Category Archives: Organization

When the calendar flips over to January, about 60% of us make New Year’s resolutions.

Some of the most common New Year’s resolutions are to get in shape, eat healthier, and learn a new skill. Right up there with them is the desire to organize your home.

The concept of home comfort has taken on a new level of importance in our lives over this past challenging year. Spending so much time indoors has made us rethink how we use our living spaces.

Many of us have become more mindful of how our homes look and function. Are they contributing to our quality of life or adding more stress to it?

Organize your home by fixing once space at a time

Almost every home has at least one area that needs some TLC. If your home has a few areas in need of some upgrades, don’t take on too much at once. That often leads to a less than satisfying outcome.

Pace yourself and have a smart plan you can stick to. When you set out to organize your home, commit to improving one space at a time. Then you won’t need to go back and tweak or improve your home upgrades, which isn’t productive.

Organization expert Christina Scalise once said that organization isn’t about perfection. Organization is about:

• better home efficiency
• reducing clutter and stress
• saving time and money
• improving your overall quality of life

How will you organize your home this new year?

Right now is a great time to upgrade and organize your home. Interest rates are low. You may qualify for a home renovation rebate or a work from home tax deduction as well. These can help offset some of your home remodelling costs.

And most importantly, you’ll boost your home comfort level by upgrading your organization systems and refreshing your décor.

But nothing happens without taking that first step.

So where will your efforts to organize your home this year start? Here are 20 areas in your house or condo that are worth upgrading.

Home office

The most popular home design trends of 2020 have been the addition of exercise spaces and home offices. The latter is one trend that will have staying power.

Even after the pandemic ends, remote work will remain the way many of us will earn our living. Forbes.com reports that homebuilders have seen more demand for residences with extra space that can be used as a home office.

Using a proper workspace is better than a makeshift setup of working or studying at the dining room table or on the couch. You can set it up in a part of the home that gives you more privacy.

Talk to us about personalizing your home workspace and designing it to accommodate your work needs. This will provide you with a more comfortable work environment that leads to better productivity.

Reach-in closet

Is keeping your closets organized a constant battle you can never win? If so, look at some solutions that will make it easier to maintain tidier reach-in closet spaces.

Our closet organizer systems will maximize your wardrobe storage space. We have customization options that range from simple to extravagant closet designs.

Do you need a tower of shelves and drawers in the closet’s centre? How about extra hanging rods? Are your closets in need of some sprucing up? Decorative touches like new baseboards, crown moulding, and stylish hardware will help in the latter area.

Just ask us and we’ll work our magic to create a reach-in closet space you’ll love.

Walk-in closet

You’ve been eyeing that spare room and hoping to eventually transform it into the dream walk-in closet you’ve always wanted. Make this the year you finally take action.

A traditional reach-in closet space can’t always meet your storage needs. A walk-in closet provides valuable extra storage space for all of your clothes. It eliminates the headaches that come with managing a large wardrobe collection.

Customize your walk-in with a variety of features for better functionality and stylish appeal. Create a private,  personalized space for getting dressed and more efficient wardrobe storage with:

• wall-to-wall cabinetry
• a makeup area with a vanity
• handy closet accessories like a jewellery drawer and pullout ironing board
• an island with extra storage space
• a full-length mirror

Entertainment centre

Our home entertainment rooms got a real workout in 2020 as hours upon hours of TV, movies, and streaming content were watched. Could your home’s main entertainment space be improved?

A small, simple TV stand with a few drawers or shelves may not be enough to meet your needs. A home entertainment setup must accommodate the wide array of audio and video equipment and accessories we use every day.

A built-in entertainment centre is the solution.

A custom home entertainment centre keeps all of your devices and cables organized. Physical media can also be stored on open shelves or hidden behind cabinet doors.

You can even add an electric fireplace to your entertainment centre! There are plenty of custom options available to create a home showpiece that becomes the focal point of your living room or home theatre.

Choosing a custom entertainment centre over a prefab furniture unit has many advantages. Find out why custom entertainment units are better than prefab units from big-box stores.

Study space

Kids were certainly impacted by the shift to remote learning in 2020. They’ll benefit from having a private, more comfortable area to study in with fewer distractions.

We can transform a spare room or even a small area of your house or condo into a productive home study space. If space is an issue, a study area could also be combined with a home office as part of a multi-purpose room design.

Find out more here about creating a learning-friendly study space in your home.

