With allergy season fast approaching many people are beginning to stock up on tissues. What should be an enjoyable season can easily turn into the most miserable time of the year. Here are a couple quick tips to help reduce the affects of allergens in your home.
The most important step to conquering the allergen is understanding it. One common misconception is that sanitizing your home will help. While this may improve your allergies slightly it is only because of all the wiping of surfaces that you are doing. The reason for this is that, for the most part, particles that make up allergens are mostly non-living. This means that you can’t kill them. If you were fighting a sickness in you home sanitizing would be the best solution but not with allergens. You must remove them from you home. This is done by filtering them out of the air or wiping them off of surfaces. This is the start to a happy spring season.
Tip 1 – Clean the filters in your home
The first and most obvious filter would be in your furnace. This filter will be regularly cycling the air in your home and after a long winter it’s likely that it’s not in the best shape. Replacing this will be well worth the cost.
The second and less obvious filter would be your carpet. This filter is constantly filtering the air in your home and most likely has a greater impact on the air quality than your furnace filter. The problem is that, like any filter, if it is not regularly cleaned it becomes saturated with dirt and stops cleaning. Most likely if your carpet hasn’t been cleaned in over 6 months your carpet is saturated with dirt and is lowering the air quality in your home. The solution to this is some type of carpet cleaning, preferably hot water extraction. This will remove soil from you carpet and significantly increase air quality.
Tip 2 – Clean regularly focusing on vacuuming
Unfortunately, the problem with trying to clean the air in a home is that every time you start making progress a door, window or vent is opened to the outdoors and millions of allergens fly in. In order to help all the previously mentioned filters in you home keep up, it’s always necessary to do regular cleanings. Cleaning your home by vacuuming, dusting and wiping surfaces often will remove allergens from your house. During allergy season we recommend vacuuming at least one to two times a week to keep up with all the particles coming into your home.
Tip 3 – Wipe down surfaces
You’ve removed them from the air, the carpets, and other filters in you home but they are still clinging to surfaces all throughout your home. By wiping off walls, tables, counters and any other surfaces in your home you will eliminate a large portion of allergens.
If you follow these words of advice you will hopefully be enjoying your spring this year instead of purchasing large quantities of Kleenex.
