Your home should be a sanctuary, a place where you can feel safe and at peace. Aside from making sure you have the basics, you also need to keep your place neat and tidy. Doing so doesn’t just mean cleaning objects around your home; it also means cleaning the air inside your house.

How do you exactly do that? Well, you can plug in air purifiers, or you can go for a more natural approach: acquiring air-filtering houseplants.

In the late 1980s, NASA was researching ways to detoxify the air inside its space stations. They conducted a study to identify the best plants for filtering indoor air and converting carbon dioxide to oxygen. In 1989, NASA released the results of the study and it included a comprehensive list of plants that are most effective in ridding the air of toxic agents. The study also suggested installing at least one plant per every hundred square feet of indoor space as plants can remove airborne toxins such as trichloroethylene, formaldehyde, benzene, xylene, and ammonia.

To see which plants are the best to put in your homes (or offices), see NASA’s 17 recommendations below. We’re sure you’ll find something easy to source and can fit your space.

1. Boston fern

2. Bamboo palm

3. Flamingo lily

4. Peace lily

5. Cornstalk dracaena

6. Kimberly Queen fern

7. Weeping fig

8. Variegated snake plant

9. English ivy

10. Barberton daisy

11. Devil’s ivy

12. Spider plant

13. Florist’s chrysanthemum

14. Dwarf date palm

15. Chinese evergreen

16. Broadleaf lady palm

17. Red-edged dracaena

Do you already have some of these NASA-recommended plants in your home, and have you experienced their benefits? Tell us all about it in the comments section!