Home & Environment
The four categories where what your family breathes, drinks and sleeps on is decided — plus the room-by-room map of where those things actually sit in your house.
What makes this department different
This department is the one where habits beat purchases. Ventilation, what you do not mix, and how long a new mattress airs out change more than most product swaps do — so each guide below leads with the free change before the paid one.
An environmental risk score for your ZIP.
Water quality, radon zone, air quality and wildfire risk for every major metro and ZIP code — pulled from EPA SDWIS, AirNow and the USFS, not estimated.
Tell me when it launches
One email when the ZIP lookup goes live. Nothing else.
Why this department exists
Numbers worth knowing
of an average American's time is spent indoors
EPA Report to Congress on Indoor Air Quality (EPA/400/1-89/001C), 1989
Indoor air qualityhigher pollutant concentrations indoors than outdoors, typically
EPA Introduction to Indoor Air Quality
What VOCs actually arelead service lines still delivering water to U.S. homes
EPA 7th Drinking Water Infrastructure Needs Survey and Assessment, 2023
How to test your tapU.S. homes is estimated to have radon at or above the EPA action level
EPA A Citizen's Guide to Radon (EPA 402/K-12/002), 2016
What a radon test tells youEvery figure here links its source. We don't cite a statistic we haven't read in the original.
Start here
What's in Home & Environment
Cleaning Products
Green cleaning that actually cleans: fragrance, VOCs, and the labels worth trusting.
7 guides · 24 products
Free change first: Open a window before you spray anything.
- ShoppingCheat Sheet: Non-toxic laundry detergent
- ReviewIs professional carpet cleaning non-toxic? What to ask before you book
- ShoppingGreen cleaning products: the environmental side of the same shelf
- ShoppingCheat Sheet: Safer Dishwashing Detergents
Indoor Air Quality
Off-gassing, VOCs, HVAC and portable filtration, and nursery air.
5 guides · 12 products
Free change first: Run the kitchen fan while you cook.
- ExplainerVOCs at home: where they actually come from
- ReviewNatural air freshener: Citrus Magic
- ShoppingThe best air purifier for a nursery or bedroom
- ShoppingThe best carbon monoxide alarm for your home
Water & Filtration
Lead, PFAS and what a filter certification actually covers.
6 guides · 17 products
Free change first: Run the tap 30 seconds before you fill a bottle.
- LocalWhat's in Austin, TX tap water?
- ShoppingBath and shower water filters: our CuZn bath ball review, and what to buy now
- ExplainerHow to test your tap water
- ShoppingBest water filters, by what you are actually filtering
Mattresses & Bedding
Flame retardants, foam off-gassing, and certifications that mean something for crib and kids mattresses.
12 guides · 45 products
Free change first: Air a new mattress out in a ventilated room for a few days before regular use.
- ReviewOrganic mattresses: the Naturepedic review
- ExplainerBedding Certifications Explained: What GOTS, GREENGUARD Gold, OEKO-TEX, CertiPUR-US and MADE SAFE Cover
- ExplainerCan Mattresses Be Toxic? What Off-Gassing and Flame Retardants Actually Mean
- ShoppingNew mattress or crib setup checklist
Know the risks
Room by room
The same products, sorted by where they actually sit in your home — what tends to be a problem in each room, and the swap worth making first.
Print and go
Cheat sheets for this department
Worth reading
Related
Start with the room, or start with the category
There are two honest ways into this department, and they suit different moments.
If you are standing in a particular room wondering what in it is worth thinking about, use the home hazard map — it sorts the same information by where things physically are, which is usually how the question actually arrives.
If you are about to buy something specific, start with its category below. Each one opens with what to skip and what to look for, so you can get the short version and get on with your day.
The free changes come first
Across all four categories here, the changes that matter most are not purchases.
Opening a window while you clean, letting a new mattress or piece of furniture air out before it goes in a bedroom, and running the kitchen fan while you cook are all free. EPA advises ventilation as a first step with new furnishings and other products that emit VOCs, and for most households they are the cheapest place to start, ahead of switching brands. Every guide in this department leads with those before it recommends anything, because that is the honest order.
What you will not find here
We do not have a page for every room or every city. Where a guide would need data we cannot source properly — local water quality beyond the one metro we have real numbers for, for instance — we would rather leave the gap visible than fill it with something that reads specific and is not.
Every source we cite is checked against our criteria first — see how we check our sources.