If you suffer from allergies, you know that the winter months can be especially difficult. With the cold weather keeping you indoors, it's important to take steps to reduce indoor allergens and keep your home clean and allergen-free. Here are some expert tips for reducing indoor allergies and creating a cleaner home environment. The first step in reducing indoor allergies is to keep surfaces in your home clean and uncluttered. Bare floors and walls are best, especially in the bedroom, where you spend a third of your time.
If you must have carpet, use low-pile carpets or rugs that you can wash. Also avoid heavy curtains and overly padded fabric furniture. Replace curtains and blinds with roller blinds or washable curtains. This will help prevent pet dander from entering the interior of your home. Most doctors suggest that people who have an allergy to animal dander don't have pets with feathers or hair.
There is no such thing as a hypoallergenic pet; people with pet allergies are allergic to animal dander, which is skin cells that all animals shed. To further reduce pollen from entering the interior of your home, keep windows and doors closed. Use air conditioning in hot climates to control dust mites and reduce humidity. Many people with allergies think that if they stay home when pollen counts are high, they can keep their spring allergy symptoms under control. But indoor allergens, especially dust, can also cause nasal allergy symptoms, such as nasal congestion, runny nose, sneezing, itchy nose, and itchy and watery eyes. Before you take out the mop, stop and review our smartest cleaning tips for cleaning the air.
Because if you don't clean the right way, you risk worsening your dust allergy. Did you know that about 85% of your home's contaminants, including pollen and other allergens, can be found within 10 feet of exterior doors? To prevent outdoor allergens from becoming indoor allergens, place doormats next to each door, both inside and outside. The outer mat captures the first layer of dirt; the inner mat grabs what is left behind. Make sure to shake both mats twice a week. When cleaning each room, start at the top and work your way down.
Start with the highest shelves in the room. This top-down technique helps capture dust that escapes from your dust cloth as it moves down shelves, wall hanging frames, and furniture. The last thing you'll want to do when you're cleaning is to spread the dust around instead of removing it from surfaces. This is why it is best to remove dust before vacuuming so that dust that falls on the floor can be collected with the vacuum cleaner. And remember that a damp cloth will trap more dust than a dry one.
When changing heavy winter bedding for lighter spring blankets, wash quilts and blankets in warm water (at least 130°F) and dry them thoroughly before storing them. Do the same with cushions and cuddly toys. Wash or dry clean dust curtains and blinds thoroughly with a microfiber cloth. It's also a good idea to place the mattress and pillows in allergy-proof covers. When buying an air purifier, check the Clean Air Supply Rate (CADR).
The higher the CADR, the faster the unit filters the air. A HEPA filter is the gold standard for air purifiers because it has existed since the 1950s and has been proven to trap small allergens. You should also make sure that the product can support the size of the room in which you plan to use it. Most indoor plants don't contain the type of pollen that affects seasonal allergy sufferers, and can even help clean the air by absorbing volatile organic compounds (VOC), laboratory studies show. For those looking to eliminate allergens throughout the home, an ultraviolet light or indoor air purification system can be an excellent solution. Indoor air purification systems and air filters work to trap small particles from the air, such as dust mites, dirt, mold, bacteria, viruses and more, so that they get trapped in the filter instead of floating around in your home. Indoor allergens can pose a challenge for allergy sufferers but with these tips you can be well on your way to enjoying long cold months indoors without suffering from allergies.
