I read an article from the Associated Press wire service this past Sunday that has had me steamed. In fact, I needed a few days to calm down enough to be able to write about it. It is bad news for allergies and carpets.
Seems the new hot trend in interior decorating is a return to carpeting. Especially in the bedroom.
Now, I realize that interior decorating is much like fashion and there are trends that come and go. Also, like fashion, if you wait long enough, what was old will be new again. In the case of carpeting, it is a real shame, because there are definite health benefits to living with hard surface floors.
Anyone with allergies knows they should not have carpet. Allergies and carpets go together like oil and water.
The trend towards hard surface floors began in the early. As people began to rip out the carpeting and install hard floors they usually noticed a couple of things. First, they discovered that their house had much more dust than usual.
This is because many times the carpet was removed and the hard floor installed while the forced heating or air conditioning systems were running. This allowed all the dust from under the carpeting as well as the debris from the floor installation to be drawn into the ductwork and circulated over and over again.
The result was a visible increase in dust in the house. The second thing people noticed was despite the additional dust, was sneezing, wheezing, coughing, and sniffling less.
This is because carpet fibers are the perfect environment to trap dust mites, dust mite feces, pollens, mold spores, animal allergens, cockroach parts, and other components of household allergens. You can spend money on carpet cleaning, but you can’t clean the carpet. Don’t let anyone selling carpet cleaning services try to convince you otherwise.
Just imagine if you took your favorite sweater or flannel shirt and threw it on the floor and walked on it for six months. After 6 months, you would probably think it was looking a little dirty.
So in order to clean it you would throw some hot soapy water on it and then vacuum the water up. Do you honestly think that shirt would be clean? Come on now, be honest with yourself, you know it would not be. Well, that is what happens when you have carpet in your house and then try to clean it.
If you have allergies, asthma, or other health concerns(whether respiratory or not) I implore you to buck this decorating trend. Hard surface floors do not capture allergens the way carpets and rugs do and when you clean a hard surface floor it is clean.
When I clean my tile floors with my Vapamore steam cleaner, you can absolutely feel the difference with your bare feet. The soil and allergens have been removed. And because there is no residue, they stay clean longer.
When I spray a few squirts of AllerDust Dusting Aide on the kitchen towel that I attached to an old Swifter head and run it over my wood floors, all the dust and dirt are captured. You can see and feel the cleanness. You just can not get that with carpeting.
If you can’t buck the trend or if you live in a rented space with carpeting that you cannot remove, don’t despair. It is possible to minimize the allergens in the carpet by the use of denaturing agents. More about that later.
Til next time!
Cheryl Krause