Sliding closet doors

Sliding closet doors have multiple types of applications. They can be used as sliding doors for a traditional reach-in closet. We can also install custom-built gables and sliding doors that add instant closet storage anywhere in your home.

Sliding closet doors are ideal for using as room dividers, too. This lets you partition off an area of your living space for more privacy when needed. With families quarantining together, interior designers have seen an increase in demand for sliding doors being used for this purpose.

Have your sliding doors custom-made so you have a large selection of design options to choose from. Organized Interiors has a wide range of custom options for door frames and glass, mirror, or melamine inserts.

Guest room with a Murphy wall bed

Another spare room idea worth considering is turning it into a useful guest room. Including a Murphy wall bed in the room’s design is a great idea, too.

A Murphy wall bed’s biggest benefit is that it takes up very little space. Until they’re needed, the bed stays folded up and out of the way. You can surround the bed within beautiful custom cabinetry that provides storage space for your guests’ linens and pillows.

Having a guest room always-at-the-ready is a wonderful thing to have, not just for unexpected overnight guests, but any time. Your guests will appreciate sleeping on a comfortable mattress that’s a lot friendlier to their backs than an air mattress or lumpy couch.

Wardrobe closet

Your main bedroom closet has gotten the makeover treatment and you’re still not satisfied with how much storage room is available for all of your clothes. What can you do?

Let a wardrobe closet be your clothes storage saviour! Custom wardrobes can be built to the size you need to fix the problems caused by an overstuffed bedroom closet.

Whether it’s for extra shoe storage, more hanging space, or extra accessories, wardrobes are ideal as a supplementary bedroom storage solution. They can be designed as a built-in or standalone furniture piece.

And if that shared closet space with your partner just isn’t working out, eliminate the frustration you’re both feeling by getting a wardrobe that one of you can use.

Laundry room

Laundry tasks can be a whole lot more miserable to tackle when the room you’re working in feels like a dungeon.

An increasingly popular way to organize your home and improve one of its hardest working rooms is to update the laundry room’s appearance and functionality.

There are numerous ways to upgrade your laundry room:

• max out the room’s storage with custom cabinetry
• update the décor of the room
• add more usable countertop space
• upgrade the room’s lighting
• add convenient helpers like laundry hampers and extra hanging accessories

Wine room

Is your wine collection in need of more storage space? Perhaps your wine collection has never had a proper home and is being stored on wine racks in your basement or living room.

The perfect solution is to turn your spare room into a walk-in wine cellar or a wine room that’s stylish enough to use as an entertainment space.

For smaller spaces or more modestly-sized wine collections, a reach-in wine closet is another option to keep your bottles organized and in ideal storage conditions.

Wet bar

With a little imagination, inspiration, and customization, you can set up a wet bar in almost any room in your home.

Custom bar cabinetry is a great way to keep your liquor organized. It also adds an aesthetically pleasing touch of class to any room.

Entertain in style with one of our custom-designed cabinetry units, island-style bars, or mini-bars.

Linen closet

The linen closet doesn’t get a lot of home improvement attention. It’s often overlooked because it’s a utilitarian storage space that’s typically small and has a fairly straightforward layout.

That’s exactly why you should think about a linen closet makeover, however. There’s plenty of room for improvement in most reach-in linen closets, which do their fair share in helping to organize your home.

You can have the closet redesigned to freshen up its appearance, maximize its storage space, and keep up with the daily use it gets storing the many linens in your home.

Discover more linen closet ideas here.

Built-in bedroom cabinetry

For a stylish solution to a good night’s sleep, look no further than built-in bedroom cabinetry that is custom-designed for your space, creating a seamless blend with your bedroom’s decor.

Our bedroom cabinetry combines your bed with surrounding built-in storage below, above, and around your sleeping space in a smartly designed integrated furniture piece.

Makeup table

With makeup application being such a staple of the daily routine for so many women, it makes a lot of sense to have a makeup table in order to streamline the process.

A posh makeup area where your beauty routine occurs almost every day is certainly practical, as it helps you to stay organized. It’s also nice to have a personalized space to complete your beauty ritual more comfortably.

Learn more here about why a bespoke makeup table could make a great addition to your walk-in closet, dressing room, master bedroom, or bathroom.

Mudroom

Mudrooms are rather under-appreciated, but they’re quite valuable when it comes to helping organize your home.

