Are You Breathing Poisonous Air?
For one liter of water a week, this fiddle leaf fig tree removes carbon dioxide and volatile organic compounds from your air, adds oxygen for your breathing pleasure, and beautifies your surroundings. Holy reciprocity, Batman!
Last week I bought a new pillow. I popped a clean pillow case on, snuggled down and buried my face in it, inhaling with satisfaction.
GAH!!
My lovely new squishy simply REEKED of VOCs. I cast it to the other side of the bed, to off-gas in peace.
What are VOCs, you may ask?
VOC is short for Volatile Organic Compound. These airborne toxins waft off of drying paint, plastics, resins, synthetic textiles, and even cleaning products. They smell dreadful, trigger migraines, and erode your fragile lung tissue.
And the ‘newer’ and ‘cleaner’ your habitat, the more of them you might be breathing.
‘Sensitive’ people often complain of Bad Smells from new carpet, new furniture, new motor vehicles, newly mopped floors (Lysol and Fabuloso: anything but fabulous) and new strip malls. Insensitive people may mock us, but our respiratory membranes know better.
How do you remove VOCs from your surroundings?
Glad you asked!
🌿 Buy secondhand furniture.
🌿 Increase ventilation–open windows, turn on fans.
🌿 Run air filters.
🌿 Use nontoxic cleaning products–Mrs Meyers, Seventh Generation, free & clear anything.
🌿 Grow plants.
Live houseplants have been proven to remove VOCs from the surrounding air, in addition to adding oxygen and calming your nervous system with their exquisite forms.
Plastic plants, on the other hand, simply add more VOCs.
Naughty, naughty.
Related: How To Grow Big Houseplants
Native Perennial Gardens: 1. HOAs: o.
Share This Story, Choose Your Platform!
The Eccentric Genius Habitat Intervention
Your space, your nervous system.
Most of us were never taught how our bodies actually experience a room–the light, the sound, the layout, the smell–and what happens when those things work against us instead of for us.
This free seven-day course is a gentle introduction to sensory design. Each day brings one exercise–noticing what you feel, photographing what you’ve been editing out, dreaming about what you actually want. The exercises are all optional, and you can go as deep as you like.
By the end, you’ll understand more about why certain rooms drain you, what your body knows about your home, and how to start shifting without stressing out.
Sign up below. Your first email arrives within the hour.
Practical Sanctuary, sensory interior design, specializes in interior design for highly sensitive people.
We help you create spaces which are:
