G’day,

I hope you are well.

Every now and then I find myself thinking back to where it all began.

People often ask us how Mitey Fresh started.

For many years I smiled and gave the simple answer.

“It all began back in 1996.”

Sometimes I’d say it started because asthma and allergies were becoming more common.

Sometimes I’d say it began with a vacuum cleaner.

Looking back now, I realise those answers were only part of the story.

The older I get, the more I realise Mitey Fresh didn’t begin with a business.

It began with a young family wanting to build a life together.

Tony and I weren’t searching for a business opportunity.

We were simply trying to find meaningful work, keep a roof over our heads, raise our children and build a future we could be proud of.

If that work could also help other people along the way, then perhaps we’d found something worthwhile.

Neither of us imagined where that simple hope would eventually lead.

I can still picture our little lounge room.

I was heavily pregnant with our second baby when someone arrived carrying a vacuum cleaner.

At the time it felt like a perfectly ordinary afternoon.

If someone had told me that afternoon would shape the next thirty years of our lives, I would have smiled politely and thought they were quite mad.

The demonstrator began vacuuming our old carpet.

What caught my attention wasn’t the machine itself.

It was what happened afterwards.

As the power head gently vibrated the carpet, years of hidden dust and fine debris lifted from deep within the pile.

The carpet literally changed colour before my eyes.

I remember thinking …

“There you are … that’s the colour you’ve been hiding all this time.”

Then we looked through a small viewing scope at what had just been removed from our carpet and mattress.

For the first time, I could actually see what had been quietly living where our family slept and played every day.

I turned to Tony and quietly said,

“There’s a business.”

Not because of the vacuum cleaner.

Because of what it had revealed.

A month later our beautiful second baby was born.

About a year later, Mitey Fresh was born too.

Tony began cleaning carpets and mattresses while I answered the phones, looked after the children, kept the books and quietly held everything together behind the scenes.

Like so many family businesses, work and family life simply became one.

Before long, people began telling their friends.

Tony became busier and busier until he was often booked two weeks in advance.

Then one afternoon someone asked us a question that changed Mitey Fresh forever.

“This is wonderful … but how do we keep it this way?”

We didn’t know.

So we went looking.

Without realising it, that simple question became the way Mitey Fresh would grow over the next three decades.

Every new direction began with another conversation.

Another family.

Another question.

Another opportunity to learn.

One family wanted to know how to keep dust mites out of their bedding.

So we searched.

That search led us to beautifully made cotton allergy bedding developed by a New Zealand microbiologist and former President of Asthma New Zealand.

Another family asked about the air they were breathing.

Easy. That was right under our nose. Same developer and manufacturer of the vacuum cleaner led us to air purifiers.

Someone else struggled with dampness and condensation.

Again we searched.

Just up the road, half an hour’s drive, led us to dehumidifiers.

Then came musty wardrobes.

Natural zeolite.

The Damp Chaser.

Parents wanting pillows that could actually be washed.

So we worked with that same microbiologist to help develop one.

Living on Sydney’s northern region, we also saw far too many beloved family pets lost to paralysis ticks.

When we were invited to trial ultrasonic technology, we saw another opportunity to explore a different approach, eventually developing one of the world’s first ultrasonic tick-repellent devices for pets and later for people.

Looking back now, I smile when people ask us how we chose the products we sell.

The truth is …

We never chose the products.

Our clients did.

Every product on our shelves has a story.

It began with a conversation.

A family searching for answers.

A question we couldn’t ignore.

A problem that deserved more than, “You’ll just have to live with it.”

So we searched.

Sometimes across Australia.

Sometimes across the world.

Sometimes we couldn’t find what families needed, so we helped develop it ourselves.

The shelves at Mitey Fresh weren’t filled by marketing plans.

They were filled one conversation at a time.

One family at a time.

One question at a time.

Along the way I discovered Building Biology.

For me, it wasn’t a change in direction.

It was like someone finally gave words to observations I’d been quietly making for years.

It provided a framework that connected homes, health and the natural environment in a way that simply made sense.

That journey eventually led us to design to pre build stage, a healthy home using natural materials, pathways  and Building Biology principles.

It was everything we had hoped it would be.

Yet afterwards another question quietly appeared.

If creating a healthy home required such a significant investment, how could ordinary families ever experience the same benefits?

That question stayed with me for a long time.

Eventually it became Hello Healthy Home.

Not because everyone needs to build a new home.

But because every family deserves the opportunity to create a healthier home with the one they already have.

Looking back now, I realise Mitey Fresh has never really been about vacuum cleaners.

Or bedding.

Or air purifiers.

Or dehumidifiers.

Or Building Biology.

Those have simply been different chapters in the same story.

The real story has always been about people.

Listening carefully.

Remaining curious.

Continuing to learn.

And quietly asking ourselves one simple question …

“How can we genuinely help?”

Perhaps that has always been the heart of Mitey Fresh.

Not a business built around products.

But a lifetime of listening, learning and searching for practical ways to help families create healthier homes.

And after all these years, I think the promise we quietly made to ourselves in the beginning is still the same today.

If there’s a better way to help …

Let’s go and find it.

Thank you for taking the time to read our story.

We’re grateful you’ve become part of it.

Towards healthier living,

enjoy the day,

 : carol : and : tony :

Note to self: Let’s see how we go … and if we need to, we can always amend it.