Let's talk about something that is happening in your home right now, at this exact moment, that you cannot see, smell, or touch — and that most of us never even think about until someone in the house develops a mysterious cough that lingers for six weeks and the doctor asks, "Have you checked your air quality?"

No, Dr. Whoever. I have not. I have been busy.

The air inside your home is, in many cases, more polluted than the air outside. I know. You did not ask for that information on what was otherwise a perfectly fine day. But the EPA has been saying this for years, and it bears repeating, because most of us are wandering around sealing our windows tight, running our HVAC systems, and essentially marinating in whatever is floating around in there — dust mites, pet dander, mold spores, volatile organic compounds from our cleaning products, and off-gassing from our furniture — all while congratulating ourselves on staying inside where we are safely away from pollution.

The good news is that improving your home's air quality is not complicated, not expensive, and does not require you to become the kind of person who owns a kombucha SCOBY and talks about toxins at dinner parties. It just requires knowing what to do. And now you will. (And if you don’t know what a SCOBY is, look it up. It is interesting. Nurturing a gelatinous disc colony in a jar on your counter and then drinking what comes out of it is where the line gets drawn for me, but some people are really into it. ) 

First, Let's Talk About What's Actually in There

Before we fix it, it helps to know what we're dealing with. Indoor air pollutants generally fall into a few categories, and once you see the list, some things that have been happening in your house will suddenly start making a lot more sense.

Dust and particulate matter — This one is unavoidable. Dust is mostly made up of dead skin cells (eww), fabric fibers, and outdoor particles that hitchhike in on shoes, clothes, and pets. Every time someone walks across a carpet or flops onto a couch, a small cloud of this goes airborne. You cannot eliminate dust, but you can manage it.

Pet dander — If you share your home with animals — which I happen to (if you call owning 3 dogs and 2 cats “sharing my home” rather than running a small wildlife sanctuary )— dander is a significant factor. Pet dander is not actually the fur. It's the tiny flecks of skin that animals shed constantly (double eww), and it is light enough to stay airborne for long periods of time and small enough to bypass your nose's natural filtering system entirely. This is why people can be allergic to a pet they've never even touched.

Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) — This is the fancy term for the gases that get released by products you probably have in your home right now, and honestly, it is super scary knowing it is even a thing. Volatile Organic Compounds are carbon-based chemicals that evaporate at room temperature — which is what "volatile" means in this context, not that they have anger issues. When they evaporate, they release gases into the air. Some are naturally occurring and harmless. Others, with repeated exposure in enclosed spaces, are decidedly less harmless. Cleaning sprays, air fresheners, candles, paints, adhesives, and even new furniture and carpeting off-gas VOCs into your air, sometimes for years after purchase. This is not meant to send you into a spiral about your couch (it might possibly have done that to me). It is meant to make you crack a window occasionally.

Mold and mildew spores — Anywhere there is moisture and limited airflow, mold is thinking about moving in. Bathrooms, basements, under sinks, and around windows are the usual suspects. Mold spores travel through the air and can cause respiratory irritation, allergy symptoms, and other health issues — especially in kids and anyone with asthma.

Carbon monoxide and radon — These are the serious ones. Carbon monoxide comes from gas appliances, fireplaces, and attached garages. Radon is a naturally occurring radioactive gas that seeps up from the ground and accumulates in lower levels of homes. Both are odorless and invisible, and both require detectors because there is simply no other way to know they are there. If you do not have carbon monoxide detectors in your home, please stop reading this article and go order some. The article will still be here when you get back.

Now, Let's Fix It

Here is the part where it gets manageable. You do not have to address all of this at once. Pick the ones that apply most to your situation and start there.

Change your HVAC filter. Seriously, change it. This is the single highest-impact, lowest-effort thing you can do for your home's air quality, and it is also the most consistently neglected. Your HVAC filter is literally designed to pull particles out of the air — but once it gets clogged, it stops working and can actually start pushing those particles back through your system, which is highly unproductive. Filters should be changed every one to three months depending on the type and your household situation. If you have multiple pets and children who track the outside world in with them daily — you are changing it every month. Set a reminder on your phone right now. Future you will be grateful. If you need to know more about filters, check out the article in Home Maintenance Tips titled “Don’t Forget Your Filters”.

Open your windows. I know this sounds aggressively simple for a section that came after a paragraph about radon. But ventilation is genuinely one of the best tools you have. Even ten to fifteen minutes a day with windows open — weather permitting — flushes out stale air and dilutes the concentration of indoor pollutants. Your home needs to breathe just like you do. Let it.

Get some houseplants. NASA did a study — an actual NASA study — on houseplants and indoor air quality and found that certain plants are effective at filtering VOCs and other pollutants from indoor air. Snake plants, pothos, peace lilies, and spider plants are among the top performers and also happen to be nearly impossible to kill, which is a quality we should all appreciate in a living thing we are responsible for. A few well-placed plants are not going to replace an air purifier, but they contribute to a healthier environment and they look a lot better sitting on a shelf than a HEPA filter does. Just make sure they aren’t the kind to kill your pets, if you have any. That would not be good. Peace lilies, pothos, and snake plants are absolute no-gos. Spider plants are fine, although cats are oddly attracted to them and may chew on them anyway due to a mild hallucinogenic effect similar to catnip. They won't be seriously harmed, but you may find your cat staring at the spider plant with suspicious intensity. The ASPCA's website has a searchable toxic and non-toxic plant database that is genuinely worth bookmarking for exactly these moments.

Run exhaust fans like you mean it. The exhaust fan in your bathroom is not decorative. Run it during every shower and for at least fifteen to twenty minutes afterward to pull moisture out before it has a chance to settle into surfaces and invite mold to make itself at home. Same goes for your kitchen range hood when you are cooking — especially anything that involves high heat, oil, or anything that produces smoke. These fans exist specifically to remove pollutants at the source, which is always the most efficient place to deal with them.

Consider an air purifier for high-priority spaces.You do not need to put one in every room. Start with the bedroom, because you are spending roughly a third of your life in there breathing whatever is floating around, and the living areas where your family spends the most time. Look for a purifier with a true HEPA filter, which is rated to capture 99.97% of particles down to 0.3 microns — which includes dust, dander, mold spores, and most bacteria. Run it consistently, not just when someone is sick, and replace the filter on schedule.

This is my pick:

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Swap out your air fresheners. Most conventional air fresheners do not actually clean the air. They mask odors with fragrance chemicals that are themselves VOCs. If your home smells like a lavender field but your air quality is poor, you now have poor air quality that smells like lavender. Baking soda, activated charcoal bags, and essential oil diffusers used sparingly are gentler alternatives. Better yet, address the source of the odor instead of covering it up. This is advice that applies equally well to air quality and to a surprising number of other life situations.

The Bottom Line

The air in your home is something you interact with roughly twenty thousand times a day — once per breath, give or take. It deserves at least a fraction of the attention you give to the surfaces you can actually see. The fixes are not dramatic. Change the filter. Open the window. Get a plant. Run the fan. The steps are small, the payoff is significant, and your lungs have been patiently waiting for you to get around to this.

They appreciate you finally reading this article.