The Best Cleaning Tips For All You Allergy Sufferers
Hey, you there, yes you.
Stop sneezing for just a moment please.
Did you know that you can curb your allergies in their place without using any extra medication?
Here are 6 simple, but effective, cleaning tips to utilize right now to minimize your allergic suffering.
Before we begin, it’s important to know that allergies are getting worse and worse each year. Rising global temperatures make allergens such as pollen more prevalent.
If you’ve got bad allergies this season, just wait until next season when it will undoubtedly get worse. Luckily there is hope for you!
Not every allergic response you get is from the outdoors. In fact, we think that most allergies come from inside.
For this reason, it’s important you get your indoor cleaning done consistently and effectively by following this guide.
So without any further ado, here are 6 cleaning tips for allergy sufferers!
What Allergy Do You Have?
Before trying to get relief in other ways, consider talking to a doctor if you haven’t yet. If doctors aren’t your style, make sure you cover all your allergic bases.
That means understanding your allergies could be coming from one or more sources.
Here’s a short list of some that may be affecting you:
- Indoor mold
- Outdoor mold
- Pollen
- Cat and dog allergies (dander, dead skin, hair)
There’s a good chance one or more of these is affecting you right now. Fortunately, there are some seriously effective ways of dealing with each one and keeping them out of your home, thus the beginning of how to get rid of allergies.
Be warned, many of these methods of keeping you allergy-free are extremely simple! Following even one or two of the following tips could help reduce or stop allergies all together.
The Allergy Map
The most common allergy we know of comes from pollen. Pollen comes from a variety of different plants and it’s hard to pinpoint which specific pollen allergy you have.
Here’s a great resource for seeing the pollen index in your area.
If pollen levels are particularly bad on a certain day, avoid going outside. If you must go outside, make sure you shower immediately when you come back home. Also, make sure you change your clothes and put your pollen filled clothes in your laundry basket.
People often underestimate the amount of pollen they’re bringing in. Here’s a quick list of all the things you need to check off to avoid pollen allergies:
- Take your antihistamine in the morning.
- Shower right when you get home.
- Close all the windows in your house.
- Change your clothes when you get inside.
- Wear a mask when doing any backyard and outdoor chores.
6 Tips That Will Keep Your Allergies At Bay
Now that we have discussed the most common types of allergies and how to take care of them, let’s talk about cleaning solutions that will help you cover all your bases.
Protect Yourself While You Clean With A Mask And Gloves
Have you ever been cleaning your house and by the time you were done, you couldn’t stop sneezing and rubbing your eyes?
This is because when you clean surfaces covered with dust, that dust often consists of allergens that get kicked up into the air and into your eyes, nose, and mouth.
If you simply put on a mask and gloves (if your skin reacts to the allergy) you may find that your allergies are substantially less profound after a cleaning session.
On top of using a mask and gloves, consider wearing some eye protection or glasses. This can help in preventing dust and other allergens from getting in your eyes.
Clean More Often
Yes we know, this one sucks.
Trust us, if there was a better way to get cleaning done faster and less often we’d tell you about it.
Just remember this though; if you can get yourself to clean once a week, it will pay massive dividends on your allergy symptoms and is one major way on how to stop allergies.
There are other benefits to cleaning more often as well. Oftentimes when you clean more, you get to clean less the next time you get down to it.
Doing this prevents the buildup of messes that are more difficult to clean and require hours of work.
The longer you wait on dirty messes, the worse it will get for you. Cleaning frequently and doing it the right way will pay out big time for both your time and your health.
Clean Naturally
This one is huge for curbing allergies. You need to make sure your current cleaning supplies aren’t causing your allergies.
It happens more often than you think and can be the direct cause of a lot of allergies for you and your family. Some cleaning products can induce a lot of allergic symptoms in otherwise healthy people. We recommend using a natural cleaner to get the job done.
Making sure you know what you’re allergic to is another way on how to stop allergies. Multiple Chemical Sensitivity Syndrome is a rare condition that affects people’s sensitivity to common household cleaners, perfumes, and fragrances.
