Learning to Communicate with Your Cleaning Service

Posted on: 18 October 2018

You may love your pets, but you may not be too happy about them exacerbating your allergy symptoms. Many people blame fur for their pet allergies, but allergy symptoms are often caused by dander — this is a combination of dead skin and hair follicles that are continually shed by animals. Dander is easily trapped by your carpets and begins to build up, where it's released into the air every time you or your pet walk on the carpet. To keep your allergy symptoms to a minimum, it's important to prevent too much dander from building up in your carpeting. Here's how you need to care for the carpets in your home when you're sharing your space with pets that you're allergic to.

Clean Up Pet Accidents Quickly to Prevent Allergens From Soaking Into the Carpet Backing

While hair and dander are the primary culprits behind pet allergies, accidents on your carpet can also exacerbate your symptoms. Urine, feces, and vomit are not only disgusting, they can also contain the proteins that trigger your allergic response. Worse, all of these fluids can soak into your carpet backing and become very difficult to remove, causing a persistent odor along with making your allergies worse.

In order to prevent your pet's accidents from soaking into your carpet's backing, it's important to clean them right away. Use a paper towel to gently dab at the stains in order to pick them up without spreading them. After that, use a special enzymatic cleaner that breaks down pet stains. You'll need to let the enzymes in the cleaner eat away at the stain for a period of time before cleaning it — follow the manufacturer's instructions on the bottle. You should also check to make sure the enzymatic cleaner you are using is safe to use around pets.

Vacuum Your Carpet Weekly Using an Anti-Allergy Vacuum

When you vacuum your carpet weekly, you'll help prevent pet dander from building up. Removing it before it has a chance to settle deep into the carpet can reduce your allergy symptoms between professional cleanings.

Unfortunately, some vacuum cleaners do a poor job of handing very small particles such as pet dander — the dander goes into the vacuum and is blown right back out again, scattering it throughout the room rather than trapping it in the vacuum.

If you suffer from pet allergies, always use an anti-allergy vacuum cleaner when you vacuum your home. These vacuums include high-efficiency filters and tight seals around the components that effectively trap tiny particles like pet dander. You'll end up with more pet dander safely trapped in the vacuum instead of circulating around the air in your home. Make sure you vacuum every week in order to keep pet dander to a minimum, even if you think your carpet is clean and doesn't need to be vacuumed.

Have Your Carpet Professionally Cleaned at Least Twice a Year

Removing pet dander trapped deep in the carpet or animal stains that have discolored your carpet backing requires professional carpet cleaning services. Both steam cleaning and chemical cleaning will work to remove the majority of dander in your carpet, helping to reduce your allergy symptoms.

How often you need to have your carpets professionally cleaned depends on how sensitive you are to pet dander and the number of pets in your home. You should have your carpet professionally cleaned at least twice a year — it's best to schedule cleanings at the end of spring and in the middle of the fall, which are the two times of year when pets have typically finished shedding their coats. You should also have your carpets cleaned whenever you notice that your allergy symptoms are flaring up, as this may mean that you have too much hair and dander trapped in your carpeting.

While living with animals that you're allergic to can be a frustrating experience, you can keep your allergy symptoms to a minimum by preventing dander from building up in your home's carpeting. If your pet allergies become unbearable, schedule a deep cleaning with a professional carpet cleaning service — they'll remove the majority of the built-up hair and dander from your carpet, allowing you to breathe easier in your home.