A smoke-free home is crucial not only to your health and everyone that lives with you but also to maintain your home’s value. Did you know that the simple act of smoking inside regularly can cause your home’s value to plummet; reaching a nearly 29% deficit. That’s almost a third of your home’s value! Let’s say your home was worth $150,000 before you started smoking inside.
You may have just cost yourself about $43,000, and that’s just in market costs. That doesn’t count the renovation costs you’d incur should you want to return your home to its pre-smoking state.
In this guide, we’ll cover five easy tips for keeping your home smoke-free. These tips are easy to follow, and can even help you decide to quit one day. Once you learn just how harmful smoking is to surfaces, air quality, and your home’s value, you’ll want to quit right away. Read on!
1. Stop It At The Door
Aside from disciplining yourself from smoking inside, you’ll need to keep other tenants and your guests from smoking indoors. If smoking was ok before, you need to make it clear that it isn’t now. You might need to have a difficult discussion with some of the people you live with, be it roommates, family members, or friends, but they should respect this new decision if they truly care about their living space and you as a person.
Let everyone know why you’ve come to this decision. You can mention that smoking’s effects on the body are amplified when you smoke indoors. Without anywhere to go, the chemicals in the smoke linger in the air and are continuously inhaled and exhaled by you and your guest/tenants. You’re not getting any fresh oxygen, and your body will be starved for fresh air.
Or, you can mention that third-hand smoke is a true problem for current and future tenants. The chemicals in cigarettes stick to surfaces, upholstery, and carpeting, and never truly come out unless it’s deep cleaned or replaced entirely. This can mean even if everyone in the house quits smoking right away, they’ll still be exposed to harmful toxins.
2. Tobacco Alternatives
You don’t have to completely stop the ritual of chewing or smoking. Tobacco free dip, vape pens, herbal cigarettes, and other alternatives can provide you with a way to still get your daily nicotine without compromising the air quality in your home as cigarettes do. Using these alternatives could potentially save you thousands in renovation costs and prevent smoking-related diseases and cancer.
That’s not to say all tobacco alternatives are better. Vaping has been linked to problems of its own, including a condition known as popcorn lung. Be wary when you’re choosing new alternatives. Be certain you’re aware of what you’re putting into your body, and don’t ignore medical warnings or labels. These exist to help keep consumers safe!
3. Create An Outdoor Space
Ok, so not everyone wants to quit smoking. That being said, this means you’ll need to accommodate if you’re of the minority that has no desire to quit, or if you have guests that still need to smoke when they visit. A comfortable outdoor space is a perfect solution; it removes the need to smoke indoors, can offer a more comfortable atmosphere without toxifying the air, and saves your home’s value.
The space should be relatively comfortable even in cold weather, so that it isn’t entirely unappealing and doesn’t get used. Comfortable seating or even an enclosed space like a tent can make the space more personal and comforting.
4. Quit Smoking
You’ve probably already guessed that this tip would be on the list, and it is; for good reason. Quitting smoking is probably one of the best decisions you can make, both for your financial future and your physical health. Why jeopardize either with a habit that provides nothing in return?
Smoking damages your home, your vehicle, your body, and potentially even your relationships. What’s the point? Even with so much information available on the dangers of smoking, nearly 14% of the population still smokes cigarettes on a regular basis.
5. Remove Temptation
If you’ve got a pack of cigarettes within arm’s reach, it’s going to be much more difficult to ignore the temptation to smoke inside. Leave your cigarettes outside in the garage or even your car, so that you have to go outdoors to retrieve them. This will help remind you that you shouldn’t be smoking indoors anyway.
Plus, the more difficult you make it to satisfy your cravings, the less you’ll want to do it. Put some distance between you and the cigarettes, and you might just find that over time you smoke less and less, until finally, you quit altogether. Just remember that smoking indoors is one of the worst decisions you can make for health and financial security!
