The easy process for making homemade filters that are washable and simple to keep clean and germ-free to keep you breathing freely all year long.
Snow is falling, cold wind is blowing. The furnace clicks on.
Uh oh!
What about all that dust and dirt and who knows what else that has collected in the air ducts over the past months?
Here’s a simple solution for keeping the dusty and even moldy muck from spewing into your air and into your lungs when you breathe.
Make your own washable homemade filters!
How to Make Healthy, Homemade Filters
Find an old 100% wool sweater; perhaps at your local Salvation Army and wash it in hot, hot water and simple soap in your washing machine. This is not a time to worry about the delicacy of the sweater. We want it to felt up good and thick, even shrink.
The idea is to tease the fibers into felty submission. Then dry it in a hot dryer. This will further the felting process. Once the sweater is thick and misshapen, measure the perimeter of the register (the opening on the floor where the heat blows out) and cut the sweater to fit neatly into the opening.
The best part is that you don’t need to hem the ends since felted wool doesn’t fray.
It will make a tidy homemade filter that allows the free flow of hot air while offering a hygienic filter.
These homemade filters are as good, if not better, than any pre-made filters from the store and are easily tossed into the washer monthly, so you and your family can breathe freely and not spend a dime!
When the furnace first comes on in the cooler months, clean the filters more often, perhaps even have a few of them already made and fitted.
In your little girl’s room, choose a pink sweater. In your son’s, blue. Homemade filters can color coordinate too!
Simple solutions for a healthier life … made by you.
Our health is in our hands!
For more information on clean indoor air, this article explains the top 10 house plants proven by NASA to filter toxins out of the air that outgas from building materials and household products.
Great idea! I hate using the central heating, even as year-round Tahoe residents we use the wood stove as the primary heating source.
That is an awesome idea.
Homemade Filters for Clean Indoor Air – The Healthy Home Economist http://t.co/q6QzN6DS
What a fabulous idea!!! I can’t wait to try this! I once called and asked how much it would be to have my heating pipes vacummed out and it was going to be over $600! What a great and economical solution. Especially where I live in Alaska. We use the heater for 6 months! Thank you Sarah! 🙂
I wonder if this would pose a threat to the functionality of the furnace, it is always advised not to even close registers because then it pushes more air through less vents.
Thanks! My brother and I always had allergic reactions to the constant presence of mold, mildew, and dust in our house. Especially since its so old. I may also try this with the A/C in the hotter months.
This sounds like it would really reduce efficiency of your furnace.
Bernice – I was thinking the exact same thing. I’m not sure it’s good for the furnace either.
Bernice, when we moved into our house, they had blue fiber filters in all the vents. When we had everything checked out the heat a/c guy immediately told us to remove them as these make the units less effective. He recommended instead getting a good whole house filter where it was designed to be on the unit and to make sure to change it quarterly. I’m wondering if there’s a way to make a washable air filter for the main filter slot?
Would we need to attach the sweater to some sort of “frame” in order to allow the soft material to be firm enough to fit all the way into the register without crumpling all up at one end? My register is 16x25x1 and there is no way I could get a wool sweater to fit all the way into the register without some support. Any suggestions?
Thanks!
i would use two sheets of chicken fence the wool cut in the middle, make sure the sweather is not too thick so it would not mess up the flow of the air.
My suggestion would be to use an old filter frame and either try and remove the old paper filter. Some filters have a wire frame, those may work best. Then just put your new felted wool on the front of it and close your gate over it.
wow thank you for this post so much!
I have dust/mold allergies which got a lot better since I took a course of strong probiotics, but we still have 3 HEPA filter air purifiers in our home to keep me from sneezing!
I am off to a local thrift store tomorrow to find a 100 % wool sweater to do this!!
I bet this would work to replace the a/c filter too. Living in FL the heat only gets turned on during the quarterly system cleaning, but I’d love to get rid of those horrid pleated paper filters without the loss in quality we’ve experienced from commercially available washable filters.