Reduce Dust in Your House with These Easy Cleaning Tips

Last Updated on May 3, 2020 by Diane Hoffmaster

If you are looking for ways to reduce dust in your house, you have come to the right place.  I have found that when it comes to housework, prevention is much easier than actual cleaning. I don’t mind cleaning toilets. and I actually enjoy vacuuming.  But you know what?  I hate to dust with a passion. I would rather potty train a two-year-old than dust my house. And we all know how much fun potty training is, right? Well, here are some housecleaning tips that will get rid of dust for good. 

Ways to Reduce Dust in Your House

Preventing clutter is easier than spending hours putting away crap that doesn’t belong where it got left.  And preventing dust is significantly easier than spending half a day dusting your home.

Sure, you could just say to heck with the dust and just leave it there, right? Well, my allergies REALLY don’t like dust.  And my obsessive compulsive nature won’t let me sit down and watch TV when there is an obvious layer of dust on the TV stand.  So, I try hard to minimize dust accumulation whenever possible.

Want to free up some time and still have a cleaner house? Here are a few dusting tips to help you keep your house clean without actually dusting it weekly.  I will include a few affiliate links for things that I find helpful.

Ditch the clutter:  

I know, that doesn’t sound easy, right?  Well, if you have let clutter accumulate for years, yes you are going to have to do a bit of work.  But, if you prevent the clutter from happening in the first place, this is an easy step.

Put a basket at the bottom of the stairs for each person in the house.  Every time an item is found out of place, throw it in the basket.  At the end of the day, the basket contents need to be put away by its owner.  Identify your ‘hot spots’ (ie where clutter accumulates) and tackle one a day.

Learn to throw things away that you truly don’t need.  One of the easiest ways to reduce dust in your house is to not give it a thousand surfaces to hide on. Can’t bear to throw away your craft supplies or knick knacks?  Invest in some storage containers and store them neatly.

Clean or upgrade your air filters:

If your house has heating or air conditioning (most do!) then you have a system that filters air.  How long has it been since you last changed those air filters?  Put it on the calendar for at least two to three times a year.

How about every solstice or equinox (the change of every season), you change your whole house filter.  Make sure you get an allergen filter (small enough holes to trap the REALLY tiny things!).

Vacuum weekly and make it count:

Vacuuming is way easier than dusting in my opinion.  But, you want to make sure that when you vacuum, you aren’t just blowing more dust back into the air.  Make sure your vacuum has a HEPA (high-efficiency particulate air) filter to ensure that you’re sucking up as much dust as possible and it is actually staying inside the vacuum.

Change the dust container every time you dust and periodically clean the filter.  A high-quality HEPA vacuum cleaner is one of the easiest ways to reduce dust in your house.

Ditch the carpets:

This one is easy to do if you have the money to invest in hardwoods but maybe not realistic for everyone.  We have been slowly removing the carpet in our home one room at a time.  Tile and hardwood floors are much easier to keep clean.  A good mopping every few weeks with weekly vacuuming will have them pretty much spotless.

I have been considering investing in a floor steamer but haven’t done it yet.  While I really want clean floors, I don’t have babies anymore and don’t know if I need them quite THAT clean.  They really do a good job, though, from the things I have read.  They are especially great in the kitchen to clean up sticky messes.  Crumbs and spills on the floor lead to ants in the kitchen, which is never a good thing!

 

Always dust with a damp cloth:

Rather than dusting with a dry cloth and having the dust become airborne again, dust with a damp cloth.  This keeps the dust on the cloth and not in the air which means surfaces stay clean longer.  Use a microfiber cloth that can be tossed into the washing machine every time you dust.

Invest in a room-sized HEPA filter:

Portable HELP filters are a huge help to reduce dust in your house.  I have several of them and they run pretty much every day.  This helps capture the dust that gets IN your house no matter what you do.  

The dust and dander from pets, pollen that enters in through cracks in the window and the dust we track in on our shoes.  Using a HEPA filter in the rooms you use most often will go a long way towards reducing dust on your furniture!

Wash bedding weekly:

Dust mites LOVE beds and bedding that covers it.  Keep dust mites and dust under control by washing your sheets weekly.  Wash the blankets and comforters once a month.  You may have to take those to the laundromat or dry cleaners if they are too big to fit in your washing machine.

Tackle the big stuff occasionally:

Dust loves couch cushions, area rugs, and curtains.  There is just no way around it.  Every few months, enlist help and tackle the big stuff.  Take couch cushions outside and beat them with a broom handle.

Shake out area rugs and take curtains down and wash them.  Try to avoid buying things that can’t be easily washed.  

Invest in leather couches that can be wiped down regularly.  Skip the area rugs and blinds completely or buy something easy to clean when they need an upgrade.

The easiest way to reduce dust in your house is to keep clutter to a minimum and invest in easy to clean surfaces.  Once you do that, high-quality filters and a bit of elbow grease every few weeks will have your house passing the white glove test easily! Have any other easy cleaning tips to share?

 

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