Is Your Home Making You Sick? Home Improvements For a Healthier Living Space

It’s always been said that there’s no place like home, and that statement is pretty accurate, for the most part. But what if the very place you call home is the direct cause of some of the health issues you’ve been having? A lot of people don’t realize it but your home environment plays a major role in your overall health, physically and mentally. Everything from stress to respiratory issues, you could be having health issues and not even realize that the very place you call home, your safe haven, is the direct cause of it.

According to healthline.com, this decline in health is largely due to a health condition called Sick Building Syndrome. This health condition is caused by being in a building/home with poor indoor air quality. But there are actually a number of other ways that your home environment can have a negative impact on your health. It’s not always easy to tell when your home could potentially be the cause of some of your health issues but there are certain things you could have in your home to pay attention to that could potentially be doing more harm to your body than you realize. Take a look at some components of your home that could be unknowingly damaging your health and the home improvement solutions to remedy those issues.

Home Aspects That Could Be Making You Sick

Clutter in the Home

Having a cluttered home is a major contributor to feeling overwhelmed, anxious, and even depressed. Whether its piles of laundry, mail laying around, or toys scattered throughout the house, all of these things make your home look and feel cluttered, and the only way to combat clutter is making an effort to put things where they belong or simply getting rid of the clutter. Your home serves a  purpose and everything should have a place. If there are things in your home that don’t have a place to be stored, then you sometimes either have to build storage or create it some kind of way.

For example, your house keys. Instead of laying them on the kitchen table, install hooks on the wall for them. For your mail, you can buy a mail holder for little to nothing, and it can go with your home’s decor as well. Shelving is also a great way to eliminate clutter. To rid your home of clutter also is dependent on your own effort as well. Buy laundry baskets and put your dirty clothes in the basket instead of on the floor. Also, go through your things… There are probably things you have but don’t use that you can either sell or simply throw away. Here’s a guide to decluttering to help you in your efforts.

Water Spots on the Ceiling and Walls

If you notice water spots on your ceiling or walls, there’s a high chance that your home has a crack or leak somewhere and also is infested with mold, which has a major impact on your health. Mold can cause serious respiratory issues and even put you in the hospital. To ensure the safety of your home and family, you want to hire mold professionals to find the source of your mold and remove it. Depending on where the source of the mold is, it may also require you to hire roofing or foundation professionals to fix the crack or leak that caused the mold initially. This can be an expensive home improvement project to take on but your health is more important and will benefit greatly from it.

Air Conditioning (A/C)

Whether it’s the hot summer months or the cold winter months, the air flowing through your home could be making you sick. But how do you know? Well, you may notice that when you’re at home, you experience allergy-like symptoms, have breathing difficulties, or have headaches. But when you’re not at home, you feel perfectly fine. Those symptoms could mean it’s time to change the filter in your A/C unit but you have to check to know for sure. If your filter does need changing, do that and then see how your body responds then.

Also, running your A/C, in general, can cause stress and major anxiety, especially if you have expensive utility bills every month. One of the best ways to remedy this particular home stressor is to look into alternative electricity providers. This allows you to compare utility rates to find an affordable utility provider for you. This also allows you to pay a monthly flat rate for your electric bill.

Color Scheme

Did you know that colors have an effect on your mood? A lot of people don’t know that but it indeed does. The cool colors like blues and greens tend to have a calming effect on your mood, while the bolder bright colors can evoke feelings and emotions of anger, irritability, and anxiousness. That’s not saying you can’t decorate with those colors in your home, but to more so be aware and mindful of the effect of those colors and where you choose to place them in your home. For example, a bedroom with red walls may cause you to not sleep too well at night.