9 Amazing Benefits of Having Indoor Plants in Your Home

Indoor Plants in Daily Life / By /
Indoor plants play an important role in providing a pleasant and peaceful environment in which to move, work or relax. Learn various benefits of having indoor plants in home & office.
Plants are our companions. They help us sustain our life in various ways. From being the food for humans, they also help – heal, relax and rejuvenate our body and mind.
Indoor plants don’t just add to the aesthetics of home – they can make us feel good, too. They can cultivate positive energy, better health, and positively impact the way we live, study and work.
Plants can breathe life & colour into a property and make it feel more like home. People often do not realize the many benefits of indoor plants. Whether you live in a small apartment, or a large house, or at office work, by introducing some plants into your home, you will start to observe improvements to your health & overall happiness. In this article, we will cover various benefits of indoor plants for your home as well as offices.

1. Improves your Mental Health

Plants and flowers do make people happy. House plants can contribute to our feeling of well-being, make us calmer and be optimistic. They help us in improving our mental health. Research has shown that many house plants help in reducing anxiety, enhance feelings of calm, improve mood and self-esteem in a greater way. Plants in the house also help in easing feelings of depression and enhance the general feeling of well-being and mind. Studies have also shown that patients who have plants or flowers in their rooms often recover more quickly. Having houseplants can help to improve your memory and focus by offering a calming representation of nature. Some of these plants include Prayer Plant, Rose Grape, Velvet Plant, Rosemary, etc.

2. Boost Productivity

Productivity is known to be improved in an environment where plants are present. The efficiency of doing tasks, concentration and focus are all improved; thereby increase productivity within the workforce. Research consistently finds adding plants to the workplace reduces stress and increases productivity. Many of us are working in a home environment and struggling to find some conditions of normality as we turn living rooms into home offices. Some indoor plants in your workplace like Umbrella Plant, ZZ Plant, etc will help by boosting your productivity.

3. Improve Air Quality

Bringing plants indoors can improve the quality & health of the air that surrounds us. Indoor plants can make the air in the house cleaner, removing toxins and pollutants from the living space.

NASA carried out a study called the Clean Air Study to determine which plants help to clean the air we breathe by eliminating harmful toxins. The spider plant is one of the plants on the list. It is one of the most popular and easiest to grow house plants. Even, modern office buildings with mostly sealed air, can contain up to ten times more pollutants than the air outside. Common toxic culprits found in the office are mold, formaldehyde, dust mites, carbon monoxide and chemical cleaning agents etc. Plants improve indoor air quality by removing harmful toxic pollutants. It also stabilizes humidity levels. Snake Plant, Bamboo Palm, Area Palm are some other plants known as effective air purifying plants.

4. Natural Healing

Some Plants enhance the healing environment. According to study, patients with plants in their rooms feel more positive, have lower blood pressure and reduced stress levels. Being in close proximity to plants aids faster recovery from injury, also some people have a reduced dependency on pain killers. Some of these plants include Aloe Vera, Bird’s Nest Fern & Urn Plant.

5. Natural Humidifier

Most indoor Plants are natural humidifiers. They add moisture to the air which helps in breathing. If you live somewhere dry or the air gets dry in the winter, they are great to place in every room of your house. If you have a bedroom where you can place them – they will add moisture and help reduce the air temperature, making it perfect for sleeping. Plants like bamboo palms do not just look elegant but also act as a natural humidifier besides cleaning the air. To know more plants, read Best Plants for Re-Humidifying Your Dry Indoor Air.

6. Natural Air Fresheners

House plants not only give us fresh air to breathe or add a look to your house, but many plants’ fragrance can keep your home smelling good. You can also discard room fresheners that contain synthetic and toxic ingredients. Use fragrant house plants to fill your home with a wonderful fresh smell instead of using artificial air fresheners. It is a natural and chemical-free way to freshen your home. Common plants among these are Peace Lily, Lemon Balm, Orchid, etc.

7. Reduce noise pollution

Plants absorb, diffract and reflect sound. Research has shown that plants absorb sound through stems, leaves, and branches. To reduce noise, indoor plants should be placed around the perimeter of the space instead of the center to help the sound reflect off the walls and straight into to leaves.

8. Reduce stress

Plants in your home, or even in your workplace, have a positive effect on the occupants, helping to reduce stress, fatigue and enhance productivity. Place these house plants on your desk at work, in your home office and in any area of your home where children study or do their homework. These include Holy Basil and Wax Flower.

