If you have visitors to your home with cat allergies, maybe friends, family, or any other people, the decent thing to do is to make their visit as pleasant as possible.
If you have cats, the chances are you do not suffer with allergies yourself. So you might fully appreciate just how life changing it can be. But speak to someone who does suffer pretty bad, and they will tell you.
Having someone who does suffer with allergies come round and feel uncomfortable is pretty bad. It doesn’t feel good for you, and means they will not want to come round. This may work to your advantage with people you don’t like, but, well. You know what I’m saying.
There are some things you can do to make life easier on those suffers however. So you don’t need to feel bad for your friends, or worry about them having puffy eyes and sneezing.
How to Help Your Visitors with Cat Allergies
Make Sure the Cat Bed Isn’t Where You Are Hanging Out
This isn’t as easy as just moving their bed. We all know cats like to sleep wherever they want, but there are some things you can do to pursue them.
Make their cozy bed places somewhere other the sofa where you will be entertaining guests. Or, if the sofa is the cat’s bed regardless of what you try to do, entertain somewhere else in the house.
Make sure the cat’s food and water is far away too, this is somewhere they will visit when they feel the need. So you can avoid any surprises by keeping these away from guests.
Give the House a Good Clean
I’m not suggesting your house is not clean, I know mine is. But that isn’t enough for people suffering with cat allergies.
The dander and hair that affects people will be lying around the home and will be airborne when you tap an area it’s laying.
Opening some windows and airing the house is also a good idea, a lot of loose dander can fly out the window and it helps being a lot less stuffy.
There are some eco-friendly cleaning products that you can use on surfaces which helps. Try to use lint brushes to capture the dander and remove all the allergy inducing hairs.
Pay special attention to the areas that are most susceptible to capturing fur. Like curtains, soft furnishings, and carpets.
Give the carpets a good hoover. There are special pet fur hoovers that do a much better job of clawing up the stubborn fur that gets caught in the carpets.
You have to remember that a home with a cat in will never be 100% clear of cat fur. Even if you cannot see any fur with the naked eye. But you can do a lot to capture the fur by cleaning hard and regular.
Wooden flooring is a lot easier to clean and doesn’t hold fur. A lot of modern houses have wooden flooring, I’m not suggesting you change all your carpets for hardwood, but it’s something to keep in mind.
Buy an Air Purifier
I do not have first hand experience on air purifiers, but some people say they work wonders. You will need to try one yourself to see the effects.
I suggest you set one up and not tell a friend who has previously suffered from some allergies. See if they notice a difference without you telling them, there is no better proof than that.
Keep Some Windows Open
As mentioned earlier, having a fresh breeze coming through the house will help. Obviously this isn’t a problem in the warmer months and will create a pleasant breeze. The winter months are a different story however.
People with allergies are a lot less affected when there is clean air breezing through. So it’s a small but helpful thing to do.
In Summary
Just because you are a cat lover and do not suffer from allergies doesn’t mean your friends that do suffer cannot come over.
You can take plenty of steps to make it all but unnoticeable to your visitors that there are cats living in the house, and make their visit a lot more pleasant.