Allergy alert: tips for controlling dust and dander in your home

Allergy Alert: Tips for controlling dust and dander in your home

Dust collects everywhere in your home. Carpets, furniture, appliances and electronics all collect dust. Inside the dust particles are dust mites. Dust mites and their feces are irritating to people with allergies. If you have allergies there are several things that you can do to ease your suffering.

For people who have serious allergies it is best to eliminate as much carpeting as possible. Carpets can hold a lot of dust mites and allergens. If you decide to keep your carpets, you will have to vacuum them daily with a vacuum cleaner with a hepa filter. The hepa filter will trap allergens and dust mites. The rest of the floors in your home should also be vacuumed, not swept with a broom. Sweeping scatters dust everywhere and sends it into the air. Mop all floors often to pick up as much dust as possible.

Dust accumulates on each and everything that you have in your home. To reduce the amount of dusting that you will have to do you should eliminate the amount of useless clutter that you have in your home. Decorations, pictures, and trinkets are all dust collectors. If you can live without it get rid of it. Keep in mind that anything that you keep you will have to dust about once a week. This will be very time consuming. Dust with pre-moistened dusting cloths to avoid scattering dust. There are many pre-moistened cloths available in most grocery stores that are made for this purpose.

Furniture collects dust too and will need to be vacuumed each week with your vacuum with the hepa filter. Be sure to vacuum all the surfaces and the creases. You may consider replacing cloth covered furniture with furniture that is made of leather or similar material which is easier to keep dust free.

Beds and bedding can be a real problem for people with allergies. Dust mites feed on dead skin cells that come off your skin while you are sleeping. The dust mites are really irritating and need to be eliminated as much as possible. Sheets and blankets need to be removed from the bed and washed in hot water. The mattress should be vacuumed thoroughly with your vacuum with the hepa filter in place. You may also consider a plastic mattress cover. Keep pets out of the bedroom of the allergy sufferer.

If you have pets in your home and you have allergies there are several things that you can do to reduce the irritation that your pets may be causing. If you have already decided that you can not get rid of the pet because the pet has become part of the family, there are a few other options you can consider. You can have an air cleaner installed in your home. This will cut down the allergens in the air of your home dramatically. Your pets should be bathed every week to reduce the amount of dander on the animal. Always wash and brush your pets outside. By washing and brushing your pet outside you can sometimes reduce the amount of self grooming your pet will do inside the home.

One more thing that the allergy sufferer can do to avoid the symptoms that the pets dander is causing is to avoid the pet. This is very hard to do in a family setting but if you were to section off an area for the pet the allergy sufferer could avoid the rooms where the pet spends most of his time.

There are also many allergy medications available for allergy sufferers that may allow an allergy sufferer and a pet to live together and enjoy one another.