How to Prepare Your Home For Spring Allergens

Doing some spring cleaning around the house won’t only benefit you if you suffer from allergies, it will make your Albuquerque home more comfortable for everyone and make others more eager to be your guest. Taking some time to prevent allergies through spring cleaning tasks will improve the overall air quality in your home and make your home healthier.

The following are seven things you can do right now to make this spring season as enjoyable as possible for everyone who comes into your home in the coming months.

Remove and Prevent Mold

The presence of mold in your home can aggravate or create springtime allergies. Do a thorough inspection of your home and look out for problem-areas where mold tends to develop. These areas are typically rooms that are most likely to be exposed to moisture like your kitchen, bathroom, and basement. If you see mold, you can remove it with a mixture of water and detergent. You can prevent future mold growth by keeping things dry and fixing any leaks.

Get an Indoor Air Filter

HEPA filters are great for improving the health of your home and removing allergens. They can drastically reduce the presence of even very small contaminants in your home’s air. Among the contaminants that they are highly effective at filtering out of your air are dust, tobacco smoke, dust mites, molds, and even gaseous pollutants like paint and cleaning products.

Begin Vacuuming Your Entire Home Weekly

This may at first seem like a big chore, but it will pay off in the long run. Your carpets are actually harboring a significant portion of the contaminants in your home, and these contaminants can be let loose in your home’s air when carpets are disturbed or walked over. If you want your vacuuming sessions to be as effective as possible at sucking up allergens, look for a vacuum cleaner that includes a HEPA filter.

If your carpets are really bad and haven’t been cleaned in a long time, consider a steam cleaning in the early spring. It’s an especially good idea to opt for spring steaming if you have pets in your home and therefore potential pet dander in your air.

Wash and Rinse Window/Door Screens

Air tends to circulate around the home after coming in around windows and doors. If the areas around your windows and doors are dirty and dusty, your interior air is probably going to suffer. Wash and rinse screens to help fix the situation, and also be careful to keep floors around your doors clean so that dirt doesn’t get blown up into your air when doors are opened. If you want to minimize allergy symptoms, you probably also want to keep windows closed in the early spring months to prevent pollen and other allergens from entering your Albuquerque home.

Clean Out Your Closets and Cupboards

Most of us don’t often take the time to clean all the way to the back of our closets and cupboards. However, doing so at least once per year will really cut down on the amount of dust in the air of your home.

For the best results, empty out closets and cupboards entirely and wipe them out thoroughly with a wet rag. Make sure you also dry them thoroughly before putting everything back and closing them up.

If you leave moisture lingering at the back of your dark closet and cupboard interiors, you will create an environment that’s prone to mold and mildew development.

Dust Counters and Table Surfaces

No matter how clean your home is, dust will accumulate quickly on surfaces. Fortunately, it can easily be removed by a quick wipe-down with a wet rag. Take a walk around your home and look out for any table or countertop surfaces that might not normally get your attention. These are the surfaces where you’re likely to find the most accumulated dust.

Clean Your HVAC Equipment

All your spring cleaning efforts will be ineffective at improving your home’s interior air quality if your HVAC equipment runs on a dirty duct system that’s full of contaminants. Having a HVAC technician inspect your equipment occasionally will help you keep on top of cleaning needs. One simple thing you can probably do yourself to improve HVAC efficiency and promote healthy air is change your air conditioner filter.

Keep Your Bedsheets Clean

Consider the fact that you spend almost a third of your time with your bedsheets pressed up close against your face. Naturally, dirty bedsheets could cause you increased and unnecessary exposure to allergens. One of the biggest allergens found in bedsheets is dust mites. You should be washing your sheets at least once per week going in to allergy season to reduce allergen exposure. Ideally, wash them in hot water to kill dust mites and get rid of any other pests or bacteria.

For help with improving indoor air quality through HVAC maintenance, consult Daniels Heating and Air, LLC at (505) 898-8860 for service in your Albuquerque, NM home.