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Yuck! Are we breathing this stuff?

May 5, 2009 by Susan

This post may contain affiliate links. Read my disclosure policy here.

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Susan here, reporting for Tackle Duty.

Since our spring sun is starting to heat up my home, I decided it’s time to dust off our air conditioner and get it ready for summer.

Now some of you who know I live in the Pacific Northwest might be wondering what I am talking about. It is generally accepted that in our fair temperature climate, houses do NOT need air conditioners. Usually we have only a few weeks a year where temperatures rise above comfort level.

But, when I was pregnant with Julia and living in this small townhouse that heats up like a first-class greenhouse, I decided to forget what the neighbors say. This may not be Houston, but August in this row of townhouses is hot enough to keep me up at night. So we bought a portable air conditioner that is able to cool our master bedroom. Since our girls co-sleep, we all sleep soundly all summer.

In the spirit of spring cleaning, I pulled off the filter and took a look.

Yuck. Sooooo much dust. Hard, caked-on dust.

I washed the main removable filter which is a quick and easy job. (During the summer, I routinely wash that filter.)

I wiped down machine and scrubbed the accessible parts with a toothbrush.

cleaning with toothbrush

But the problem was the actual machine was full of dust. I forgot to get a before photo of the back of the air conditioner where the worst of the dust build up was. The photo here is actually an after photo. Pretty sad.

I tried to vacuum it out. A ton of dust did come out, but lots remains. I tried to scrub it out with a toothbrush, but it didn’t work very well. And still a lot of dust is stuck in there. I’m not too happy that we’re going to be breathing in that dust, but I’m not sure what else to try. I guess I need a super high powered vacuum.

Oh well, at least for now it is much better than it was… so I will declare it Tackled

air conditioner after

Join me next week as I tackle another corner of my untidy townhouse.

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About Susan

Susan Carraretto and her identical twin, Janice Croze, created 5 Minutes for Mom in 2006. Susan loves all social media, but her top addiction these days is Pinterest.

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36 Comments

  1. Terra says

    March 7, 2019 at 12:10 pm

    Great post, Susan! It`s extremely important to clean regularly the air conditioner if we want to be in good health!

    Reply
  2. Amber says

    May 5, 2009 at 8:26 pm

    Ahhhh….I love when I finish something big. I had a massive stack of coupons to cut, sort, and file. I’ll be saving lots of money this week!! Amber

    Reply
  3. Petula says

    May 5, 2009 at 6:39 pm

    This is my first time participating. Whew! It wasn’t too bad. Only took me 30 minutes. 🙂

    Reply
  4. Heidi says

    May 5, 2009 at 5:38 pm

    Ugh! Sounds like a task! I also live in the Pacific NW, but we do have an outside air conditioner (we’re wimps!) but only try to use it sparingly.

    I wonder if you get take some sort of air sprayer (either a can or large hose attachment) I’m using you could take this unit outside to do that since there would be dust everywhere! Is is portable?

    Reply
  5. Danielle says

    May 5, 2009 at 2:48 pm

    I grew up in Washington State so I understand about not having an air conditioner. Those weeks you did need it were miserable though! Check out my Tuesday Tackle here.

    Reply
  6. Kelly says

    May 5, 2009 at 2:39 pm

    Changing the central air filter was on my husbands list this weekend. For me it was organizing the punches in my craftroom. Yea!

    Reply
  7. donetta says

    May 5, 2009 at 2:37 pm

    Oh breath free
    http://jewelryatalifeuncommon.blogspot.com/2009/05/tackle-it-tuesday.html

    the link is down.

    Reply
  8. Stephanie says

    May 5, 2009 at 2:14 pm

    Another great tackle! Congrats!

    Two quick questions/comments:

    (1) Do you two still live in Canada? I know you said “pacific northwest” in this post. I’m assuming that you live in the Vancouver area since you seem to be in the USA quite a bit… 🙂

    (2) I just wanted to let you know that I often have trouble with your pages loading correctly. They take *forever* to load and then a message pops up about an error in the script or something like that. Just thought I’d let you know. I often am too impatient to do the extra entries/comments on your giveaways because the pages take sooo long to load. Just thought I’d tell you so that you don’t miss out on comments from others…

    Have a great day!

    Reply
  9. Tracey - Girls to Grow says

    May 5, 2009 at 2:03 pm

    Here’s my tackle for the week:

    http://girlstogrow.blogspot.com/2009/05/strawberries-aplenty.html

    Reply
  10. Julie Bonner says

    May 5, 2009 at 1:41 pm

    We just moved to Colorado a year ago and I had to get used to a swamp cooler for the summer. It actually worked really well and I love having the windows open and allowing some fresh air in.

