7 Ways To Keep Your Allergies More Bearable
Guess what time of the year it is!
That’s right, it’s allergy season. The pollen this spring has been really bad with the almost no rain we’ve gotten over the last couple of weeks. I can’t go outside without sneezing four or five times, every single time I step outside. And allergy medicine only works so much before it stops working altogether, so you have to come up with other ways to deal with your allergies.
I’m not here to help you get rid of allergies because I honestly have no clue how to even start with that. But I am here to tell you ways to keep your allergies more bearable. Coming from someone with a lot of allergy problems, any help is greatly appreciated.
1. Keep Windows and Doors Closed
This kind of seems obvious, but we always have our windows or backdoor open if it’s in the sixties or even the seventies. This is okay when it won’t trigger your allergies if you even know what type of pollen you’re allergic to. You don’t want to be breathing in the exact thing you’re allergic to, but you do want to have some fresh air in your house to keep the air flowing.
The best way to do this is to check what the pollen index is going to be for that day and check the wind. You don’t want the wind to be blowing the pollen directly into your open windows. If the pollen index is really high, you might want to keep your windows closed for the day, and if the wind is really bad, you might want to keep your windows closed, too. This is one of the most useful ways to keep your allergies bearable because you can easily check the pollen count for the day, and you can still have your windows open, too.
2. Use an Air Filter
This is another one of the best ways to keep your allergies bearable because it filters the pollen out of the air so you can still breathe. There are different types of air filters, some look like fans that circulate around the room and some look like vents in the wall. Both of them do the same thing, and both of them are really useful to someone with allergies.
Using a high-efficiency particulate air (HEPA) filter, often combined with another filter, may be the easiest way to improve air quality in your home or main living area. A HEPA filter removes particulate matter from the air, like pieces of pollen and dust mite. This is a really good way for someone with allergies to be able to live in their house still, even though it’s difficult for them to breathe still. This is a must-have when it comes to really humid summer days and you have to have your windows open for any reason at all.
3. Vacuum and Dust Regularly
This is another really obvious thing to do, but sometimes you just forget about it until your allergies get too bad. My mom vacuums and dusts every Sunday, and there’s still a lot of dust around our house. Most of it is pollen from having the windows open a lot, but some of it is dust that just gathers throughout the week, too.
If you have carpet on your floors and your allergies are bad, you might need to vacuum the rugs more than once a week. It doesn’t take too long to dust and vacuum, as long as you do it every week. Once you skip a week, it might take you longer to vacuum the next week. It could also make your allergies even worse if you miss a week here or there. This is one of the best ways to keep your allergies bearable, especially if you keep up with the dusting and vacuuming every week, so I would really try this if you don’t already do it.
4. Run a Dehumidifier
This is a good thing to have in your house if mold is a big allergy of yours. The humidity in your house needs to be below 50% to keep the mold from growing in your house. Keeping a dehumidifier in your basement is a good idea, since this is the place that usually has the most moisture in the house. You also might want to get your house checked out for mold.
This is another one of the ways to keep your allergies bearable. A water leak in your wall could be causing the mold, or it could be that there was water in your basement. This could be a reason you have really bad allergies without even knowing you have mold. You could think it’s a pollen allergy, and it’s really mold. This would be a really good thing to have in your house no matter what. Even if you don’t have mold in your house, having a dehumidifier could be really useful in the summer when you’re in the house all day.
5. Remove Indoor Plants
This is another really obvious remedy. But it’s also another one that everyone forgets about. Flowers seem to be the gift everyone gives during the year, so you want to keep them in your house to show appreciation. But they can also cause major allergy issues, especially if you’re allergic to flowers and pollen, so be careful of them.
If you really want to keep the flowers because someone important to you gave them to you, then plant them outside somewhere. Make sure they are not planted near a window, so you can still open and close your windows without the pollen coming in and out. This is one of the ways to keep your allergies bearable while you want to show appreciation. Keep the flowers and plants outside instead of bringing them inside because you want to make sure you won’t sneeze and cough and have a sore throat throughout the entire summer.
6. Switch to Unscented Products
Sometimes a certain scent can cause your allergies to become worse. If you know what scent it is, then you should stop using that scent completely, for every product. But if you don’t know which shampoo, or laundry detergent, is causing the allergies, then switch all of the products you use so they are unscented, just to keep the allergies from happening.
This is another one of the ways to keep your allergies bearable. It sounds a little confusing, but it can also be really easy once you figure out which one you are allergic to. This includes shampoo, body wash, laundry detergent, hand soap, anything that has a smell to it. If you don’t have an allergy to most smells, then switch to a different scent, or you can switch to unscented completely. Either way would work nicely because both of them would get rid of the allergies that you probably have from using scented products.
7. Be Careful with Your Fireplace
Depending on what wood you use in your fireplace, having a fire could be making your allergies worse, as well. My family puts candles in the fireplace so we don’t have the issue with wood. But some trees cause allergies, and that is what makes the allergic reaction worse when you light the wood on fire. So don’t bring trees inside your house.
If you really want to bring wood into your house and have a fire, then pick out the right wood. Don’t go to your backyard and chop down some trees. That could cause some more allergic reactions that you didn’t know you had. Go to a store that sells the wood and buy it from there because it would be easier than trying to figure out what wood you are actually allergic to. This is one of the ways to keep your allergies bearable because it would keep the allergens out of your house, which would make you less likely to have an allergic reaction.
