In today’s world, we are SURROUNDED by toxic stuff, almost 100% of the time, everywhere we go. One might think that staying indoors and “away from” the polluted outdoor air is a sufficient solution to the problem. Oh, on the contrary.

What lies inside and underneath our homes/workplaces — not to mention the bottles of even “eco-friendly” cleaning products — is shocking. If you want to clean up the air in your living environment, you’re going to need some backup. Unless your home is jungle-like –sort of my personal goal — and filled with an abundance of air-purifying plant life, you’ll probably need some kind of decent plug-in air purifier. With that said, if you’re on a budget but want more greenery around you, start with some plants!

In this blog post, we will briefly cover what on earth is in the air and why it’s so important to have things around you to suck up all the nasty air and spit out clean, fresh, happy air. Then, we’ll get into the varieties of plant life that you can find almost anywhere you’d buy plants that’ll clean up the yuckyuckyuck in the air. Operation Clear The Air, go!

Let’s start with identifying the pollutants that’re floating around in our homes:

• Trichloroethylene — found in paints, lacquers, varnishes, printing inks, and paint removers.

• Benzene — used in the makings of plastics, dyes, detergents, synthetic fibers, drugs, and pesticides. Also found in glue, vehicle exhaust, tobacco smoke, paint/furniture wax.

• Formaldehyde — found in napkins, facial tissues, paper towels, particle board, waxed papers, plywood paneling, paper bags, and synthetic fabrics.

• Xylene — found in printing/rubber/leather/paint industries, tobacco smoke, and vehicle exhaust.

• Ammonia — found in window cleaners, fertilizers, smelling salts, and floor waxes.

As you can see, there’s seemingly no escaping the toxicity that floats all around us.

This is such a minimal list of the toxins in our air, too, and just a few examples of what they’re commonly found in. If you do some digging, you’ll find even more alarming information, including some pretty unnerving health effects. Of course our lungs will be more at ease when our breathing air is clean, but we also will sleep better, have fewer headaches, see an increase in mood and energy levels, as well as a decrease nausea and dizziness, and so much more… ALL because our air is even just a little more tidy.

Sound appealing? I agree.

Now, let’s look at our list of plants...

AIR PURIFYING HOUSE PLANTS

SNAKE PLANT

PEACE LILY

GOLDEN POTHOS

SPIDER PLANT

BOSTON FERN

CORNSTALK DRACAENA

CHRYSANTHEMUM

ENGLISH IVY

CHINESE EVERGREEN

RUBBER PLANT

ARECA PALM

ALOE VERA

GERBERA DAISY

There are plenty more clean-air-supplying plant pals for you to choose from. Use this as a starting point on your adventure into clearing out the yucky air from your home, and prettifying it at the same time. Additionally, you can use this as a guide for gift-giving! It says a little something extra when you bring an air-purifying house-warming gift to someone, sharing with them the intention behind it.

May your air be clean, and your hearts be full.