Your home should always be your safe haven, but what if the air that you breathe inside your home puts your health at risk? Having excellent indoor air quality is a paramount aspect of being a homeowner, but a lot of people tend to overlook it. You’re compromising you and your family’s health with poor indoor air quality, and it might be too late before you realize it.
Fortunately, there are several ways on how you can improve your home’s indoor air quality. Case in point: adding indoor plants that can clean your air. Essentially, these plants work to purify harmful pollutants existing in the surroundings but what is it that really makes them great items for improving air quality?
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Reasons To Add Indoor Plants Into Your Home
Aside from addressing your indoor air quality problems, there are tons of other reasons why adding houseplants is certainly a good idea. Plants can make your house look more like home. Indoor plants have the following benefits:
- Contribute to solving low humidity issues by releasing water
- Purify up to 87% of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) or pollutants inside your home
- Help you breathe easier, thanks to the oxygen that they release
- Potentially help in increasing your focus
- Make you feel good by looking at nature
- Add aesthetic value to your home
Purchasing indoor plants for your own home is great but that’s not all. They make for great gifts as well. If you’re planning to gift these plants to your loved ones, you can find stores where you can easily select and send plants online. You can even have it delivered to the recipient’s place.
If you don’t have any idea of what kind of air-purifying plants to get, check out this list:
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Snake Plant (Dracaena trifasciata)
Toxins eliminated: Xylene, benzene, trichloroethylene, and formaldehyde
The snake plant, or Mother-in-Law’s tongue, is a succulent. It means it’s quite adaptable and will grow anywhere from 6 to 10 feet tall.
Along with eliminating the toxins listed above, the snake plant is excellent in absorbing high amounts of carbon monoxide. The snake plant likes places with sunlight or shady corners, which is ideal to be placed in your bedroom.
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English Ivy (Hedera helix)
Toxins eliminated: Benzene and formaldehyde
The English Ivy is a beautiful flowering plant that blooms in all parts of the world and is known to have various health benefits. Its leaves provide the plant with a protective covering against molds, spores, and other allergens present in your home.
Since its leaves are covered with a protective layer of silica, it helps filter air in the home by absorbing and filtering airborne particles and pollutants. Therefore, the English Ivy has the dual function of improving the air quality in your home, while also adding beauty to the surroundings.
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Chrysanthemum (Chrysanthemum morifolium)
Toxins eliminated: Xylene, benzene, formaldehyde, and ammonia
Chrysanthemum, or “mums”, are popular because they’re easy to grow and require low maintenance. It is often used in wedding ceremonies because of its beauty and history. The cherry blossom-looking leaves vary in color, and often ranges from deep pink to lilac. Its beauty is certainly a great plus on top of its air-cleaning abilities.
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Spider Plant
Toxins eliminated: Xylene and formaldehyde
If you have asthma, this would be the perfect plant for you. A spider plant can potentially remove almost all of the allergens and dust from your home within two days of planting it. Its leaves absorb allergen and dust, and are shown to absorb as much as 95% carbon dioxide. It will grow to about four inches in height when fully grown, and doesn’t require much maintenance.
A spider plant is a useful plant to have around but it might not be for everyone. There are some good reasons not to plant one around your home. First, it’s quite toxic. It also needs a lot of light to grow and many spaces around typical homes might not enough light to meet its needs.
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Aloe Vera (Aloe barbadensis miller)
Toxins eliminated: Benzene and formaldehyde
Aloe vera is a great houseplant for improving indoor air quality and ventilation. The plant helps to purify the air by increasing ventilation and humidity, and assists in the removal of airborne contaminants. This helps reduce indoor pollution and help prevent allergies, asthma, sinus infections, and other respiratory problems.
It turns out that aloe vera doesn’t only have benefits for the skin but also helps in purifying the air inside your home. The two common VOCs found in household air, benzene and formaldehyde, can leave adverse effects such as burning sensation in the eyes, coughing, nausea, and skin irritation. Fortunately, aloe vera can offer a hand in eliminating these toxins.
If your home contains significant levels of these VOCs, your aloe vera plant will develop brown spots. This makes it a good indicator of how much VOCs you’re exposed to. The more aloe vera plants you place in your home, the better.
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Weeping Fig (Ficus benjamina)
Toxins eliminated: Benzene, trichloroethylene, and formaldehyde
Lastly, the weeping fig or ficus, is a little tree houseplant native to southeast Asia. This plant is extremely popular in many indoor settings: homes, offices, malls, restaurants, and more. The weeping fig is one of the best plants in filtering out formaldehyde from the air.
It’s ideal to place your weeping fig near fairly bright areas of the home, and it can also grow well with some shade. It’s called ‘weeping fig’ because it can tell you whenever it’s sad or unhappy by shedding its leaves.
Weeping fig, particularly its milky sap, can be mildly toxic to pets and some people with allergies. It’s best to place this plant far from your pet’s reach.
Conclusion
Poor indoor air quality has been an issue in many households but not every homeowner recognizes this problem. Bringing plants into your home is a great way to combat pollutants lingering in the air. You can even build an indoor garden with these plants.
Take note of these plant names when shopping for your new indoor plants.
