Dust in the home can be a major irritant for people with allergies. But the dust itself is most likely not the cause of sniffling and sneezing, the dust mites are. In fact, dust mites are considered the leading cause of indoor allergy.
Dust mites can thrive inside throughout the winter, especially if it is warm and humid in the home. They flock to bedding, upholstered furniture, and carpets, and feed on skin scales from humans, pets, pollen, fungi, and bacteria they find in your home.
To reduce the amount of dust mites in your home, start with your bedding:
Encase your pillows, mattress, and box spring in zippered allergy-proof covers so the mites can’t get inside them.
Wash your sheets, pillowcases, and blankets every week. The water needs to be at least 130 degrees to kill dust mites. Also, dry in high heat.
Control the humidity in your home. Dust mites thrive in houses that have humidity greater than 50 percent. Keep the humidity level between 30 percent and 49 percent. In humid parts of the country, keep the windows shut, and use heat and air conditioning for comfort, as necessary.
Vacuum your carpets and upholstered furniture. Use a vacuum equipped with a high-efficiency particulate air (HEPA) filter, so you don’t keep stirring up the dust mite allergens around your house. Dust mite protein is very small and it basically blows in and out of any vacuum that’s not equipped with a HEPA filter.
Dust often. Be sure to use a damp cloth or furniture polish to dust, so you aren’t just tossing dust up into the air. If you dust before you vacuum, the vacuum cleaner will help pick up whatever particles your cloth fails to capture.
Use an air filtration system. Again, you’ll want to use a system equipped with a HEPA filter that can catch the dust mite matter in the air. HEPA filters have been proven to work better at ridding the air of allergens than electrostatic air purifiers.
Maid Brigade House Cleaning Services cares about you and your family. For more information on healthy green cleaning and green living, please log on to greencleancertified.com and maidbrigade.com. For more information on “Household Cleaning Products and Breast Cancer”, please watch our video at greencleancertified.com/greentv.
