Re Cassie, there are some other things you could try, varying in degrees of faff and money:
Wash her bedding (and yours, and all other textiles she frequents) at 60 degrees centigrade, as often as you can. Once a week is hyper-ideal. This temperature kills dust mites.
Get her a hypoallergenic pillow and a pillow cover.
Kill dust mites and keep dust down as well with an essential oil spray, as follows: use a new plant-spraying bottle (you know, cheap plastic jobbie) and to every 500 mls of warm water add a teaspoon of witch hazel, 5 to 8 drops of lavender oil and of tea tree oil. Shake well and spray on carpets (especially in the corners and behind doors), sofas, and so on. You can vary this with 5 drops of rosemary oil instead of the lavender oil; some people also like a combination of eucalyptus and citronella. All will help do the job.
If you have a halfway decent Hoover, then vacuum clean your mattress when you're changing the sheets anyway. You can also use the essential oil spray on the mattress to deter dust mites.
If you really want to go all Happy Homemaker, buy a domestic "dry-steam" (high temperature) steam cleaner: outstanding for allergy reduction; can also be used on the bathroom grouting, the oven, the horrible bits of the kitchen floor, and pretty well any other sick-making job you don't want to get your hands in. The initial outlay (anything from about 80 squids to 120) pays itself back in results.
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chiming
Dust mites, etc
Date: November 23rd, 2003 02:52 am (UTC)From:Re Cassie, there are some other things you could try, varying in degrees of faff and money:
Wash her bedding (and yours, and all other textiles she frequents) at 60 degrees centigrade, as often as you can. Once a week is hyper-ideal. This temperature kills dust mites.
Get her a hypoallergenic pillow and a pillow cover.
Kill dust mites and keep dust down as well with an essential oil spray, as follows: use a new plant-spraying bottle (you know, cheap plastic jobbie) and to every 500 mls of warm water add a teaspoon of witch hazel, 5 to 8 drops of lavender oil and of tea tree oil. Shake well and spray on carpets (especially in the corners and behind doors), sofas, and so on. You can vary this with 5 drops of rosemary oil instead of the lavender oil; some people also like a combination of eucalyptus and citronella. All will help do the job.
If you have a halfway decent Hoover, then vacuum clean your mattress when you're changing the sheets anyway. You can also use the essential oil spray on the mattress to deter dust mites.
If you really want to go all Happy Homemaker, buy a domestic "dry-steam" (high temperature) steam cleaner: outstanding for allergy reduction; can also be used on the bathroom grouting, the oven, the horrible bits of the kitchen floor, and pretty well any other sick-making job you don't want to get your hands in. The initial outlay (anything from about 80 squids to 120) pays itself back in results.
But then again I love good tools. (VWG)