air out the windows and what's really cool because even though sometimes it gets a um it gets cold outside and we kind of don't want to have that cold air in the house like i'm here to tell you cold air is actually really good for our mitochondrial health um so it is really good to get a little bit uncomfortable and get a little bit cold because we live in this like very temperature controlled world right now right because in the summer We go from being uncomfortable outside for a few minutes into like a ventilated car or AC in the home. And we're constantly controlling the temperature away from what it should be like outside, which is not very healthy. So open windows and letting that cold air in as the winter comes in or some hot air in. As the summer is in full bloom, this is totally fine. Of course, if it's raining, we don't want to open up our windows because we want to be conscious of not having anything be wet and not growing mold. But if it's not raining, if it's not snowing, just pop those windows open and air out your home. It's going to make such a big difference. Another thing that I wanted to talk about Is dusting and vacuuming as much as possible. And that's a little bit hard for me. I'm not going to lie. I'm not really good at keeping up with vacuuming the whole house. Like I usually I'm much better at the downstairs where we spend most of the day, but my goal is to get better at vacuuming the bedrooms upstairs. Um, because dust contains allergens and pollutants and chemicals, right. That come in, like we said, it's more toxic in the home versus outside. And those can affect our health, especially of our children. If your child has allergies or asthma, it's really important to have that under control. So regular dusting and vacuuming with a HEPA filters. can significantly reduce exposure to dust mites, pet dander, and mold spores. You can also use microfiber cloths for dusting and a vacuum with a HEPA filter to trap tiny particles that traditional vacuums might miss. Because if you think about it, sometimes vacuuming the home can feel like it's such a big undertaking, especially if you have a bigger home. But if you have it handy, it's so easy to do. Usually a room takes just a few minutes. So a task that might feel like it's very overwhelming, it's actually not that, not that bad. So I would definitely, I would definitely say if you can do it multiple times a week, it will be ideal kind of every day, a week for the amount of family members you have and pets count in my opinion. So for me, I have my son, I have my husband, I have my dog. So for us four times a week, which is sounds insane, but I think it's doable. If I can, especially after having all these symptoms, if I can really control not having as much dust and allergens and mold spores in my home, I'm going to go ahead and do that because that's really important. Another thing that I wanted to point out so that those were two ways you can keep a healthy home. The third way is using really healthy home cleaning products. So I know there's so many companies out there, which some of there are fantastic. Some of them are, I think are kind of greenwashed where it seems like they're healthy. Um, and I am going to call her, call out a brand. It's not to be hateful, but just to let you know, like brands like method and brands like, uh, Mrs. Myers, like they're, they look really healthy. They look like a great, um, thing to do and they're not terrible, but they have so much fragrance and so many additives that are just unnecessary and not very healthy. So you want to stay away from those. So what I use at home is actually force of nature. So this is where you have these capsules with vinegar and salt and you add them to this like electrolyte machine and you make this very, very good cleaner. Um, so that's what I use at home and I also use truly free. Which I love. I think that's such a good company. Companies you can look into, also BranchBase6 is really good. But looking into these for a swap, if you can afford it, that's amazing. If this is something that's really expensive, there's other ways you can actually clean your home in a healthy way without spending a ton of money. And that's by using things like vinegar. So vinegar is very effective. It's a natural cleaning agent because it has this ascetic acid content and studies show that it has antimicrobial properties, right? So it makes it really useful for cleaning surfaces and preventing bacteria and mold growth. So vinegar can be a safer alternative to harsh chemicals like bleach, which can really cause a lot of issues, um, in terms of your, in terms of respiratory irritation, especially in children. And it's really harsh on your skin. And it's just toxic. So I would definitely stay away from bleach. So you can actually use a solution of white vinegar and water to clean countertops, sinks, and even windows without harmful fumes. And that's cheap, right? You can get like a gallon of vinegar for a few bucks. Mix that with water. And I think there's different school of thoughts here. I think like one part of vinegar to three parts of water I've heard, or one to four parts of water. Because you don't need as much vinegar because it's so concentrated. So you definitely need a lot more water. So that can last you for months, for months. And you don't have to worry about buying the more expensive choices here. And vinegar, yes, it has a strong smell, but that subsides pretty quickly. So I would definitely go with vinegar if you want to look at swapping out some toxic cleaning products, because that's going to serve you really well in the long run. And what I also want to talk about, so that's number three. And then number four is. Actually cleaning and soaking your produce when you buy it. So your veggies your fruit Because even when we buy organic It still has pesticides on it. They might it might not be glyphosate. It might not be really the harsh ones But it still has pesticides on it organic product produce is not completely clean so We always want to be mindful of this when we're buying any types of veggies any type of fruit Anything from the garden, from the store. I mean, if it's coming from your garden, you don't have to be. And it's, of course, not sprayed. Of course, I don't think it's really beneficial to clean it very thoroughly. It's good to have some of those microbes, the good microbes from your garden in your plates. But I do think if you get it from the grocery store, even sometimes the farmer's market, if you don't know the farm, you want to look at their practices. How are they growing the vegetables and their fruits? You do want to soak and clean your products. So you can do that with a fruit and veggie wash if you want to, especially if it comes from a trusted source. I wouldn't want to put some other chemicals in my fruits. But another really easy way to do that, and we're going to go back to vinegar. Vinegar is amazing. So you can soak your fruits and vegetables in water. water and vinegar solution because that helps to remove pesticides, dirt and bacteria. And I actually like vinegar better than baking soda because with baking soda, I always have a little bit of an aftertaste and maybe I'm just not rinsing it enough after. Um, I'm not sure, but I would definitely say vinegar is a great way to go. I do prefer that to a baking soda, but that's totally your choice because baking soda also helps with the same. removing pesticides, dirt, and bacteria. So I would definitely choose one or the other. And that's another inexpensive way to clean and soak your products, right? Because sometimes we might not be able to buy everything organic, or maybe we can afford it. So this is another amazing way to clean. And also, like I said, organic will also have pesticides on it. So we want to clear, clean everything. Research actually shows that vinegar can reduce pathogens like E. coli and salmonella from produce. So not only is it cleaning pesticides, it's also cleaning bacteria, which is amazing. Um, so you can actually soak produce in a mixture of one part vinegar to three parts water for five to 10 minutes, and then rinse with clean water to reduce harmful residues. Um, and also hopefully, and I'm not going to touch on that too much today, but hopefully that water is filtered. Um, cause that's really important because there's also different pesticides in our water. Um, so we want to make sure we're using clean water to, to soak that produce after we have cleaned it. So that was number four. And then number five, and I talk about this a lot just because this is so important to me and I think it should be important to all of us, especially if we're feeding little kids, checking the ingredients in our products that we buy. So unfortunately, our kids diets consist on average of over 70% processed foods. That's a huge number. I mean, that's over 70% of their diets and I understand the convenience of it. I understand it's hard to go to a grocery store and not buy something that is heavily processed unless you are buying, um, whole foods. I get that. And I understand it as a busy parents. Um, it's really easy to reach for these ready-made product products. Um, but that's too much. That's just too much. But however, when we are reaching for these products, And I do as well. I do as well. My son loves crackers. He loves cookies and stuff like that. And I'm not always going to bake these things. Um, we always want to make sure that we check the ingredients on what we're buying. I always try to go for organic if I can, because I'm really wary of glyphosate. Unfortunately it's in, it's being sprayed outside. A ton over 80% of rain samples that were tested throughout the country came back positive for glyphosate. So it is in the air. It's everywhere. It's really scary, but at least with our diet, we can really try and prevent eating glyphosate or ingesting it in any way. So buying organic, it's one way you can actually make sure it doesn't have glyphosate in it. Right? So looking at those ingredients, making sure it's organic if you can and checking the ingredients list, right? You don't want to buy anything that has really processed foods and chemicals added to the food and emulsifiers and extra sugar, which is hiding under so many different names. Um, and so many different things we can look at to really, if essentially it's if the food has ingredients you don't know what they are if you don't know what they are if you don't have those in your kitchen i would suggest you don't buy that food. And I would definitely encourage you, if you don't understand the labels yet, if you do not know if a product is good for you or if it isn't, if it's not in your kitchen, perhaps don't buy it. And if you have questions, Google it. I mean, ask ChatGPT, like, are there any home fruit ingredients in this particular product? I love asking chat dpt questions. I think it's such an easy way to get answers to some things because essentially it's like your personal Google assistant. That's how I like to look at it. It just makes it easier because it gives you these like concise answers. And because we are feeding our kids and our families and making sure that we're eating nutritious food so we can provide for our families and be as good parents as we possibly can and just be healthy and happy. These things are important. These are so important. So I would definitely encourage you to educate yourself on how to read labels, looking for the added sugar. Um, we do not recommend having more than 25 grams of added sugar a day. Um, this is something that I think is really, really important in order to keep your metabolic health healthy, to keep your, um, blood sugar levels from spiking all these things. are so important for our health. And since our kids are in crisis right now, with so many of them having chronic disease, this is more important than ever to be very aware of what kind of foods we're eating, what kind of products we're using in our home, and just keeping up with the everyday chemicals and pathogens that are in our air, trying to keep our homes as healthy as possible. So again, the five easy tips to keep a healthy home is airing out your home with opening your windows, dusting and vacuuming as much as you possibly can, swapping your cleaning products for cleaner products, and perhaps vinegar-based products, making your own. Number four is cleaning and soaking your products with vinegar or baking soda before you consume them, even if they're organic. And then the fifth one is check the ingredients on the products that you buy. Whether it's processed foods that you're buying, whether it's cookies, you want to make sure it doesn't have too many ingredients. You want to make sure it doesn't have ingredients you're not familiar with. So all these things are really important to keep a healthy home. And I do believe they're pretty easy. They do not require a ton of money. They do not require a ton of time. Maybe the vacuuming and dusting, but then again, Like I said, it really doesn't take that much time. It's just about getting there and actually starting. So I hope these are helpful. Let me know if you're going to be implementing any of these in your home. If you have any questions, any suggestions for what you want me to talk about next, shoot me a DM at lina.levinsky on Instagram and leave me a review. Reviews do wonders for our show as we're growing and we're being introduced to more curious parents like you. Thank you so much for being here and I'm so excited to continue talking to you. I'll be back soon. Take care.