We expect the indoor air quality to be clean and filtered from dust and dirt inside our homes. Too often, though, what gets overlooked or forgotten are the materials and surfaces we regularly touch or walk on indoors, which can quickly and unknowingly stir up a person’s allergies.
Some areas, such as carpeting, upholstered furniture, and fabric blinds, collect dust and trap the allergens. With an accidental brush of the hand, the indoor air quality becomes polluted again from the particles on these surfaces. Using these five proven methods helps reduce irritant communal areas and adds more ways to guard against intrusive allergens and germs.
Change Furnace Filter Every 2-3 Months
Professional HVAC companies and air filter manufacturers always recommend routine maintenance along with changing your furnace filter every 90 days. You might consider every 60 days if you have pets, excess dust, live in a dry climate, leave your windows / doors open frequently or if someone in your home suffers from allergies or asthma.
Install a Whole-Home Air Cleaner
The indoor air quality of our homes is not always as fresh or clean as we hope. Indoor air often holds onto foul odors, mustiness, viruses, bacteria, airborne pollutants that disrupt breathing, and allergies. By installing a whole-home air cleaner, you can breathe easier at home and maintain high-quality indoor air.
Along with removing pollutants that trigger allergies and asthma attacks, air cleaners will reduce or eliminate unwanted smells often found inside your home. Instead of over-the-counter sprays to remove odors, you can easily prevent unnecessary chemicals from lingering indoors using a whole-home air cleaner.
Install a Whole-Home Air Purifier
If you’ve ever dealt with dust buildup on shelves, books, computers, and other surfaces, you know how hard it is to keep those areas clean and free of particulates. By installing a whole-home air purifier, airborne dust gets trapped in the system, making it harder for filth to buildup in those areas. The main benefit of using this equipment is enjoying healthier indoor air.
Since air purifiers trap many airborne particles, they also help control odors coming from these particles. Besides dust, whole-home air purifiers also reduce the amount of pet dander, pollen, irritants, and other pollutants found in the air.
Vacuum and Dust Weekly
Why are we recommending vacuuming and dusting every week? Unknowingly, your clothing and shoes bring in dust, dirt, pollens, potential grass clippings, and other airborne germs and bacteria when you enter. When you remove your apparel, those particles transfer onto another indoor surface. Also, your floors trap enormous amounts of allergens than any other open area in your home.
Whatever is clinging to the bottom of your footwear will stick to the surface you’re stepping on. Furthermore, any dust, dirt, or debris left in the flooring can trigger indoor allergies, such as bouts of sneezing, watery eyes, and a runny nose. For these reasons, skipping weekly vacuuming and dusting, uncontrollable allergens and germs remain and quickly become airborne.
Keep The Windows Closed
Opening a window a few minutes a day lets in the fresh air. However, it is also a direct pathway and an open door for intrusive allergens, pollens, and germs to quickly enter a house. To help allergy proof your home, keep the windows closed so these irritants can’t enter your cooling system and begin recirculating throughout your home.
The key to allergy proofing your home is to try and eliminate as many places where irritants enter and collect. Doing this allows you and your family members to live a healthy life.
If you have any questions about easy ways to allergy proof your home, contact Jackson Comfort Services and speak with our indoor air quality experts!
