If your nose reacts to house dust, the following are suggestion that will go a long way towards helping you reduce your house dust exposures.

 

  1. Focus the efforts on your bedroom. It is most important to have at least one room in which dust is optimally controlled. For most of us, this is the bedroom because it is the room in the home where we spend most of our at-home hours, sleeping.
  2. Know your level of exposure. Begin your control of house dust by establishing the degree of your dust exposure in the bedroom.
  3. Clean the room. Remove everything from the room, its closets, cabinets ad shelves, furniture, drapes, curtains, books, pictures, mattress, clothes, shoes and carpet. Noncarpeted floors and bare windows are best. Washable cotton curtains or those made of plastic are easy to clean.
  4. Clean your room thoroughly, ceiling to floor. Damp dust rather than dry dust, and mop rather than sweep. Don’t forget the closet, it’s a very dusty place.
  5. Clean the bed and other furniture in another area. Normally outside is the best to prevent the dust flying around.
  6. Return to your room only those pieces of furniture that are essential. In deciding which pieces to return, keep in mind that when dust-proofing a room, less in the best. A bed, a table, a chair, a dresser almost always serves the room purpose. Wood, plastic, metal or vinyl furniture is preferred, as these surfaces are easily maintained.
  7. Encase pillows, mattress and springs in air tight, vinyl encasements available in most department stores.
  8. Store only frequently used clothing in your bedroom closet. Place this clothing in air tight, zipper-sealed, vinyl clothes bags.
  9. Close the air conditioning vent into the room.
  10. Have someone else clean the room, if possible. It is best for the dust allergic person not to be the one to clean to room. You should be away from the room for four or more hours after the cleaning. If this is not possible, wear a mash while cleaning.
  11. Don’t use your bedroom as a storeroom, It is important that your dust free room not be used to store things. That includes books, clothing, shoes, toys, magazine. The more things in a room, the more things in a room, the more dust will accumulate.
  12. Wash bed weekly.
  13. Establish a routine for regular cleaning of the room. Damp mopping and dusting daily will slow the reaccumulation of dust but dust will reaccumulate. A more thorough cleaning (walls, ceiling, window shades or blinds, closet) once a weekly is essential to maintain good dust controls.
  14. Install an air filter. These are several types of filters that can effectively clear the air in your home of pollen, dust, molds spores and animal allergens.
  15. If you purchase a stand-alone filter system for a single room instead of one of your central system, one with HEPA filter is the best. However, be sure you get a large enough system, one that turns the air in the room many times each hours. The emphasis here is on the term large. Tabletop filters are not adequate to filter the air in your entire room. Most bedrooms require a unit about the size of a bedside table.