    Here’s my Tackle. Our Family Communication Center: http://julieannebonner.com/2009/05/tackle-it-tuesday-family-communication-center/

    Reply
  11. Terra says

    May 5, 2009 at 1:41 pm

    Here’s my tackle for the day (it actually took me 1 week to complete):
    http://findingme-terra.blogspot.com/2009/05/tackle-it-tuesday.html

    Reply
  12. AmyG says

    May 5, 2009 at 1:15 pm

    Great tackle! We’ve had our A/C on for a few weeks now. Which stinks, because this time of the year, I love being able to go without the heat or a/c running. Anyway, our a/c was nasty, as well.

    Here is my tackle:

    http://atrailerparkmom.com/?p=984

    Reply
  13. Lisa says

    May 5, 2009 at 12:40 pm

    Great tackle! We have some window units that probably need that as well.

    My tackle this week was working cattle!! Not exactly household work, but believe me…it gets interesting!

    http://owl911.blogspot.com/2009/05/tackling-spring-round-up.html

    Reply
  14. SugaMama (bathroom & Garage) says

    May 5, 2009 at 12:11 pm

    Here is my tackle for the week!

    Reply
  15. Sarah says

    May 5, 2009 at 11:43 am

    Here’s my tackle. http://homemakinghousewife.wordpress.com/2009/05/05/tackle-it-tuesday-the-hall-counter-top/

    Reply
  16. Sarah says

    May 5, 2009 at 11:39 am

    Great job! I’m going to have to look into the portable air conditioner for our room too!

    Reply
  17. Marni says

    May 5, 2009 at 11:38 am

    Great tackle! It looks AMAZING in the after!

    Here is my tackle this week:
    http://marnisorganizedmess.blogspot.com/2009/05/tackle-it-tuesday-40-oven-shutters.html

    Reply
  18. Holly says

    May 5, 2009 at 11:33 am

    Great tackle. We keep an air filter in our bedroom that we have to clean regularly. It’s amazing what is in our air.

    Here’s the link to my tackle – Cleaning The Kitchen

    Reply
  19. Kris says

    May 5, 2009 at 10:42 am

    I don’t see the linky either

    Reply
  20. Amanda says

    May 5, 2009 at 10:41 am

    Wow! those portables can sure get dusty. Makes me nervous about what’s in our vents. We do change the filters monthly but still…`Great job!

    I’m up too with our first TT

    Reply
  21. Elisabeth says

    May 5, 2009 at 10:19 am

    I don’t see a Mr. Linky for a Tackle It Tuesday.

    Reply
  22. Elisabeth says

    May 5, 2009 at 10:14 am

    I think it looks good. It’s hard sometimes to be satisfied with a job when you know there’s more dirt lurking. Give yourself a pat on the back – you did a good job. 🙂

    Elisabeth

    Reply
  23. BarbaraLee says

    May 5, 2009 at 9:55 am

    We have a unit outside. But we aren’t suppose to cover them and most people do. Mice like to live in there for MN winters. But we do need to keep it clean.

    Reply
  24. Kris says

    May 5, 2009 at 9:52 am

    EWW! Makes me so happy the new house was equipped with central heat and air, and I don’t have that to worry with!

    Reply
  25. Lisa says

    May 5, 2009 at 9:49 am

    I couldn’t find Mr. Linky.

    Reply
  26. Lisa says

    May 5, 2009 at 9:41 am

    Great tackle! We tackled a garage sale this past week.

    Reply
  27. Renee Hurff says

    May 5, 2009 at 9:14 am

    Great tackle, we use window air conditioners and I know the filters on those get bad after a couple of weeks.

    Reply
  28. Jenny says

    May 5, 2009 at 9:09 am

    Hopefully we’re not even close to air conditioning yet! I’m sure it will be here too soon! Great tip for cleaning! Thanks!

    Reply
  29. susieshomemade says

    May 5, 2009 at 8:40 am

    Great tackle!! Stay cool:-)

    Reply
  30. The Happy Housewife says

    May 5, 2009 at 8:12 am

    I just did our big a/c intake…. gross! It is amazing how must dust had built up. Great tackle!
    Toni

    Reply
  31. Upstatemomof3 says

    May 5, 2009 at 4:20 am

    Wow!!! That is dusty. Our fans need to be cleaned. I may just try that toothbrush trick. 🙂

    Reply
  32. Heather says

    May 5, 2009 at 2:56 am

    YIKES!! I am not so sure I want to tackle that job…I might put that on the list for husband to tackle.

    Reply
  33. Maddy says

    May 5, 2009 at 1:13 am

    Ugh! I have never got to grips [tackled ] those filter? Why aren’t they the same size? Why are they so expensive.

    That’s certainly on ething that I”m reluctant to add to my ‘to do’ list’ but I’ll have to submit.
    Cheers

    Reply
  34. Stephanie says

    May 5, 2009 at 12:52 am

    I am not sure how this would work with a portable air conditioner, but you should be able to use a garden hose with some type of pressure nozzle to hose off the coils. I know that you can do this with window or wall sleeve units.

    Reply

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