How to Remove Allergens from Your Home
Thoroughly Clean Your Home Regularly
Understanding how to remove allergens from your home involves a commitment to regular cleaning. Key areas such as carpets, furniture, and air filters should be your focus. Carpets and furniture are often hotspots for dust and dander, while clean air filters do a better job trapping particulates and keeping them out of the air you breathe. This routine will help create a healthier living space.
Alongside a thorough cleaning, it's also important to consider the cleaning products you use to reduce allergens in your home.
Don't Use Scented Cleaners or Detergents
When working to reduce allergens in the home, it's essential to avoid scented cleaners and detergents. While their fragrances might be pleasing, the chemicals used to create the artificial scent can trigger allergies or irritate those sensitive to these scents. Choosing fragrance-free, eco-friendly cleaning products lets you enjoy a genuinely clean environment without the risks associated with artificial fragrances.
While choosing the right cleaning products is crucial to reducing allergens in your home, specific cleaning practices are equally significant.
Wash Bedding Weekly in Hot Water
If you're looking for effective ways to remove allergens from your home, start with your bedding. Weekly washing in hot water can eliminate dust mites and other allergens that build up in your bedding. Make sure to include sheets, pillowcases, and comforters in your weekly washes to eliminate these irritants. The hot water cycle is crucial, as it's the heat that effectively kills dust mites, leading to a more allergy-friendly sleeping environment.
It's not just washing your bedding but also about how you dry your laundry that can affect allergen levels.
Don’t Air-Dry Laundry
The sun-kissed scent and softness of clothes dried outdoors are undeniably alluring. However, this natural drying method has a downside when it comes to allergens. As your clothes sway in the breeze, they're also catching pollen and mold spores, carrying them right back into your home. So, when you’re working to reduce allergens in the home, skip drying your laundry outdoors. Switch to an indoor drying rack or an efficient clothes dryer to keep your clothes free from these outdoor allergens.
There’s another frequently overlooked source of indoor allergens — humidity in the bathroom.
Keep Bathroom Moisture to a Minimum
When it comes to reducing allergens in your home, keeping bathroom moisture under control is crucial. Bathrooms provide the perfect breeding ground for mold and mildew due to their humid conditions. If you want to know how to get rid of allergens in the home, start by reducing bathroom humidity. Use an exhaust fan during and after your shower or bath, or open a window to allow steam to escape. Another helpful tip is to squeegee or wipe down wet surfaces after showering, reducing the potential for mold and mildew development. Consider drying damp towels in another room. You might also use a dehumidifier or desiccant canister.
In addition to managing indoor moisture, we must also be cautious about allergens we're bringing in from outside.
Keep Shoes and Outdoor Clothing Outside
Shoes and outdoor clothing can bring allergens, such as pollen and mold, from the outside world into your home. A simple solution is to designate an area near the entrance of your home for these items. Using a doormat to wipe shoes and an outdoor shoe rack with a cover to store them can be an effective way to reduce allergens in the home.