While some house household items might make your home sparkle more, they pose a serious risk to you and your family. To give you all the facts you need to make your home safe and sparkling at the same time, here are some household items you might want to toss away or at least store away in the shed outside your house.
- Flea and Tick Repellants
Tick and fleas can be a pain, especially if you have a pet. However, while these products will keep you away from unwanted bites, they can damage your nerves and cause other respiratory problems.
- Perfumes
Everyone likes a pleasant smell, but perfume might not be the answer. Most perfumes contain hazardous chemicals with irritating effects like nausea, throat, lungs and eyes irritation, headaches, skin, and kidney damage.
- Lead-Based Paints
Redecorating is a great way to redefine your style and fit in the modern times, but lead-based paints can be dangerous to you and your family. Lead-paint paints pose the risk of lead poisoning, so you might want to consider a healthier redecoration choice like using wallpapers, especially if your house was decorated before the 80s.
- Non-Stick Cookware
While it’s nice to wash your dishes without having to scrape off burnt food from the bottom or having to scrape off soak your pans overnight, the ease of cleaning your non-stick cookware comes at a cost – your safety. When the coating is burnt, your non-stick cookware releases harmful gasses known to contribute to higher cancer risks and are also linked to other health complications.
- Gas Space Heaters
Gas space heaters might sound like an economical solution to heating, especially in areas where lighting comes at a great cost. However, they’re extremely dangerous and can cause carbon monoxide poisoning. The condition is quite dangerous, and it has very few warning signs. That’s why we recommend electric heaters as a safe solution for indoor temperature control.
- Dryers
Besides accidentally putting your clothes in the dryer instead of the washing machine, dryers can start hazardous fires. That’s why you need to mind the lint filter to avoid build-up. For this reason, we recommend cleaning your filter after every cycle.
- Household plants
For parents and anyone with a furry friend running around their household, this is for you. Most household plants like mistletoe, Ivy, and daffodils are poisonous when consumed, and we all know they’re always waiting to be grabbed.
- Extension Cords
While we’re all living in a technologically obsessed world where extension cords come in handy several times, they’ve been known to cause electrical fires. If they’re still necessary around your household, moderation is always the key.
- Plug-In Air Fresheners
Air Fresheners appeal to many homeowners as they can hideout throughout your home and keep your house smelling nice. However, most of them contain neotame, aspartame, and other dangerous chemicals. That can cause different health complications like diabetes, high blood pressure, and cardiovascular diseases.
- Instant showers
Instant showers are always a quick fix to avoiding cold showers. However, you risk electrocution when using these showers. Storage water heaters come as a safer solution, as they store the hot water until you need it. That also means digging deeper in your pockets.