The whole family has been enlisted to help. The youngest is in charge of wiping all the cobwebs off the floorboards. You have the older children giving the windows a good scrubbing, and your partner is assigned to hit all the hard-to-reach spots with a duster and vacuum hose. No room, piece of furniture or square inch of the house will be spared!
The idea behind spring cleaning is to make your home healthier. You're removing the dirt, dander and dust particles that have accumulated over the winter months, as well as organizing everything for a more efficient lifestyle. But it can be easy to forget that cleaning the air is just as important as the rest of the house. Indoor air is two to five times more polluted than outdoor air, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) reports. And did you know that many of the cleaning supplies that will make your floors, windows and furniture sparkle in the spring sunlight can actually pollute your indoor air?
Air quality is very important for homeowners. In fact, 34 percent of Americans are concerned about the air quality in their homes, according to a study by the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America (AAFA). Additionally, some moms have to worry about health issues like asthma and allergies within the family. Clean indoor air is very important for helping to prevent exposure to triggers like irritants and allergens for children and adults who suffer from these conditions. For those families without these health concerns, clean indoor air should still be a part of the campaign to help your family live as healthily as possible. The study found that more than half of Americans put a least a moderate effort into improving the quality of their indoor air.Yet many cleaning products are loaded with chemicals to help them sanitize or disinfect. These chemicals might be good for industrial cleaning, but unfortunately, they often aren't so great for indoor air quality at home.
AAFA reviews and certifies household cleaning products like vacuums and cleaning solutions that are more suitable for people with asthma and allergies, as well as anyone wanting to promote healthy and clean indoor air in their home. For families with a loved one suffering from asthma or allergies, this is very important because poor indoor air can trigger asthma attacks or allergy flair-ups. The asthma & allergy friendly(TM) Certification Mark is only awarded to cleaning products that meet AAFA's tough Certification Standards.
New products are consistently certified and added to www.aafa.org/certified. So as you plan your household spring-cleaning campaign, be sure to consider Certified asthma & allergy friendly products that will clean your house, and help keep your indoor air clean as well.