the Angie’s List Blue House Blog

Despite the title, I’m not sick while I write this. I’ve recovered. It seems I have a sensitive immune system, and recently got sick while cleaning my garage. It was a freaking mess. A disaster.

My roommates and I have used the garage as a staging area for the work we’ve performed on the rest of the house. Originally it was full of trash from the demolition, but yours truly cleared that mess out a long time ago. But over time, as we added crown molding, or painted a wall, the garage turned back into a mess.

So one bright Saturday, while most people were doing fun things like playing frisbee with their dog or swimming in the good ol’ swimming hole, Conor was inside a hot garage sweeping and sweating. It sucked. The worst part, other than the massive amount of trash we created for the garbage men, was the dust I kicked up while sweeping. I paid no attention to this at the time, but the next day I was congested, coughing and sniffling. Boo.

So why bring this up? Many will prepare for the fall and winter by doing cleaning, or tackling home improvement tasks that will kick up dust and dirt. Some perform simple work like this on their home quite often. Many hire others to do the job. Regardless, if there’s dust flying, face masks should be worn. Always. In addition to cleaning, there are several tips listed here for homeowners preparing for winter. There are suggestions on everything from what to do with your chimney to what to do to your lawn. If you own a home, make sure you check them out.

But whatever you do yourself, be careful and wear a face mask combined with other safety gear. I certainly will be wearing one when I tackle my next cleaning project: my shed. It’s been locked and the windows are so dirty you can’t even see in, so I’m clueless as to what awaits me inside. Dead racoon? Jimmy Hoffa? Regardless, I’ve heard from my neighbors it’s where the goat lived, so it’s probably not pretty. I’ll let you know in a future post.