How to battle dust problems (mattresses, house, buy)

[lauramc27]

Hi,

My husband has been there since January and my daughter and I are leaving Sunday. My husband says the dust in the house is horrible, he says he will dust and like an hour later there is dust settled again. Does anyone have any good tips on how to keep the dust in the house under control?

[Ponderosa]

Best advice is to learn to live with it. You will not win the battle. You can try tile instead of any carpeting, dust grabbing ac filters or even electronic ones, but really the best thing is dust once a week or so and ignore it. It is just part of living in the desert.

[Grannysroost]

Originally Posted by Ponderosa

Best advice is to learn to live with it. You will not win the battle. You can try tile instead of any carpeting, dust grabbing ac filters or even electronic ones, but really the best thing is dust once a week or so and ignore it. It is just part of living in the desert.

I am still learning...shut all windows and doors all the time ( I can't do that)...the more you dust, the worse it gets fast...but do not leave for an extended period...that gets gross as I look at my fireplace mantle and accessories...yunk for sure...

[dura]

Dust bothers my sinuses, any dust, not just desert dust, so here's what we've done to keep inside dust levels down.

Got rid of the cloth sofas and chairs, and replaced them with leather furniture. No more, poof, wow, look at all that dust after hitting the arm of a chair.

Wet wipe large surface areas like counter tops and tables on a daily basis, and Swiffer ceiling fans, shelves, electronics, etcetera when dust starts to appear. The goal here is to not kick the dust into the air but try to capture it in the dust removing tool.

Stick vacuum the floors on a daily basis, not a big deal with a light battery powered stick vac, and big vacuum weekly or sooner if needed.

Place allergen and moisture proof covers over the mattresses and pillows, and wash bedding regularly, to help keep the dust out. If mattresses are old, consider purchasing new ones, as a bunch of yuck can be in the old ones if not protected.

And regularly replace the house air filters! Forgot to do that once and noticed a definite uptick in dust and reactive sinuses.

We've been lucky here with some hard surface flooring already installed, but we took all of the carpet out of our old house. That stuff was horrible, including the fermented egg carton padding that just crumpled when you touched it. Ish! Someday we'll get all of the carpeting out of this house too.

For now the dust in our house is controlled, but get lazy and do nothing for three days, and the dust would be apparent.

[Nanny Goat]

The one allergist I went to years ago said not to vacuum more than once/week. It will actually stir things up more. I think that's probably right. Outdoors you can wash down your driveway/garage/etc once/week. Then you don't track in as much. And, inside dust once/week. Keeping your windows closed helps.

[observer53]

And, make sure you have good seals in both your doors and your windows. If you don't, just keeping them closed isn't enough.

[lauramc27]

Thank you all for your suggestions. I guess I will be doing housework a lot more than usual.

[Bungle]

I just purchased a whole house humidifier (still waiting to be shipped) with the hopes that bringing up the humidity level with decrease the amount of dust as well as providing us with the other benefits of moisture in the air.

[kdog]

What's your landscape like? When we moved in, our back and side yards were all dirt. We had sand blowing right through our window seals. We covered all the dirt with crushed stone and other landscape and that completely cured our problem.

[roosevelt]

A central vacuum system that exhausts outside is the best remedy. No dust thrown out of the vacuum cleaner, the air is pure. A cheap way to do the same thing is to use a shop vac and buy an extra long vac hose and hook it on the exhaust port and then out a window as you vac each room. The shop vac will also clean a carpet better because it is way more powerful.