I'm drowning in dust and I don't know what to do about it.

I’ve always been a weird magnet for dust; it just seems like everything in my life gets covered with a fine layer of the stuff after about a week and nothing I do can stop it. Whenver I go over to other people’s places, their stuff just never seems to be as dusty as mine.

My computer. Tv. Books. All flat surfaces. DUST.

What the hell can I do about all of the dust? Do other people actually dust, with a feather duster and everything? I never see or hear about people doing it. Nobody talks about it. Why am I a dust magnet?

My friend’s theory is that I tend to let things pile up that I don’t move around much, so the dust settles. My books on shelves, stacks of books on end tables, my TV, etc. - it’s all stuff that doesn’t get moved around much. Could that be the answer? Could a less-cluttered life be the answer?

I live in a very dusty area. Consider yourself lucky that you get a week before the dust starts to show-- at my house, you’ll see it in only a couple of days.

What can you do? Well, you’ve got two choices: keep dusting, or learn to live with it.

If you decide to go the dusting route, try Swiffer dusters. We use them in the museum in which I work, and they really do cut down on the time it takes to dust a room. We don’t use any furniture polishes at the museum because they’re a big No-No on antiques, but I have seen products which claim to repel dust.

You may also have some reduction by buying better air-filters for your heating/air-conditioning unit, as well as having air filtration machines in the dustier rooms. (At my house, the rooms facing the steet get worse dust than those in the back of the house.)

You can’t just have the filters. You need to change the filters. I’m really bad at that. Plus, I live near a bunch of quarries, so all the dust generated from that is constantly in the air. It’s not like you can see it or walk around coughing, but I have way more dust than anyone I know. Plus, we both smoke. Adds to the funk on surfaces.

I’m just not a good duster. I know everything looks so much better when I do it, but it’s one of the suckiest household chores I can think of.

I live on a gravel road, and have two cats and two dogs. Gets dusty here too. Not that I really care that much.

Shop vac. There are brush attachments that will allow you to sort of sweep around and on top of your books and collections of crap with out having to move everything. Gets most of it.

Myself, I bought a Dyson[sup]TM[/sup] Animal. Great vacuum. What I really like about it is that while I’m doing the floor I can quickly and easily pull out the suction hose shop vac part of it and give the corner, the dresser, the TV a quick once over and continue. One tool, two jobs.

Now I wouln’t pick up nails and and screws and stuff with the vacuum, it’s great that it is so easy to use and the suction hose is plenty powerful.

Shampoo the carpet and furniture, wash the drapes, and get a hepa filter that can remove dust. Change the furnance filter to a hepa filter that can remove dust soot, and other small particles. The grade just below the finest will do that. The first two months after putting in the better filter, we had to change filters every few weeks. Now they last for a couple months.

They used feather dusters at work and I can tell you, it needs to be ostrich feathers. The fine feathers do catch the dust and hold it. The cheap chicken feather ones are a comeplete waste of money and don’t catch the dust. I have a camel’s hair brush I use to clean my electronics.

I know its been around 5 years since you posted your dust question…but I sew it only few days ago… did you ever found a solution to your dust magnet problem… I have the same issue for many years and ppl look at me like i’m crazy whan I tell them this problem!!!
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Closing zombie thread started by banned poster who cannot respond.