How to Reduce Indoor Allergens in Your Home

Allergies affect millions of people every year. You might expect allergies outdoors, but when they creep into your home, they can affect your everyday life.

Are you allergic to your house? More often than not, pesky indoor allergens that can’t be seen by the naked eye can make you sneeze, scratch, or worse. Fear not; there is plenty that can be done about it, from carpet cleaning to installing air purifiers.

What Are Indoor Allergens?

Indoor allergens can come in many forms. The most common allergens in the home are dust, pet dander, pollen, and mold. Allergies to particles in the home may be in the carpet or flooring, in the air, and laying on the surfaces of the interior of your house.

Reducing allergens in a home will help to keep the reaction to them down. You, your family, and even your pets will be sneezing, itching, and getting watery eyes less often.

Use an Air Purifying System

Using an air-purifying system will remove dust, pollen, pet dander, and many other allergens from the air in your home. Most air purifiers need to have the filter replaced, and some need to have a water tank emptied, as well.

Air purifier systems can be mobile units that you move throughout your home or large units that improve your home air quality.

Add More Houseplants to Your Décor

Did you know that plants cleanse the air that we breathe? Adding more potted plants to your home is a natural way to clean the allergens from the air. From spider plants to rubber trees, plants add life to your home and years to your life!

Speaking of plants that cleanse the air, you can also try burning a bundle of sage to clear airborne bacteria.

Get Your HVAC System Serviced

Your home’s HVAC (heating ventilation air conditioning) system consistently circulates air through the system and in or out of every room.

It can also circulate tons of allergens through your home. Having the system serviced means checking the components of the unit and cleaning the ducts.

House Cleaning Tips

Before your house gets deep cleaned, you must decide if you want to take on the task yourself or hire a professional cleaning service. Doing it yourself puts you in direct contact with many of the allergens, so you would have to be cautious and wear a mask and gloves.

When cleaning, always start from the top and work your way down to ensure that you are collecting every particle of dust and other allergens. For instance, start by wiping down ceiling fans, high vents, and the tops of cabinets. Next, move down to washing curtains and other surfaces below that until you reach the floor.

The cleaners that you use can be all-natural to eliminate exposure to chemicals. White vinegar and essential oils like lemon and tea tree oil can be just as effective as harsh cleaners.

Lint-free or microfiber towels will not shed as you use them, or you can go with a bamboo towel that will resist mold and mildew.

As you are cleaning your home, if you notice any signs from rodents or pests, call in an exterminator as tiny home invaders can leave behind nasty allergens.

Treat Every Room

Deep cleaning and treating your home for allergens is most efficient when you do it in every single room. Even the rooms that you do not go into that often. Allergens can be carried through the ventilation system of your home and through the air.

Should I Worry About Choosing Fabrics?

Fabric choices for your wardrobe are probably chosen for fit and comfort. However, what about the fabrics of everything else? From bed linens to towels and even carpet and furniture, check the tags on everything to make sure the materials used are allergy-friendly.

Clean your bed linens frequently, including sheets, pillowcases, and blankets. After the linens, wash your small throw rugs at least once a month. Do this more frequently if you live in a dusty area or with pets.

Hire a Carpet Cleaning Service

What’s hiding in your carpet? You probably don’t want to know. Cleaning carpets on your own can be quite a laborious chore and may take all day.

Call in the carpet cleaning professionals to get all of the nastiness out of your carpet fibers. As much as you vacuum your carpet, you will never get it as thoroughly clean as the professionals.

Change Your Vacuum

Not every vacuum is created equal. Some vacuums could be making your allergies worse instead of sucking up the dust etc. Unless your vacuum has a HEPA (high-efficiency particulate air) filter, you may be picking the allergens out of the carpet and putting them back into the air.

Replace Your Flooring

In extreme cases, homeowners have gone as far as replacing their carpeting with a hypoallergenic carpet. Natural fibers like wool and manmade fibers such as nylon are great for keeping allergens to a minimum.

Treating Pets

Our pets are like our family, but they could be causing you some allergy irritations. Pet dander is often hard to see with the naked eye, making it hard to know that it is even there. It is small particles of skin and fur that cause allergic reactions in many people, which is why hypoallergenic pets have become more popular.

How do you get rid of future pet dander before it starts? Frequent grooming or bathing at home with special shampoo will wash away their dander. Also, wash their bedding once a week.

Watch the Weather

Heavy rain, as well as droughts and even strong winds, can stir up allergens outdoors, which can then translate to a spike in allergens in the home. Changes in temperature and humidity levels may predict how you should react to the weather. Turn up your air purifier, and close your windows to keep allergens down.

Fighting With Allergens

It doesn’t take much to get sick of having indoor allergens around your home and ruining your home life. Try out a few of these suggestions, and you will be pleasantly surprised at the results!

If you’ve enjoyed learning about improving your home, check out some of our other articles.