Two Easily Overlooked Home Maintenance Jobs: What Indoor Air Quality Research Says About Rugs and Windows
Once October arrives, the heating comes on, the windows stay shut and the house turns cosy again. It also means far more hours breathing the same indoor air. Ask around for how to improve indoor air quality and most answers involve a purifier or a window left on the latch. Fewer people would mention the rug that ties the living room together, or the glass that fogs up on a cold Yorkshire morning.
Both get plenty of attention as decor. As cleaning jobs, they tend to wait until spring. Research on household dust and damp makes a good case for bringing them forward.
Two Overlooked Home Maintenance Tasks
Windows come with numbers attached. A 2012 Mintel report on household cleaners found that 27% of British households hardly ever clean their windows. Rugs have no equivalent figure, though anyone who has rolled one back after a busy year has probably seen enough evidence of their own.
Part of the problem is that dust rarely stays where it lands. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency describes indoor dust as settled particulate matter, meaning tiny airborne particles that have come to rest on a surface. Walking, sweeping, dusting and vacuuming can all stir them back into the air. The EPA’s own answer to how to reduce dust in houses and flats alike is frequent cleaning, backed by good ventilation.
What Studies Say About Rugs and Indoor Pollutants
A rug works a little like a doormat for the whole room. An EPA guide written for health professionals notes that carpet can act as a “sink” for chemical and biological pollutants, including pesticides, dust mites and fungi.
Whatever settles there does not always stay put. In a 2004 study published in Environmental Science & Technology, Andrea Ferro and colleagues at Stanford University measured particles in a lived-in home while people walked around, sat on upholstered furniture, danced and vacuumed. Every one of those activities sent settled dust back into the air. How much depended on the number of people moving, how vigorously they moved and the type of floor beneath them. Rosati, Thornburg and Rodes measured the same effect from footsteps on carpet in a 2008 paper for Aerosol Science and Technology.
None of this means the rug has to go. Dust mites in carpet, pollen and pet dander can all be brought down with routine care. According to the EPA guide “The Inside Story,” such allergens can be reduced, although not eliminated, through regular cleaning. Knowing how to clean a rugstarts with the vacuum, run slowly in overlapping passes so the brush has time to work. On a dry day, give smaller rugs a good shake outside and check the underside while you are at it.
For a rug that takes heavy daily traffic, professional carpet cleaning for better indoor air qualitycan help reduce what the pile is holding. The EPA is careful to note that cleaning will not remove every allergen. What a deep clean can do is reach the soil a household vacuum leaves behind.
Window Condensation Is an Early Warning
Most advice on how to clean windows dwells on streaks. Fair enough: the glass deserves a wipe. Writing in the journal Indoor Air in 2017, indoor air scientists Charles Weschler and William Nazaroff described how smooth indoor surfaces such as window glass gradually gather a thin organic film from the air. Treat that film as a cleaning job. There is little evidence that clean glass, by itself, improves the air in a room.
Where a window earns its keep is as a moisture gauge. The World Health Organization’s 2009 guidelines on dampness and mould list condensation on surfaces as one indicator of dampness. People living in damp or mouldy buildings, the same guidelines report, face an increased risk of respiratory symptoms, respiratory infections and worsening asthma. Droplets on the room side of the glass point to humid indoor air. Misting trapped between the panes of double glazing tells a different story, usually a failed seal, and no amount of cleaning will clear it.
“Rain rinses the outside of a window but never reaches the inside, and the glass is usually the first place indoor moisture shows up,” said a spokesperson for Winducks, a window cleaning company in Calgary, Alberta. “We recommend cleaning windows every three months, and a visit before the heating season is a good one to keep.” For most households that means regular professional window cleaning inside and out, alongside wiping any condensation off the frames.
Indoor Air Quality Tips for Homeowners
Each habit takes a few minutes, yet together they cover both jobs.
● Vacuum rugs and carpets every week, or more often in busy rooms, as the EPA advises. A vacuum with a HEPA filter helps cut down on dust build-up.
● Anyone in the house with asthma or allergies is better off out of the room while the vacuum runs, the EPA adds.
● Spills need blotting straight away. Under the EPA’s mould guidance, water-damaged areas and items should be dried within 24 to 48 hours.
● A quick morning wipe of the glass and sill leaves condensation less time to feed mould on window frames.
● Vacuum the window tracks, then check that the drainage slots along the bottom of uPVC frames are clear.
● On dry days, hang washing outdoors. Indoors, run the extractor fan while cooking or showering.
● Many British windows have trickle vents along the top for background airflow, so keep them open through the colder months where you can.
● Ideal indoor humidity falls between 30% and 50%, according to the EPA. A cheap hygrometer shows where your home sits. In stubbornly damp rooms, a dehumidifier can help.
Nothing on that list needs a free weekend. Book a deep clean for the main rug and a proper wash for the windows in the weeks when the autumn layers come out, and the smaller habits can carry the house through to spring. For more ideas to keep your home comfortable through the colder months, browse the Home posts on Gemma Louise.
