Carpets, sofas, and other soft furnishings can be a magnet for debris and dust mites and a breeding ground for bacteria. Pet hair can get trapped between seating and cushions, not to mention what their paws bring in, all potentially increasing allergens in the home. Some vacuum cleaners are especially designed to help with this. The award-winning Henry Allergy is designed to improve air quality and reduce irritants. Or you could invest in a vacuum with a comprehensive filtration system, such as the new Miele Boost CX1 Cat & Dog Powerline Cylinder Vacuum Cleaner, which is fitted with a HEPA Air Clean filter to help get rid of fine dust particles and allergens.

It’s easy to forget about curtains and blinds once they’re in place – but they can harbour dust and pet hair too, as well as anything that drifts in through the window. So it’s important to keep your blinds clean, and curtains should be cleaned at least every six months.

Ideally, you should be looking to clean your blinds once a month to get rid of any dust or dirt. However, during these spring months, it’s especially important to remove any pollen that may be lingering on the surface. If you have roller blinds or roman blinds, start with a soft dusting and gentle vacuum, using the brush attachment.

For Venetian blinds or plantation shutters, you can be a little more thorough. Wipe down each slat using a damp cloth and some washing up liquid, then finish up with a quick dusting to ensure they’re pollen-free.

For a simple tip, if you have slatted blinds, turn these on a daily basis to reduce the likelihood of pollen settling and building up on the surface.

While we’ve become extremely familiar with effective cleaning products since the pandemic, harsh disinfectant wipes and cleaning solutions can cause flare-ups and irritate skin, especially for people with allergies and sensitivities. Dubai-based brand The Botanist has a range of cleaning and home products that are plant-based, sustainable, fragrance-free, toxin-free, cruelty-free, and biodegradable.

The all-purpose products can be used to clean all your surfaces, including wood, stone, marble, and granite, with the added bonus of a lovely springtime scent.

“Surprisingly, indoor air can be up to five times more polluted than outdoor air,” says Alexander Provins, EMEA director, Blueair. “This is particularly noticeable as we enter hay fever season, as pollen and other allergens become trapped in the home after entering through windows and on our clothes when we go outside.”

He says to help tackle this, one of the most effective ways is to continuously run a high-performing air purifier to trap indoor air pollutants during April to June.

“Our latest model, the Blueair DustMagnet, captures and removes airborne dust before it settles on floors and surfaces,” explains Provins. “In addition to dust, it effectively inactivates bacteria and viruses and removes 99.97 percent of allergens, pollen, mold, pet dander, and microplastics as small as 0.1 microns from the air, thanks to Blueair’s HEPASilent technology.”

If sneezing, wheezing, and itching disrupt your sleep, you may need to change your bedding. House dust mites and fungal spores can trigger a variety of conditions and symptoms, such as asthma, eczema, itchy or runny eyes, sneezing, blocked or runny rose, tight chest, and many more. Ideally, your mattress should be professionally cleaned every six months in order to aid better sleep quality, easier breathing, improved energy levels, and a boosted immune system.

Dubai-based The Healthy Home offers the world’s first and only medical-grade mattress sanitization technology using Germicidal UltraViolet Light (GUVL), specifically designed to eliminate dust mites, bacteria, and other living organisms. The technology is both child-friendly and pet-friendly.