There are many practices to maintaining a healthy home that I find are very lacking in most routines for the average homeowner. I relish the opportunity to educate people, young and old, on ways they can maintain a cleaner and more efficient home through very minor changes to their daily routines.
I would say a slight majority of the air filters in returns I look at are dirty and were probably unchanged for up to 3 months. I advise homeowners to set reminders on their phone depending on how often they need to be changing the filters. Setting up a Google reminder on the first Sunday of the month is a good opportunity to give them time to run to a store if they need more. I never suggest a date like the 1st day of the month as it might fall on a day they cannot run errands. I also suggest setting up an account on one of may websites that manage filter subscriptions, like Second Nature for example. This takes the guesswork out of whether you have one stashed in the garage, or when was last changed. Many busy homeowners can benefit from this type of service.
I have been very surprised how many people do not use bathroom exhaust fans. I have heard reasons such as ‘too noisy’ and ‘it makes the bathroom too cold’. While leaving the exhaust fan on while baths or showers are on is ideal, I always encourage people to run the bath fan for at least 30 minutes after a bath or shower, if not while it is in use. I can usually point to physical evidence, water spots or sometimes mildew, that has built up on supply vents in bathrooms that do not have a fan running most of the time. These simple practices can be the difference between foul smells and stuffy homes from becoming healthy homes.
Written by: Adam Davenport
Leave A Comment