this post was submitted on 30 Dec 2024
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Or ways to remove that accumulation fast?

Non-vacuum cleaner tips would be more actionable for me currently, but please do share your ways.

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[–] Breezy@lemmy.world 6 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Air purifiers are your friend. They drastically reduce dust and make every room feel better.

[–] brlemworld@lemmy.world 2 points 1 week ago

My HVAC is a air purifier

[–] OsrsNeedsF2P@lemmy.ml 2 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Air purifiers remove that dust you see floating around. I can hardly stand houses that don't have them now

[–] KittenBiscuits@lemm.ee 3 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I keep one near the litter boxes. I love it so much. And I use MERV13 filters in my furnace/ air returns.

[–] knightly@pawb.social 3 points 1 week ago (1 children)

If you're using a such a fine filter you'll need to keep up with the monthly replacements. Clogged air filters reduce the air flow, which can allow heat soak to damage the failsafe pressure sensor that stops your furnace when the fan dies.

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[–] sentient_loom@sh.itjust.works 6 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I should clean more often.

But my humidifier is also an air purifier and it pulls a LOT of dirt from the air. I change the water every week and it's filthy. Surprising how much dirt is in the air to "purify."

[–] 12newguy@mander.xyz 4 points 1 week ago (4 children)

Could you explain how this humidifier/air purifier works? I've wondered about the possibility of an air purifier that uses water rather than a "screen" but haven't seen anything. My wife and I both have allergies, and our house gets really dry in the winter so one small appliance to deal with both issues sounds like a nice solution.

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[–] Ephera@lemmy.ml 5 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

I wipe my floor with a damp cloth/mop every two weeks or so. That removes a lot of the dust with relatively little effort.

[–] LoganNineFingers@lemmy.ca 5 points 1 week ago

So many things factor into this...

Our house became significantly (like 97%) less dusty when our dog passed.

The age of your house

The type of furnace filter

Routine

We have 3 small kids, so we try to tidy up physical stuff (toys, clothes, bags, etc) every day. Dishes too.

Once a week is wiping down nin-kitchen surfaces

Once a month is wiping down baseboards and door trim

[–] JackFrostNCola@lemmy.world 5 points 1 week ago

For the 'remove the accumulation' part - get a pack of microfibre clothes. One wipe over a surface will be enough to get most dust, plus they do a great job of windows & mirrors, windex/glass cleaner is much more effective followed up with microfibre rather than another cloth or paper towels.
Once the cloth gets a bit of dust built up put aside and use the next clean cloth and keep cleaning, throw them all in a normal wash whenever you're done (just do NOT use fabric softener).

[–] HobbitFoot@thelemmy.club 4 points 1 week ago

I only vacuum every other week to a month.

I offset this by having air purifiers running in every room.

[–] BlueLineBae@midwest.social 4 points 1 week ago

If we're strictly talking dust accumulation, there's a few things you can do to reduce this.

  • Make sure to change the filter in your HVAC system and intake vents every few months with a high quality filter. The better the filter, the more you need to change it.
  • You can also add an air filter to individual rooms. I added them to all our bedrooms and it helps a ton with keeping dust down.

Aside from that, you'll still need to dust every so often and how often will depend on how fast it gets dirty again and how deep you want to clean. I use a vacuum and damp rag to dust shelves and such every month and I dust other things like blinds and fan blades and pull out furniture and appliances once a year. Every few years we'll need to remove something that usually never moves and we'll clean up the dust from that. I will say it's much easier to clean stuff regularly when you don't have lots of things laying around or taking up space. Keeping literal objects tidy makes it less of a chore. It's a lot easier to just wipe a table than to wipe a table and all the knick knacks.

[–] roserose56@lemmy.ca 4 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

The way I do it is to start by dusting all the countertops, cleaning the tables, and throwing every food or dirt down on the floor, then I vacuum all the floors (tiles), moving tables, chairs, and other things around. I mop and I clean the bathroom (toilet, sink, shower) while the floor dries. Finally, I mop once more and I make a coffee to relax.

edit:I also clean the kitchen countertop, stove, coffee machine and everything else on the kitchen.

Usually after a while of being able to see the routes I walk in my apartment visibly, it manages to stress me to the point where I can do something about it and I'll spend a solid 10 hours cleaning and tidying

[–] juliebean@lemm.ee 4 points 1 week ago

we've got a super tiny apartment.i clean constantly, and dust isn't much of an issue cause just about every surface sees constant use.

[–] aceshigh@lemmy.world 3 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I clean 2ce a month. I know what kind of cleaning I value and I just do that. I don’t dust often… but I use an air filter.

[–] MrsDoyle@sh.itjust.works 3 points 1 week ago

Quentin Crisp: "There is no need to do any housework at all. After the first four years the dirt doesn't get any worse."

My only deviation from this philosophy is when visitors are coming. The bath and toilet get a good deep clean, I run the vacuum cleaner around the place, and also dust the guest room if they're staying overnight.

My worst fail was when I had people over for dinner, and as we all sat down I saw half a dozen dead flies on the (dusty) windowsill. Invisible when you were standing due to the curtain, but right in your eyeline when seated.

[–] Mouselemming@sh.itjust.works 3 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

I would like to say I use a heavy-duty dry swiffer on the floor (wood) every other day, but honestly maybe twice a week. It gets tons of dust and cat hair and it's quiet and fast. I have an old fashioned feather duster that does a decent job on shelves of books and knickknacks without moving them, and fascinates the cat. I have a wet mop but don't use it often. I put MERV13 filters in my HVAC, but I realized the suction was lifting the nearby ceiling tiles instead, so I taped them down.

