What Does a Healthy Home Actually Mean?

When people start thinking about creating a healthier home, the conversation can quickly turn into a list of things they should change:

1. Find everything toxic and create a list.
2. Get rid of everything toxic on that list and replace with non-toxic solutions.

I understand why, and I’ve been stuck there in procrastination and overwhelm mode myself, so I get it. Once you learn that something in your environment may be affecting you, whether that’s not being able to fall asleep easily, waking up tired even though you slept for eight hours, reaching for that cup of coffee or black tea in the middle of the afternoon, or just not being able to quiet your mind and unwind, doing as much as possible about it can seem like the obvious thing to do.

After more than a decade working in environmental health and hundreds of homes, I see things much differently now, with a little perspective.

There are dozens of things I could find in almost any home that could potentially be changed or improved. And trust me, I could give you a very long list!

But a long list doesn’t tell you what you actually need to prioritize and address.

To me, that’s where the more useful conversation begins.

Finding something is only the beginning

One of the distinctions I make constantly in my work is the difference between identifying something and understanding its significance.

Those are two different levels of information.

We have more access than ever to information about our homes. We can search for product ingredients, look up materials, buy testing equipment and meters, read all sorts of studies, compare products, and then find someone online warning us about almost anything.

That information can tell us what might deserve a closer look.

But it can’t automatically tell us how much attention that particular thing deserves in your unique home environment.

That’s where context starts to matter.

Finding something in your home may mean it’s worth addressing. It may be something you keep in mind to address later. Or, while leaving it for later may be less than ideal, it may not be worth the money, disruption, or attention required to change it right now compared with other things.

I don’t think everything you find in your home needs to become a project.

“Better” can have more than one answer

Secret: Healthy-home, toxin-free, or non-toxic home advice can sound more absolute than it is in real life.

If reducing your exposure from something in your home is good, it makes sense to think that reducing it as much as possible is the best. If there’s a “best-case” option, that’s the option most people (including my clients) initially think they should strive for.

I used to think that myself when it came to my own home.

When my own health led me into Building Biology, I made changes I later realized weren’t worth what they cost me in money, convenience, or things I genuinely enjoyed in my home. I got rid of things I wish I hadn’t because I was making the healthiest choices to reduce my exposure without the perspective I have now.

Experience has taught me to make finer distinctions and be more discerning.

There can be an ideal choice for reducing your exposure to something in your home, and there can be another choice that still addresses the root cause and moves you in the right direction, even if it doesn’t reduce your exposure as much and is less disruptive.

There can be meaningful improvement without maximum reduction. Something can be important enough to prioritize, while how you choose to address it may depend on how you actually live.

That isn’t being careless or taking the easy way out.

It’s making an informed decision with the whole picture in view.

A healthy home should allow you to live in it

This is probably the biggest shift in how I think about healthy homes.

I don’t see the goal as eliminating every possible environmental exposure and concern, even though the underlying approach in my training was essentially to get an exposure from, say, a level 10 to zero.

And that’s fine, but…

I believe the goal is to understand your environment as an ecosystem well enough to make intelligent decisions about it without feeling like you have to make incredibly disruptive changes just to get to that “zero.” Especially when it seems like everyone else is telling you that’s what you need to do.

What if you went from a 10 to, say, a 3? Or even a 2?

My Type A, perfectionist brain had a really hard time shifting from what I had been trained to do to championing that approach at first.

But what I’ve found is that most of my clients cannot make that level of change because of how their house is set up, their lifestyle, or a combination of both. And a lot of them simply don’t want to because it would be too disruptive. But they still feel guilty, as if they should make those big, disruptive changes.

Making huge, disruptive changes to get to zero can take more time and cost more money. More importantly, it can upset the household and the way you actually live in your home. And if the first changes you make create a ton of upheaval, you’re going to be a lot less inspired and motivated to keep going.

Having other options that still address the root cause, but maybe not to the maximum possible level, can still move you in the right direction. Plus, it takes a lot of pressure off.

And at some point, you may realize you’ve done enough, even though you didn’t address every single thing on your list.

I think that last part matters more than we give it credit for.

Your home doesn’t need to become an endless improvement project where every new piece of information creates more stress and gives you something else to worry about.

So what makes a home healthy?

I don’t think there is one universal version of a healthy home, even though I get this question all the time.

We all have different environments, different ways we live in our homes, different things in our homes, and different ideas about what we’re willing to do to create a healthier environment.

For me personally, a healthy home starts with giving thoughtful attention to my environment. I think about how supportive I want my environment to be, and changes I’m willing and not willing to make.

It means understanding what is contributing to my exposure and how I’m being affected, then making informed choices to reduce my exposure in ways that align with my goals without losing sight of the life I want to live in my home. And yes, that means not stripping it bare!

That may look different in my house than it does in yours.

I’m comfortable with that.

After years of doing this work, I’m much less interested in how many things someone has changed than whether those changes actually address the right exposures and make sense for their overall environment and how they live in their home.

That’s the conversation about healthy homes I think is worth having.

Curious where Building Biology came from? I wrote about the history of Building Biology and how the idea of looking at the home through the lens of human health began in Building Biology: How Healthy Homes Started.