12 simple ways to reduce the amount of dust in your home
By Anabela Rea|
There are few certainties in life: death, taxes and finding dust around your house.
From skin particles to dirt brought in on your shoes, or fibres floating in the air, dust just happens.
It may be overly optimistic to think there's a way you'll literally never have to dust your home again, but there are certainly ways to reduce it.
So if your house is a place where the dustbunnies roam, never fear ¨C here are a few things you can do about it.
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Switch from dry dusting to wet dusting
Practically, this is an easy cleaning hack that just makes sense ¨C stop using a dry cloth to dust your house. When you dust with a dry cloth, all you do is send dust particles further flying, on to different surfaces and to be collected at some other time.
Dust regularly with a wet cloth (preferably a microfibre one) and you'll actually gather up the dust present on surfaces.
Change where you groom your pets
Our furry friends are a great source of dust, dander and hair in our homes. So tempting as it may be to groom your cat or dog whilst it's perched on your knee on the couch, doing so will just encourage the build up of dust in your home and create more work for you later.
Switch to grooming your pets in a confined, smooth-surfaced area like a bathroom, laundry, or even your garage, where pet hair can be easily encapsulated before being vacuumed away.
Better yet, groom your pets outside and skip the extra vacuuming altogether.
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Use the right cleaning tools
If you want to cut down the dust in your home, there are some tools you're going to need in your arsenal. A vacuum cleaner, microfibre cloth and a feather duster are the basics.
You can also use a compressed air for cleaning technology and hard-to-reach places, or a paint brush for small or delicate items.
If you'd rather not spend a lot, you can enhance the dust-attracting abilities of a simple cotton or flannel cloth with this household hack.
Mist your cloth with the following mixture: one tablespoon of sensitive washing powder, one tablespoon of ammonia, two tablespoons of linseed oil, and a litre of warm water.
Soak the cloth, wring it out and leave it hung up to dry before use, then use it to dust your house. In between uses, you'll need to keep it in an ice cream container or tupperware box, and after being used a few times, give it a wash. Post-wash, re-treat with the ammonia solution before dusting with it again.
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Tone down your fragrance addiction
If you're on the fence about home fragrances, ditching incense and candles will help to cut down on the amount of obvious dust and airborne soot particles in your home.
Declutter your space
There's a reason for the expression "gathering dust".
Tonnes of trinkets and curios may not cause dust in the first place, but they are easy places for it settle, and due to their often intricate nature, can be hard to clean.
Less clutter means clearer surfaces, which means easier wiping, and hopefully, less dust.
Use a vacuum with a HEPA filter
According to Consumer Reports, vacuum cleaners with HEPA filters are preferable for dusty homes and people with allergies and asthma, as the filter traps dust molecules from re-entering back into the air.
Change your sheets once a week
Slacking off on changing your sheets regularly can help to encourage a build up of dust thanks to excess skin particles and dust mites, microscopic critters which can cause allergies and are attracted to fabric environments rich in skin cells to feed.
If that thought isn't enough to get you to change your sheets, I'm not sure what will.
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Swap curtains and blinds for rollers
Notoriously hard to clean, venetian-style blinds are magnets for dust, as are heavy fabric curtains.
To eliminate this dusty hiding spot, simply swap for a roller style blind. Or if the look of your room demands drapes, dust them regularly with a lint roller or make sure to take them outside every couple of weeks for a good shake in the open air.
If you can't justify removing blinds from your home, try dusting them with a sock over your hand to get in-between the nooks and crannies.
Use an air purifier
Similar to a dehumidifer, air purifiers generally do what it says on the tin ¨C they collect dust particles and pollutants out of the air in your home.
If you do decide to invest in one, make sure it's a model that also has a HEPA filter.
Position your air purifier beside the window, so that it can more easily purify what enters your home.
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Ditch carpet for smooth flooring
It's not hard to imagine shagpile carpet being a nest for dust, dirt and goodness knows what else, but even regular carpet is likely less clean than smooth surfaced flooring options.
According to the American Lung Association, carpets may trap pollutants such as dust mites, pet dander, mould spores, and even cockroach allergens.
So if you're approaching a home renovation and you really hate dust, it may be best to kick carpet out.
You can easily keep hard flooring options dust-free by popping a chenille sock over a standard mop and taking it for a swoosh around the room. You'll be surprised how much dust it picks up.
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Don't forget skirting and trims
Another place that pesky dust can lodge is in the skirting of a room and the trims around doors.
A cleaning hack for dusting this area is to use a dryer sheet, which will more easily grab the particles.
Keep house plants dust-free
Anything sitting around in your home is bound to receive at least a fine coating of dust and your plants are no exception.
Unfortunately, dusting a plant is easier said than done. Eliminate this tedious little task by using your hairdryer to blow off the dust off instead. Remember to have the setting on cold.
This story originally appeared on Stuff and was republished with permission. Read the original here.
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