Or ways to remove that accumulation fast?
Non-vacuum cleaner tips would be more actionable for me currently, but please do share your ways.
I wait until it starts getting noticable. Then I spend an hour cleaning - prioritizing the stuff that I’d be most embarrassed for a guest to see. After an hour the house is usually back below noticable levels of dirty. It’s never pristine but at least I have a facade of being a functional adult.
Before someone visits.
This is the truth. The pandemic really messed up my house because we stopped cleaning when people stopped coming over, and now it is so bad that we still don’t have people coming over. Add to that having a kid who doesn’t want to ever get rid of any of her old toys, and 2 parents trying hard to not let depression win… I don’t think we’ll ever have a clean house again.
having a kid who doesn’t want to ever get rid of any of her old toys
Do it for her then. I purge and donate my child’s toys every couple of months. It would be chaos otherwise.
wow, I can’t imagine randomly losing your possibly favorite toys every couple of months would have any sort of effect on a person when they become an adult. How many toys are you buying your kids throughout the year?!? Just get them proper storage and explain to them their items need to fit into it (shelves, toy chests. etc). Let them decide which items when it gets too much, you’re gonna have a hoarder on your hands when they get older if they always fear losing their items or never learn to let go of things they don’t need anymore.
Our kid is kinda spoiled and also needs her stuff purged every now and then. It’s pretty easy to tell which toys she cherishes and which ones have been sitting in pieces in the bottom of a tub for the last 6 months. I’m sure most people that do this will get their kid involved in the process. Hoarding can also lead to lasting effects as an adult. Imagine what their friends and classmates think about the clutter when they see or hear about it.
Ok let me ask my two year old what he thinks. He responds very well to reason.
That’s… how children learn?
I will encourage ya to try making the effort wherever and whenever you can. Even just five minutes today can save half an hour weeks down the line.
I’ve a friend from high school whose parents are disabled and struggle with keeping up with the routine chores, and she herself suffers from bad depression and executive dysfunction.
Their house is in such a state now that we’d need to get our entire friend group up there to spend multiple days across multiple weeks to get it cleaned, organized, and fixed up. Flies everywhere, food rotting in the fridges, pet hair and dust everywhere, the works. It’ll be doable, but it’s gonna be a whole thing we gotta do.
Hope I’m not shaming ya here, I promise that ain’t my intent here - just hoping that our situation can inspire somebody else to prevent themselves ending up in the same spot.
If you have the means, I highly suggest hiring a cleaner to help out. You can find them relatively cheap, under $100.
I have dust mite allergies. 2 most important changes I did were:
(1) no carpets, no curtains, only tile floors.
(2) and I love my robot vaccuum. They do 80% of the work, daily, whilst I’m away.
Do you have dust mite resistant sheet covers, that was the biggest improvement for me
- 1 for using the word whilst betwixt daily and I’m.
My wife and I debate about dust. I view as perfectly natural thing that should just be let be and she argues that im an idiot. She wins those debates.
Your wife is correct
she won me over a bit but now she wants dusting done even if no dust is visible. preposterous!
cleaning it before it becomes a problem is how you keep it from becoming a problem
visible signs are not a problem though. there is nothing there yet. its like cleaning dishes that are already cleaned or folding laundry again that sitting folder already.
I don’t agree on the HEPA level sterility. Dust is not a nuclear waste.
Dust tends to accumulate in quiet areas, like corners and under furniture where air currents from movement don’t disturb it.
Just keep those areas clean with a dustpan and the whole remains tolerable. Although rugs need to be taken outside and beaten from time to time.
Kipple is unavoidable, but an air filter helps a lot more than you think.
Also if you have pets, might be worth it to get a robot vacuum. Even the 3+ year old models are still great.
Can confirm. With a dog who sheds enough hair to build a statue of himself every week, a robot vacuum has been a great help. Just make sure to get one with a self-emptying bin, or your gonna be emptying it yourself after every lap around the house, and it’ll be more tedious than just vacuuming yourself.
I really want one that self-empties, seems so convenient. After my current one dies, I’ll def get one.
Don’t live near dirt, wind or rain. Don’t bring cardboard into the house. Don’t allow animals in the house, including humans. Keep the house temperature over 2000.
Keep the house temperature over 2000.
Only fire may cleanse this dirty world around us.
Now I have a layer of ash, what now?
Is there dust on the ash?
As someone with ADHD I actually keep a broom leaning against my standing desk and sweep to busy my hands whenever I’m thinking or on a call. Dusting/washing walls simply doesn’t happen in our household due to how many steps are involved - but for most other cleaning we build it into tasks - so as I cook I clean cookware as I go - when I finish showering I squeegee the glass, and there’s cleaning fluid within reach if I notice build up.
