Dust bunnies never sleep

I've reach nirvana. I have a completely clean house. There is no clutter to be seen. There are no dirty dishes in the sink. Coats and boots are in their place. There is no mess in the bathroom. Yep, I've achieved clean house nirvana.

But I'll let you on a little secret: maintaining clean house nirvana is a high maintenance chore. Very high maintenance and immensely time consuming. You see, we let things lapse a bit earlier in the week. However, when we had to resume house showings on Thursday, it was back at to it. Luckily, darling daughter wasn't home. So for two and a half hours, I spent shining the sinks, sweeping the front foyer, folding laundry and most of all, battling dust bunnies.

Despite the fact I had vacuumed days before, the dust bunnies were back at it, mingling under my bed, in my closets and in nooks and crannies. Out came Dyson. He easily sucked them up. Unfortunately for the dust bunnies, they are attracted to Dyson like bees to pollen. It must due to his powers of persuasion that they'd have a better life inside his canister.

But dust bunnies never sleep. They keep on reproducing. They keep mingling. They keep conspiring. Less than 24-hours since I vacuumed, I was force to eliminate dust bunnies again this morning. Having no time to vacuum, I got out the Swiffer. What came out from underneath the bed was disgusting. I've realized that Dyson and I could vacuum every day and the dust bunnies would still have the upper hand. So here's to you, dust bunnies. You may win the war, but I will keep on battling you to achieve and keep house clean nirvana.

Losing my mind over a Dyson filter

I knew eventually it would happen, but I didn’t realize it would happen so soon. I, Valerie McLaughlin, have officially lost my mind.

It all started when I cleaned the filter of my Dyson. It has been more six months since we bought our wonder vacuum cleaner and it was time to clean the filter. I’ve been putting off the task for weeks. I finally gave in and cleaned it earlier this week.

But for whatever reason, I thought the filter came in three pieces: plastic cover, sponge filter and plastic lid. After I washed the plastic cover and sponge filter, I went searching for the plastic lid. I couldn’t find it anywhere. I looked on the utility shelves in and around the laundry room. I searched through a nearby garbage bag (with two stinky diapers, I may add). I searched in and around the washer and dryer. I searched for a good 15 minutes. Despite the fact I took the filter apart and washed in our small laundry room, I couldn’t find the plastic cover anywhere.

Frustrated and becoming increasingly angry, I gave up and took a break.

Hoping that new eyes could help me find the darn thing, I got dear husband to look that evening. He too became frustrated and increasingly angry. He searched for an hour before he gave up.

Does it even exist? He asked me.

Yes it does, I told him. It has to. I saw a lid, I said with all certainty.

Are you playing a joke? If you have, that’s okay. I’d be relieved.

No, I replied.

I was serious. If this was a joke, it would surely be a stupid one. Who’d joke about losing a lid of a Dyson filter? But then I started thinking. Was I dreaming of said lid?

The mystery was still unsolved when we went to bed.

The next day, confused and befuddled, I decided to take action. On the way home from a mommy and me music class, I stopped into a local vacuum shop. After stumbling over the owner’s dog and my own words in trying to describe my dilemma, the shop owner started flipping through manuals, trying to answer my question. It took him opening the filter compartment of a similar stand-up Dyson to solve the mystery. Plastic cover. Check. Sponge filter. Check. No plastic lid.

What the hell? Where was the lid? No lid? You've got to be kidding me.

After thanking the shop owner, I quickly high tailed it out of the store with darling daughter in tow.

I swear that I saw a plastic lid. I’m pretty sure I did. But now, I don’t know what I thought I saw. I think I need more sleep and stop dreaming and searching for non-existent Dyson filter lids.

Horrifying but fascinating at the same time

They say the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. I'm sure we can all think of things we do in our life that we do the same over and over again, hoping the results will be different, but they never are.

In my household, one of the things that comes to mind that fits that definition is vacuuming. The only carpet we have is on the stairs leading upstairs and downstairs. Every time dear husband vacuums the stairs, I have high hopes that they will be clean. While they look relatively less dingy and grimy when he puts the vacuum away, they are still dingy and grimy.

Well, this week we bit the bullet, laid out several hundred dollars and bought a Dyson. Before making our purchase this week, I always wondered Dyson lived up to the hype. Well, I am impressed.Very impressed. The above photo is what the Dyson pulled out of the carpet that covers both stairs.

We were both horrified and fascinated at the dirt in the bin. (Dear husband remarked that he always thought the stairs were "clean" when he was done vacuuming. Obviously they weren't). Every time I vacuum with the Dyson it is like a science experiment. I'm always wondering what it will manage to suck up. I even vacuumed the keyboard of my laptop. Along with the dirt, it sucked up a couple of keys that I had to rescue from the bin.

I'm not surprised that the Dyson was able to pull that much crap out of the carpet. We have laminate flooring throughout the house and controlling the dust bunnies that I often find rolling underneath the beds and crib is an ongoing task. I don't want to give the impression that the Dyson was able to restore my carpet to its original state (it is cheap carpet and it is looking quite worn), but my stairs are looking incredibly less dingy and grimy.

I want to stress that we didn't buy the Dyson to clean the cheap carpet on our stairs. We bought it for dust control. In particular to control dust mites as well as to eliminate their habitat. After cleaning the stairs and the downstairs foyer, I tackled our mattress. For those who have dust mite allergies, one way to control those allergies is trying to eliminate the source: dust mites as well as their fecal matter. Unfortunately, humans attract dust mites. They feed on flakes of the skin we shed. (I know disgusting). Obviously, they flourish in areas where we spend a lot of time, like our bedrooms.

I won't get into too much detail of what the Dyson was able to pick up from the mattress, but I was amazed and disgusted at the same time. Honestly, I should have kept the plastic bag the mattress came in.

Buying a Dyson was a good investment for us. Not only does it control dust, it almost makes cleaning fun.