What Counts as “Good” Indoor Air Quality — And How Most Homes Fall Short
I didn’t know how to define good air until my body stopped tolerating the kind I had.
For a long time, I thought indoor air quality was binary. Either a house had a problem, or it didn’t. Either there was something obvious to fix, or everything was fine.
What I slowly learned is that most homes don’t fall neatly into either category. They sit somewhere in between — functioning, livable, but quietly taxing.
My home didn’t feel dangerous — it just never let my body fully rest.
“Good” indoor air quality isn’t about perfection — it’s about whether your body can relax inside it.
What “Good” Indoor Air Quality Is Supposed to Mean
In simple terms, good indoor air quality means the air inside a space supports normal breathing, regulation, and recovery.
It isn’t overloaded with irritants. It isn’t stagnant. And it doesn’t require the body to constantly adapt or compensate.
I didn’t understand this at first because nothing felt extreme. There was no obvious smell. No single symptom that screamed “air problem.”
I learned that air can be “acceptable” on paper while still being difficult for the body to live with.
Why Most Homes Miss the Mark
Modern homes are designed to be efficient, sealed, and comfortable. But those same qualities can limit fresh air exchange.
Pollutants don’t have to be extreme to matter. As I learned while understanding why indoor air can be more polluted than outdoor air, accumulation happens quietly and consistently. That realization changed how I saw my home.
Nothing felt wrong enough to fix — but nothing felt right either.
Most homes fall short not because they’re unsafe, but because they’re closed systems.
Why “Normal” Air Doesn’t Feel Good to Everyone
One of the hardest parts for me was noticing that others felt fine in the same space. Friends. Family. Visitors who didn’t react the way I did.
That made me question myself more than the environment. But bodies don’t respond equally to the same load.
I explore this difference more deeply in my experience of why some people in a home get sick while others don’t, which helped me stop seeing my reactions as weakness. You can read that here.
Sensitivity isn’t fragility — it’s often early warning.
How the Body Responds Before the Mind Understands
I didn’t label my air as “bad.” I just noticed patterns. Better days away. Worse days at home. A nervous system that stayed slightly on edge.
Those patterns didn’t make sense until I understood what indoor air quality actually meant. That foundational shift is something I wrote about in detail here: what indoor air quality really is and why it matters.
My body knew something was off long before I did.
The body doesn’t wait for definitions — it reacts to conditions.