Dust Mite Fight - Keep Stuffed Toys Clean

In this series of posts, we are talking about practices that you can take to help with combating dust mites in your home. These regular methods for prevention in addition to regularly having your carpet cleaned by a professional carpet care company can be very effective.

In the last post we talked about the need to keep bed clothing protected and clean by washing and drying them in temperatures higher than 130 degrees along with covering them up appropriately while using them. Here we will briefly consider other items that regularly accompany your young ones that can be overlooked if not specifically mentioned.

Many children have a favorite stuffed toy that they prefer or perhaps yours is not so picky and just likes having something soft to 'cuddle with'. As result, your youngster might spend just as much time with there eyes ears, and nose against a stuffed toy as they do against their bedding. Since this is the case, the cleaning of these childhood favorites is just as necessary as as it is with there bedding.

However, not all stuffed toys are washable. Choosing washable stuffed toys for your little tykes will allow you to keep them clean and unappealing to mites.

Dust Mite Fight - Keep Bedding Clean and Covered

In this series on how to fight dust mites, we are considering a few practical steps that families can take in order to combat the effects of dust mites. While one way that we will discuss in a later post has to do with carpet care, our specialty, there are some other locations in your home that need to be given consideration. In the last post, we took a brief look at the need for bedding that is allergy resistant. However, just having hypo-allergenic bedding is not all you can do to protect you home from dust mites.

How you take care of the bedding can also work to alleviate the effects of these irritating microscopic pests. There are covers for pillows, mattresses, and box springs that can be used to prevent dust mites from taking over the bed.

Additionally, washing your pillow cases, sheets, blankets and mattress pads in hot temperatures assist with eliminating mites that may be in the bedding. The key is the heat so drying the bed clothes in temperatures higher than 130 degrees are beneficial.

These basic laundering and covering methods can go a long way toward helping with dust mite prevention.

Dust Mite Fight - Hypo Allergenic Bed Clothes

There are  a few key places that dust mites can lurk in your home in addition to the carpeting. Knowing these areas and taking some action to make conditions unfavorable for the little nuisance the better your family will literally feel.

One of these additional locations is the bed. Dust mites can live in bedding that provides a proper climate. One of the precautions that you can take is to use hypo-allergenic bed clothes and bedding. There are a number of locations on the internet that offer this kind of bedding. Making sure that the materials the bedding is construct of is not conducive to dust mite multiplication can be beneficial and you might be surprised at just how many companies are providing hypo-allergenic bedding. There are even crib mattresses that can be purchased that are made from materials that can help you in your efforts to ward off this 'micro-nemesis'.

The Fight Against Dust Mites

While most have never seen these little (microscopic) pests, many have observed the effects of them in one way or another. Whether you or a family member suffers from allergies, how dust mites affect your home can be noticed by the response of the human body. Some of the detectable symptoms are:

• Sneezing
• Runny nose
• Itchy, red or watery eyes
• Nasal congestion
• Itchy nose, roof of mouth or throat
• Postnasal drip
• Cough
• Facial pressure and pain
• Swollen, blue-colored skin under your eyes
• In a child, frequent upward rubbing of the nose

With a list of symptoms like that, you might be thinking how to protect your family from these icky little critters. In the next few posts we will consider some tips that you can employ to help combat the uncomfortable effects of the dreaded dust mite pest.

5 Questions to Ask Your Carpet Cleaner

Choosing a carpet cleaning professional to clean your carpets is a decision that you need to make based on information and not just based on first impressions. Making that decision can be easier if  you learn a bit about the company and its process first. A good way to learn this is to find out how the company or its representative answers the following questions:

1. What method of carpet cleaning do you recommend for my needs?
2. What training or experience do you have?
3. Are your technicians members of the IICRC?
4. Are you insured?
5. Do you have a guarantee?

These questions might seem simple on the surface, but you might be surprised at how many customers forget to ask or just don't know to ask. Besides finding out the skill level of the person that will be handling this service for you, you will also be learning about the individual. These types of conversations can go a long way toward your getting to know the service provider.

We have provided a great deal of answers to common questions on our official web site. Don't wait until you need your carpet cleaned to begin choosing a company to care for your carpet, rugs, or upholstery, jot our number down now and give us call. Then when you are ready for a cleaning, you won't have questions about what you are getting in a carpet cleaning company.

Beware of Unscrupulous Sales Tactics

A while back I wrote a blog post discussing three reasons you should not choose carpet cleaners on price alone and one of those reasons was the topic we are hear discussing. Bait and switch tactics consist of different specifics, but no matter how they vary, each has a common purpose - lure you in with a low price and change the details implied to increase the cost of your bill.

Cheap Carpet Cleaning Comes at a Price

We have all seen the ads or coupons in newspapers or magazines offering a great deal on carpet cleaning. In fact, some of those specials appear to be too good to be true. This article is meant to point to out a specific tactic that unscrupulous carpet cleaners use that make their offers 'to good to be true'.

How this tactic works is the customer schedules an appointment to have the carpet cleaned for the advertised price. However once the 'service technician' arrives, the customer discovers that the coupon does not apply to their specific job. That is when the selling starts based on different rates. these charge can climb rather quickly to a price that is very different from the price you originally saw advertised.

Services do vary and it is possible that you could prefer services in addition to the ones that come with an advertised price, but be on the lookout for a ridiculously low price in an ad. Many of those ads advertise prices that simply cannot be met if a carpet is cleaned appropriately.

So if you want a professional carpet cleaning service and you live in the Branson or Kimberling City area, contact Lakes Area Carpet Care for more information.

Why the End of Summer Can Be a Good Time to Have Your Carpet Cleaned

Many people wonder what time of the year is the best time to have carpets cleaned. The simple answer to that question is, “Any time can be the right time to have them cleaned, depending on your individual circumstances.” In this article, I will consider why summer’s end is a good time for many people to have this necessary service performed.

Summer is a very active time of the year. The kids are out of school, the family is busy with all kinds of events and social functions. Also, entertaining in the home is often times ramped up in the summer time. With the increase of activity, there is often times more traffic in and out of the home and with more traffic, there comes more dirt. Furthermore, when everyone is busy the time needed to thoroughly clean after every occasion is just not there. This mark of the summer season is one of the reasons some choose to have the carpets cleaned at summer’s end.

Since it is recommended that carpets be cleaned regularly, many choose this time of the year as one of the times to have their carpets cleaned. Since the children go back to school at the conclusion of the summer, it can be easier to keep traffic off the freshly-cleaned floors according to the recommended 8-12 hours following a carpet cleaning.

There are other times of the year that can also be good times to have carpets cleaned, but if you have a busy summer schedule, a nice way to wrap up your summer activity is with a good, thorough carpet cleaning.