If you think you have this condition, make sure to only use allergy-free cleaners to get all of your cleaning needs taken care of.
If you’ve found that the products you are using are a partial or total cause of your allergies, throw them away and find yourself a better cleaner.
By switching, not only are you protecting yourself from allergens, you are protecting the environment as well. Chemical cleaners, as well as disinfectant cleaners, tend to pollute the local water supply.
These chemicals are often filtered out by the city, so there is no negative effect on humans, but plants and animals that rely on natural water sources do not have the luxury of advanced filtration.
Use An All Purpose Cleaner
When you use a variety of cleaning products to clean different parts of your house, it makes it very difficult to tell which one is causing your allergies. Using an all purpose cleaner that you know won’t cause flare ups will save you big time.
Sticking to what works for you is always a great solution because if you add anything else to your cleaning environment, you’ll know that it’s the cause of your allergies.
Finding Mold
Mold is one of the most common sources of allergies and it can be found in any home that has a damp environment.
It can be hard to detect but could be the main source of your allergies. There are a few ways you can determine if and where mold is in your house. You should be able to smell mold, and if you can smell it, it’s definitely affecting you negatively. This is another impactful tip on how to treat allergies.
If you can’t smell it, there’s still a chance it’s in your home. Check the dampest places in your home such as underneath your sinks, at the base of your shower, and any place there may be a water leak.
Your roof could be a common place for mold growth if you live in an area that rains a lot. Be sure to take all of these factors into account as you conduct your mold checks.
If you spot the presence of a small amount of mold, it could mean there’s more mold just around the corner.
Be thorough with your inspection.
If mold growth is getting too serious and starts to go beyond your cleaner’s potential, don’t be afraid to call a cleaning professional.
Controlling Your Air Quality
This one can be tricky depending on where you live but is also the most essential in protection against allergies.
If your house is poorly ventilated and allows for allergens to get in, you’re going to have a bad time.
Earlier, we talked about closing your windows to keep pollen out, but oftentimes that’s not enough for natural allergy relief to keep all your allergies away.
Invest in a HEPA filter.
Sometimes it’s as simple as that. A HEPA filter is a high-efficiency particulate air filter that pushes air through a small mesh filter that traps allergenic particles such as pollen, dust mites, mold, and more.
Seriously, they will save you. If you’re not totally convinced, they even use them in hospitals.
Clean air is essential to good health and is one of the best home remedies for allergies. If HEPA filters can keep a hospital’s air allergy-free, it can do the same for your home.
Most HEPA filter companies even claim that they eliminate 99% of particles in the air. If you’re suffering from allergies and you haven’t already invested in a HEPA filter, just do it!
The Takeaway
We want our advice to stick with you because we know how it feels to get bad allergies.
There’s a lot of tips here and a lot of advice to stick to, so here’s a quick recap of what we went over.
When you come back to this blog, just scroll all the way down here to get the scoop again.
- Figure out what’s making you allergic.
- If it’s pollen, use the pollen map to see if your area is affected, then follow the pollen guide above.
- If it’s mold, find the source and get rid of it with the best cleaner you have. Remember, mold loves warm and damp areas.
- If it’s your pets, groom them more frequently and vacuum at least once a week.
- If it’s dust mites, make sure you’re cleaning surfaces more often and vacuuming once a week.
- Clean naturally. Your current cleaner could be causing you problems, switch to an all-natural cleaner. (Preferably a multi-purpose one too)
- Use protective equipment while you clean, so dust doesn’t kick up into your face.
- Buy and install a HEPA filter. Seriously, you need this. Don’t forget this step.
Hopefully, you’ve taken something from this guide. We really do hope you find allergy relief through these tips because we sure have.
In this guide, we talked a lot about using a safe all purpose cleaner to do your cleaning jobs.
If you’re interested in cleaning safely and with the positive benefits it can have on the environment, be sure to check out our post on natural cleaners. A healthier environment means your allergy symptoms can reduce dramatically!
