Any plant will help increase air quality indoors and Lady palms are beautiful palms that handle being indoors so well that it seems like they were created for the indoors! Only problem is they grow at a snails pace, but other than that, they are great palms! Peace lilies, Dracaena, spider plants, and plants like that will all help air quality indoors and they all do well indoors in a nice and bright room, or by a sunny window. -Alex

Ok, water softener 101 ... Get a water test from an independent lab. An independent lab has no agenda and won't be trying to sell you water treatment equipment. Go to http://www.epa.gov/safewater/labs/index.html to locate a certified lab near you. This is a MUST DO because without it everything is a guess. A quickie water test from Sears or a water softener company won't be as accurate (and possibly not as competent) as from a certified independent lab. When you are on a well you have the responsibility of making the water safe and of acceptable quality. Acceptable quality is subjective but safe is not. Make sure the lab tests for potability... nitrates, bacteria, and such. Potability tests should be done at least once a year. Living on a well is more work than living on a water system. There will/may be maintenance required based on water conditions and equipment required and well water conditions can change. Your well may have different water conditions from that of your neighbor's well across the road or right next door. Hit the Yellow Pages and call at least three local water treatment pros. Make sure you call at least one of the big dogs like Kinetico or Culligan for comparison and at least a couple independent water treatment pros. DON'T TELL THEM YOU HAD YOUR WATER TESTED. Give each an opportunity to offer suggestions and provide you with a quote to meet your water treatment needs. IGNORE ANY THAT DON'T TEST YOUR WATER THEMSELVES as they can't speak intelligently to water treatment without knowing what needs to be treated. Ask lots of questions. Softening the entire house or just the water heater (bad idea)? Warranty, parts & labor or just parts, how long and on exactly what? Install, permits required, licensed plumber? Routine maintenance and costs? Do they stock parts? Response time for emergency (water leak) calls? If they don't explain things to your satisfaction that is a good indicator of how you'll be treated after the sale. After they've gone use your water test to compare with theirs. Are all your treatment needs being addressed? Ask your neighbors if they have any water treatment experience. They might tell you who's good or who to avoid. Come back here and post the specific recommendations and hardware components with the costs and we'll give you our opinions.

I love fragrance, but I do understand there can be too much of a good thing. I use the wax melters. I've tried tarts/melts you buy at the store, ones sold online from large companies, and ones sold by independent vendors. I've been given Scentsy, but refuse to buy it. Sorry, I'm not supporting any businesses set up that way. With all brands or vendors, I've found ones that worked and ones that didn't. At work, we take turns in our suite burning. We all have our own offices, and never use one in reception, so the fragrance stays concentrated in one location mostly, with just a hint in the hallway. We get lots of compliments. At home, I have a few burners, but only have one always in use. It's on a timer. It comes on about an hour before I get up and stays on around 2 hours. In the afternoon, it comes on about an hour before we get home and runs around 2 hours as well. This way I wake up to a nice fragrance and come home to one. At the same time, the pets get a break, I don't go nose blind, and I can get several uses out of one melt.

It's believed that sunlight kills the virus fairly quick. You could have UV lights installed in your duct work. Provided you 'blanket' all dark areas within the duct system with UV light, that *could* be a relatively simple way to aid in keeping virus from spreading thru duct systems. (*if that is even possible... we're still learning) A good quality filter isn't a bad idea either... a filter on it's own may not be effective enough. UV lights must be replaced *annually* whether they burn out or not... as their effectiveness decreases over time. UV lights may also increase Ozone, which can have other detrimental health effects. ----------- Outside of adding anything to your HVAC system, some have come forward to suggest all you need to do is stay 6ft away from others (do not touch other people - no hand shakes, high five's etc.) stop touching your face with your filthy hands. Wash your hands frequently. Stay focused on what your hands touch / come it contact with. Anytime you touch something out of your safe zone, wash your hands. Touch something again, wash your hands again. Out in public: door knobs --- anything your hands touch. Gloves are not the answer... unless you're walking around with 50 pairs and change them every time your hand comes in contact with something. You have to wash your filthy hands. If you don't wash your hands: Don't touch your face. scratch your nose, rub your eyes, suck your fingers, chew your nails etc. OR touch other people. This is how you defeat the spread. They say a mask would help you realize this better (not to touch your face). Me personally think you're more likely to touch your face more with a mask on. The need to adjust it / harder to breathe the humidity from your breath makes the mask wet over time even harder to breathe. It's a matter of opinion. There's lots of fear out there. Common sense... little to be found anywhere. If it's not fear, it's paranoia. Just keep your distance, wash your hands, stop touching your face, don't touch other people. It's that simple and that hard. If you have to sneeze or cough: do it into your elbow.