Breathing Easier Amid Pollen Yellow Walls #HealthierHome

This is a sponsored post from Filtrete.

A few weekends ago, I spent some time painting my now ill-conceived pollen yellow hallway.  The painting itself was generally easy, although the paint color itself was hard on the eyes (I’m repainting it – don’t freak out!).  I did run into issues, though, when I got to the part of the wall above my linen closet door.

I rolled and rolled, but the paint just wasn’t laying down like it was on the rest of the walls.  This has happened to me before, so I knew what to do when I couldn’t get the paint to cover easily.

I looked up.

Okay, so have zero scientific proof of this, but I really think that the walls underneath HVAC returns can be difficult to paint.  Why? Because if the filter is dirty, some of the dust, pollen and lint in your home isn’t being trapped by the filter.  If it’s not being captured, it’s getting on your wall under where the HVAC system is trying to pull it up.  This essentially creates a dirty section of wall that’s hard to paint.  It makes sense in my mind.

So, I grabbed my ladder so that I could change out my filter.  I’m not going to lie – it had been a while since I changed it.  You should change your HVAC filters at least every 3 months, and it had maybe been closer to 6 months since I had done it.  I know, I know!  I kept thinking that I needed to change it, but like a Magpie, I am easily distracted by things that are more fun and shiny than an air filter.  I mean, most things are, right?

Y’all, I didn’t know it was that bad.  GROSS!  Not only was this filter disgustingly dirty, but I know it wasn’t able to do its job properly.  And in this time of year – springtime allergy season – this was a crazy thing for us to ignore.  We are washing our hair after being outside and changing our sheets often to keep ourselves from having pollen on us all the time, but we hadn’t even thought about changing our air filters.  Talk about not seeing the forest for the pollen covered trees.  I’m a Filtrete Brand Ambassador, for crying out loud!

I was even more disgusted when I compared the old filter with a clean Filtrete Filter.  Gah!  I hope you aren’t reading this while you’re eating.  And if you are, I’m sorry.  I guess we can consider it a Makely diet.

I obviously changed the filter and installed a Filtrete Allergen Defense Filter, so now some of those airborne allergens are being trapped again by the filter and not going into our lungs, nose, and eyes …or on my walls.  And since it actually hit 96 degrees here yesterday (seriously!), we need our air conditioning system to be as efficient as possible.

Oh, and I thought I’d pass on this little tip to you in case you aren’t already doing it.  The Filtrete Filters come individually wrapped, so I always save the wrap from the new one and put the old, dirty one inside of it.  It keeps all of the dirt and disgusting grossness in the bag so it’s not spreading through the house while you walk the dirty filter to the trash can.

When I repaint that wall, I am hoping that it will be easier to paint the space below the HVAC return.  At the very least, maybe I’ll be breathing a little easier.

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Disclosure: This is a sponsored post for Filtrete. I have the honor of being an ambassador for them and have been sharing information from 3M Filtrete. I was given key messages to share, but all the words and thoughts are my own.  I have been compensated for my time and for this post.