Seasonal allergies can be extremely unpleasant if you’re not prepared. Itchy eyes and stuffy noses may keep you up at night and negatively affect your daily life in numerous ways, and when you’re in the thick of it, it can feel like you can’t escape the allergens – even in your own home.
The truth is, you’re probably partially right. Allergens are all over our homes both in and out of allergy season; dust, dust mites, and pollen are just a few that are likely making themselves at home in your home. But armed with an ultrasonic humidifier and some anti-allergy bedding, you might just stand a chance. Here are a few items you can get for your home that can help relieve those frustrating seasonal allergy symptoms.
Ultrasonic Humidifier
Improving the quality of the air in your home is one way to improve your seasonal allergies, and an ultrasonic humidifier can help make that happen. Ultrasonic humidifiers are machines that help you control the humidity in the air by expelling a warm or cool mist, effectively moistening the air as needed. They help combat allergies in numerous ways.
If you struggle with seasonal allergies, dry air can be an irritant; it can further dry the skin inside your nose and throat, areas that may already be irritated by seasonal allergies. Additionally, breathing air that’s at optimal humidity levels will help your body maintain its natural defenses against allergy symptoms, like the mucus that lines the nose and throat as protection. An ultrasonic humidifier helps on both of these fronts; by keeping the air moist, your body will be able to naturally defend itself, and your allergy symptoms won’t be exacerbated by dry air. Finally, moistening your nasal tissues can bring relief from congestion, and, you guessed it, an ultrasonic humidifier will help on that front, too.
Robovacum
Vacuums can be a great weapon against seasonal allergies, but it’s not exactly easy or casual to whip out a loud vacuum and make your way around the house every day. It’s a dreaded chore. That’s why we suggest a robovacum to help combat seasonal allergies. Having a robovac constantly doing the work for you will ensure you don’t have lingering pollen, dust mites, or animal hair on your floors to irritate your allergies. Your home should be a space where you can go inside and escape those seasonal triggers, but if you don’t have time to vacuum, it may be just as bad inside the house as out.
A robovac will also ensure that the whole floor surface is being cleaned and will do a more thorough job than someone who has other things to do that day. However, if you’re getting a robovac for allergies and not just for cleaning, it’s important to get one that has a high efficiency particulate air (HEPA) filter for allergens. Otherwise, the vacuum may pick up larger particles like hair and dust, but the actual allergens might be too small to be effectively captured.
Allergen Hand Vacuum
While robovacs are great for your floors, they can’t exactly climb up your couch or get the particles off your shirt before you wear it. Not yet, at least. So it’s important to have a hand vacuum on hand to get those out-of-reach spots. During allergy season, allergens are everywhere; they’re all over your clothes when you come in from work and all over any furniture you or your pets sit on after being outside. An allergen hand vacuum is specifically made to get rid of those allergens, so it will have a HEPA filter to ensure it eliminates them. They also are engineered not to expel those allergens back into the air once they’ve been vacuumed up, as some non-allergen specific vacuums do. So if you’re looking to make your home an allergen-free zone, get an allergen hand vacuum to hit all the spots a robovac can’t.
Anti-Allergen Bedding
If you have trouble breathing or struggle with allergy symptoms at night, your bedding might be part of the problem. Traditional bedding is the perfect home for allergens; you might not know it, but the pillowcase you’re resting your head on every night is providing the perfect space for dust mites, pet hair, and even bed bugs to gather.
Allergy-proof bedding comes in the form of mattresses, pillow covers, comforters, and more. Manufacturers make bedding hypoallergenic by using tightly woven materials that aren’t such a friendly home for allergens. Experts say silk, organic cotton, and microfiber are some examples of materials used in hypoallergenic bedding as they have the defense of being tightly woven while still allowing for cool and breathable coverage. So if you find that your allergies bother you extra at night, try some anti-allergen bedding, or take it up a notch and get a mattress that’s hypoallergenic in itself.
Air Purifier
The air in your home could potentially be making your seasonal allergies worse, especially if you like to keep the windows open. Dust and pollen can freely enter your home and leave you with irritating allergy symptoms or exacerbate the ones you’re already experiencing. An air purifier is one way to defend yourself from experiencing seasonal allergy symptoms in your home.
Air purifiers do what you’d expect: they take in air from the room, filter and purify it, and then send it back out once it’s cleaned up. You’ll want to get an air purifier with a HEPA filter, which means it’s more geared towards eliminating allergens like dust and pollen rather than purifying the air. Ideally, you’ll get an air purifier with a HEPA filter that uses activated carbon as a purification ingredient; this gives you the best of both worlds, with the HEPA filter removing the particles while the activated carbon removes gasses from the air.
Conclusion
As with most medical-related topics, we recommend speaking to a doctor or an expert about what course of action might be best for you. It’s important to try to identify the allergens that are bothering you most before you take action; this will save you a lot of time and money in the long run as you won’t waste resources on solutions that aren’t geared towards your specific needs. Most of these products, however, like an ultrasonic humidifier or a robovac, are good to have even if you don’t have allergies. So if you can’t get an appointment with a medical professional anytime soon, either of those products would be a good purchase that you won’t later consider a waste.