For anyone with a dust allergy, keeping their home free from dust can help minimize their symptoms and make the air inside, much cleaner to breathe. But, dust can be hard enough to keep to a minimum, let alone eliminate altogether, and the amount of dust you have in your home can depend on a number of factors, such as whether you have pets, frequently open your windows or don’t clean very often.
To help you keep on top of areas in the home that are typically dusty, here are 6 things that can contribute to dust levels in your home:
- Pollen, soil, and particle pollution
In the majority of homes, around two thirds of dust present will have come from outside, in the form of pollen, soil and any other number of outdoor contaminants, even particulate matter from smoking. Pollen, for example, can easily be tracked inside on your footwear, clothes, or hair, and as you move around from room to room, the pollen spreads and settles on surfaces. This is also the way most outdoor particulate matter finds its way inside homes.
- Dust mites
Occurring naturally and thriving in humid environments, dust mites are microscopic pests that may also be present in areas of the home that are not particularly damp or warm, but which typically host a lot of dust made up of dead skin and pet dander etc. Bedding, curtains and carpets may be teeming with them, and the more dust there is in your home, the more likely you are to have a high population of dust mites.
- Pet dander
This common allergen found in many homes with pets, gets into the air and settles on surfaces, where it goes on to collect dust and dust mites; exacerbating the symptoms of anyone suffering with a dust allergy. In some instances, pet dander may be present in a home without pets, if someone brought it in on their clothing, for example.
- Dead skin
While it’s commonly thought to be the case that dust is made up almost entirely of dead skin particles, this in fact isn’t the reality. Dust does indeed contain dead skin, but what dead skin there is in a home, actually acts more as a magnet for other indoor air pollutants and dust mites, adding to the dusty problem.
- Food particles
Even if we clean up after ourselves when we eat inside the home, it’s not uncommon for crumbs and particles of food to slip down under the table, into the cracks of the sofa, or onto the floor, where they become natural components of dust.
- Insects and their droppings
As gross as it may be, the fecal matter and body parts of a wide range of insects, including cockroaches, can be found in dust. Unfortunately, cockroaches can infest any home, even those that are spotlessly clean, and if you’re allergic to them as some people are, their fecal matter can aggravate your allergic symptoms.
Dust doesn’t look great, and if found in significant amounts, can irritate the respiratory tract and even penetrate the lungs. To help keep your home dust-free, why not hire a cleaning service and let them use their dust-busting techniques to keep the air inside your home as clean and healthy as possible.
