Allergy-Proof Your Home: 10 Natural Hacks For Easy Relief

What are Allergies and how to Allergy-proof your home from them?

Part 2: Breath Easy: 11 Natural Remedies for Allergy Symptom Relief

Allergies are the worst. Every time something blooms, look out it’s time to find the tissues. Anyone who has experienced a bout of allergies understands that it can make you miserable. It feels like you have a cold. My Daughter and I have severe allergies, and we do not take antihistamines. We have multiple chemical sensitivities and are allergic to many ingredients of traditional medicine.

Allergies occur when your immune system overreacts to foreign substances, like pollen or food particles. The immune system creates antibodies, labeling the particular substance you are allergic to as bad. When you come in contact with the allergen, your immune system reacts, causing the cold-like symptoms that have you questioning, am I sick?

The severity of allergies can range from a light sniffle to anaphylaxic shock. No matter the reaction, allergies are a part of life and they are not fun.

Allergies, both indoor and outdoor can cause:

Watery, red, and/or swollen eyes
Excessive sneezing
Runny and stuffy nose
Itchy ears, nose, throat and eyes
Tingling in the throat and mouth when eating raw vegetables with pollen residue on them.

These symptoms can lead to sinus infections. Especially if you have chronic sinusitis. The use of antihistamines, nasal sprays, and cold medicine disrupts the natural balance of your sinuses and can cause further irritation.

Those with asthma will see an increase in chest congestion and tightness, making it hard to breathe, thus needing to turn to more medicine.

This will be a two-part post. Allergy-Proof Your Home and Allergy Symptom Relief.

So, how do you cope with daily allergies when you do not want to take medication for them? The saying, “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure”, is true.

Over the years, I have tried several things. Allergy shots are by far the best at reducing the severity of allergies long-term. But, even if you have had allergy shot treatments, you know the allergies still exist and can be triggered at any moment.

These 10 simple yet effective strategies will allergy-proof your home and provide easy relief.

Allergy Prevention

Purchase Hypo-allergenic mattress and pillow covers
Wash your bedding weekly in Hot water.
Vacuum the mattress, spray it with vinegar (let dry), and sprinkle food-grade diatomaceous earth on it.
Place your pillows in the dryer on high heat weekly for 10 minutes
Vacuum couches while you are doing the floors and spray with vinegar.
If you have pets, brush them!
Clean your air filters, vacuum filters, and vent filters. Anything with filters! Monthly!
Clean the ceiling fans!
Dust and vacuum behind things.
Open your windows every day for 10-15 minutes. Even when it’s cold outside.

Weekly tasks to be added to your auto-pilot chore list

Let’s talk bedding first! Make a plan to wash your bedding every week on laundry day. Doing so creates a routine and allows your brain to go on auto-pilot for these bed-related allergy prevention techniques.

Purchase hypo-allergenic mattress and pillow covers
- You are supposed to replace your mattress every 10 years. Disgusting things like dust mites and pet dander build up over time. However, many of us can not afford to buy a new mattress so often. The next best thing is to buy hypo-allergenic mattress covers for your bed and pillows. This will help increase their life a bit. The cover can easily be removed for washing and should help keep the dust mites and pet dander to a minimum.

If you are interested,these are the covers I use. Utopia Bedding Premium Zippered Mattress Encasement Covers They do not feel like you are sleeping on plastic. They are very comfortable and do not increase heat.

If you are in the market for a cheaper mattress, try these. We have them and love them. Zinus 10 inch Green Tea Memory Foam Mattress

Wash your bedding weekly in Hot water. That includes the mattress covers and blankets.
- Dust mites are killed at 130-degree temperatures. Washing them weekly will reduce the dust mite populations and their droppings. It will also remove pet dander.
- If the blankets are too large to wash, vacuum them and spray them with vinegar.

Vacuum the mattress, spray it with vinegar (let dry), and sprinkle food-grade diatomaceous earth on it. Just a light dusting will do
- The vinegar will neutralize pet dander proteins and kill dust mites. The diatomaceous earth will kill them as they come to the top. Dust Mites live in the interior of the mattress during the day and come to the surface at night. That is why simply washing the bed is not enough. Repeat the process each week.

