Although interior designers have a great deal of influence on our interior air quality, they cannot be held solely responsible for maintaining healthy air. YOU have to do most of the work. Even if you have American Clay in every room of your home, all benefits quickly diminish if you lack healthy indoor habits. For example, don’t expect to have superior indoor air if you smoke indoors or rarely tend to clean. Maintaining good, breathable air takes work, but is far from impossible.

On average, Americans spend 90 percent of their time indoors. With indoor air quality commonly more polluted than many highly industrialized cities, it isn’t hard to imagine why chronic respiratory diseases—such as asthma—are so common. Cleaning products, building materials, certain home furnishings and lack of ventilation are all common sources for high levels of pollutants including carbon monoxide, lead and the highly volatile organic compound (VOC), formaldehyde. However, lowering levels of these pollutants takes only a few minutes of your day and gives you a great reason to do a bit of remodeling.

The following list has been complied from Blue Egg and the Environmental Protection Agency on how to better the air you breathe indoors.

• Ventilate, ventilate, ventilate!!! Ventilation is the most effective thing you can do and simply opening a few windows can go a long way. Keeping fresh air flowing through your home dilutes indoor gases, lessening their potency. This is especially important while painting, cooking, cleaning and other high pollutant-causing activities.
• Clean often and with smart products. While regularly vacuuming and cleaning prevents toxins from building up, you may be replacing those toxins with new ones if you use smelly cleaning products. Artificial fragrances commonly contain phthalates, a group of chemicals that interfere with hormone systems.
• Switch to natural cleaning products. Your kitchen is full of great cleaners—baking soda, vinegar, lemon juice and olive oil. Here are some great green cleaning tips.
• Replace carpets with a greener alternative. You know that “new carpet” smell? Well, that’s the smell of adhesives and other chemicals releasing VOCs into your home. While low-VOC carpet is available, carpets also act a giant sponge for holding pollutants. Check out Green Living’s article on “Rethinking Carpet” to get the full story.

These are only a few of the quick and easy ways to improve indoor air quality. Both Blue Egg and the EPA provide a myriad of information on the topic on their websites.

Bettering indoor air isn’t limited to your home, either. Many offices have the same problem of low quality air, a contributor to Sick Building Syndrome. If you think your office may need to green up its act, read up on the topic here.