We live in the suburbs across the street from a beautiful grassy park filled with maple trees. It’s absolutely idyllic...unless you are someone who is allergic to grass and maple trees.
This, unfortunately, is the case for my son who was diagnosed with allergies to grass, maple trees, and cats at 18 months. Did I also mention that we have two cats?
Every spring and fall, the sound most heard around our home is my son's constant sniffing, 24-hours a day, even in his sleep. His nose is always plugged making it hard for him to breathe, and his record for sneezes in a row is 54. At about the 32 mark, I was worried I’d have to take him to the hospital if he didn’t stop.
I’ll admit to being less than sympathetic at times, but then this year something happened to change all of that.
I awoke one spring morning with what I thought was a cold. Since then, I have been a sneezing, sniffing, watery-eyes mess. It’s like winning the lottery...in hell.
I had developed allergies at the age of 45.
There’s nothing like not being able to breathe for seven months that will teach you empathy towards another human being. And because I apparently like to live dangerously, we got a puppy three months ago – a golden lab – one of the sheddiest dogs on the planet.
Between the puppy and the cats, I could knit a new pet about every week and a half with the fur they leave around the house.
There has also been construction going on down the street from us for a year and a half – an entire new neighbourhood is being built - and the amount of dust in my home has reached beach proportions.
Throw on some sunglasses and a bathing suit and I could host my own dust-castle building contest.
Have you ever thought your house was clean and then the sun shines through your windows and you realize there is dust, pet hair, and other stuff you don’t even want to think about floating EVERYWHERE?
I can’t close the blinds to this anymore because I learned that the air inside all of our homes can be up to five times more polluted than the air outside. In the spring, summer, and autumn, we can open our windows to air out the house. In the winter, we're screwed because there are things like "heating bills."
This is why I’ve come up with "The Get Rid of the Dust (And Other Stuff We Can’t See) For the DeVellis Clan Plan." You can do it too!
Hold on! I know what you’re thinking! This is sponsored by Dyson so of course she’s going to say this.
Let me tell you a little story. About a month ago I got up to work at 5:30am like I normally do, only on this day, I didn’t work. Instead, I researched air purifiers because I had reached my non-breathing breaking point. What I discovered was the Dyson Pure Cool Air Purifier was getting rave reviews all across the board. When my husband came home that night I told him all I wanted for Christmas was this Dyson air purifier. I don’t want jewelry, books, makeup, clothes, or a trip...I WANT TO BREATHE.
The Dyson Pure Cool Air Purifier was going to be in my house whether I wrote about it or not.
What really sold me on it was:
It removes 99.97 per cent of allergies and pollutants as small as 0.3 microns. To put that in perspective, a grain of sand is 100 microns in size.
It has no blades. With a curious puppy in the house, this is important.
Note: I placed my Dyson Pure Cool in my main living area beside the dog crate. It's also where my desk is situated and the room in which I spend the most time. Why did I do this? It was what @AskDysonUS recommended to me when I asked:
Before I set up our purifier, I did a major dusting of the house – all of the stuff we don’t dust because they're in hard to reach areas. I’m talking about the tops of picture frames, the tops of all the furniture that can’t be reached without a step ladder, vents...EVERYTHING.
I’ve learned that having two cats and a puppy meant I had to step up my game in the vacuuming and mopping department. This involved creating a schedule which goes something like this:
Monday and Wednesday - My boys vacuum (they alternate weeks) and I do a light vacuum on Tuesdays and Fridays.
Saturday/Sunday - These are the big 'work up a sweat' vacuuming and mopping days.
Thursdays and Saturdays - Dusting is done on these days.
Weekly - The two cats get brushed weekly while our adorable, sheddy dog gets the brush treatment almost every day (for the record, if you have a sheddy dog the Furminator brush will be your new best friend).
It seems like a lot but I want this to be the winter both my son and I breathe easier because sneezing contests aren't cool.
UPDATE: I've now had the Dyson Pure Cool Air Purifier for four days and have not had to dust yet. The amount it's cut down on the dust floating in the air and on my furniture (dark wood, by the way, all the better to highlight it) is nothing short of incredible. I had very high expectations of what this air purifier could do and it hasn't disappointed.
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