Closeup of female fingertip with dust on it and a dusty tabletop with a text overlay that reads "Steps that Prevent Dust in Your Home"

Feel like your furniture's constantly dusty even when you've just cleaned? Try these easy methods to reduce dust in your home.

Female stands next to dusty table and shows dust collected on her fingertip

If you have allergy sufferers in your family, y'all've probably wondered how to reduce dust in your home. Co-ordinate to one article of furniture spray maker, the average house collects twoscore lbs. of grit in ane year. Forty pounds! But where does information technology all come up from?

We oftentimes hear that dust is mostly dead skin, merely that's non true. According to people who study such things, household dust is a mixture of creature dander, carpet fluff, clothing fibers, and dirt tracked indoors. While no amount of cleaning volition completely remove the dust in your business firm, these seven proven means volition aid.

7 Solutions to Reduce Dust in Your House

Normally, the ready for most household issues is going to the source. When it comes to reducing dust in the home, you really can't address the cause without plastic-wrapping every surface. Curt of buying a truckload of plastic wrap, the all-time solution is to keep out every bit much dust every bit possible and regularly go rid of the residuum. Here's how.

i. Wear House-Simply Shoes

In some parts of the state, it's considered practiced manners to remove your shoes when you enter someone else's home, but there are always people who cramp at the thought of a No Shoe Policy. If they realized that up to lxxx percent of the household dust enters the bottom of peoples' shoes, they'd probably rethink their reluctance. (Related: How to Keep Your Carpets Clean.)

This doesn't mean you've got to put up with a growing pile of shoes at the doors. A boot tray near your entrance lets family members know where their shoes vest. Plus, it will collect whatever drips or mud so that mess doesn't go onto your floor. You lot can even proceed a small basket of slippers handy so no i has to bargain with cold feet.

two. Cease Dirt at the Doors

Sturdy mats inside and outside of every entrance to your home give people a place to wipe their feet earlier entering. That practice alone will significantly cutting down on the amount of dust tracked indoors, even if people have their shoes off inside. Shake the mats outside or clean them with a hand-vac every couple of days, and you'll notice a definite reduction of dust. And when you're cleaning them, exist certain to vacuum or rinse both sides since grit seeps through carpet and mats to reach the floor below.

Weatherstripping effectually your doors can help reduce household dust by blocking dirt diddled in through gaps. This is a peculiarly helpful stride if yous live in a dry or rural area or if a drought has left your lawn parched and blank. Make sure your windows are properly closed and seal tight when they're shut, too, and apply caulk to make full any gaps around the frames.

3. Don't Accident Grit Around

Most manufacturers advise irresolute your HVAC filter every iii months, just changing it more often will significantly reduce grit in your home. Use cheap, disposable filters and supplant them every 30 days. It'southward not a bad idea to prepare a recurring reminder on your phone or calendar, and then y'all don't forget. Sweep or vacuum the area around your furnace, too. And if y'all have an outdoor condenser unit, you should also give it a practiced cleaning in Spring and Autumn. Here'south a YouTube video showing how.

4. Clean the Air Ducts

When was the last time yous pulled the vent comprehend off of your floor register and took a peek? If you've got kids or pets, chances are yous'll find quite a few things downwards in the vents. Then, keep the vents and ducts clean, and y'all'll come across less grit floating around. It takes roughly five minutes per vent to clean them the showtime fourth dimension and nether a infinitesimal every time later that. Hither's my guide about how to clean your air ducts to get you started. Don't forget to wash those dusty floor register and wall vent covers, as well!

v. Command Dust Mites in Your Bed

Nosotros've all seen the commercials about expressionless skin flakes, dander, and dust mites building up in a mattress over fourth dimension. They build up in bedding and pillows, too. Reduce this by vacuuming your mattress seasonally and laundering your bedding regularly. That ways washing sheets and pillowcases weekly, mattress or duvet covers or uncovered comforters monthly, and everything else once a season — including laundering your pillows and cleaning your mattress.

half dozen. Vacuum Effectively

How oftentimes you should vacuum depends on how many people live in your home. The general rule is to vacuum each room wall-to-wall once a calendar week, then get over high-traffic areas every other twenty-four hour period. But there's more than to information technology than but pushing the vacuum back and forth—piece of work in deadening, overlapping strokes. Most people vacuum too fast, so the machine doesn't have a adventure to suck upwards all the dirt. And once you've cleaned wall to wall, turn at a right angle, and then vacuum the room wall to wall over again. Y'all'll go up much more dust when you vacuum your floors the right way.