The National Association of Realtors believes that the mudroom may even become known as the “disinfection room” in an era of a pandemic. As they wrote in a recent blog post, “The mudroom is gaining prominence as a spot to sanitize before heading further inside.”

A mudroom can come in variety of forms. It might be a small room near an entrance or combined with your laundry room. Even a dedicated space in the hall of your home’s entryway can be considered a mudroom.

Organized Interiors can help keep this transitional space in your home more orderly. We can design a mudroom that creates a proper home for all of your shoes, umbrellas, jackets, and other outwear using hooks, custom cabinetry, shoe racks, and other solutions.

Basement

Basements provide ample room for home storage, but they’re rarely given much consideration to keep the things you’re storing organized and easy to find.

Adding better storage systems like custom cabinetry to maintain order and to eliminate visual clutter will help make the basement look more presentable.

An unfinished basement leaves a lot to be desired in the looks department. Make the space cozier by:

• finishing the walls and ceiling and upgrading the basement’s insulation
• adding a raised “floating floor” that is more comfortable (temperature-wise) to walk on
• replacing old carpeting with new carpeting, carpet tiles, or interlocking floor tiles
• reducing the chill in the basement with an energy-efficient electric fireplace

Library/reading room

If you’re an avid reader and have a large book collection, dedicating a spare room or smaller part of a room for storing books on custom cabinetry shelves keeps things looking tidy and easier to organize.

Make a few more practical additions to the room by complementing your books stored within stylish furniture with some of these ideas:

• a comfortable accent chair
• a high-quality reading light
• an ottoman
• a side table for beverages

Now you have the ideal personalized space where you can indulge your passion for reading in privacy and blissful comfort!

Craft room

2020 was the perfect year to learn a new hobby. 2021 can be the year you dedicate more time to a new creative pursuit or one of the hobbies you’ve been enjoying for years in the comfort of your own craft room.

A craft room is another great way to use a spare room more effectively. If you or anyone in your family is the creative type, a craft room provides you with a space that is dedicated to your creative passions. You can use it as a room for:

• sewing
• scrapbooking
• playing music
• drawing or painting

Closet accessories and decorative hardware

To get even more out of your closet spaces, take advantage of the many helpful closet accessories Organized Interiors carries.

Accessories like extra hanging rods, valet rods, pullout shoe racks, and racks for ties, scarves, and belts elevate a closet space’s functionality to the next level.

Decorative hardware that accentuates the custom cabinetry and complements your décor is also an important consideration when having your storage systems designed.

The garage

Plans to organize your home in 2021 might include getting your garage in order. If your garage clutter has left your vehicles parked in the driveway every day, talk to Garage Living.

They specialize in transforming disorganized, visually unappealing garages into highly efficient storage spaces that look as stunning as a luxury car showroom.

Let us help you organize your home this year

It can be difficult to decide where to start with your New Year’s home organization project.

For some homeowners, it may also be a bit overwhelming trying to decide what storage solutions and design changes are most practical for their living space.

Rely on a pro like Organized Interiors to help you organize your home this new year. Our storage solutions and expertise are abundant and available!

Get 2021 started off on the right foot and schedule a free design consultation with us today.

Please share this post if you found it useful.

See also:

• 35 Surprising Home Organization Statistics That’ll Inspire You to Tidy Up
• 7 Signs It’s Time to Ask for Help With Your Home Disorganization Problems
• Murphy Bed Ideas: A Classic That Never Goes out of Style

Some things in January are as predictable as clockwork.

New Year’s resolutions. Regret over how much we consumed during the holiday season. Packing up the holiday decorations. And storage container sales at seemingly every store around.

Being inundated with reminders that we need to buy more plastic storage containers, bins, tubs, totes, or whatever you call them (and at a deep discount!) is admittedly smart marketing by retailers.

Many of us are feeling that urge to get our homes organized to start the new year off on a positive and productive note. And picking up some more storage containers probably seems like a practical way to help us do that.

But are storage containers really helping you get organized or are they actually (and ironically) adding to your household clutter?

Here’s why you should think twice before buying from any more storage container sales.

Buying from storage container sales won’t help reduce clutter

Merriam Webster defines clutter as “to fill or cover with scattered or disordered things that impede movement or reduce effectiveness” and “a crowded or confused mass or collection”.

Merely moving loose, scattered things on your floors or in your closets into storage bins doesn’t subtract from that confused mass or collection, however.

