You wipe counters and sweep floors, you vacuum and you scrub, but dust still ends up everywhere. Even when you’ve stayed inside, dust soon starts reappearing. Where does it come from?
The bad news is that dust comes from both outside and inside your house–from the dirt you track in, the skin you shed, and fibers from disintegrating fabrics. The good news is that with a few lifestyle changes and cleaning methods you can reduce the amount of dust coating surfaces and floating through the air.
Read on to learn five tried-and-true ways to reduce dust inside your home.
Remove Shoes
Your shoes can carry dirt, insect fragments, lead dust, or pesticide residues into your home. But if you use doormats and then remove shoes at the door, you can reduce the amount of lead dust and other contaminants entering your home by up to 60%. Taking your shoes off at the door might be the best way to reduce dust in a room.
If you can’t ban shoes from inside your home, try installing good doormats. One report states that using a combination of mats to scrape shoe soles, absorb rain, and brush off mud can reduce the amount of dirt coming into your home by 85%.
Close Windows
Open windows bring in fresh air, but they also bring in dust from outside, including pollen, mold spores, and other pollutants. Keeping the windows closed, especially on windy days, will help you keep this dust outside.
Wash Bedding Frequently
As you sleep, your body sheds dead skin cells and hair particles, which collect in your sheets and covers. Not only do these turn into dust, but they also provide food for microscopic creatures called dust mites. As they feast on your discarded skin fragments, the dust mites shed waste products which become even more dust, and can also trigger allergies.
You can’t get rid of dust mites entirely. But you can wash your sheets frequently to remove the mites, as well as cover your pillows with mite-proof coverings which you can launder regularly.
Get Rid of Carpet
Like bedding, carpet provides a home for dust mites and the waste they create. Carpet breaks down as the fibers decompose, creating even more dust. Switching to bare floors will remove a huge source of dust from your home.
If you can’t remove carpets, vacuum them regularly with a high-quality filter that can trap the dust particles. Take rugs outside and beat them with a broom handle to remove the dust that has settled inside.
Use Air Filters
When your HVAC system is running, you can use the air filter to reduce dust inside your house. Change these air filters often to keep the system working at its best. If you suffer from allergies, look for filters that remove allergens–these filters usually have more pleats, meaning more surface area for cleaning the air.
Reduce Dust in Your Home
Dust will never go away for good, but you can keep it under control. Take your shoes off and close the windows to keep dust from coming inside, and use your air filters to reduce dust inside the house. Your home will look cleaner, and you’ll breathe easier, too.
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*This is a collaboration post
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