How to reduce summer allergens in your home
It feels wonderful to open the windows during the summer and let fresh air into your home, but outdoor air can also bring in summer allergens like dust, dirt, and pollen. Learn how to reduce summer allergens in your home so you can enjoy the warm weather while it lasts.
Avoiding Summer Allergens
Avoidance is the best way to combat summer allergens. While it may be pleasant to open the windows and let the summer breeze blow through your home, during periods of high pollen levels, it may be best to keep the windows closed and rely on your air conditioner. Replace your HVAC system’s air filter with a HEPA-approved filter designed to remove allergens.
Summer Allergens
Frequent House Cleaning
Keeping your home clean will reduce the effect of indoor allergens such as dust, dirt, and pet dander. Eliminate and organize as much clutter as you can – stacks of books, papers and magazines tend to collect dust, and are difficult to clean.
Vacuum at least once per week. If you have pets, consider vacuuming more frequently. Hire a professional carpet cleaning service to inspect and deep clean your carpets at the beginning and end of summer. This will eliminate dirt and pet dander that weekly vacuuming does not remove.
Removing Mold
Mold is a common source of indoor allergies all year round. Warm, humid summer weather can make mold growth worse. If you have eliminated other sources of summer allergens, but your symptoms do not improve, inspect your home for mold. Bathrooms, basements, and other damp areas are the most likely places to find mold.
Mold can also grow behind walls, inside ceilings and ductwork, and in other hidden areas. If certain areas in your home smell musty or earthy, but you cannot find any visible mold, you may have a problem with hidden mold.
When You Need a Professional
If your allergies are severe, or you also have asthma triggered by your allergies, consider hiring a house cleaning crew to deep clean your home every two to four weeks.
If you find small patches of mold, you may be able to clean it yourself with a solution of bleach and hot water. However, if the mold is widespread or located in an inaccessible space, you should hire a professional mold removal company.
About Vince Sandri
Vince Sandri is a content writer and blogger with more than 12 years of experience. His expertise is in creating content related to disaster restoration, including information about preventing and reacting to natural disasters like flooding, water damage, fire and smoke damage, mold growth, storm damage and more.
Vince has been the main contributor to RestorationMasterFinder.com since 2014. Over that time, he has written numerous service pages and blogs for disaster restoration providers featured on RestorationMasterFinder.com. Vince has done extensive research and covered a wide range of topics relating to disaster restoration to help homeowners, business owners, and property managers better protect their property. He understands the problems that disasters like flooding, fire, smoke, and mold can cause as well as the best ways to respond to these issues to limit the damage.
Vince completed his Bachelor of Arts degree at Aurora University and his master’s degree at DePaul University. He has been writing SEO website pages, blogs, and press releases since 2012. Vince is also a musician and can be seen playing in the Chicago, IL area.
These are very good recommendations! I’m a little concerned about a couple of spots that I suspect might have mold, so I will be checking that out, and maybe will lower my windows until the worst of summer is over.