Friday, October 14, 2011

Benefits of Indoor Plants

Indoor plants improve air quality by cleaning and conditioning the air we breathe.  By removing toxins and adding oxygen and humidity, they make the air easier and fresher to breathe for us.

I love having plants in the house for many reasons. InshaAllah in this post I will be sharing with you why I love having plants in our house and what are some good choices for indoor plants and their benefits.

Here are some plants we have in our house. 
Aloe Vera
Indian Jasmine Plant
Madagascar dragon tree
Mint Plant
We were planning to make a nursery on our roof, but now we will not be getting the roof so I am looking for some indoor plants. The kids really enjoy watering the plants and seeing them sprout. I am working on growing some herbs as well, for food and juicing. (I'll keep you updated on that too inshaAllah)

Indoor plants have numerous benefits. They are known to provide physical and psychological benefits and naturally create a healthy relaxing environment.


Benefits of indoor plants
  • Improve Air-quality in homes and offices
  • Absorb harmful substances
  • Work as 'Natural Humidifier' (Why buy a electrical humidifier which suck up energy)
  • Reduce Stress
  • Encourage productive
  • Cooling Effects (when you see the plants you can literally feel the cooling in your eyes)
  • Inspire our creativity
  • Increase positive feelings and reduce negative feelings
  • Improve sleep
  • Add natural beauty to the homes and offices.
  • Can clear congestion (Plants such as Eucalyptus)
  • Improve overall mental health\prevent allergies
  • Reduce carbon dioxide
  • Lower blood pressure
  • Help fight colds
These are just to name some in order to motivate you all to add some indoor plants in your homes and offices to give the artificial decor some really beauty! Nothing beats the nature Allah SWT has made to cool our eyes, body and mind. 

Why grow indoor plants?
Children love plants, I found with AR that it helped me teach him how Allaah gives life and death, how water is such a blessing from Allah SWT for all living creatures. One of our plants died when we came bak from the vacation. Sometimes he will ask me if I watered the plants, or should he do it, since he loves watering them, he has learnt to control himself now. 


Indoor plants improve air-quality by absorbing harmful toxins/pollutants from the air around them. Some of the most common toxins/pollutants in our homes are"
  • Formaldehyde - found in medicines, cosmetics, dish-washing liquids, fabric softeners, glue, adhesives, carpets, carpet cleaners, antiseptics, paper, latex paints, plastics, and pressed wood used for furniture read more.
  • Benzene - Rubber, lubricants, dyes, detergents, paints and plastics.
  • Trichloroethylene - found in paints, adhesives and used extensively in dry cleaning products.
  • Carbon monoxide - found in fuel, water heaters, using gas powered tools in poorly ventilated areas.
All of the above have been proven to cause severe health problems such as, respiratory problems, irritability  headaches, asthma and nausea. One way to help ride these toxins from our homes is to get rid of products/things that cause buildup of these toxins, which is not that easy to do, becuae that includes almost everything in the house. For some of us (including myself) that's not possible, so we can do three things to help our air-quality 
  1. Buy indoor plants, some researchers say their should be one plant every 100 square feet.
  2. Keeping the house ventilated by opening the windows. That will keep the house from smelling fresh, free from odors as well. 
  3. Try to go 'chemical free" or at least buy less chemiclal products. Instead try to make homemade cleaners. Most of these homemade cleaners an easily be made with products in your kitchen cabinets  InshaAllah will be posting some fun homemade experiment recipes and tips soon.
Although all plants improve indoor air-quality, some are known to be better than the others. These are some of the best choices of indoor plants that help improve air-quality better than other plants. 
  • Aloe Vera                        
  • Areca Palm
  • Pothos
  • Philodendron
  • English Ivy          
  • Boston Fern       
  • Mother In Laws Tongue 
  • Rubber Plant                
  • Peace Lily        
Some indoor plants can be poisonous for children and pets and should be avoided or if you decide to keep them its is best to keep them out of their reach. We have a Aloe vera plant and its kept out of their reach. You check this link to read more about which plants and parts of a plant are poisonous. 
Sources:   2  3

2 comments:

  1. I have been thinking about having more indoor plants, I wanted to learn more about the plants before I buy them, but subhanAllah I keep forgetting/not enough time :(
    What kind of soil do you use for indoor plants?

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  2. i love plants too! subhanallah its amazing how they can uplift you ... i remember when i wanted to buy a plant for our living room but my husband kinda thought it was a waste of money but then when we came home n i set it up, he was like, ya it really changes the feeling in the room / feels refreshing :) i also like bamboo :) simple to take care of and i really like the look
    btw, the jasmine are gorgous mashallah! would they survive here in canada tho??

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