Tips to Make the Home Toxin Free

The process of packing items and moving to the new home brings with it the excitement about living in a new place and getting adjusted into the new culture and trends. You may tend to think about packing, moving and unpacking being enough of the troubles related to moving to the new home.

The matter of fact is that there is so much more that you are going to have to consider. For instance, you will have to make sure that the new home is not causing any type of health hazards. The place may be a new to you but it might have suffered the results of bad decisions made by the previous owners.

In this article, we are going to discuss about the factors that cause toxins and the ways to get rid of those toxins.

Chipping paint

A paint coat getting peeled off or chipped is something quite bigger and worse than just a bad sight. If your new home was built sometime prior to 1978, there may be the contamination of lead in the paint. Now, that coating of paint may have got covered by the new paints over the years. The good condition of new paint is not going to be much problematic in this regard. But if the paint is chipped, the inner layer is going to be hazardous for your health.

Lead contamination can cause a number of health issues including:

• Hypertension
• Amnesia
• Rental impairment
• Damage to cognitive functions in the children
• Damage to reproductive items

While you may find it difficult to know if the paint of your new home has lead, the best way to deal with it is to get a new coat of fresh paint or get all of the previous layers of the paint scrapped before applying the new paint.

Carbon Monoxide

Carbon monoxide (CO) is a colorless, tasteless, odorless and invisible gas which is released in the air whenever fuel is burned. According to a survey, about 400 Americans die each year due to poisonous ingestion of this gas.

The symptoms of CO poisoning may include:

• Dizziness
• Headache
• Upset stomach
• General weakness
• Chest pain
• Vomiting
• Confusion

The biggest source of carbon monoxide is the machinery that we have in our homes. The appliances use oils for lubrication and other purposes. When this oil is burned, the dangerous gas is produced. Therefore, the appliances should be serviced every year to protect the environment of the home.

You need to make sure that you are following each measure to keep your home toxin free. First, you need to identify the sources of toxin and then seal or eliminate those sources.

The Ultimate List of Packing and Moving Supplies

I used to be the kind of person that preferred to skip corners just to save some time or some money.  After doing this for most of my life I somehow realized that skipping corners actually does the opposite of what I was going for.  I was spending more time on tasks because I was using improper tools with improper methods and therefore the going was rough, and I was spending more money on the same tasks because I was breaking stuff.  Needless to say, skipping corners when it comes to packing and moving is not recommended.  

Here’s a list of some seriously helpful packing and moving supplies from a converted corner-skipper gone list-maker:

1)      Cheap, but not too cheap moving boxes.  I used to get the cheapest of all cheap moving boxes, and that meant I was scrounging boxes out of grocery store dumpsters.  That just isn’t necessary!  Definitely asking department stores is one thing- that is frugal.  Dumpster diving is flat out warned against since you stand a really high chance of inviting microscopic varmints into your home. 

2)      What are you going to do with the perfectly cheap moving boxes if you can’t tape them shut?  Don’t get cheap tape!  I repeat- DO NOT GET CHEAP TAPE.  I once tried to pack up my apartment using a couple rolls of cheap tape and was this close to just burning the whole place down.  Cheap tape tears so easily, and is so hard to manage.  It will escalate the stress level of your move exponentially.

3)      Packing material.  Start stocking up on newspapers, or just go ahead and buy a roll of butcher paper for thirty bucks. 

4)      Sharpies and/or labels for marking your boxes.  You might even consider doing a color-code system where each room gets assigned a color.

5)      If you are doing your own move, you should at LEAST rent a hand truck.  Once we started doing this we felt exceedingly ashamed that it took us so long.  It made our moves SO MUCH easier.  And if you are going to rent one you might as well rent two for the friend you asked to help out.

6)      Gloves are a great idea, and even those straps that are meant to help you and someone else carry extra large items, like appliances.

7)      If you are not doing your own move, make sure you at least have your own moving blankets.  A moving company will charge you for the use of their blankets, and they are going to use a lot of them to make sure that none of your stuff breaks while under their care.