It’s normal for your home to get messy and chaotic after a long work week. When you get home from work, you’ll probably be too tired to pick up after yourself and leave everything as is, saying you’ll do some cleaning on the weekend. And then the weekend comes, so you’ll try to do as much tidying up without sacrificing your much-needed rest before Monday begins again.
This will become an endless cycle that will repeatedly leave you with an untidy home and not enough hours to clean everything up. While there’s nothing wrong with allowing this habit to continue per se, it might start affecting your health and well-being in the long run. And not only because it’s a sight for sore eyes.
If you don’t regularly clean the house, do the dishes, or even ventilate the rooms, there’s a high possibility that bacteria will soon breed everywhere. And because these organisms are mostly invisible to the naked eye, you won’t be able to notice how much they are affecting you until your body shows signs of sickness.
When this happens, it can be hard to reverse the adverse effects on your body and overall health, which is why you should be doing your best to avoid being in this situation. If you don’t know where to begin looking for the root cause of your health problem, here are three signs that you need to watch out for:
Sign #1: You’re Experiencing Diarrhea Out of the Blue
Diarrhea can be caused by many things, such as alcohol poisoning, medication, or even spoiled food. But one of the most common causes of diarrhea is having the presence of foreign bacteria in the body. However, since it’s not uncommon to get diarrhea, most people will just let the problem resolve itself and return to their routines.
But if you experience diarrhea often, even when you’re not drinking alcohol, taking any medications, or eating spoiled food, then the problem might be caused by the water you’re drinking. This is especially concerning if you’re getting your water supply from a tank, tower, or closed water system because these can cultivate bacteria.
If you think that the water is making you sick, you should conduct testing for Legionella bacteria because you may be at risk for legionnaires’ disease. This is a fatal illness that can affect people of all ages, particularly those with existing health conditions. Its other symptoms include fever, chills, headaches, and muscle pain.
Sign #2: You’re Always Getting Allergic Reactions
Allergic rhinitis is a prevalent condition all over the world. In fact, one in five people suffers from it due to the presence of allergens such as dust particles, pollen, and other airborne contaminants all year round. However, what’s not common is triggering your allergic rhinitis despite being indoors.
If you’re constantly sneezing and having difficulties breathing even when you’re inside the house, it may be a sign that there’s too much allergen in your environment. These pollutants that are triggering your allergy may be hiding within your carpet fibers and air vents, but you wouldn’t know because they’re too small to see.
But that’s all the more reason to clean your house regularly. If you haven’t had your HVAC ducts and filters cleaned in a while, take this chance to do so. The same goes for your carpeting, especially if you have pets running around the house. This is because you might already be breathing in their fallen hair and dander, which are their dead skin particles.
All these allergens could be triggering your allergies even if you don’t see them. They could also be affecting the indoor air quality of your home, but you never noticed until you started sneezing uncontrollably. So don’t wait until you develop a respiratory condition before getting them cleaned.
Sign #3: You’re Showing Symptoms of Rodent-borne Illnesses
Dealing with a rodent infestation inside your home is not only disgusting, but it’s also an unnecessary exposure to health hazards because these pests can indirectly infect you with many diseases. These include Hantavirus, leptospirosis, and salmonellosis, all of which can be transmitted through ingestion of contaminated food or drinks.
Since it’s challenging to catch rodents in action, you won’t notice their presence unless you hear their footsteps inside your walls or if you see their droppings behind the cupboards. But they can easily contaminate your food without your knowledge, which means you can get infected just by coming into contact with their excreted wastes.
So if you think that you have a rodent infestation in your house, you shouldn’t think twice before calling an exterminator to take care of the problem for you. You should never handle the problem yourself because it might bring you more harm since you’ll directly be exposed to them.
Although it’s exhausting to clean the house over and over again, it’s necessary because doing so can keep you from getting sick. If you don’t know how to balance household maintenance with all your other responsibilities, try making a cleaning schedule that you can stick to and work your way from there.
