Domestic Dog

Dusting furniture should be one of the easiest chores to do. But, given how many dusty bachelor pads I’ve seen (my own included), it would seem that it’s a pretty complicated task.

Of course, we know that dusting isn’t really complicated. The main reason that it doesn’t get done is sheer laziness. With that in mind, here are a few tips to help you dust less often, but still keep your home as dust free as possible.

photo credit: chatirygirl

What is Dust?

Before we begin with the tips, let’s talk about what dust is. You may think that it’s dirt from outside: muck tracked in on your shoes, or airborne filth flown in throw an open window. While this is partially true, most dust is actually dead skin and hair.

Because most of the dust in your home comes from your own body, keeping your windows closed and leaving your dirty shoes outside won’t keep your home free of dust.

How to Dust

The act of dusting is pretty easy. Just grab your feather duster and start swishing it around, right?

Wrong.

Unless your duster has a static charge, it will just move the dust around. Most of the dust will get kicked up into the air for you to breath in. Whatever you don’t inhale will just settle on other surfaces in the room, so an old fashioned feather duster just won’t do.

While you could buy disposable, Swiffer-style dusters to pick up the dust, this can get expensive and it creates unnecessary waste.

The easiest and cheapest way to dust, then, is to use a damp cloth to wipe down any surfaces that need dusting. This will actually pick up the dust, instead of just stirring it up, so it will help keep the frequency of your dusting to a minimum.

For surfaces that you don’t want to use a damp cloth on, such a bookshelf full of books, you can use a dry cloth or a feather duster to brush off the dust.

Do your best to make sure that this dust lands on the floor, instead of on a surface you’ve just finished dusting, and then vacuum the floor immediately afterward to prevent that dust from getting kicked up as you walk around.

Alternatively, if you’re willing to spend a few extra dollars, you can buy a microfibre cloth. Anyone who wore a pair of cargo pants made out of the stuff in the late ’90s will know that microfibre is a dust magnet.

Using a microfibre cloth will allow you to pickup the dust from most surfaces in your home without having to wet the cloth. This will be especially helpful for those surfaces—like the book-filled bookshelf—that you don’t want to get wet.

Regardless of whether you use a damp cloth or a cloth made of microfibre, you should still vacuum after dusting. No dusting tool is perfect, so it’s best to give the carpets a good once-over with the vacuum to make sure you’ve picked up any dust that may have hit the floor while you were dusting.

Summary

• Don’t use a feather duster.
• Use a damn cloth or a microfibre cloth.
• Make sure to vacuum after dusting.

Follow these simple tips and you shouldn’t have to dust very often. You can be almost as lazy as if you don’t dust at all, with the added bonus of not having to breath in little bits of your own dead skin.