How to Use Plants to Neutralize Air Fresheners

Houseplants can help neutralize indoor air.

When you use air fresheners in a room, you can end up creating indoor air pollution due to the chemicals that are present in air fresheners. You can use plants to clean your air and neutralize the air fresheners. Certain plants are more effective than others at cleaning indoor air. The type of plants as well as the number of plants that you use has an effect on neutralizing indoor air.

Things You'll Need

• Measuring tape

Instructions

1. Use the square footage calculator on the "Better Homes & Gardens" website to assess the square footage of each room you want to neutralize. Measure the width and length of each room with a tape measure.

2. Calculate how many plants you will need for each room. According to Plant-Care, you need one plant for every 100 square feet. Just take your square footage amounts for each room and divide by 100 to see how many plants you need per room.

3. Place groups of plants that are proven to cleanse air together in each room. According to The Natural Health Place and Plant-Care, the best plants to neutralize air include bamboo, spider plant, English ivy, ficus, peace lily, gerbera daisy and Chinese evergreen.

References

• Plant-Care: Clean Air With Indoor Plants
• The Natural Health Place: Oxygen and Air Pollution

Resources

• "Better Homes & Gardens": Square Footage Calculator