7 Ways To Reduce Home Allergens

An average home is a habitat to millions of indoor pollutants, including dust mites, mold, viruses, bacteria, pollen, and pet dander. These allergens can leave you sneezing, a runny or stuffy nose, itchy eyes, and shortness of breath.

While we can't control the weather, we can take steps to manage our indoor environments and reduce the level of allergens in our homes. Here are seven cleaning and maintenance tactics to help you reduce your exposure to allergens and make your home a more comfortable, enjoyable place to live.

1- Keep Outdoor Allergens Out

The best way to protect yourself and your family from allergies is to stop outdoor allergens from coming inside your home to maintain a healthy and happy indoor environment. In most cases, either our clothes, shoes, skin, or hair serve as a carrier and help track outdoor allergens inside. To avoid this, it is highly recommended to keep your shoes out and have a waterproof doormat spot to encourage others to remove shoes at the entrance too. Also, every time you enter your home, take a shower and change your clothes.

Another major source of outdoor allergens in your home could be your furry friend. Pets can catch pollen in the air when they are outside. So make sure you’re regularly grooming and bathing them to keep allergen levels down.

2- Keep Your Bedding Clean

We all shed our outer layer of skin every 2-4 weeks, and these skin flakes are dust mite's favorite dinner. To avoid welcoming dust mites, we recommend that you should wash all of your bedding once a week. This will effectively kill dust mites, bed bugs, and other pests while removing allergens that may become trapped in the fibers.

3- Vacuum Floors Well

No matter how daunting this might be, but cleaning your home's floor regularly (2-3 times a week) is a must! We recommend using a vacuum cleaner with HEPA filtration to get rid of even the tiniest particles. Giving your home a complete sweep is a great way to eliminate many allergens, such as dust mites and pet dander.

4- Use An Air Purifier

Most of us spend about 90% of our time indoors, and as per EPA reports, some pollutants can be 2-5 times higher in indoor environments than outdoors. Buying an air purifier for your home would be a good investment. It can help you keep the air you breathe clean, comfortable, and allergen-free by eradicating contaminants such as dust mites, pollen, and dander.

Make sure to regularly change the filter on your air purifier as needed.

5- Choose The Right House Plants

Having a plant in your home is a great way to freshen up your space. They not only enhance your home’s aesthetics, but there is something about them that makes us feel at ease. However, if you are planning to get some indoor plants for your space or have some already, make sure that you avoid flowering houseplants, as they have the potential to cause airborne allergens because of their pollen production. A few examples of such plants are orchids, stephanotis, and spider plants. If you are allergic to pollen, please avoid male palms, and get female palms instead to avoid the pollen that male palms produce.

6- Install a Dehumidifier

High humidity levels encourage mold and dust mites to grow and live. To avoid such allergens and keep everyone in your home healthy, we recommend you should buy a dehumidifier. The ideal humidity levels should be below 50 percent in the summer and between 25 and 40 percent during the winter to eliminate the risk of dust mites and mold, suggests CDC.

7- Change your HVAC filters

HVAC air filters' job is to filter out any dust, dirt, debris, and pollutants from the air to ensure a clean indoor environment, but if they are not regularly cleaned and changed, their efficacy is compromised. We recommend that you regularly clean the filters in your HVAC system and change them every 90 days for better home air quality. Also, make sure you’re using HEPA filters for enhanced filtration.

You should also consult your HVAC maintenance and repairing company for regular checkups to ensure your system is not contributing to unhealthy indoor air quality.

We hope this article helped you reduce home allergens, boost air quality, and improve your family's health.