Place your pillows in the dryer on high heat weekly for 10 minutes. This will kill dust mites living in the pillows. It will also remove pet dander and pollen.

Vacuum couches while you are doing the floors and spray with vinegar.
- Pollen, pet dander, and dust mites collect on furniture, carpets, and rugs. All of these must be vacuumed weekly and should be lightly sprayed with vinegar.
- Vinegar is a natural deodorizer, germs and bacteria killer, and pet dander neutralizer. Lightly spraying your furniture and rugs weekly will keep the allergens low and your house fresh.

If you have pets, brush them!
- `This can be hard when everyone is racing to every corner of the earth each week, just to get basic things done. Make time each week. When you watch TV or listen to an audiobook instead of reading that day.
- Cat allergies can be particularly bad, for some people, and cats are terrible shedders. The cat should be brushed daily. They are small and probably won’t love it. So, it should only take you a few minutes each day to remove a few brushfuls of hair.
- Pets can also be sprayed down with vinegar!

I know I may be starting to sound a little like the Windex Dad from My Big Fat Greek Wedding, but vinegar really is good stuff and has a lot of uses.

It acts as a leave-in conditioner for your pet’s hair, deodorizes them, and is completely harmless for them if they lick their fur. I like to add a few drops of Tea Tree oil to the vinegar I spray on my dog. It acts as an insect, tick, and mite repellent

Monthly Tasks

These need to be put on the calendar. If you use a digital calendar to schedule these tasks on auto-renew each month on the same day.

Clean your air filters, vacuum filters, and vent filters. Anything with filters!
- Changing your filters monthly helps reduce pollen and dander in the house. By placing these items on an auto reminder, they won’t be forgotten.
  - If you don’t have filter covers on the air vents, these are the ones I use. Veva Premium Air Vent Filters. They are cheap and do not reduce the airflow. They aren’t HEPA filters, but they do catch some of the particles floating in the air.
Clean the ceiling fans! I am guilty of not keeping up with this one. No one ever looks up until one day you do look up, and there’s a monster hanging from your fan. Ew! Gross! Right? It happens to us all at some point. Put this on your monthly to-do so that monster doesn’t get a chance to grow 🙂
Dust and vacuum behind things. There are a lot of mouse-sized fur balls that can be found under and behind couches. I quick wipe dusting, and a little deeper vacuuming can go a long way in riding the house of allergens.

Daily Tasks

Open your windows every day for 10-15 minutes. Even when it’s cold outside.
- Circulating fresh air into the house is important for indoor air quaily. Many people tell you if you have allergies not to do this because the pollen will blow in. That’s true, some pollen will be blown in, but the benefits of opening the window outweigh the pollen coming.
- As we close up our houses and seal off all air leaks, it saves money on the heating and cooling bills, but our houses become stuffy and full of germs, dander, and pollen. Fresh air circulates the old stale air out. Taking more toxins out than it brings in.
Brush the cat! I said this above but I can’t stress enough how easy and helpful this one is.
- Cat allergies can be particularly bad, for some people, and cats are terrible shedders. The cat should be brushed daily. They are small and probably won’t love it. So, it should only take you a few minutes each day to remove a few brushfuls of hair.

Finally, the last one trick I have. However, I have never tried it and only just stumbled upon it recently. It sounds intriguing.

ExAller – This product claims to be natural, chemical-free, and safe for children and pets. Apparently, you spray this on your mattress and couches. It is supposed to attract the dust mites from the inner layers to the surface, where you can simply vacuum them away. I will research this further, but since I have never heard of it. I thought you should know about this possible option.

What do we do when our efforts appear to be futile, and we are hit a Welcome to Spring Sneezing Nose or the Dreaded Long Winter snuffles?

Now that we have covered ways to rid your home of allergens continue to part two of this post. Where we talk about symptom-reduction techniques. Breathe Easy: 11 Natural Remedies for Allergy Symptom Relief