I clean so much that I have to use dust masks to protect my allergies.
I might have bit off more than I could chew when I committed to cleaning out the basement before my wife gives birth to our first son, named Elijah.
We are moving my home office downstairs so we can use the original location as a baby nursery. I knew that the basement was full of junk and covered in dust, but I don’t think I could have prepared myself for what I actually found. The dust masks that I always use for these types of chores were not protecting me from everything. I was glad to have the chore finished after three weeks of constant work. By the time I was done, I had to go upstairs and vacuum the house in case any dust made its way up while I was cleaning the basement each time. I was surprised to not only find dust throughout the upper portion of our house, but it had been pulled in by the air conditioning system. We have return vents for the HVAC system in every room upstairs, so naturally they were all filled with dust on the ceiling vent covers. I grabbed the shop vacuum and got to work right away, efficiently removing and trapping the dust that had been gathered in every individual room. Once the house was settled for a few days, the change was extremely noticeable. The house smelled better overall, and I was getting fewer headaches and less sinus congestion. I wish I had cleaned all of this dust beforehand, but it’s hard when you have severe allergies.