9. Improve Sleep

With stress and anxiety causing insomnia issues to some people, it is a good idea to fill your home and bedroom with a variety of plants that have a calming effect. In addition, poor air quality from pollution, odors and molds can impact our breathing, thus making your sleep disturbed. Jasmine & lavender are few examples of indoor plant which can improve sleep.

Conclusion

Indoor plants play an important role in providing a pleasant and peaceful environment in which to move, work or relax. Because plants have large surface areas and exchange gases and water with their surroundings, plants can reduce carbon dioxide levels, increase humidity, &remove toxic chemicals & pollutants and airborne dust levels. So getting a greener indoor environment is a good thought. Take all the benefits now and get some green plants for your home and office.

Reference links used:
1. – A breath of Fresh Air, La Ronna DeBraak
2. – House Plants for a Healthy Home, Jon Van Zile
3. – The Healing Power of Plants, Fran Bailey

Share the blog
Shopping Cart

Know Your Home Air

Gas heating systems, leaking chimneys, fire places emits carbon monoxide, nitrogen dioxide and other harmful pollutants. Plastics and common household cleaners, paints, paint thinner often placed under the kitchen sink, release Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs), when used and stored. Overheating of non-stick cookware releases toxic fumes. Pesticides we use in and around the home also release various chemical and semi-volatile compounds.

Kitchen

Harmful effects
Carbon monoxide causes headache, dizziness and fatigue. These often cause eye, nose, and throat irritation, nausea, and can also damage the liver, kidney, and central nervous system. Fine particles are produced during all kinds of combustion which lead to acute and chronic effects to respiratory and cardiovascular systems.

Pet dander and hair, carpet, rugs, upholstery furniture are main source of dust mites, fungus, and bacteria. A dirty filter of air conditioners acts as a reservoir for dirt, dust and other airborne contaminants that are continuously circulated back into your breathing air. Secondhand smoke from cigarettes, other tobacco products and mosquito coil emits VOC’s and formaldehyde and various particulate matters. CO2 released from our lungs is exhaled in the air which pollutes the air if the place is too crowded or there is less ventilation.

Livingroom

Harmful effects
All these can trigger coughing, nosebleeds, shortness of breath, dry mouth, vomiting,
digestive tract problems, depression, allergy and asthma attacks, and other respiratory illness.

Shower, faucets and other water sources are main cause of humidity and mold. Bathroom cleaners and personal care products like toothpaste, soaps, facial tissues, detergent, fabric softeners, air fresheners, deodorizers, hair sprays, disinfectants, are full of VOC’s and chemicals which emits harmful pollutants.

Bathroom

Harmful effects
Mold can cause allergic reactions, asthma and other respiratory ailments. VOC’s and toxic chemicals released in the bathroom can causes eye, nose, and throat irritation, nausea and respiratory problems. All these products release harmful pollutants while they are used also when they are stored.

A bedroom contains many sources of indoor air pollution. Mattress, pillow and blankets, soft toys, are the reservoirs of dust mites, fungi and bacteria. Furniture, carpets, paints and beauty product like hairspray, nail polishes, perfumes, deodorants etc off gas VOC, formaldehyde and toxic gases into the air.

Bedroom

Harmful effects
These pollutants make the air unhealthy which leads to allergy, asthma attacks, dizziness, headache, fatigue and other respiratory ailments.

Second-hand smoke
Second hand Smoke is a mixture of the smoke given off by the burning of tobacco products, such as cigarettes, cigars or pipes and the smoke exhaled by smokers. Secondhand smoke is also called environmental tobacco smoke (ETS). Passive smoking can lead to coughing, excess phlegm, and chest discomfort. NCI (National Cancer Institute) also notes that spontaneous abortion (miscarriage), cervical cancer, sudden infant death syndrome, low birth weight, nasal sinus cancer, decreased lung function, exacerbation of cystic fibrosis, and negative cognitive and behavioral effects in children have been linked to ETS. Secondhand smoke exposure commonly occurs indoors, particularly in homes and cars. Secondhand smoke can move between rooms of a home and between apartment units.

Guest Bathroom

Central heating and cooling systems and humidification devices
The air filter in your HVAC system is the front line of defense against poor indoor air quality. A typical central heating and cooling system circulates over 1,000 cubic feet per minute of air through the filter. This means the entire air volume in your house passes through the filter multiple times every day. A dirty filter, however, can actually make indoor air quality worse by acting as a reservoir for dirt, dust and other airborne contaminants that are continuously circulated back into your breathing air. In addition to driving up your utility bill, a clogged air filter will allow all that dust and debris that should be filtered out to be re-circulated back into your home. This can cause chronic allergies and especially be dangerous for people with asthma or other respiratory conditions.

Scroll to Top