I want to know what is the best way to reduce the dust in my house. I think vacuums let dust just fly through so it just resettles while dirt is contained in the bag.
I replaces the heater filter with an electrostatic one.
I have 3 hepa filters that run about 12h/day.
I have tried mopping the floors but am concerned about using water on wood floors.
I have used the ‘swiffer’ and it seems to pick up stuff.
the above is not enough, any further suggestions?
It might help if you told us why you need to get rid of all this dust. Is it for medical reasons of someone living in the house? Or you obsessively hate dust and must get rid of it? Or the house is really old and dusty, and you are trying to get rid of a “dust reservoir” that has accumulated over the years? Or you need a clean room to run a computer chip fabrication plant?
I’m sure that wrapping the whole house in an air tight plastic sheet a la E.T. would work, though I doubt you are prepared to go to this extremity 
a little of everything you mentioned. Just there is dust everywhere in this house and no matter what I do, I can’t seem to reduce it, maybe like you mentioned there is a good “dust reservoir” that has built up which I want to drain.
Also, where do you live?
I live in the middle of a huge, noisy, very polluted city, and this is the dustiest place I have ever seen!!
If the dust bothers you, you might want to consider relocating to a less dusty area.
northern part of long island NY about 25 mi from NYC (Queens) city line
We live on a gravel road.The front door is about 35 feet from the road.
We have a tall hedge next to the road and a several evergreens along the front porch which extends the full length of the house.This all helps to cut down on the dust but it is still everywhere.
We just keep cleaning. It is just one of the things that you get to do when you live in an old house in the country.
Applying tree sap to the road would help but we haven’t wanted to pay for that yet.
About the only thing I can tell you is try to keep the dust down. Try to find the source of the dust and eliminate it if possible.Is it coming from outside the house?
Maybe the walls have been wet at sometime and the plaster is deteriorating.
You can often eliminate dust by only having hardwood floors. This means taking up the carpet.
Where is the furnace? If it is in the basement maybe you may be sucking air from the basement.If so clean the basement or build a clean room for the furnace.You might want to check the seams of the cold air return. If they are leaking,use a candle that you have blown out to produce smoke (don’t use a lit candle because of the fire hazard)and see if the smoke is sucked into the cracks, then duct tape the seams.
Cold air returns should be cleaned every year before heating season.
Hope this helps.
I’ve been thinking about the clean room myself.
I heard somewhere that dust comes from dead skin cells. I’m thinking it must come from other sources as well. What percentage of it comes from skin?
The way particulate matter is controlled in some environments is by positive pressure. If you keep a positive pressure in your house, dust-laden air can’t enter it. (Of course, dust already in your house and newly formed dust such as dead skin cells is free to circulate.) You could install a fan that would draw air through a HEPA filter and pump it into your house. Of course, that would be a problem in the summer and winter when you don’t want the temperature inside to be the same as outside. I understand that people do make heat exchangers that let you pump fresh air into your house all year along without losing or gaining too much heat.
What Yeah is suggesting is a good idea if the house is somewhat tight. If it isn’t you’ll be blowing heated,or cooled, air outside.Might stop your dust problem but at what cost?
k2dave, if you have any animals or a significant number of humans in your household (like more than 1), you will always have dust.
As DaveRaver points out, most dust is comprised of sloghed off skin cells which have gone off to The Great Skin Patch In The Sky, and then they blow around a little bit before settling on every horizontal surface around you. (Of course, you will also get dust if you live by a dirt road or something like that, but skin is the most common ingredient.)
If you’ve ever seen a dog shake in a room with the sunlight coming in at just the right angle, you’ll see plenty of dust. If you hold your arm under a light and vigourously rub it, you’ll see skin cells come flying off. Dust in the making. This is why dust mites are so prolific - after all, they live on dust, so it must be organic in nature. (This is why you should change sheets regularly, use a good mattress cover, and shake out blankets weekly. If you’ve never shaken your blankets, take them outside on a sunny day. Whee! Big clouds of dust! cough)
In the Wolf house, there is me and Mrs. Wolf, along with 2 dogs and 2 cats. I have 2 air returns, and use quality filters. The air is always circulating, and the windows are closed most months in the year. We are constantly dusting. And vacuuming, with a good vacuum that has a HEPA filter on it. That’s about all you can do. I’ve read about these electro-static units that somehow tie-in to your heating or AC - they are supposed to help. You can get started with info here:
http://www.allabouthome.com/messageboard/general/messages/37.html
dust shouldnt be a problem. your nose hair blocks it from breathing in.
Well, Dave, welcome to the world of Housework. Many’s the time I have stood in the middle of my living room and echoed your cri-du-coeur, “There is dust everywhere in this house and no matter what I do, I can’t seem to reduce it.” Over the years I have learned to deal with the problem mainly by ignoring it–I have the dustiest bookshelves of anybody I know. Every so often I hitch up the Dirt Devil and shovel it out, but it always comes back again.
My advice to you is that unless you’re dealing with an allergy problem, you just learn to live with it. The world won’t come to an end if the bric-a-brac is dusty, and you’ll have a lot more free time for the really important things, like posting.
P.S. You did know, of course, that if your house is TOO clean, you may be compromising your children’s immune systems. True fact–science has now proved that kids need exposure to a certain amount of dirt, dust, and germs in order for their infant immune systems to mature properly.
P.P.S. Like the Wolf said, do you have pets? We have a parakeet and a dog that together generate an astonishing amount of dust, down, dog hairs, and just plain fuzz.
Thanks for the advice. i think ** justwannano ** hit upon something. I just found a book shelf ripped a hole in the cold air intake in the dusty furnace room and was sucking in air from there, right at floor level no less. I have duct taped it up and checked for other leaks.
I hope thats it.
Glad to be of some help.
Now if you want to bring your vacuum cleaner over sometime…
One memory of my idealistic youth (before I gave up trying) floats to the surface–spraying Endust on a dust mop for those wood floors really does help (although then you have to feel guilty about aerosol propellants).
Then you stick the dusty dust mop out the back door (or the front door if you don’t care what your neighbors think) and shake it vigorously, just like the housemaid on Upstairs, Downstairs.