An average-sized storage container holds approximately 50-60 L. Its length is about 16″ wide and 24″ deep. That means the container alone takes up about 2.7 square feet of space.

Even if that container is filled to capacity with other clutter, the overall footprint of the amount of “stuff” in your home logically increases with each new storage container that’s added.

Storage containers really just give you the illusion of being organized. You think you’re managing your clutter by providing a mini storage space for it.

In some cases, there’s a certain level of practicality and organization involved when using them. A couple of examples would be when containers are used for storing out-of-season clothing or a bunch of toys that your kids regularly play with.

But more often than not, they’re used to quickly stash unsightly clutter in order to make a home more presentable for visitors or to store odds and ends we just can’t find the time to properly go through and declutter.

Storage containers don’t encourage you to declutter

Even Marie Kondo had to learn that storing more things than she really needed in an organized manner didn’t lead to fulfilment with her living space. As the organizing guru wrote in her 2012 bestseller The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up, “Why does my room still feel cluttered when I’ve worked so hard to organize and store things away?”

While researching this blog post, I came across a thread on Reddit (the world’s biggest online forum platform). Someone was asking whether or not it might be a good idea to start a business renting out plastic storage containers to people who were moving.

One of the responses perfectly summed up why storage containers don’t solve clutter issues: “I like the plastic boxes especially for long term storage. About half my belongings are boxed up and they have been for years.”

While this is just one person’s viewpoint, it undoubtedly reflects how many of us are fooled into thinking that storage bins help keep our homes organized. We would ask the person quoted above “Why do half the things you own have so little use to you that they can be stored away in containers for years on end?”

Using storage containers doesn’t encourage you to declutter. Instead, they facilitate an out of sight, out of mind mentality for a lot of things you’d be better off just getting rid of.

You’ll eventually need to deal with the root cause of your clutter

It’s not a stretch to say that in most circumstances, storage containers are essentially a clutter enabler.

As an example, take that tote or cardboard box filled with miscellaneous cables, wires, remote controls, and old computer peripherals that virtually every home has (and a lot of homes probably have more than one of them).

There’s probably several rolls of previously used phone line and coaxial cable alone sitting there that you’ll never use again. The same goes for that VCR remote, pre-2K wired mouse, and USB 1.0 and 2.0 hardware and cables that would be torturously slow to use today.

More common items we needlessly keep in storage containers include:

• old toys
• outgrown kids clothing
• sports equipment that’s no longer used
• linen sets with missing pieces
• clothing we hope to fit into one day
• odds and ends like a glove without a partner or a pair of broken heels you never got around to repairing
• things that hold sentimental value but are never (or rarely) looked at

Why do we hold onto most of this stuff? We suspect that the fact they’re all hidden away and have a “home” in a storage container (even if that isn’t a true home) isn’t helping matters.

Eventually, you’ll need to deal with the root cause of your clutter and start purging the excess items you never use and probably never will. Any thorough decluttering project involves some tough decisions with those items you’re on the fence about keeping, but that’s part of the process.

Clutter is known to be a contributor to higher stress levels, so eliminating as much of it as possible from your home will only benefit you. That includes another quality of life improvement like freeing up space in the home to do something more productive with a room.

This could include adding a new furniture piece or some plants to a room, or simply leaving a decluttered area empty to create a more open space.

Storage containers have their uses. Just don’t over-rely on them.

Don’t get us wrong – we’re not saying that storage containers have no place in the home whatsoever.

Compared to using cardboard boxes for storage, plastic totes are more stable when stacked, don’t require tape and have lids, provide an airtight seal for their contents, and are much more durable.

Fabric storage baskets or handwoven baskets are pricier, but provide a homier, more stylish look of your storage containers compared to the dull, utilitarian look of standard plastic containers.

Storage containers are ideal for the long-term storage of things you absolutely can’t part with, such as physical photos, treasured family mementoes, and important documents.

They’re also practical for storing things that aren’t used every day, week, or even month, but are used at least yearly – holiday decorations are a good example.

Seasonal clothing is also commonly kept in storage containers, which makes a lot of sense. Keep in mind that the long-term storage of clothing and linens (for years at a time) in sealed plastic containers isn’t recommended, as the fabrics need to breathe a little.

While storage containers can be useful, it’s important not to over-rely on them for too many of your storage needs.

