It’s like a little tea pot that you fill up with a saline solution and stick in your nose. This, my friends, is the neti pot.

If you’ve never heard of it before then you must not watch Oprah. For the record, I don’t watch Oprah, but heard about this wonderful instrument from someone that does. The neti pot is something that I absolutely swear by for relief from allergies and nasal congestion.

It works by adding a bit of salt and some warm water, tilting your head, and pouring the solution into one nostril. The result is the water flowing through your nasal cavity and out the other nostril. Then you switch nostrils and repeat. The whole process flushes out lots of stuff from your nose and clears you right up. In allergy season, the neti pot helps to flush out allergens before they have a chance to build up and disrupt your otherwise peaceful existence.

I swear by the neti pot because it works, but it takes a lot of work. During the winter months I use the neti pot at least once a day. I find this helps fight off colds. If I get a cold, I’ll use it twice a day or more because it’s great at flushing out congestion. Sounds awesome, eh? During allergy season I use the neti pot twice a day, in the morning and at night, and the results have been incredible. While in University, I used to get allergy shots because my allergies were pretty bad. Since I started using the neti pot—for the past two summers—I haven’t got shots and haven’t had a lot of problems with my allergies either. The neti pot flushes everything out.

I know it’s weird and kind of gross, but it’s something that I swear by. The neti pot works as long as you’re willing to commit to it; it’s not a one-off solution you have to stick with it. If you do get a neti pot there are a slew of helpful videos on YouTube to guide you through the process. You could also take a look at them if you’re curious to see what kind of weirdos use this thing.