The home is meant to be a safe haven; a place where both parents and their kids can take refuge from the dirt, grime and infections of the outside world. It’s a place where people are meant to get rid of all germs and get clean. Unfortunately, this is not always the case.
People who live in dirty homes don’t often realize just how negatively it can impact their health. For the adult, maybe not so much. But for the children, this is definitely a very big issue. This is why you must attempt and commit to keeping your home ultraclean.
A very clean home is one that is disease-free, great to live in and most importantly, one that protects its occupants, that said, the following are some of the potential health risks that can be caused by a dirty home:
Attracts Rodents and Other Insects
If you want to attract rodents and insects like cockroaches, nothing works faster than leaving piles of dirt of having a largely unkempt home. A dirty home calls out to rodents and other insects such as bed bugs, ticks, and even snakes if you live in an area where they are abundant.
These creatures are attracted to such homes because of the promise of food. If all they had to do was go in the house and eat, then maybe it wouldn’t be so bad. But, rats, reptiles and insects are well known vectors if diseases.
Rodents and other insects can be anywhere around and in your home, as well as outside. You can find anything from roaches in the kitchen if food isn’t thrown out properly to snakes in gutters with all the leaves that haven’t been cleaned out.
Exposing yourself and your children to all such creatures makes you vulnerable and prone to illnesses and worse still, death. For example, snakes –unless non-poisonous- can end up biting you at night when you’re asleep; the result of which can be death.
Rodents can cause diseases like the bubonic plague, Weil’s Disease, rat bite fever, Lassa fever, leptospirosis, salmonellosis, tularemia and hantavirus pulmonary syndrome. Almost all of these diseases are fatal if you don’t get medical help on time.
It is important to maintain a clean environment for your and your family’s health. If you’re overwhelmed with getting started, you might want to hire professionals at first, such as a gutter expert, like the ones at Aerotech, a personal organizer, and or house cleaner.
Mold Growth
Mold is often caused by the prolonged presence of moisture in the home among other things. While, not all molds are considered toxigenic (capable of producing toxins), you wouldn’t want to wait to find out if the one in your home is bad for you or not.
Dirty homes are usually synonymous with poor care and attention. This means that there could be leaky pipes all over the place, resulting in moisture being trapped in the walls and under the carpets, thus providing an enabling environment for the growth and proliferation of the mold spores.
Mold that produces mycotoxins are usually dangerous to the health and can cause respiratory distress, trigger asthma in asthmatic patients, cause hayfever like symptoms and pneumonitis in people already predisposed to it. This is not good at all.
Increased Presence of Allergens and Dust
If you are allergic to dust, pollen and aerosol, then a dirty environment at home is definitely counterproductive and will impact your health negatively. Sure, there will always be allergens and dust in the home. There’s nothing one can do about that.
The only thing is you must make an effort to minimize their volume or abundance in the house. Otherwise, you’re basically inviting asthma, allergies, the flu and a bunch of other conditions. The major causes of these is the dust in your carpets and rugs. They are excellent for concealing and trapping dirt, allergens, and pollens. You may need to get an expert to come in and clean the carpets annually, so that all you have to do is run the vacuum over the carpets weekly.
Oscar King is a family man and homeowner who shares articles and insight into maintaining a healthy and clean household. He often shares with his audience his own personal experience. If you would like to learn more about Oscar, you can do so by clicking here.