Do You Suffer From Allergies?

Spring is allergy season and if you suffer from allergies you know that nothing could be more uncomfortable than the breathing problems that they cause!  The last thing that you want is for something to make you feel worse.  Unfortunately there is a tiny microscopic organism that resides in your home that can do just that.

If you recall my blog post “Do You Have a Spider in Your House” you may remember that dust mites will aggravate breathing problems including allergies and virtually every house has them, no matter how clean you keep it.  The trick is in just keeping their numbers down. 
 
In that post I gave you a number of things that you could do to begin to win the war against those pesky mites.   You may also remember that the one thing dust mites do not like is cleanliness because as their name says they like to live in dust.  So I gave you a number of cleaning techniques to do just that.

Well, I have another cleaning idea that you can add to the battle on the dust mites.  In fact this process is good on a number of things including ceramic tile, your refrigerator and even fabrics just to name a few.  The process that I am referring to is steam.
  
It’s because water is your best vehicle to clean anything and the added heat is what makes steam such a powerful cleaner.    And for those of you that are worried about bringing chemical cleaners into your home remember steam is natural and can be used alone although chemical detergent can be added.  

And if you suffer from allergies you will be glad to know that steam kills dust mites.
 
Although similar in shape to a regular vacuum cleaner a steam cleaner is quite different.  Instead of sucking in dirt through a hose, the hose is used to deliver very hot water to the tip on the end.  They call it steam, but traditional steam cleaners only heat water to about 250 degrees with a temperature at the tip of about 160 degrees.

And if you want an even better level of clean that dries even quicker because it has a water output of only about 5% to let say clean something like your mattress where those dust mites number in the thousands you can upgrade to a vapor steamer.   Originally developed in Europe vapor steam cleaners heat the water to around 300 degrees in the machine and have a tip temperature of about 225 degrees.  Certainly no dust mite will stand a chance against that.

If you suffer from allergies or just want to breathe a little easier the first thing that you need to do is make sure that your home is clean and dust mite free.  And steam which is a powerful natural cleaner is a great way to do just that.