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5 Ways to Improve Indoor Air Quality

air_quality

How To Improve Your Home’s Indoor Air Quality

Did you know that the air inside of your home may be more polluted than the air outside of your home? Yep, it’s true!  Things like allergens, skin cells, dander, dust and more all affect the quality of indoor air. It doesn’t matter if you’re the only one living in your home, or if you’re a family of eight with three dogs — pollutants will contaminate the air.  But no worries! We’re here to help. By the end of this blog you’ll be saying goodbye to air pollutants and hello to clean, fresh air. Ready the vacuum — here are our five tips for improving your home’s indoor air quality!

1. Clean the Floors

Improve your indoor air quality by deep cleaning your carpets and hardwood floors throughout the entire house. Bacteria and viruses can survive in uncleaned carpet for over four weeks. Not to mention the several pounds of soil, dust, allergens, skin cells, and pet dander that accumulate in and under carpet every year. Gross, right?  A good rule of thumb is to vacuum the carpet in your home at least once a week for every person in the home, including pets. If you’re the only one in your home, congratulations! You get to vacuum once a week. For those of us with big families, good luck.  The average American family consists of approximately four people, meaning the carpets would need to be vacuumed four times a week. Once you add pets into the mix, that number quickly increases. So keep the vacuum handy and prepare the chore chart — you’ve got some vacuuming to do! In addition to your weekly cleanings, your carpets should be professionally cleaned every 12 to 18 months. Sweep, vacuum and mop your hardwood floors as well to remove any remaining bacteria or residue. 

2. Balance Humidity Levels

Start by doing an initial assessment of your home. Is there condensation on the windows, or paint peeling off the walls? If so, your home’s humidity level may be too high. Alternatively, if your hair is constantly frizzy, or you’re getting shocked every time you touch a doorknob, your home’s humidity level may be too low.   If your home’s humidity level is high, use a dehumidifier to control moisture and maintain a healthy level of humidity. By keeping your home’s moisture in check, you’ll reduce allergens and pollutants in the air as well as prevent harmful mold growth. Also, keep an eye on basements and crawl spaces to make sure there’s no moisture build up with the potential to cause mold or fungal growth in those areas of your home. If your home’s humidity level is low, use a humidifier to add moisture into the air. In homes with wooden floors, a lack of humidity can cause boards to shrink and crack. While you don’t want your home to be humid, you do want to add moisture to the air for improved air quality.  Read our blog, How To Maintain Ideal Humidity Levels in Your Homefor more information to improve your home’s indoor air quality. 

3. Replace Vents & Filters

Clean all heating and air vents throughout the home and replace filters. Filters should be replaced once a month to allow your home to circulate fresh air through your heating and cooling system. Dirty vents and filters lead to polluted air getting pushed around the interior of your home. A clean air filter not only filters dust and allergens out of the air, but also prevents large particles from reaching your HVAC system. In fact, dirty filters are the leading cause of issues with HVAC systems. 

4. Add Indoor Plants

Consider adding plants to your indoor space to clear your home of pollutants and promote fresh air throughout your living spaces. Plants remove toxins like Trichloroethylene, Benzene, Formaldehyde, Xylene, Toluene and Ammonia from the air, as well as product oxygen.  There are plenty of plants that are known to clean the air, such as Spider Plants, Dracaenas, Peace Lilies, Boston Ferns, Bamboo and Aloe Vera.  Place plants in the common areas of your home, such as the living room or bedroom. Some houseplants are even known to help you sleep better!  As with any plant, be sure you’re giving it the care it needs. Some houseplants will need to be watered more regularly and may require more sunlight than others. Do your research to determine which indoor plants will work best for your home. And don’t forget to check them for pests!  Indoor plants work wonders for your office space, too. Learn more here

5. Improve Indoor Air Circulation

Make sure the air inside your home is properly circulating not only in your main living spaces, but also in your attic! Much of the air you breathe filters through your attic, which is why it’s important the air in your attic is properly vented and circulating well.  In your living room and bedrooms, open the windows and let the fresh air in! This can help to refresh your home and remove dust, allergens and other pollutants from the air.  By vacuuming regularly, replacing air filters, adding houseplants, balancing humidity levels and improving your indoor air circulation, you can work towards a happier, healthier home. Don’t take your home’s air quality for granted! Instead, be proactive to make your air cleaner for you, your friends and family (even the four-legged ones)! 

