What an awesome opportunity to look back over a quarter of a century, I welcome you to join Tony and I reminisce, together with our family and yours. So, grab your choice of beverage, your comfy chair and open heart, have a chuckle and a gasp, as we walk back in time, right back to the beginning, when this all was a bright neon light at the end of the tunnel …
You are lucky to breathe and live!
That’s what we want to remind you throughout this story, and specifically in this year, 2021. We’ve spent 25 years, Tony and I, teaching people how to properly take care of their indoor air, knowledge passed on from person to person, subtly like the butterfly winging the breeze in the Amazon, that pebble dropped, cascading a ripple effect on the water’s surface, passing onto family and friends, and how to really appreciate air and life. Whether you are at home or at work, at rest or play, you are a lucky individual. In fact, you’ve got the most precious opportunity to breathing and living in the world, next to drinking water and shelter. Keep that in mind!
In 1996 there was no guidebook for cleaning up your house apart from what mums had shown their daughters. The terms asthma and allergies were in their infancy, and doctors were focused on medications, not environment.
Just before our second child arrived, we started having itchy feet! Not a new health symptom, just a change of pace that any problem solver craves for, question on my mind as to ‘why do families continuously suffer asthma and allergies in their life?’ Back at the hospital where I had worked, asthma was a dedicated tick box on your health record, and the puffer list was already populated.
The vacuum cleaner being demonstrated in our home, at my swollen pregnant feet, picked up finer dust that I could never have picked up with my normal vacuuming, and only fresh air vented out of the top of the barrel, best results in years! ‘There’s a business idea’ I said ‘cleaning up people’s carpets and mattresses, and at the same time get rid of dust, get rid dust mites, get rid of asthma.’ A broad statement, it was the focus on every household of 4 people had 4 beds and that was 4 million dust mites per household, a lot of homes to visit and a humungous number of dust mites to suck and send packing!
Obviously, we got through that initial thrilling overwhelm, and here we are today, 1st of July 2021, at Mitey Fresh’s Silver Anniversary!
Your Indoor Air
At the time I was juggling two kids under feet, answering calls in our home (back when we were teased, ‘that’s not a real business, working from home is a hobby’), the number of people who were suffering and looking for answers, can’t stop coughing and wheezing, feeling tired and overwhelmed, and once their home was really cleaned by Tony, only then the relief and joy and the clarity ‘ahhh, a clean home! I can breathe, you’ve saved my life’. If you chose a full house clean, what a relief, if you chose to just clean your bedding, awesome feeling of relief, for a while …
Was I more aware what people were suffering and feeling? Absolutely! ‘So let’s see what happens when you encase your mattress and pillow with dust mite covers?’ and they had a good night’s sleep and did not call us again for the next 5 to 10 years, only to replace their cover, that is.
Air purifiers and dehumidifiers solved their concern about pollens, dust mites and mould and so we would go to big expos and demonstrate, ‘simply go home and look at your indoor environment’, it could be making you sick! We quickly found people searching and eliminating, or at least fixing asthma triggers, substituting for healthier products and food, many indoor air quality issues improved, and their health somewhat restored to normality. Job well done! We know! 
That’s a great story, but I wanted to tell it because I want this message to go with you, to share knowledge. Working in people’s homes was our first real experience being at the ‘coal face’, seeing what it really is like ‘existing’ in different indoor environments, some like it dark, some like it damp, light, cold, hot, cluttered, spotless, unmade, busy, children, pets, bleach clean, aromatic, air con, gas, timber, carpet, feather, latex, cotton, synthetic, vents, steam, condensation, habits, fragrances, dryer, extractor fans, smoking and more. It became very obvious, every environment situation fitted every person individually and in turn every person responded to this environment independently if not uniquely.
As consultants, we ensured we’d wash our hands thoroughly and remove our ‘street clothes’ before joining our family. My skin pulled tight, I cringed at the smell of perfumes, my breathing was slightly tickling, headache by nightfall, Tony literally knocked down by flu on occasions. Were we ‘canaries in the coal mine?’
Just as child number three arrived, we were well established in the dust mite – no chemicals arena, we were approached via the internet, back then the website had 5 pages and computer was hard wired, dial up, buildings deteriorating quickly, more mouldy places, people suffering from various mystery symptoms, and just not getting better, and we took on board an ultrasonic device to repel ticks. Go figure! Dust Mites and Ticks are 8 legged cousins!
Your Loved Ones
Mitey Shield born in 2003, Mitey Fresh’s little sister, founded that technology could adapt to fleas and ticks, witnessing an emerging tsunami about to hit, animals suffered ‘death by paralysis tick’, a couple of months followed we found out, only by chance conversation, that the locals were wearing the pet device themselves whilst gardening and bush walking, avoiding chemicals. Totally innovative and cool you’d agree!
