Get Allergy Relief with a Cleaner Office

Spring allergies hit every season and affect an estimated 50 million Americans. While most people focus on how outdoor allergies are affecting them, many people don’t realize that indoor allergies can be just as irritating to your respiratory system. When this happens in the workplace, it can take its toll on your employee’s productivity. It’s hard to get things done when you’re busy sneezing and coughing with itchy eyes and a running nose.

Common indoor allergy triggers include:

• Dust Mites
• Pollen
• Animal Dander
• Mold or mildew spores
• Pests (rodents, cockroaches, etc.)
• Cigarette Smoke
• Fumes from aerosol cans, acidic cleaning agents, perfumes, air fresheners or other scented products

Even if your workplace has policies that request workers do not wear strong perfumes or smoke while at work, these odors can linger on clothes. This includes animal dander and fur from employees with pets. These types of particulates hovering around the workspace can irritate those with allergies.

Ways to Reduce Office Allergies

Keeping a clean office space is the best way to minimize indoor allergies and improve indoor air quality. When it comes to spreading dust mites, pollen or other allergens around the office, these areas are most often the culprits:

Hard Surfaces

Make sure you’re regularly wiping down your desk, electronics, countertops, and other work areas with disinfectant wipes on a daily basis. Keeping these spaces uncluttered with other items will also help prevent dust from collecting. Your floors are considered hard surfaces as well. Regular hard surface floor care and maintenance can keep dust and grime from being tracked into other areas of the office.

Ventilation

Utilizing the air conditioning system rather than opening doors and windows will prevent pollen from drifting inside. You should also be regularly changing out your air filters about 3 or 4 times a year. Dirty air filters will simply continue to move around poor air quality throughout the building. If you’re concerned about high humidity in the office without proper ventilation, run a dehumidifier to help combat mold growth.

Carpets & Upholstery

You should have your carpets and upholstery regularly vacuumed by a janitorial staff. Dirt, pollen, dust mites, and other particulates all embed themselves in the fibers of carpets and upholstered furniture. When you get either your carpets or your upholstery professionally cleaned, it can help reduce your allergy symptoms.

Carpets collect whatever is floating around in the air and traps it within their fibers. This is good for filtering the air, but then you have to clean the filters! Anytime someone walks on the carpet, it can potentially stir up those particulates. A professional carpet cleaning company like ServiceMaster Twin Cities can thoroughly and deeply clean your carpets to ensure all debris is removed.

Similar to how your carpets trap allergens, your upholstered furniture also holds onto dust, pollen, skin cells, and all sorts of particulates that affect the surrounding area quality. It is just as important to care for your upholstery as it is to care for your carpets. Whether it’s vacuuming the cushions and rotating them or hiring us to do a thorough upholstery cleaning job, it’s important to keep them fresh. Clean carpets and upholstery lead to better indoor air quality.

Most of us spend a considerable amount of time indoors, so you want to make sure that the air you’re breathing isn’t filled with allergens! Check out your ventilation system, get your carpets and upholstery cleaned, and count on ServiceMaster Twin Cities for regular janitorial maintenance sure to keep your office fresh and clean. Contact us today.