Hey there, while all opinions are my own, I am a member of the Collective Bias® Social Fabric® Community. This shop has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias® and FRAM #cbias #SocialFabric
I introduced to all of you recently that I’m on a quest to make the space around me space that I love. I’ve also talked a bit about this on Facebook. A lot of work is going into this life improvement (for lack of a better word). I’ve hung pictures at home, cleaned up corners, donated junk I didn’t need, involved myself in more community events, cleaned off my desk at work… you get the idea, right?
My next stop was some place I spend a lot of time… TOO much time, in fact. My car. I think we’re all guilty of spending too much time in our cars. We go to and from work. To and from the store. Back to work. Back to the store. To the park. To an exciting vacation destination. Back to work. It’s a lot of time, shouldn’t we love that space too?
I keep my car fairly clean (on the inside, the outside is another story). I don’t leave trash in the backseat. I hate empty soda containers laying around. Don’t even think about putting your gum wrapper in the map holder on the side of my door. Those are map holders, not trash holders. It’s pretty easy to love that space. It’s a place I can listen to whatever music I want. I have time to reflect there. The temperature of my car isn’t up someone else. It’s just a nice space.
And it’s all mine.
It recently came to my attention that there is a cabin air filter in my car. This guy controls the quality of the air I breathe while doing all of those things I listed above. I had no idea this existed. Don’t get me wrong, I knew about that air filter in the engine that oil change stores charge WAY too much to replace, but I didn’t know about this one. Unless they are the same thing, in which case, I feel pretty silly typing this. Can someone clear it up for me? Please? Pretty please with a cherry on top? And don’t make me feel silly while doing so? ‘Kay, thanks.
After a quick search for cabin air filters, specifically ones I could get locally, I found the FRAM FreshBreeze cabin air filter. It absorbs odors with Arm and Hammer Baking Soda and I do love almost every product that uses Arm and Hammer (it does wonders on a litter box and my fridge, surely it could help my car).
Wait, I’m not going to turn into the kind of person who buys things to help their car. However, I am the kind of person who buys things to help me. I’m selfish like that.
Since moving to Arkansas 9 years ago, I’ve suffered from allergies every spring. Pollen is a vicious, nasty little thing. Is it really possible that keeping my cabin air filter fresh and clean by simply replacing it will help reduce my allergies? According to studies, yes. Now, I can’t say from personal experience that this will, but it’s worth a shot, right?
Also, I can’t count how many times in a month I bring pizza home for dinner (THE SHAME, I know). Every time I bring it home, my car smells like pepperoni, mushrooms, cheese and grease for at least 3 days. That’s gross. Really gross. Pizza never smells as good on the 3rd day as it did on the 1st day. Don’t believe me? Put a slice in your backseat and let it sit there for a while and get back to me.
Now, back to these FRAM FreshBreeze filters, their website has a lot of good information and FAQs. It even has a place to check to make sure they make it for my car. Nothing is more annoying than hunting down a product and not being able to find it.
What I wish they had was a store locator because that was a bit of an annoyance. I’ll save that for another post. Okay, just a hint, apparently Walmart automotive employees would rather tell you none of their stores have a product if it means they won’t have to call a store down the highway to check on availability for you. I went to 3 different employees until I found someone who would help. 2 told me all stores carry the same product so if they don’t have it, no one does. The 3rd finally called a store 10 minutes away and low and behold, they had it.
Thanks 3rd employee. Walmart should promote you to manager so you can train everyone else how to provide decent customer service.
Now, back to the filters. Once at the store that carried the product, I found a handy-dandy computer that walked me through finding just the right product for my car. Don’t worry, if computers freak you out, they have a book as well. Both were very easy to navigate.
Oh, lookie there, my filter! I like the green, too. It’s fresh, eye catching, and makes me look like I know what I’m doing because I can change my own cabin air filter.
First the filter, next… the world!
Okay, so the green doesn’t actually do that, but I do like the color of the packaging.
Off I went, after payment, of course, to install my filter. Thanks to some easy instructional videos on their website, installation would be a breeze. Actually, I’ve replaced the fan in the AC of my last car on my own, so really anything other than that is a breeze these days. I also have replaced the screen on my laptop with instructions I found on YouTube. And yes, I’m proud of myself.
The cabin air filter is housed right behind my glove compartment so this project was super quick and super easy. Like, 1-2-3 easy.
Eeeeew, just look at my old filter. Actually, don’t. Pretend you never saw how gross and nasty that was. Erase it from your memory, Men in Black style.
Tah-dah! New filter in, easy instructions, clean air, loving the space I’m in one simple improvement at a time. I’m looking forward to breathing in cleaner air and possibly even preventing odors that come with a well used car (refer to that pizza issue I discussed above). For the record, I picked up a super garlicky pizza last night and this morning, I couldn’t even smell a trace of it. So far, so good.
If you’re really feeling your oats and want to take on 2 DIY car projects, go ahead and buy a FRAM oil filter while you’re at it and get a rebate. Details here.
IdyllHands 