Because it’s so easy to just toss something into a spare tote and plan to give it a proper home later, you want to avoid having too many storage bins that have essentially become junk drawers filled with odds and ends that won’t be easy to find when (or if) they’re ever needed.

Consider the environmental impact of buying more plastic

Another reason to reconsider buying more plastic storage products for your home is the environmental impact they have.

On top of the carbon footprint from the container’s manufacturing process, unrecycled plastic takes an eternity to break down naturally (it can take hundreds of years or more).

It’s estimated only 10-20% of the world’s plastic gets recycled. Plastic storage containers can be tricky to recycle because they’re usually too big to fit in a recycling bin. Some municipalities accept large plastic products for recycling at a depot (not unlike where you would drop off old electronics), but that’s not a guarantee wherever you live.

And unfortunately, that extra little bit of effort required to dispose of bigger plastic products only increases the likelihood they’ll just get put out with the regular garbage for pickup.

Another recycling problem is that older plastic products may be made from materials that make them impossible to recycle.

If you do need to buy plastic storage containers, be sure to buy products made from recycled plastic.

What about your unused storage containers?

After successfully eliminating some of your home’s clutter, you may have a bunch of now-empty storage containers left over.

Sure, it makes sense to hold onto a few empty containers that will come in handy down the road, but don’t keep more than you need.

Because empty storage containers conveniently nest inside one another, it can be tempting to keep a few stacks of them around because they don’t seem to be taking up much space when stored that way. Once again, only retain what you think you’ll actually use.

Remember, those stacks are still taking up space, will need to be vacuumed around (or moved when you vacuum), and are going to collect dust that you’ll have to eventually clean.

Try recycling them as recommended or try to donate them to a local charity.

Try renting storage bins when you move

One undeniable benefit of plastic storage bins is their sturdiness, which makes them ideal for using when you move.

Before stocking up during one of the storage container sales you come across for a future move, check to see if the moving company you’re using or a local business has storage containers for rent.

Cardboard boxes remain the most cost-effective and practical way to move your belongings. They’re easy to recycle, cheap (free in some cases if your local grocery store makes them available to their customers), and can be flattened to take up less space when not in use.

Corrugated plastic boxes are a little less common and still contain plastic, but they’re more rugged than cardboard and are a slightly more eco-friendly option than plastic containers.

Get rid of some of those old food storage containers, too

Those storage container sales going on during January might also find you contemplating picking up some new plastic food storage containers. 

We’ve always wondered – do food storage containers multiply in our pantries? Because it seems like we have way more of these things than we actually need or will ever use.

The main reasons food storage containers accumulate to the point where we have too many is because:

• we’re unsure if the plastic is recyclable
• friends and family send you home from a dinner with leftovers in containers that don’t get returned
• attractive sales that seem too good to pass up lure you into buying more of them
• we hold onto higher quality plastic take-out containers that seem wasteful to throw out

Like larger storage containers, containers for storing your food are obviously perfect for sending leftovers home with a dinner guest, taking leftovers to school or work, or just storing your own leftovers in.

We’re just saying that you don’t need a hundred of them stored in your pantry.

Even with something as unremarkable as food storage containers, a by-product of having too much of anything is the guarantee that it will be more difficult to make a decision on choosing a container when the time comes. It’s something that goes by a few different names including overchoice, choice overload, choice paralysis, analysis paralysis, and the paradox of choice. 

Before buying from any more food storage container sales, take stock of how many containers you currently have. Decluttering your pantry will free up valuable storage space and save you from wasting time looking for that one particular container and lid hiding amongst everything else.

Can’t mind a matching lid or the container for a lid? Has a container started to disintegrate from one too many trips to the microwave? Away they go.

Getting rid of storage containers that have started to break down is recommended because chemicals from the plastic can leech into your reheated food. Even if a container and lid is still in good shape, but just really old (we’re talking 70s Tupperware old), it may not be as safe to use as you might think. Ceramic and Pyrex food storage containers are always a safer storage option for food than plastic.

Skip the storage container sales. Use real organization solutions.

Avoid the disappointment of admitting defeat with your New Year’s resolution when you realize those purchases from January storage container sales haven’t translated into a more orderly home in February.

Talk to Organized Interiors for real solutions to your home organization problems instead of relying on stopgap measures that aren’t effective in getting your home tidied up.

We can suggest more practical and efficient ways to maximize your home’s storage and organization capabilities.

