Clean The Air With Houseplants For A Healthy Home Office

For many decades, we have been sealing up our homes as tight as a drum to conserve energy. As heating and cooling costs have risen, so has the effort to weather-proof our houses.

This is all fine and good when it comes to saving money. After all, who needs to let their warmed or cooled air leak out of the cracks and crevices around doors and windows? We spent good money to get our temperature inside to a comfortable level, so let's keep that air inside.

However, since we've started super-sealing and insulating our homes and businesses, we have found one drawback - the lack of fresh air. These tightly closed environments became associated with illnesses related to the pollution created in buildings that were sealed off from any source of air cleaning or filtering mechanism.

After years of study by NASA researchers and scientists around the world, the answer became evident. Man does not live on this planet alone. In fact, our existence depends on our close relationship with other living things; namely plants. Yes, one of the answers to indoor air pollution is the simple houseplant.

That brings us to our healthy home office.

Many of us work in a tightly closed environment. If you have a home office and a busy family, you probably spend most of your time with the doors and windows closed.

If that's the case, your air quality may not be as healthy as it should be. Air pollution can be causing you and your body stress. Perhaps you are getting headaches more often than you should, or you are battling a cold constantly. Itchy eyes, a nagging sore throat, or other ailments may be caused by what's in the air in your own home office.

According to a NASA study, if we are to close ourselves into these sealed environments, we must take along with us our own natural fresh air system - plants. In their research, NASA found plants, along with their eco system (roots, soil, etc.), reduced the air pollution created by man within these air-tight environments.

The houseplants found to be good air purifiers include:

English Ivy

Mother-in-Law's Tongue

Golden Pothos

Janet Craig Dracaena

Chinese Evergreen

Spider Plants

These plants are typically low-light loving and easy to grow with just a bit of care.

Of course, you'll want to have your home checked for radon and install a carbon monoxide detector. Once you have taken care of those issues, consider the air quality of your home office. Are you constantly feeling ill when you are in your home office? There could be reasons why your tightly closed office isn't feeling like a healthy haven.

Now we know that little houseplant does so much more than brighten up a room - it actually cleans the air. Isn't it time to add a bit of greenery to your home office?

Keep Your Combinations Safe

Remember back in the day when the worst thing that could happen to you was forgetting your locker combination and you'd be late for class? Well, the stakes might be a little higher, but the challenge is the same: How to keep your private information private.

ID theft is a very real threat. In fact, ID theft complaints are the number-one complaint to the Federal Trade Commission, accounting for 18% of all complaints and accounting for billions of dollars in loss (2012 data).  And it can be very costly to repair the damage, as I know from experience!

While your identity can be stolen through the postal service or by swiping your wallet, by far your greatest exposure is online. And when you're an online businessperson, that risk is even higher; not only your personal information is available, but your professional information, too. Thankfully, there are a number of low- and high-tech options for keeping track of your passwords and user names.

Low-tech: You can purchase “password journals” from stationery stores, or just create your own from an inexpensive spiral notebook. On the plus side: This method is easy and inexpensive, is portable, and is perfect for technically challenged individuals. The problem is that if you don't have your notebook with you, you don't have the information – and if you lose it, you're in trouble!

Mid-tech: Start a computer file with all your password and user names in it, like an Excel spreadsheet. You can save this on your desktop, or upload it to a file-sharing service like Dropbox or Google Docs. The upside: It's free, portable, and (if you use the file-sharing service) available online from remote computers. The drawbacks: Hackable. If someone somehow accesses your spreadsheet, they have your world at their fingertips.

High-tech. Online password storage and management services are big business. Check out Roboform, KeePass, and LastPass. For just a few dollars a month ($29.95/year for Roboform, for example) these services will generate, store, and even fill in your passwords for you. Plus side: The safest method for managing passwords online. Downside: you have to pay.

Whatever you choose, any of these methods are more secure than using the default “password” or “12345” as your password for everything from your bank account to your Twitter account. Don't wait until someone breaks into your locker and steals your lunch money before you start protecting yourself.