Within a few months after developing the first human tick repeller in the world, people called from north to south along the eastern seaboard of Australia, they were looking for alternatives to chemicals not only for their pets but also for themselves, alternative to dosing chemicals on their children if at all, checking yourselves daily, only made you more anxious when you found paralysis tick buried in your skin in awkward places, painful, tearful and itchy for several weeks, living a street away from Aussie bush and national park, I quickly found that pets and people were reacting to ticks in various ways from red and itchy skin to lumps growing at a rate of knots at the bite site and feeling of un-wellness, headaches and malaise, vets seeing numerous cats and dogs presenting to their clinic in various symptom stages, one doctor finding red meat allergies locally and Lyme Disease emerged from USA, people shouting their stories and concerns from around the world in Europe, South Africa and South America, and some years later, kangaroo tick bite symptoms from western side of Australia, the number of people and animals suffering and looking for answers is ongoing at time of writing.
‘What happens if you wear the ultrasonic device’ and they had none to nominal amount of tick bites, many animals had no bites or reactions and family happy. Livestock like alpacas, horses, organic cattle and even a kangaroo benefited from this piece of technology, I see we’re only at the ‘sitting on the fence’ phase to this phenomena, as health authorities decide if symptoms from tick bites are ‘real’, vets add number of pets dying monthly to the statistics, news articles and videos reveal the hidden truths of people suffering and living in fear of their next bite.
Former boundaries are being poked, even pushed, into new territory, if we weren’t interested, we wouldn’t be where we are now. That year, it became time for new blood, excuse the pun, to continue the presence of safe integrative pest management, and with our first child leaving home, and the stress of running three businesses, it was time to pass the baton to the next custodian. Job well done! I know that’s a sad story in a way, but I wanted to tell it because I want you to look out for this device and pass this knowledge on to others, be the ripple effect, this might happen to you. Life is good. But those were the middle years.
Our Planet
As a result of caring for it, and appreciating its value, we ended up restoring something that conceivably brings happiness to our and your lives, our and your family, our and your home, connects us together to our environment, our planet.
Early in around 2005, in our family home surrounded by national park, we had a DECT phone, a microwave, non stick fry pan, work mobile phone, and wifi come into the home. I’m pretty sure things started to change then, floorboards, no chemicals in laundry, once in a blue moon makeup, goats milk soap and fragrance free shampoo, cotton bedding, healthy non organic food, outside activities like trampoline, vege and chook garden, table tennis, badminton, board games, kids playing with neighbours daily, grow into hand me downs. It did not last long till I questioned ‘what is going on?’
Clients were coming out of the woodwork, old and new, ‘we’re still feeling unwell, tired, can’t get on top of life’, that and the revolving door of friends, and outside influences and fragrant aromas other people had on, and with the plethora of portable technology and lingering aromas, drifted on in, inside the home. In school holiday times my kids would spend it playing in and around the house, the whole holidays, and that was not to say for other families who would spend time inside the home playing with technology, portable and video game systems and consoles, pcs, mobiles.
During that time, my kids would play and I would potter around as mum, take them to experience life in the city, the zoo, the beach, bike riding, fun outdoor activities, and we would encourage them to do the washing up with non-fragrant dishwashing liquid, and clean their rooms and move clothes along every season as they grew. Tony cooked lovely meals and scrumptious deserts, play boards games and make up fun games, that would go on for days, if not the whole school holidays. Just like my mum I washed nearly every second day using a washing machine in cold or warm water, hot was non-existent, walked in air conditioned shopping centres to avoid the blazing sun, swam in neighbour’s pool, were we lucky! (I’m sure we should have invested time in helping the neighbours in that one, but hey, the kids improved their swimming). That meant jumping the fence for lunch.
I felt better when I was away from the home, I played with horses and walked the paddocks morning and night, interacting with nature, fulfilling my energy, and together the family encompassed a beautiful, filled to the rim energy. There was nothing wrong with that, but there was something happening outside this home, it was not till 10 years later, only by chance visitor to our home in conversation, that the life we were leading was ‘wholesome’, old fashioned, and natural, honest, genuine, amongst others, plenty of less technology, no chemicals, good food and filtered water and fresh air. I’d already changed the phone to landline via computer, housed the microwave outside, got rid of the non-sticks and what I found was, there was something else happening, and I could not put my finger on it till I found Building Biology 2012.