For example, our built-in bedroom cabinetry has under-bed drawer storage, which is an upgrade over using flat rolling plastic storage containers that get covered in dust bunnies.

Are you currently using cheap plastic storage towers with drawers in a closet or the corner of a room? If so, you’ll be amazed at how how much nicer our custom cabinetry storage towers are, both in terms of looks and functionality.

It takes less than a minute to schedule a complimentary virtual or in-home design consultation with us.

Please share this post if you found it useful.

See also:

• 9 Tips to Aid Your New Year’s Resolution for a More Organized Home
• 3 Simple Tips to Ensure Success With Your Closet Purge
• Top 7 Decluttering Myths and Misconceptions Debunked

With your spring cleaning efforts currently in full swing, it’s worth taking a little time to consider your home air quality.

Most of us take it for granted that our indoor air quality is fine. Scientific research, however, has found it to be an area we should be paying a lot more attention to.

Studies by the Environmental Protection Agency and other environmental health organizations show that the quality of most indoor air is actually worse than the air outdoors.

Air pollution levels in indoor spaces are typically 2-5 times higher than pollution levels outside. So how can that be?

What causes poor home air quality?

A big contributor to poor air quality in homes and other indoor spaces is, quite simply, that not enough time is spent cleaning them, especially when it comes to vacuuming and dusting.

The products we buy and the chemicals they contain are another major reason our home air quality suffers. Unless you’re ultra-vigilant about what’s being brought into your home and used there, it can be difficult to maintain a healthy level of indoor air quality.

Indoor airborne pollutants also come from things like cooking residue, pollen, mould, and pet dander.

The fact that we inhabit tightly sealed environments that don’t get much air flow exchange with the outdoors doesn’t help matters, either.

How to improve your home air quality

Because the average person spends about 80-90% of their time indoors, it’s important to do what you can in your living space to improve its air quality.

The spring time is typically when a home is most in need of a refresh. Those long Canadian winters keep us indoors a lot more and don’t give homeowners many opportunities to open some windows. That keeps stale air, allergens, and other pollutants trapped inside.

Of course, leaving screen doors and windows open can also bring in outdoor pollutants, particularly in high traffic areas, downtown areas, and during hot weather. It’s a tricky balance, to be sure.

Here are some tips to help you improve your home air quality by reducing the number of pollutants in your living space.

1. Clean your home regularly (and properly)

Finding the time to clean your home as much as it really needs it is always a challenge. But as you would expect, regular cleaning is one of the single-most impactful ways to reduce the number of toxins indoors.

It’s generally recommended that regularly used areas of your home should be vacuumed a minimum of once per week. Higher traffic areas should get a little more attention, perhaps two or three weekly vacuumings. Carpeted areas in your home will also need more vacuum maintenance than hard floor surfaces.

Cleaning properly is another key to make your cleaning efforts more effective. Avoid using dusters, for starters. They don’t actually remove dust, they merely disperse dust from one surface to another. Wipe shelves and other surfaces with a damp soft cloth or microfibre cloth.

Thorough cleaning is also important. You can’t realistically get to every single nook and cranny in your home every time you vacuum, dust, and mop. It is important, however, to occasionally attend to those areas of your home that aren’t the main floor surfaces, such as curtains, ceiling fans, baseboards, walls, and behind large appliances.

To eliminate the headache of vacuuming underneath beds and sucking up all those elusive dust bunnies, consider getting a bed surround. They replace all of that wasted empty space underneath beds with useful drawer storage and incorporate additional storage space around the bed.

2. Control home clutter

Let’s expand upon that “clean your home regularly” point and specifically address home clutter. You might not see a direct connection between excess clutter and poor home air quality, but it’s there.

To illustrate how clutter affects the air quality in your home, picture several stacks of boxes in the corner of a spare room that haven’t been touched in months.

Those stacks (and floor clutter in general) make it harder to vacuum the room, which gives you an excuse to not to do it.

Extra clutter also impedes the airflow in a room and gives dust more surface areas to rest on and accumulate.

Take advantage of the wealth of effective storage and organization products available to keep your home tidy with less effort.

3. Look closer at the products you buy

The most popular laundry and cleaning products boast about how fresh they’ll make your clothes smell and how immaculate and spotless they’ll leave the surfaces in your home.

The irony is that while these products may be effective at cleaning and eliminating germs and bacteria, most of them also add pollutants to your home’s air when used.

