The 7 First Steps Towards an Allergy-Free Home

 

• 1.   Take your shoes off when you enter your home.  Pesticides, pollen and more      can get on your shoes and then be transferred to carpets.

• 2.      Idle your car in the driveway or street if you must.  Never idle in an attached garage!  Fumes can seep into the home.  Install a carbon monoxide detector in the closest room to the garage.
  

• 3.     Smokers can smoke outside.  Smoke travels through a home, so smoking in one particular room is not a healthy alternative.  Chemicals from cigarette smoke can remain in an environment for up to 10 years.

    4.      Use non-toxic cleaning products instead of chemical brands.  Toxic ingredients to avoid are chlorine, ammonia, methylene, chloride, phenol, formaldehyde, cresol, and xylene.

• 5.     Never mix household cleaning products.  The combination of chlorine bleach with an ammonia cleanser.  It will give off a toxic gas that is a severe respiratory irritant.

• 6.     Do not let pets in the bedrooms.  All pets have dander…and it can be an allergen.  We usually spend 6-8 breathing in the bedroom.  Keep the bedroom as allergy-free as possible!

• 7.     Cover pillows and mattresses with 100% cotton pillow and bedcovers.  They are more breathable and product less allergens than plastic and polyester.

 

Debbie Mumm lives in IL and has been an Indoor Air Specialist since 1999.  She was trained as a Molecular Hydration Specialist in 2009.