Here at Killingsworth, we know how important home maintenance is. Schedule a service with our expert team today!

5 Ways to Improve Indoor Air Quality

Bedbug inspection

How to Know if Your Hotel Has Bedbugs

Upon entering a hotel room, do you typically reach for the tiny toiletries, take a leap onto the bed, or perhaps start by inspecting for bed bugs? Knowing what to look for is essential. Anticimex Carolinas Service Manager Christian Tweed has shared valuable insights on identifying bed bugs in your hotel room and preventing them from hitching a ride back home with you. And if bed bugs do become an unexpected part of your vacation, remember that Clark’s Pest Control is here to assist!



Q&A with a Pest Professional


How do bed bugs get inside hotels?


Bed bugs are primarily hitchhiking insects as opposed to foraging ones, meaning that they get carried around on people’s clothes and belongings. Someone with an active infestation in their home can easily bring bed bugs to their hotel, but they can also be picked up during travel (airplanes, taxis, and rideshare services) and brought to a hotel room.


What do people misunderstand about bed bugs in hotels?


From a probability standpoint, all hotels will deal with bed bugs at some point in time. If you think about a bed bug’s method of travel, there’s literally nothing a hotel can do to stop them from being carried in. What I have realized is that luxury hotels are more likely to have an aggressive response to dealing with a bed bug case once it’s identified as they tend to have a higher quality of service and a reputation to protect. While this isn’t always the case, it has been my experience more often than not.

Got bedbugs? Call Clark’s at 866-781-4991 today!

What do you recommend travelers do when they get to their room to check for bed bugs?


Most hotel headboards hang directly on the wall. I start my inspection here before even looking at the bed itself. I have found bed bugs, their exoskeletons, and the telltale black stains they leave behind around the edges of or in the crevices of headboards. If the headboard looks clean, move on to looking over the pillowcases and comforter for any signs or stains. You can dig into the bedding as deep as you want here, but I encourage people to look over the top layer of things at the very least.


What are some lesser-known signs of bed bugs in your hotel room?


The specifics of the black stains they leave behind, which as gross as it sounds, are just digested blood as that’s all that bed bugs feed on. If the stains are on a hard surface, they will be small dots as if left behind by an ink pen and will smear into a brownish gray when moisture is applied. If they’re on fabric, they will usually bleed along the fibers making a small diamond, square or X shape.


If there are bed bugs in your hotel room, can they travel home with you?


They absolutely can, however this is easy to prevent. While staying in a hotel, keep as much of your clothing and luggage off the beds as possible. Storing suitcases in the bathroom might sound odd, but it’s an effective method of prevention.

Don’t tackle bedbugs yourself, call Clark’s at 866-781-4991!

What should you do with your suitcase if you suspect your hotel has bed bugs?


When arriving home from a trip, leave your luggage in the garage or on a porch and bring your clothes in one load of laundry at a time. If the clothes are dirty, wash them like you normally would, if they’re clean then run them through the dryer for at least forty-five minutes. Once your suitcase is empty, vacuum over it meticulously (don’t forget to empty the vacuum when you’re done), or if you’re in the right climate, expose it to heat for a few days by placing it in your vehicle (parked in the sun) or for a few weeks in your attic.


The Clark’s Solution


If you brought bed bugs back to you home, Clark’s is here to help. Our Bedbug Control service is designed to eliminate bedbugs and create a safe, comfortable environment.


A Clark’s Pest Professional will do an inspection and recommend a plan of attack to get rid of bed bugs now and prevent them from hatching in the future. Call Clark’s at 866-781-4991 today for more information.



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