Allergies can cause difficulty breathing, burning eyes, and nonstop sneezing. You may feel like you are safe by remaining in your home much of the time. However, indoor air quality plays a huge role in how you feel. Since you spend so much time at home, taking steps to remove these tiny troublemakers from your indoor air will bring you much relief.
Check Your AC and Furnace Filters
Your HVAC filter is your first and best defense against poor air quality. It traps pollen and other particulate debris before they circulate through your entire home. If that filter is clogged, it cannot do its job well. This means those sneeze-causing particles just blow right back out into the rooms where you live.
If your system can support it, see about switching to a High-Efficiency Particulate Air (HEPA) filter. These catch a much smaller, finer particle than standard filters do. You should check the filter once a month. If you have bad allergies, you might even need to swap it out every six weeks.
Take Care of Laundry and Surfaces
The debris floating in the air loves to settle on soft surfaces, such as your couches and beds. Change your sheets and pillowcases at least weekly and wash them in hot water so that the particulate matter goes away.
You must also establish a daily cleaning routine. Wipe down all the hard surfaces in your home with a damp cloth. Do not use dry cloths because that will only push the particulate matter back into the air for you to breathe.
Controlling Entrances and Humidity
The doors and windows are major entry points for pollen. This is especially true when you can see a visible yellow powder collecting on cars and sidewalks. Although opening the windows for a little fresh air seems nice, doing this lets in millions of tiny allergens. That makes your air quality worse immediately.
Another thing to watch out for is humidity, as dust mites and mold grow best in moist conditions. Using a dehumidifier in basements or other damp areas will help keep the humidity level below 50%.
Vacuuming Smarter
When you vacuum, you are actually removing huge amounts of trapped allergens from your carpets and rugs. However, if you use the wrong kind of vacuum cleaner, you might just be blowing the smallest particles back out of the exhaust port. Look for a vacuum that has a sealed system and a HEPA filter. This is designed to trap the tiny particles and keep them inside the machine so that you do not breathe them.
You can also schedule an air quality assessment. This enables you to find out what exactly is contaminating your environment so that you can mitigate it. For air quality assessments and solutions in Newnan, GA, call E Dennis AC Inc.
