Allergen-Reduction Home Cleaning Checklist

Who this is for

A household cleaning routine built around indoor allergy and asthma triggers. Tasks are grouped by trigger, each with a person responsible, five weeks of ticks and room for the label's instructions. It is a routine to keep, not medical advice.

Households living with someone who has asthma, eczema or a dust mite, pet or mould allergy, who have been told to cut down triggers at home and want the routine shared out and actually kept.

What this helps you track

• Bedding, mattress and pillow tasks aimed at dust mites
• Floors, soft furnishings and pet hair
• Damp and mould spots found and dealt with
• Crumbs, food storage and bins that draw pests
• Who does each job, and whether it was done each week

How to use it

1. Write whose allergy or asthma the routine is for and, in your own words, any advice you were given by a doctor, nurse or allergy service.
2. Read down each section, cross out tasks that do not apply and add your own on the blank lines or in the browser.
3. Put a name against each task so everyone knows whose job it is.
4. Tick the week each time a task has been kept up that week, and copy washing or product instructions from labels into the last column.
5. Start a fresh sheet each month and keep the old ones; they show which tasks slip.

Formats

• Printable PDF (A4 and US Letter)
• Fillable PDF with form fields
• Fill in online, saved in your browser

The printable is laid out inside a box that fits both A4 and US Letter, so the two files are identical and neither one is scaled. The fillable PDF has real form fields. The online version keeps what you enter in your own browser and builds the completed PDF on your device.

How to print

Download the A4 or US Letter file to match the paper in your printer, open it in a PDF reader and print at 100% — not "fit to page", which shrinks the writing space. Both files leave a 14 mm margin, which clears the unprintable edge on home printers. To print the online version with your entries in it, use the Print this sheet button, which prints only the sheet and none of the page around it. More on printing.

Questions

Is this medical advice?

No. It organises cleaning tasks commonly linked to indoor triggers such as dust mites, pet dander, mould and pests. Follow what your own doctor, nurse or allergy service has told you, and write their advice at the top.

How hot should bedding be washed?

The sheet gives no temperatures. Follow the care label, or what your health professional suggested, and copy the label's instruction into the label notes column so everyone washes it the same way.

Why is there a week grid rather than days?

Most of these jobs are not daily, and a week grid fits a month on one sheet. If a task is daily in your house, tick the week once it has been kept up all week.

We have no pets. Can I skip that section?

Yes. Cross it out or use its lines for other tasks your household has been advised to do, such as washing soft toys or cleaning an extractor filter.