If there’s something, my mom was obsessed with a clean home.
That meant everything had to get at least one scrub down per year.
She had a schedule for when she needed to find an HVAC professional from the local heating company for the annual heating maintenance. And when our furnace started troubling us, she took over planning for new heating equipment because the heating repair wasn’t helping. We had a list on the fridge with our daily routines, meal plans, shopping lists, and emergency contacts. Her spring cleaning routine included intensively cleaning the HVAC installation and fireplace professionals. She said it ensured the house stayed fresh and the lingering smell of smoke and soot would be cleaned out instead of piling up yearly. I realize it made me conscious of air in homes where they didn’t have a routine as strict as my mom’s, but maybe I imagined it. I’m not as clean as she was, but her heating device maintenance routine became a part of me. Every year, I get everything scrubbed down as Mom did; most times, I forget some things, but the heating technician is a priority. The cleaning has not only ensured that our home’s air quality stays pristine, but it’s also saved me from buying new equipment. The last time the heating specialist was around, he noticed that my thermostat had issues which led to a random repair. We talked about upgrading from wood to an electric heater which the heating dealership had stocked. I couldn’t afford it, but that interaction ignited my interest in upgrading. I’m still determining when I’ll do it, but I will eventually.