My grandmother’s house always had a very distinct smell to it. Not a bad smell, just not a fresh air smell. Her house is neat as a pin. She’s meticulous about her housekeeping routine. You’ll never see a pillow or knickknack out of place. If there’s so much as a speck of dirt tracked in on her carpet, she’ll schedule a steam cleaning. Sure, sometimes you can detect a whiff of her arthritis cream in the air when she’s feeling achy. You’ll also pick up the scent of her flowery perfume when you stand by her dressing table. That’s the smell of grandma as far as I’m concerned. The stale smell was throughout the house. It was stronger in the warmer months of the year. That made me think the air conditioning system might be the source of the issue. I had the air conditioning company come out to do a check and, sure enough, the air conditioning filter was the culprit. My grandmother hadn’t changed the air conditioner’s filter in years. Staying on top of air conditioning filter changes has to be part of a homeowner’s routine. A clean air filter is one of the most important factors in ensuring the health of your air conditioner and you. Those filters catch a good amount of organic material that would otherwise accumulate in the air conditioning ducts, and that stops mold growth. The last thing I want is for my grandmother to come down with a respiratory issue because of a dirty air filter. It’s so simple and inexpensive to change those air conditioning filters every six months. I’m going to make sure that it gets done on schedule from now on.