Carpet Care for Allergy Sufferers

I live in a house where all of us have some kind of seasonal allergies.  Our reactions run the gamut – from extreme itching, rashes, and congestion to a few sneezes here & there.  Because of that, I was determined to get rid of the yucky carpet we inherited when we purchased this home.  The same day we closed, we removed all carpet on the first floor and stairway.  However, we waited (a pretty long time) to remove the bedroom carpet.  I just couldn’t decide between taking on the task of refinishing the original pine floors (that had some pretty ugly buckling and gaps to deal with), installing a floating floor over that, or installing new carpet.  After waffling back and forth several times, I decided on more carpet, surprisingly.  It was just the easier option for us since moving everyone/everything off the second floor was not at all appealing.

Once the decision was made, I researched everything I could to determine what product would be the best to install.  I needed something that had a great warranty with excellent stain-proofing. I was able to find an option at one of the local Big Box stores, and while there, we opted to also upgrade the padding to an option that is antimicrobial, anti-fungal, and basically all around anti-allergic-reaction-inducing.

After that, I still had to figure out the best way to clean and care for our carpet in order to preserve it and to ensure the carpet isn’t a source of allergy misery.  The tips I found include:

1. Vacuum the carpet regularly – around 3 times per week is good for us.  And that’s just about as long as I can tolerate seeing threads and lint on our light-colored carpet.  It’s important to note that using a vacuum with a HEPA filtration system is the absolute best to get the job done.
2. No shoes on the carpet AT ALL – we have become a no-shoes-on-the-second-floor household and I truly believe that simple switch cuts down dramatically on the allergens, dust, & pollen that would otherwise get trapped in the carpeting.
3. Dry steam the carpets regularly – We haven’t employed this option yet, as the carpet is still quite new but I do plan to have them treated every few months.  It’s important to hire a professional company that will not leave the carpets damp, that will use non-toxic cleaning solution, and whose system reaches a temperature of at least 180 degrees .  Those store bought machines don’t quite get hot enough nor do they get enough of the moisture out of the carpet to ensure that mold & mildew are not growing on the carpet pad.  Though we did purchase the mold resistant padding, I figure we can never be too safe in that regard.

And that’s pretty much it!  Hope this info helps you, too.