Do you or someone in your family suffer from allergies or asthma? Any kind of breathing difficulties you might have from time to time can make life really miserable for you. Your home should be a safe haven from those kinds of issues, as much as possible. Let’s look at some things you can do to make your home a place where you and your family can breathe easily and not have to worry so much about allergy triggers.

Set up a Dehumidifier

 

One of the biggest causes for breathing difficulties in the home is mold. Mold can often grow in places you can’t see it, and you might not even know it is present until it starts causing health issues for you. In order to minimize the amount of mold in your home, particularly in areas where you can’t see it, you may want to set up a dehumidifier. This will help control the humidity levels in your home, making it difficult for mold to grow and spread. While dehumidifiers will not completely eliminate the mold, they will drastically reduce its presence and keep its influence on your lungs and airways to a minimum.

Make Sure Your House Stays Clean

 

If your home is untidy, it can be very difficult to keep allergens out. Dust, pollen, mold, and other irritants can be present in your home in dangerous quantities when your house is not clean. Keeping up clean home eliminates a lot of allergy problems and makes it easier to breathe freely.

If you’re having trouble with allergies in your home, consider setting up a cleaning schedule every week. You can do some basic house cleaning every day and then more intensive and thorough house cleaning each week. You can also hire a cleaning service to come and do the cleaning when you’re not able to or when you want a more detailed cleaning done, says Hannah of NYC maids. They may be able to clean in the areas of the house you can’t get to or do types of cleaning you may have trouble doing.

Making sure your home is tidy as one of the best things you can do to minimize allergic reactions and to make your home safe for people who suffer from asthma. What you’re doing is minimizing the risk and improving air quality. Very few things you do in your home can improve air quality the way that regular cleaning can. Just make sure that when you dust, you use a slightly damp cloth rather than a feather duster or a dry cloth. This will help to collect the dust particles rather than push them out into the air. Also make sure that you’re using a vacuum cleaner that doesn’t have an overflowing bag. You should also open up windows and doors when you clean so that dust particles can escape outside rather than be kicked up into the air and trapped in your home.

 

 

Have Your HVAC System Cleaned

 

When was the last time you had your heating and cooling system cleaned? If there are vents that run throughout your home, they may get clogged with dirt and dust and can become dirty over time. That dirt can spread throughout the home when you activate your HVAC system. Having that cleaned out periodically can do a lot for the overall health of the people in your home and the cleanliness of the air.

 

You should also clean out your air filters every so often. In most cases, they’ll need to be cleaned out about every four months, though you may need to clean them out more or less frequently depending on how often they’re used and how many people live in the home. Keeping clean air filters will ensure cleaner air flow in the home.

Make Some Heating Changes if Necessary

 

What kind of installations or appliances in your home cause allergy issues? It can be really hard on allergy sufferers in the home to handle a wood fire stove. This creates a lot of dust and smoke particles in the air that can be tough on their lungs. They may have a difficult time breathing when the stove is activated. You may want to consider getting rid of the stove or not using it and then replacing it with heaters or a heating system.

The kind of heating system you use can minimize breathing problems or cause them. 

 

Unflued gas heating can trigger asthma by releasing nitrogen oxide into your home’s air supply. Fan powered heating systems can spread dust particles rapidly through the home. What tends to work best for asthma sufferers are electrical heating methods. These usually emit no particles or gasses that could trigger an allergic reaction or asthma attack. 

 

If you have fans in your home to provide cooling, you will want to clean them often or replace them with a fan-less cooling method. The fan blades can collect dust very quickly, and if they’re not cleaned off regularly, they can easily spread dust particles through them.

Other Helpful Tips

 

Let’s finish off by talking about a couple of other things you can do to make your home a safer place for people who suffer from allergies or asthma and improve the air quality for them.

 

Carpets tend to collect dust and dirt and other irritants very well. Every time someone walks across the carpet, they can kick up these particles into the air, causing breathing problems. If possible, get rid of the carpet. If you need carpet for whatever reason, try using short pile carpet, which means carpet that is not very tall. This will trap less dirt and be easier to clean.

 

You also want to clean bedding regularly. Dandruff, dust, and other particles can hang out on pillow cases and sheets, but if you clean the bedding every week in hot water, you’ll kill a lot of pests, sanitize the bedding effectively, and get rid of allergens that could be residing there.