Allergies and Dust during the Holidays

The other day my daughter and I were taking the Christmas decorations down from the attic and she just started sneezing and got all stopped up. Had to stop working for a while and take her Claritin.  Seems like holidays can inadvertently bring allergies and dust together.

I hadn’t even thought about it until I read an article in the St. Petersburg Times -Dusty decorations, Christmas trees, and cold weather can touch off allergies, asthma and it reminded me that we all need to be careful, especially those with allergies and/or asthma when digging through stuff we have stored.

So many times those stored items have dust.  Allergies and dust don’t go well together.

Before you just grab that box off the top shelf in the closet you may want to take a look on top. It doesn’t take much time for a layer of dust to build up. Plain household dust can have mold, pollen, dirt, dander, and a few other allergens that can cause your allergies to flare up. If the boxes are coming down from the attic they can also have some fiberglass mixed in. Nasty stuff.  You might want to wear a mask like the QMask to protect yourself.

Funny how much dust settles on stuff you only touch every 12 months or so.

Wishing you the best of health
Mike Krause

AllergyStore.com – Helping customers since 1989
800 771-2246

How Do You Feel About Dusting?

A customer sent me a link to a rather interesting blog post about how men and women have different points of view about dusting.

While I don’t agree that men think writing notes on a dusty table is a good idea, he did make a few other good points I could relate to. When we have relatives coming in for a visit it can be a bit hectic around the house. Especially if it is my wife’s mother.  Scrub, dust, and clean.

These are the sounds in the house when we are expecting visitors.  Especially the dusting part.

Everything has to get dusted;

Picture frames
Shelvesallerdust makes dusting easy
Stuff on shelves
Top of fridge
Baseboards
Chair rails
Window sills
Plants
Ceiling fans

The funny thing is Cheryl has always kept a clean house. Our house looks like people live there. She just goes into overdrive when people are coming over.  I think they are coming to see me, she thinks they are coming to see if she has been dusting.

Wishing you the best of health
Mike

Allergy Store
800 771-2246

Out Damn Spot! Remove Cat Urine

Its transition time in our house.  The youngest daughter is in the process of packing up (again) and getting ready to move out for college (again). It is an exciting time.  When you are starting graduate school, the whole world is ahead of you.  She is going through all the things she has had packed away in storage for the last year to determine if they were really worth dragging half way across the country.

She ran across a pair of khaki pants that had been stained by Mr. Lou, her cat that has been gone for almost two years now.  Ewwwww.  Two year old cat urine! Without saying a word, she placed the pants in the laundry basket, thinking that either the wash could remove cat urine stains or she would just throw the pants away.

I can’t think of any stain worse than male cat urine, locked away for two years, staining a pair of light colored pants.

So, I knew that sodium percarbonate kicks butt on organic stains.  Cat urine is most certainly organic and sodium percarbonate is the top ingredient in Molly’s Suds Oxygen Whitener.  What I didn’t know is if Molly’s Suds can remove cat urine  stain that has been set for so long.  The only way to find out is to try it!

You get the best results from a sodium percarbonate solution when you activate it in the hottest water as possible.  I took about 1 1/2 quarts of hot water out of the tap and decided it wasn’t hot enough.  I popped the plastic container in the microwave and zapped it for two minutes.  That was hot water!  I added 1 ounce of Molly’s Suds and gave it a stir.  In to the hot tub went the stained pants leg.  Of course the solution went to work immediately.

The oxidation was full force with more foaming action than I had ever seen before. I allowed the pants leg to soak until all foaming had stopped (a sign that the oxidation process was complete) and the water cooled.

Eww the water looked really yellow and icky.  With trepidation, I took the pants let out of the soaking solution.  At first glance it looked as if the ENTIRE stain was gone COMPLETELY.  Not sure, I rinsed the garment out in the kitchen sink.  Yup, looks like the entire stain was removed.  Like magic, Molly’s Suds had worked to remove cat urine!

Molly’s Suds had saved the day again.  The old, set in stain was gone, no toxic chemicals had been used.  The air was free from chemical fumes (like with chlorine bleach) and the fabric had not been damaged.

Now there are many oxygen bleach products on the market. Maybe some of them would have been up to the task of removing a set in stain like this cat urine, but I seriously doubt it.  The mass distributed oxygen bleach products make generous use of fillers.  Molly’s Suds Oxygen Whitener does not.  It is a simple solution of sodium percarbonate and soda ash.  That is why just a little goes along way.

So, the pants went through the laundry cycle and were returned to young daughter.  She smiled and said “Thanks Mom”..  I say “Molly’s Suds”

Cheryl