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The LavenHanger: Natural Lavender Sachets from Seattle
A friend has a new business venture I’m really excited about and wanted to share with everyone here. He’s making multipurpose lavender sachets for indoor use in your bedroom, closet, car or anywhere really using California lavender assembled right here in Seattle. I’ve been playing with my sample sachet for a week now and it’s really a great product that I highly recommend. I’m not typically one for intentionally bringing new odors into my living space but the LavenHangers smell great and also aren’t overpowering.
You can leave the LavenHanger lying about, put it in a drawer, or slip it over the loop of a hanger to hang with your clothes in the closet. Lavender is a natural insect repellent and repels bed bugs, moths and other pests you wouldn’t want around and it’s all natural so if you’re using it to protect your wardrobe, you don’t have to worry about harsh chemicals like the petroleum naptha in traditional moth balls.
They’re 3 for $20 available over at KalbCo, made in the USA. You should go check it out!
Air Filtering Plant Installation
Indoor air pollution is a bigger deal than people realize, especially in modern tightly-sealed homes and apartments. Very little air is exchanged into or out of my apartment if I don’t open the windows (and, in the winter when it’s around 35°, they’re not opened often.) A tightly sealed building with little air exchange wouldn’t have been a big deal a hundred years ago, but modern home goods frequently release volatile organic chemicals into the air during use or even at rest – carpets, plastics, electronic devices, all can release toxic chemicals benzene and derivatives, formaldehyde, trichloroethylene, and others. Nothing you want to have in high concentrations in your indoor air.
The problem of removing volatile organic chemicals from indoor air was tackled in a somewhat unusual place: a 1989 NASA study about cleaning the air on space stations. It turns out that certain common houseplants are extremely effective at removing these chemicals from the air and sequestering them. My apartment has a noticeable chemical odor occasionally, a combination of pair of area rugs made of synthetic fibers, and old electronics that were constructed with more chemicals than modern ones. To ensure I’m not poisoning myself, I run a HEPA filter with an activated carbon pre-filter to remove particulate matter, and made an indoor installation of air filtering plants to help the activated carbon more effectively filter VOCs from the air.
My apartment is about 700 square feet; I’m using five medium to large houseplants and several smaller ones. Certain orchids are effective, in addition to being attractive to look at:
So is the spider plant, above, and below the snake plant and peace lily:
and the Chinese Evergreen:
These plants have helped to noticeably reduce the chemical odor in my apartment that tends to accumulate when it’s left sitting for the day. I’m quite happy with the results. Not to mention, having plants around makes the place look better and adds a nice splash of color and life to a room that would otherwise be full of artificial objects.
From the NASA study (and reprinted on the TreeHugger article) the complete list of plants that are good for air filtration:
- English Ivy (Hedera helix)
- Spider plant (Chlorophytum comosum)
- Golden pothos (Scindapsus aures or Epipremnum aureum)
- Peace lily (Spathiphyllum ‘Mauna Loa’)
- Chinese evergreen (Aglaonema modestum)
- Bamboo palm (Chamaedorea sefritzii)
- Snake plant (Sansevieria trifasciata‘Laurentii’)
- Heartleaf philodendron (Philodendron oxycardium, syn. Philodendron cordatum)
- Selloum philodendron (Philodendron bipinnatifidum, syn. Philodendron selloum)
- Elephant ear philodendron (Philodendron domesticum)
- Red-edged dracaena (Dracaena marginata)
- Cornstalk dracaena (Dracaena fragans ‘Massangeana’)
- Janet Craig dracaena (Dracaena deremensis ‘Janet Craig’)
- Warneck dracaena (Dracaena deremensis ‘Warneckii’)
- Weeping Fig (Ficus benjamina)
- Gerbera Daisy (Gerbera jamesonii)
- Pot Mum (Chrysantheium morifolium)
- Rubber Plant (Ficus elastica)
