Is the dust in your home driving you crazy?
I recently read that more than 60% of our house dust originates outdoors and is trapped in when people enter into your doorway. The rest is made partly of material fibres from our carpets and our furniture and partly from our dead skin cells. Yuck!
I personally prefer less dead skin particles floating around my home and in case you're the same, I've got six tips that are going to help you reduce your dust in your home!
Tip number one is to remove unnecessary items from your home. Yep, I'm an organiser, so I'm going to tell you to declutter. Once these things are gone, they can't sit around collecting dust anymore. That means your knickknacks, toys that don't get played with, cookbooks you never use.. it's time for them to go.
Tip number two is NOBODY can wear shoes inside anymore.
Okay, that's a little aggressive but it's the quickest, easiest way to stop extra dust and dirt from coming in!
BUT, if you follow Fly Lady and your shoes go on when you get ready in the morning person, that's still okay. If you can't bear to make people go barefoot in your house, that's okay too. A really good quality doormat outside your door is going to help you reduce the amount of dust and dirt particles that get trapped in when people enter your home.
Tip number three is to change your bedding and your towels weekly. Pick a day of the week for the bedding. Pick a day of the week for your towels. I like Mondays for towels and Tuesdays for bedding, because that's after the weekend which is when my kids tend to become the messiest.
Tip number four is to use a damp microfibre cloth to dust with, rather than a feather duster. Now a feather duster is cute and easy and I'm not saying don't use one at all.. but if you have a lot of dust, you'll most likely find it moves the dust around rather than remove it effectively. A damp cloth is not as fun to use, and you do have to rinse it out a few times (or use multiple cloths), but if your dusting job is a heavy one, it really really works much better.
Tip number five is to keep your wardrobe as organised as possible. Wardrobes are really big dust collectors. That's where we hide our clutter. That's where we put things that we don't want the kids to have. That's where we stash our secret chocolate ;)
Our wardrobes are full of dust that just settles in around our stuff, and every time you open your wardrobe door, that's when that dust has an opportunity to move around and spread through the bedroom. Even small amounts of dust move a lot, so keep those wardrobes as clean, clear and organised as possible.
Tip number six is to use my really simple four step cleaning method.
1. Put your rubbish out.
2. Put everything away.
3. Wipe down your services from top to bottom. From the highest point in your room, like the top of your window sill, doorways, ceiling fans.. Start there and then wipe down all the surfaces going down in height.
4. Now all you have to do is take care of your floors with vacuuming, sweeping or mopping.
Do it in that order and you won't have a dust problem!
Now if you have young kids or toddlers running around your home while you're trying to clean it, I totally get that it's hard to clean your house from top to bottom in one go.
In my Less Mess, Less Stress and More Calm program we talk about how to fit those four steps in to an everyday regular busy life. If you want to check it out and get $20 off the program, use the link above.
That's it! Six simple steps to help you reduce the dust in your house.
Let mw know if you have any other tips!
x Marissa
READ NEXT: SIMPLE DECLUTTERING - WHAT TO DITCH AND WHAT TO KEEP
