5 Steps to Reduce Dust in Your Home and Be A Healthier You

Dust can act as an irritant to your eyes and lungs. Here are a few ways to fight dust inside your home.

Mike's Heating & Cooling

Do you know what dust is?  Dead skin, pet dander, dust mites, dust mite feces and remains, insect parts, and more!  Yuck!  Everyone breathes better in a home that isn’t so dusty, because dust acts as an irritant to your eyes, nose and lungs. Dust also negatively impacts many items in your home, including clogging up vents in electronics such as your computer, or your refrigerator coils.  Dust accumulates in our homes, so we want to reduce the amount of dust on flat surfaces, floors, and in fabrics and fibers. So take these five steps to reduce dust, and save on extra housework, and keep your family healthier.

1. Vacuum Regularly – Vacuuming regularly is the most efficient way to reduce dust, but make sure your vacuum has a good filter in it. Vacuums suck up the dust so you can physically remove it from your home, but without a good filter, vacuuming ends…

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Your dirty humidifier could be making you sick, here’s how to clean it

Everyone knows the benefits of running a humidifier during the dry winter months. The humidifier adds much need water moisture to your home’s air which helps your lungs and keeps your nasal passages from drying out; preventing illness. It can even help prevent migraines.

However, if you are not regularly cleaning your humidifier – and we’re talking weekly here – then your humidifier might be brewing up something else – bacteria, mold and mildew.

ABC News tested 10 different humidifiers from 10 different homes for different molds and bacteria. Most of the humidifiers tested showed

Prolonging Your Dishwasher’s Life

Your dishwasher is probably the second most used appliance in your home, next to your refrigerator. If you aren’t taking proper care of your dishwasher, it won’t last for as long as it’s supposed to. We’ve compiled a list of places to clean and precautions to take in order to sustain the life of your unit:

How To Keep Your Refrigerator Clean

Keeping a clean refrigerator is important to keeping fresh food and efficiency. Your fridge is one of your most used appliances and needs to be taken care of in order for it to last the approximate 13 years that it should. We have some tips to help you get started in caring for your unit:

10 DIY Maintenance Tips to Keep Your Appliances Running Like New

As the years pass, we all develop a long term relationship with our appliances. They are incorporated in our every day, basic routines so it is important to keep them in good shape. Major appliance malfunctions and issues can be easily avoided with just a little TLC (tender, loving, care).

This kind of TLC does not require the work of a professional handyman. Rather, these are simple appliance maintenance tasks that you can do yourself with little investment and no prior appliance experience. 

Dirty Stove-top? Worry No Longer

Electric stove tops can easily get dirty and grimy from everyday cooking. Sometimes the dirt and grime builds up and it can be extremely hard to clean.  Affresh Cooktop Cleaner is a non-abrasive cleaner that works to make hard to clean messes without making you scrub really hard. Watch how easy Affresh makes cooktop cleaning for this DIYer.

Smelly dishwasher? Dirty dishes? Clean your filter!

Does your dishwasher smell? Are your dishes coming out feeling gritty or covered with fine food particles? To fix this, clean your dishwasher’s filter.

Most new dishwasher models have a removable filter (also called a manual-clean filter) that you should clean on a regular basis. The filter sits below the lower dish rack and spray arms. There might be a cylindrical fine mesh filter and coarse mesh filter cover, as show in this video. Both these parts can be removed and cleaned in your sink with a little dishwashing soap and warm water. Check and clean out the sump area (the hole where the filter goes) for any food particles or other objects that may have become lodged there.

Why do dishwashers have filters?

The filter catches food particles and prevents

10 Often-Overlooked Autumn Maintenance Tasks

Now is the time to prepare for the cold weather ahead. In addition to cleaning the gutters and caulking and sealing openings around windows and doors, here are some often-overlooked Fall maintenance tasks.

1. Change the direction of your ceiling fan to create an upward draft that moves the warm air near the ceiling and distributes it around the room.
2. Clean your humidifier before using it (and regularly, throughout the season) to prevent bacteria from being misted out into the air.
3. Drain the fuel from gas-operated equipment such as lawn mowers, weed trimmers and chain saws.
4. Check and test snow blowers to make sure they are ready for use.
5. Flush/drain your water heater tank to remove sediment and minerals that can settle on the bottom and cause rust.
6. Change the batteries out on smoke and carbon monoxide detectors throughout your home. Make sure you have enough of these detectors throughout your home, including the basement especially if you have gas appliances.
7. Clean the dryer vents.
8. Check the hoses on your washer. Replace any leaking, cracked or bubbling washer hoses.
9. Clean your refrigerator’s condenser coils using a condenser coil cleaning brush.
10. Change or clean your range hood filter or over the range microwave oven filter.

Why does my dishwasher leave a white film on my glasses and dishes?

If your dishwasher is leaving white residue or a white film on your dishes, it might not be due to your appliance, but your detergent.

In 2010, phosphates were removed from dishwashing detergents. If you live in an area with hard water (high mineral content) your dishes and glasses could be left with a white film from mineral build-up. To combat this, add a citric acid cleaner like, Lemi-Shine or this Dishwasher Citric Acid Cleaner by GE, with your dishwashing detergent in the dispenser. You can also run your dishes through again with the Dishwasher Citric Acid Cleaner alone.

Rinse aids and other “hard-water boosters” can also keep glasses from becoming cloudy and soften water as well.

If after doing this you are still finding a white residue remaining on your clean dishes, then there might

Spring Cleaning and Your Laundry Room Appliances

Your washer and dryer need spring cleaning too. Here’s how to clean them and what parts to check for wear and tear. Check out our Spring Cleaning Tips for Your Kitchen Appliances.

Washer

Use a washer cleaner like affresh Washer Tub Cleaner to clean the inside of your washer. Affresh breaks up odor causing residue, mold and mildew that can lead to bad smells from your washer, especially in HE washers.

If you have a