Thursday, July 2, 2020

Allergy-Proofing Your Home (+ Free Allergy-Proofing Printables for You & Your Kids)

With allergy season upon us, you or a family member might be one of the millions of people who experience allergies. While you may think you are safe from allergens by spending more time at home, your home could actually be the cause of your allergy symptoms. Allergens like mold, mites, dust and pet dander are all indoor allergens that like to make themselves comfortable within your home. To reduce, or even eliminate, your exposure to allergens while spending more time at home, it’s best to add allergy-proofing to your cleaning to-do list.
Download the printable allergy-proofing chore chart below to help you stay on track of important cleaning tasks or find more tips on ways to effectively allergy-proof your home here
We all know that spring cleaning and indoor allergy-proofing chores can be a daunting task — especially for children. To successfully get your children involved in cleaning the home and picking up after their own messes we suggest trying to get them excited about cleaning. You can do this by making it a family competition, starting a timer and turning clean-up time into a race, offering rewards, or even blasting some great tunes during chore day! Below are a couple ideas and printable activities to get your kids involved in spring cleaning! 

Battle of the Bedrooms

Challenge your family to a Battle of the Bedrooms. Start the clock and give each family member or child one hour to clean their room. Whoever has the cleanest room at the end of the hour wins. The winner can hang their award (printable certificate above) on their bedroom door until the next battle.


Recruit a Cleaning Detective 
Recruit your favorite cleaning detectives and have them investigate different areas of the house to determine what needs cleaning up. After inspecting a room, they can list out if a toy is on the floor or if the bed is unmade, for example. This is a fun and creative way to have children help identify messes and create a chore list that they can help tackle!
After allergy-proofing your home, if you and your family are still experiencing allergy-symptoms, it’s important to get to the root of the problem to prevent future reactions. Symptoms like nasal congestion, difficulty breathing, drowsiness, itchy eyes, or even fevers are signs that you may want to pay attention to what may be causing your allergies or see an allergist. 
Jotting down notes and symptoms within an allergy-log is a great starting point for figuring out what may be causing your allergic reactions. Download the allergy log below to track allergy-symptoms or any important notes that may be helpful when trying to identify what the source of your reactions are.