If you're hosting dinners and parties this holiday season, you want your family and guests to be as comfortable as possible. But if some of your visitors suffer from serious allergies, your home may not be the safest place for them to visit right now. Dust mites, mold spores, bacteria, and other pathogens can lurk on the surfaces of your blinds and inside your carpets' fibers. If someone inhales these things, they may experience allergic reactions or severe allergy symptoms. Make your home safe and clean before the holidays.

Clean Your Window Treatments

Dust can buld up on your blinds and other window treatments throughout the year. If you simply dust your window treatments, you might not get them as clean as they need to be. Dust can harbor or hide dust mites, insect casings, and feces. People with severe allergies can become very ill if they inhale these pathogens. You can keep your loved ones healthy and safe by cleaning your blinds and window treatments using the tips below.

  1. Remove and wash your curtains and draperies. If your window treatments are delicate or fragile, have a professional cleaner wash and dry them for you.
  2. Spray your curtains and draperies with a fabric softener or similar product to keep them fresh. If possible, use a product that kills or eliminates dust mites, mold, and other pathogens.
  3. Remove your blinds, then place them inside your bathtub. You can also clean the blinds outdoors if it's easier for you.
  4. Fill a spray bottle with 2 cups of warm water and about 1 cup of white distilled vinegar. Use the solution to clean your blinds.
  5. Rinse your blinds with cold water, then allow them to dry.

Replace your window treatments, then proceed with the next phase in your cleaning.

Clean and Brighten Your Carpets

Your carpets can harbor many types of pathogens, including tiny dust mites. Dust mites are microscopic pests that belong to the arachnid family. The pests can trigger allergies in children, older people, and even pets.

Dust mites can live deep inside the fibers of your carpets. Vacuuming your carpets might remove dust mites from the surfaces of your flooring, but it might not reach deep down into the fibers. In this case, you'll need to have your carpets professionally cleaned and sanitized.

A professional carpet cleaning company can use several methods to remove the dust mites in your flooring, including steam cleaning and green cleaning. The steam cleaning method uses heat to clean flooring. The method may use steam or hot water. If you choose this method, you may need to leave the home for a short while.

Green cleaning is good for your home if you don't like the smell of harsh chemicals. A contractor may use natural ingredients, such as the essence of oranges and lemons, to clean your carpets. Some contractors use plant extracts like lavender to do the job.

Dry carpet cleaning services are another option. This method only uses tiny bubbles to deep clean carpets. The bubbles agitate and lift out contaminants from the fibers of your carpets. Once the contaminants rise to the surfaces of the carpets, contractors use a high-powered machine to suck them up. Because the dry cleaning method doesn't require large amounts of water to work effectively, you may not need to leave your home if you choose this method. A cleaning contractor will generally discuss each method's benefits before they clean your carpets.

If you need further assistance with getting your home ready for the holidays or can't decide on the best method to use, contact a carpet cleaning specialist right away.

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