Consider what contributes to dust in your home: I don't go out much, and can't track in mud, but I live over the garage in my apartment building, over a very busy street, and have sliding-glass balcony doors for windows, so a lot of my dust is tires and exhaust. Also pollen year-round because SoCal, and of course cat and myself shedding. Litterbox dust too, at least she's not a big digger. I don't have laundry machines in my unit but I imagine they'd make lint dust. You might not be able to change things that add grime, but it helps you feel less like it's your fault.

When I worked in a china shop, we wiped down every item on every shelf with Windex (spray your paper towels, not what you're cleaning) every day. But I was getting paid for that. It makes a huge difference, along with knowing someone else will notice.

[–] MutilationWave@lemmy.world 2 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

But I was getting paid for that. It makes a huge difference, along with knowing someone else will notice.

This is where we struggle. We are both tidy as can be at work. I go to new places all the time and leave them in much better shape than I found them. Anyone who has been in a lot of data/comm closets and server rooms can tell you that they are often neglected to the point of ridiculousness. My wife does pretty much all the cleaning at the physical therapy clinic where she works, even though that is not in her job description.

But our house is a mess. We have four cats, two with long hair. I'm usually gone all week so that leaves most of the work to my wife. I try to clean the bathroom when I'm home (toilet and sink at least). I've turned the "dining room" table into my resupply stockpile between trips. Most of the stuff there is used but it looks terrible.

Being paid makes such a difference in our attitudes towards cleaning.

[–] Mouselemming@sh.itjust.works 2 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Four cats and your jobs, you guys are definitely doing this on Hard Mode!

Maybe you could figure out some sort of rewards system, like cleaning the home => delivery dinner. And of course if you notice something is clean and you didn't do it, voice your joy!

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If you’ve got central HVAC: replace your air filters. Consider going for the high-grade HEPA ones, too.

[–] leanleft@lemmy.ml 2 points 1 week ago (2 children)

buildings are designed to be closed. its a horrible design thats irreversibly invested upon.

[–] Baguette@lemm.ee 3 points 1 week ago (1 children)

What use are buildings if they aren't closed spaces? If they're open, then you're open to the elements and/or wild animals, and at that point it's not a shelter.

[–] rockstarmode@lemmy.world 2 points 1 week ago

I live near beach, it's pleasant year round. Much of my living space is permanently open to the elements, the rest of it has sliding/french doors and large windows that are open most of the time the dwelling is occupied.

It's definitely a shelter.

That said, stuff from outside sometimes gets inside. I clean, no biggie.

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[–] Lurkerino@hexbear.net 2 points 1 week ago

I bought a mop bucket that has a separation in the middle, it separates the clean and dirty water and its working great, its cheap to buy too!

[–] brlemworld@lemmy.world 2 points 1 week ago

I'm thinking about hiring a cleaning service. I'm lazy and some things haven't been cleaned properly in years.

[–] BCsven@lemmy.ca 2 points 1 week ago

Its always an ongoing thing. We clean as we go.

Shoes stay on our front door mat and don't come inside.

Fake feather dusters (or swiffer) to clean tricky stuff and under things.

Swifter the hard surfaces every other day.

Damp cloth to wipe down a surface that is showing dust.

Frying stuff means using hood extractor even if it is not visbly needed, because without it we would later find soot/dust all over certain areas that are colder like window sills ...the aerosolized oil/soot would travel and drop by convection near windows and baseboards.

Carpets are bad for trapping dust but also they are good at creating dust from broken carpet fibers. These get weekly vacuuming and twice yearly steam cleaning--the water coming out is always murky brown even though the carpet looks relatively clean.

[–] some_guy@lemmy.sdf.org 2 points 1 week ago

I pay for a cleaning service to come through quarterly. My partner does most of the home maintenance stuff. I'll do dishes when I cook, but she likes to handle it when she cooks and I'm ok with that because she got mad at me enough times for asking her not to do them before she moved in and they were my dishes. Otherwise, if you see a mess, clean it up. This applies to stuff that got forgotten the night before, vomit from the kitty who sometimes pukes, etc.

The quarterly deep cleaning take care of mopping the hard floors, dusting everything, whatever else.

[–] specterspectre@lemmy.world 1 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Daily sweep with a duster on the areas that get dusty. It helps me relax so it doesn't feel like a chore. I have a few microfiber hand towels I attach to a Swiffer. The floors get wiped once a day. In my mind I'm playing hockey so it's also fun to do.

I don't know if this is true or not but supposedly having a humidifier helps with the dust accumulation. It lingers longer in the air if the air is very dry. Moisture brings it down. I could be wrong and that could be a thing I made up entirely to keep a humidifier running all day,

It depends on the level of humidity. In really humid areas, the dust basically fuses to surfaces rather than sitting on top of it. It's a lot more annoying to clean.

[–] GissaMittJobb@lemmy.ml 1 points 1 week ago (2 children)

I run my robot vacuum every day, just because it's possible and it always manages catch some amount of dust every day.

A large part of why robot vacuums are great is because they decouple basically all effort from the task, making it easy to do it frequently and hence keep up with it. The same applies for dishwashers.

[–] fixmycode@feddit.cl 6 points 1 week ago (1 children)

the problem I have worth my robo vacuum is hair, I live with a long haired human and a long haired cat, so the vacuum needs constant maintenance. I normally resort to a broom...

[–] GissaMittJobb@lemmy.ml 4 points 1 week ago

I have to occasionally remove hair from my robot vacuum as well due to my partners long hair, but this is far less time consuming than either sweeping the floors or vacuuming manually.

Maybe the cat complicates things? I only have to remove them like at most once a month, probably less.

[–] brlemworld@lemmy.world 1 points 1 week ago

I have dogs, I wish it could detect when it's full more easily. I think it does it by weight or suction resistance. May even be nice to have a built in trash compactor - or I should just get the one with the bin/wash base station.

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