Allergy-proof your home

Does staying at home trigger a bout of sneezing? Beat the dust mites into submission with our easy-to-follow home cleaning guide. Time to turn up the central heating, snuggle down on the sofa and hibernate for the winter, right? Not if you’re allergic to dust mites or other indoor allergens. Winter living creates the perfect conditions for indoor allergens to thrive, and your health to deteriorate as a result.

‘Dust mites, pollen, animal hair, waste, moulds and fungi, are all going to be lurking within the nooks and crannies of your home during the winter months,’ says Toby Saville, a microbiologist for Dyson. ‘So forget spring cleaning, you need an autumn one, to prepare for the long months of indoor living.’

Most of us spend about 90 per cent of our time indoors when it gets colder, so we’re more exposed to allergens that can cause conditions such as perennial rhinitis. ‘Dust mites are the number one indoor allergen,’ says Toby. ‘There are around 10,000 in an average bed and around 1,000 per square foot of carpet. They love damp, humid conditions, so they burrow deep within soft furnishings and live there quite happily for three to four months, eating mainly human skin cells as well as pollen, bacteria, fungi and moulds.’

Humans are actually allergic to dust mite excrement – they excrete around 20 tiny pellets each day which, when thrown into the air, become a dust. It’s the protein in it that irritates people, causing perennial allergic rhinitis.

How clean is your home?
‘Dust mites can be got rid of – you need a very powerful vacuum cleaner and a lot of patience,’ says Toby. ‘Vacuuming very slowly and diligently for about five minutes on one square foot of carpet should do the trick. Or, you can kill them by exposing them to extreme temperatures, such as a 60°C washing machine cycle or around 12 hours in the freezer,’ he explains. ‘But, you can never get rid of them entirely.’

In addition to dust mites, you need to clean to get rid of pollen deposits and animal dander, which can remain in soft furnishings for several months after an animal has left the house.

‘Pollen collects in dust, and can lurk around for several months, still provoking reactions in hayfever sufferers,’ says allergy expert, Professor Jean Emberlin of the Pollen Research Unit.

The best way to clean
It may not be the most gripping thing on your to-do list, but getting handy with the Hoover is really important if you want to keep your indoor allergen count down. Using a steamer and chemical-free products will also help.

More permanent solutions would be to:
swap carpets for wooden floors
remove pets entirely from your home
invest in a dehumidifier or air purifier
swap curtains for wipe-down blinds

If you can’t do any of those things immediately, then invest in a good vacuum and steam cleaner. It will make all the difference and will keep your home as clean as possible – you should see an improvement in your symptoms within days.

Your autumn cleaning schedule Daily
Wipe down all surfaces in the kitchen and bathroom with a chemical-free cleaner.
Why? To wash away moulds and bacterial deposits.

Top tip: Use products that are free from chemicals, or make your own simple solutions from water and vinegar or lemon juice - both are effective cleaners.

Make sure you vacuum around your bed, major living areas and the sofa or other soft furnishings that you use regularly.

Why? To keep the dust mite population down.

Top tip: Use a vacuum cleaner that has a high-efficiency particulate air (HEPA) filter. Dyson’s Root Cyclone HEPA models (such as DC11, DCO7, DCO8TW and DC15) remove particles smaller than cigarette smoke.