Introduction
The allergy season is here and while a mask can keep you safe outside your home, you can do a lot more inside it. You can search for “home cleaning services near me” and hire professionals to keep your home free from allergens. Let’s check out a few tips for reducing allergens inside your home.
Tips & Tricks
- Keep outdoor allergens out – When you enter your home through the door, you carry a lot of outdoor allergens inside your home unintentionally. For instance, your shoes carry a lot of dust and pollen and enter your home when you get back. That’s why you need to put systems into place to keep external allergens outside.
Start by creating a space at the entryway for removing shoes. Take inspiration from both Asia and European cultures and establish a strict no-shoes policy inside your home. Keep a mat right outside the main entrance and one at the entryway. Allow people entering your home to rub off most of the allergens on those mats and keep their shoes in a designated space at the entryway.
You can have slippers inside the home for family members and guests to move around inside the home. Apart from that, you may also make a habit of keeping a small handheld vacuum at the entryway and use it quite often fr keep that area free from dust. You can also upgrade mats to water-resistant options to keep messy and muddy shoes in check.
- Lose the layers – If you have serious allergy symptoms, it’s best to lose as many layers as possible. Get rid of those layers as soon as you enter your home. That means you need to remove jackets, scarves, hats, and other such items right at the entryway. Layers of clothing and accessories allow for more gaps to trap dust and allergens. While you don’t have a lot of options when it’s cold outside, you don’t need too many layers in your warm home.
It’s also important to isolate dirty clothes right at the entrance. If you have kids playing in the yard or returning from their sports practice, keep a hamper for them to separate their dirty clothes. Make sure that during laundry day, those clothes get washed thoroughly with hot water to kill off all allergens.
- Wash them away – If you or any of your family members suffer from allergies, it’s best to head to the shower as soon as you enter the home. It doesn’t just wash away all the allergens, but also provides you relief from stress and fatigue. However, sometimes, it’s too cumbersome to get a shower.
For instance, if you go out to buy just groceries, it’s impractical to get a shower as soon as you enter the home. Instead, you can wash your face and eyelids with a mild and neutral cleanser. Eyelashes trap a lot of dust and that’s why it’s important to clean your eyelids along with the face. Make sure to use a cleanser that is recommended or prescribed by a certified and reputed immunologist and physician of internal medicine.
- Vacuum floors – Irrespective of your home decor or furniture style, vacuuming the floors frequently can help manage allergens to a great degree. Make sure that you go slow while making the pull pass with your vacuum to suck in all the dust. Also, make sure that you buy a good vacuum cleaner with a solid HEPA filter.
These filters are designed and proven to trap the tiniest particles. So none of the allergens would make their way back into the room when you use vacuums armed with these filters. Otherwise, you can get a cyclonic vacuum to push away dirt in a controlled manner. Finally, if you have rugs or carpets, get them deep cleaned once every few weeks if you’re serious about killing off allergens and dust mites.
- Allergen-resistant flooring – For allergy sufferers, tile and wood are the best flooring material. They are highly resistant to mold and mildew. Basically, any sort of hard flooring with a high degree of impermeability would get the job done. Even if you don’t have a mold allergy, mold spores can get into the HVAC system and grow inside the vents. They can cause serious respiratory issues if they grow and circulate in your home through the airways.
You’ll be at the risk of developing several chronic issues including asthma. If you absolutely love the soft feeling under your feet., then get rugs with short weaves. Thick and fluffy rugs made from natural fibers create a lot of lint and trap a lot of allergens. Instead, get something made out of sisal or polypropylene. If you have to get something out of natural fiber, get expensive rugs made of wool. They are durable, highly resistant to mold, and more effective than artificial materials.
- Air purifier – You can keep the air conditioning on and close the windows all you want. You may even force yourself to keep pets out of your room. However, if you really want to take the anti-allergen game to the next level, you should get an air purifier. While air purifiers are noisy little devices, they don’t need to be running while you’re at home.
Instead, you can turn them on in the morning and switch them off when you return home. That way most of the dust and allergens in your room will be filtered out. When you’re shopping for a new air purifier make sure to get one with a high Clean Air Delivery Rate and HEPA filter. The air purifier should also be appropriate to handle the size of the room.
Conclusion
Allergens like dust, lint, and pollen can cause a lot of respiratory issues and chronic conditions. They can trigger allergies and can completely ruin your day. That’s why you need to be prepared and keep your home as clean as possible. You can also search for “home cleaning services near me” and hire professionals to do it for you.
