5 Ways to Reduce Allergy Triggers in Your Home

Suffering from allergies and hay fever can be an awful time for the person living with them. There are allergy relief medications you can take, such as anti-histamines, but no one wants to live on medications if they don’t have to. Below are 5 effective ways to reduce the allergy triggers in your home today, to provide some relief for the sneezing & wheezing sufferers out there…

Once you know what it is you are allergic to, you can reduce these irritants in your home. Start working room by room – start with the rooms you spend the most time in and then work your way around the house, eliminating those specific allergens as you go. Your bedroom is a hive of potential microscopic critters that will kick off your allergies, such as dust mites. Instead of always calling in pest control services, you can get yourself zip-on dust mite covers for your bedding that work by killing the existing dust mites by cutting them off from their food source (which is the dead skin shed by the people and pets in your house). The covers also prevent additional dust mites from making their home in your pillows and mattress.

If possible, remove your wall-to-wall carpets and replace them with hardwood flooring – especially in your bedroom. These are a breeding ground for allergy-causing infestations, almost every kind of allergen accumulates in carpets and rugs and will make your life that much harder to cope with allergic reactions. Having hardwood or tiled flooring instead will reduce these allergens from being re-released in that air every time you walk across it.

One of the biggest triggers of allergic reactions in children and adults, is the nasty chemicals found in soaps and detergents. Replace your chemical-filled store bought detergent with natural laundry soap and you’ll notice the difference this makes in no time. Natural soaps and detergents are so much better for your clothes and the environment as well, they can even clean your washing machine too! Natural detergents do more than just mask the dirt, they’re excellent at removing stains and odours as well as the dirt.

Replace your non-allergy-reducing vacuum cleaner with a HEPA (high-efficiency particulate air) one. These vacuum cleaners trap even the most minute particles in your environment without causing you to breathe them back in again. Standard vacuums just reintroduce those allergens back into the air instead of eliminating them. These handy machines trap these extremely small particles and seal them away with a special filter. Less particles = less sneezing and wheezing.

The more crowded surfaces there are in your home, the more areas there are for allergens to settle. Opt for a minimalist approach with décor by limiting accents and trinkets to only the essentials. Organize your stuff so everything has a place and everything is in its place, from kids toys to books and magazines – the less stuff you have lying around, the less you will suffer seasonally.

Published in: Home advice | Author: Pete