Microwave and coffee cups takeaway
When I started reading up, studying air pollution, from the atmosphere back down to outdoors, and to indoors to where you take your breath, learned through my hands sampling air. How cool is that! Examined electricity, magnetics, frequencies, microwaves (beyond that box that nukes your food instantly) and radio waves, measuring and determining where they are located and what they do. Building materials, soft materials and hard, the way the building is designed and placed and how together they inter react in the eco system with our earth. Chemicals, mould, drinking water, and how it affects us, our families, our plants and animals, and how it affects our planet. I have a voice!
Daily I would get calls, ‘I can’t get out of bed, my family don’t understand, the doctor has done everything possible’. Simply, look at your indoor environment, it could be making you sick. I quickly found people searching and eliminating, or at least fixing asthma triggers, substituting for healthier products and food, many indoor air quality issues improved, and their health somewhat restored to normality. Job well done! Remember that part earlier on? For some, no, unknown, underlying issues remain, what triggers are they missing, what can’t they see, smell, feel, taste or hear?
Our Future
I feel, not everything in life needs to be explained, and when you consider what is at stake, and the fact that we as people need to change our behaviours and shift, to restore the health of the world’s air system, its time to be the essence.
Wifi – smart or not so smart, we’re saturated in it, covered in it! Healthy home designs, I’ve designed with the help of expert sustainable designers, using materials that are readily available and new in the system yet to be engineered tested, but at a cost beyond sustainable for now. Waiting for an angel crusader.
Callum Roberts, “The Ocean of Life” wrote, it is essential for ocean life and our own that we transform ourselves from being a species that uses up its resources, to one that cherishes and nurtures them.
Reflection
I mused over all the good times and all the bad times I had with my environmental experiences, started writing blog posts about my experiences, science and life, and a book. I recollected all my interactions with sufferers over the years, my own health responses and experiences, interactions with non-sufferers and authorities. I remember asking them ‘why do you think you are unwell?’ and ‘are you happy with the ‘fix’. I found that a majority of these people saw their un-wellness as just another ‘that’s life’ for them, or ‘rely on authorities to know best, and if they change it for the masses, that’s when it’s OK.’
Only a few people really understood what they had in themselves and in their home. When I worked in hospital and in homes helping people with their health, cleaning up their act and getting rid of asthma, I did teach them about the value of quality indoor air. How breathing clean, fresh air can actually make you a healthier, happier person, and bring content to your family and even your friends. I want to explore some of the ways I feel that big body of air in your home will actually make you healthier, calmer and happier, and improve your life all round.
Try to remember your childhood. Did you have fresh air growing up? Did you play outside? Anywhere? Remind yourself how good you felt when you would run outside into a backyard on a hot summer day or inside when it got dark. As a child, you didn’t have to take care of the house (unless you were like me). You just got to enjoy it. Now that you’re in charge, it’s all the more special. Be sure to keep these thoughts in mind while you live and breathe indoors.
Filter the noise, it’s simple, the same goes for information. I always feel that taking care of your indoor air isn’t rocket science. In fact, it’s pretty easy. However, there are people out there, as with anything, looking to make it complicated. I won’t go into why they strive to make things so difficult, but keep in mind that there are profits involved with some of them. A little know how is a good thing, but a lot can overwhelm you, it can be distracting to your focus to breathe healthy. That’s why I always tell people to find a trusted source of indoor air quality information and stick to it. Everyone has a different approach to indoor air care, and one is not better or worse than the other – it’s just different and could be even conflicting at times. I’ve worked with people, services and products in their homes and businesses before and after the advent of the internet, directly in view for competitors. And when authoritative bodies said ‘clean up your indoors’ today, was a bit of an ah-ha moment for me, that wow, 25 years , that is a lot to not to have much change. This time though, authorities said ‘we really are going to do it’.
Of course, people would go back and forth between our business and those stores on line and get upset when they got conflicting information, blinded by bling marketing. The truth is, it was true. While one store would promote ‘we kill dust mites’ as a service to clean mattresses, our store would say ‘it’s the faeces that is the asthma trigger and you need to eliminate or cover your bed to protect you’. This resulted in some people putting way too many services and products in their home and having strange results occur in their quest for health. This happened a lot, and my advice was always the same, ‘just stick to one source of advice and filter out all the other noise.’ If you trust someone with good indoor air care information (like me), then you won’t be confused.
You can go to the store and buy a car boot worth of supplies, but if you’re not consistent on taking care of your indoors, no chemical or product or service will solve your indoor air problems. That’s why this Mitey Fresh Australia will ONLY give you the solutions and tools you absolutely need to take care of indoor air. If it’s not mentioned in this business, you don’t need it. Air is a simple element on this earth, and there’s a lesson here we can learn when we take care of it—keep it simple.
Towards healthier living,
Carol and Tony
Congratulations on 25 years.