7. Use the Right Equipment to Clean Dust

Feather dusters are cute and retro, but they practise a horrible job of removing dust. Even if you follow recommendations to stroke the surfaces with the feathers instead of "tickling" them, the dust volition fall out of the feathers every bit you walk through the room. Your vacuum's soft-bristled dusting attachment can do a fantastic job cleaning drapes or defunction, mini-blinds, and baseboards.

For everything else, including hard surfaces similar tabletops or shelves, use a damp microfiber fabric and grit the right manner. Recollect, when a cloth is lightly wet, it holds onto clay instead of simply moving it around. But be sure to rinse it often and switch to a fresh fabric if the one you're working with nonetheless looks dirty after a rinse.

More Tips to Go Rid of Dust

Female hand uses cloth to get rid of dust on tabletop

Use the Dryer Sheet Trick

Some difficult surfaces human action like dust magnets even when surrounding furniture stays relatively dust-free. Rubberwood, in particular, does this. After wiping with a damp material, run a dryer canvass across the height of tables and shelves — the anti-static coating helps keep them dust-gratis longer.

Humidify to Reduce Grit

The drier your dwelling house's indoor air, the more dust you'll see. That's considering dry air leads to dry out skin, and dry skin sheds flakes. Parched indoor air also leaches moisture from your furnishings and can make paint begin to crack and bit, too. If you have a whole-home humidifier, keep it in good working condition and use information technology continually during cold spells. Absurd mist room diffusers add humidity, too, and tin can supplement a whole-home humidifier if needed. Humidifiers and diffusers can help control static electricity in your abode, too.

Minimize Clutter

The less stuff you have sitting around collecting dust, the less dust you'll encounter in your home. And so, to get your home'due south dust problem under control, outset deal with the ataxia bug. Keep countertops clear of things you don't use daily. Give abroad or donate things you're tired of or which no longer fit you or your tastes. Hang up dress you're not wearing and proceed your closet floors articulate so they're like shooting fish in a barrel to vacuum. Ditto for the floor beneath your bed — it'southward a horrible dust-magnet. (Demand more guidance? Here are The Aureate Rules of Decluttering.)

Tumble the Dust Out

Soft furnishings collect a lot of dust. Laundering or vacuuming them routinely helps continue them clean, which is why washing your curtains is a slap-up way to reduce grit. But a tumble through your dryer is another quick style to get rid of dust, and it works on fabrics you can't launder, like silk. Merely remove whatsoever curtain rings, zippers, or other hardware, then insert the item into your dryer. Choose a no-heat or fluff setting and let the piece tumble for a few minutes. The tumbling activity releases dust from the cloth while the dryer vent removes information technology from your firm. So easy!

Supplant Your Sometime Carpets

Over time, carpets trap dirt beneath the pad that even the very best vacuum can't completely remove. Shampooing or steam cleaning your carpet properly helps, only doing it also oft causes your carpet to wear out faster. And so it adds carpet cobweb fragments and adhesives to the dust flying effectually in your home. If you can beget it, replace your carpets with difficult flooring. It is then much easier to continue clean.

Groom Pets Outdoors

Dogs and cats create an extraordinary amount of dust by shedding dead skin flakes and also hair. Regular grooming helps keep this nether control, especially if you brush them outdoors where any dandruff or other fluff will stay out of your home. If you tin can't exercise information technology outside, brush them on top of an sometime towel spread on the floor of your bath. Gather upward the towel when you're done and shake information technology outside, even out of a window if yous can, then wash it.

Clean Your Air on Cleaning Twenty-four hours

Ironically, cleaning your firm sends a lot of dust flying around in your home's air. Rather than letting information technology settle back down on your furniture and floors, put your home'due south HVAC to work. No matter the time of yr, you can exercise this by simply turning on your system's fan while you clean. Allow it run virtually 15 minutes longer once y'all're done. The fan volition "sweep" the air through your home's filter, which will remove any dust you lot disturbed while cleaning. Be sure to shut information technology off, and your furniture volition stay grit-gratuitous for longer.

Where to Side by side?

  • How to Keep Your Home Clean Longer
  • How to Amend Indoor Air Quality
  • How To Clean Your Own Air Ducts