Even getting your dry cleaning done can bring pollutants into your home (from the chemicals used in the cleaning process).

Here are just a few more of the common household products that release chemicals into your home’s air:

• beauty and grooming products
• spray and plug-in air fresheners
• certain types of clothing (including water-repellent apparel and some polyester and fleece fabrics)
• many plastic products
• building materials
• home furnishings

It can take a big effort to make major changes to what you buy and to check on the environmental impact of every product you purchase. But controlling the source of indoor pollutants will help to improve your home air quality.

4. Get an air purifier

Adding a standalone air purifier (or two) to the areas of your home that are most frequently used is another solution for improving your home air quality.

Bedrooms, the kitchen, and the living room are ideal locations. If you don’t want to deal with moving a standalone air purifier from room to room, whole-house air cleaning systems are available which are integrated into your HVAC system.

Air purifiers remove contaminants from the air and can help improve the comfort level of those with allergy and asthma issues. Air purifiers are also recommended for homes with smokers.

Ionic and HEPA air purifiers are the two most popular types of standalone unit choices. Do your homework before buying, as features (such as whether the unit can remove odours, square footage covered, and operating volume levels) vary widely from model to model.

5. Change HVAC and kitchen air filters regularly

Dirty air filters that trap pollutants and allergens recirculate poor quality air indoors, so they need to be maintained to keep your home’s air quality healthy.

Timely air filter replacement on HVAC systems, range hoods, kitchen and bathroom air vents, and vacuums tends to get overlooked. Staying on top of this task is a cost-effective way to maintain healthy home air quality.

Energy Star recommends changing your HVAC filters monthly during the winter and summer seasons, when your furnace and air conditioner are being used most. Change them every three months at the very minimum, regardless of the time of year.

Unclogged air filters improve the efficiency of your home’s heating and cooling systems and can reduce your utility bill.

Energy Star also recommends a yearly tune-up for your HVAC equipment to keep them operating at peak efficiency and to prolong the life of your heating and cooling units.

You should also have your air ducts inspected and cleaned periodically. Whichever air duct cleaning company you use, ask them about their maintenance process. Some professionals use sealants and chemical products that kill and inhibit bacteria and mould growth, which you may wish to avoid.

6. Get home air quality-friendly plants

Adding several air purifying plants to your living space won’t just improve your home air quality, they also enhance a room with character and colour.

House plants convert carbon dioxide into fresh oxygen and certain plants are very efficient at eliminating or reducing household toxins like benzene and formaldehyde.

Here are some of the most effective plants for reducing toxins in the home:

• Philodendron
• Spider plant
• Rubber plant
• Dracaena
• Snake plant
• Ficus
• Bamboo palm

Be mindful that even plants which are known for their air purifying benefits aren’t practical for every home. If one or more house occupants have sensitive allergies, some of these plants may not agree with them.

7. Prioritize the air quality in your bedrooms

Taking steps to improve the indoor air quality throughout your home is important, but it only makes sense to prioritize the quality of air in the room your family spends most of their time in – the bedroom.

A Statistics Canada study of the sleep habits of 10,000 Canadians between the ages of 18-79 found that they averaged 7.12 hours of sleep every night.

With approximately a third of our lives spent sleeping, your bedrooms should undoubtedly be one of the cleanest, most organized rooms in your house.

In addition to managing your bedroom clutter, using an air purifier, and adding some plants to the bedroom, consider changing your mattress.

Switiching to an eco-friendly mattress that’s chemical-free will be beneficial for your bedroom’s air quality. At the very least, vacuum your existing mattress regularly to get rid of dust mites and get anti-dust mite mattress and pillow covers.

Get organized to help improve your home air quality

Our lifestyles make eliminating 100% of indoor pollutants at home virtually impossible.

However, with simple regular maintenance, making changes to the products you buy, and investing in appliances to monitor and improve your home air quality, you’ll reduce your family’s exposure to indoor air contaminants.

Consider having your home air quality tested. An expert can help you gauge what areas of your home might benefit from some measures to reduce indoor toxins.

Organized Interiors can also help you to get your home organized so it’s easier to clean on a regular basis.

Schedule a complimentary in-home design consultation with us today.

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See also:

• 17 Ways to Get Your Home Organized in 2019
• 7 Surprising Things You Should Never Have in Your Bedroom
• 5 Ugly Truths Your Cluttered Life Reveals About You