These are all really exploits designed to help ADHD people do shit but maybe they’ll help you!
Oh shit, dust exists.
Making sure there’s no gaps around your HVAC air filter is a good start. Air should only flow through the filter. I like to put duct tape around the sides of of it, forming a seal around the grill so that no air leaks around the sides. Buy one with a MERV rating of 9-12 to minimize dust and pollution. Don’t go any higher than that (and avoid HEPA) unless you don’t mind a higher power bill and slightly more stress on your system.
During the times of the year when you’re not running A/C or heat, change the fan setting from “Auto” to “Circulate” so that it clicks on for a few minutes every hour or so. This will help keep the air clean.
If your air quality is really bad, you can always suppliment your HVAC system with a dedicated air purifier. You don’t need anything fancy or expensive; a box fan with 4 HEPA filters taped to it is among the cheapest and most effective ways to clean the air.
Robot vacuum cleaners aren’t great a cleaning, but they are very effective at keeping the dust down. You will still want to clean occasionally but with a robot vacuum running regularly you can do it much less often and the house feels cleaner in the meantime.
I’m also lucky enough to be able to afford house cleaners now. It is such a nice gift to our family to not have to worry about doing these things. We can spend that time doing stuff together rather than cleaning and we don’t think about how dirty the house is and dread cleaning it nearly as often. If you can afford it I would highly recommend it. It definitely isn’t cheap but many people have more expensive habits that bring less joy IMHO.
I’ll second the robot vacuum. Doesn’t even have to be an expensive one or a “top reviewed” blah blah(don’t get a lemon though). It’s not a replacement for a vacuum or having to clean, it’s just a nice little companion that helps out a little and reminds you that you have to clean. Don’t have one myself but a relative does and it’s fun to see (over there a lot to help out because they’re older).
If you’re into sci-fi or electronics or little animal/robot companions in games, it kinda feels exactly the same but in person. Such a strange sensation to feel joy when the little robot guy runs between your feet or you have to shoo them out of the bathroom so you can use it lol. Even my older relative kinda treats it like a pet but all you have to do is empty it’s belly.
Thirding on the robot. Mine is connected to Home Assistant (that’s another rabbit hole to jump in) and it cleans the whole flat whenever nobody is at home. Basically every day at least once and we never get annoyed by it’s sound.
When I was with my ex: every saturday morning. It sucked, but the reward of both chilling on the sofa in the afterglow of a clean apartment was awesome. God I miss that.
Now: rarely. If it begins to affect my mental health, I might pick up clothing off the floor. I don’t clean for myself, I clean for the happiness of others
I also suck at this. There is a lazy way though you’ll have to accept a certain look. My great grandmother had doilies everywhere. Every surface was covered. Most nearly completely, a few of the bigger tables just had a small one. Once a week she would collect them all and wash them. I didn’t realize till much later in life that the purpose they served was to collect dust to keep it off your surfaces.
I wonder if something more aesthetically passing to the modern eye would be as effective or if the intricate lace is important to the function.
I used to have a very large air filter standing in the corner of my room. It wouldn’t eliminate the need to vacuum, but it would reduce the dust in the air and make it less noticeable. I got rid of it because the filter cartridges were sorta discontinued/really expensive
Depends on the home. Different places I’ve lived in have different needs.
For dust in particular, you should consider sources of dust and airflow.
I grew up in a house with central air conditioning, so that system had a filter that needed to be replaced periodically. You can buy a variety of different filters- coarser filters last longer but let small particles through, while finer filters need to be changed more often but get the air cleaner.
I now live in a much older house that does not have central air (radiator heat, window units for AC). My wife also likes fan noise to sleep, so we bought an air purifier that we generally leave running in the bedroom and I change that filter periodically. Our basement gets bad dust because it’s unfinished with a concrete floor and rafter ceiling, and the litter boxes are down there, so we got another filter that stays on there.
Porous and soft surfaces hang on to dust. Carpets, rugs, tapestries, upholstered furniture, piles of clothes or bedding. Putting your clothes away in a closet or dresser helps. Storing extra bedding in a cabinet or closet helps. Vacuum the carpets and rugs. Don’t let dirty laundry pile up. Wash bedding regularly (every week or two). A lot of couches have removable, washable covers that are nice to wash like once a year.
Hard surfaces are easier to clean. If you put those clothes in a dresser, wipe the top of it off with a damp cloth every now and then. A broom can help with floors a bit, but wet dusting with something like a Swiffer is better. If you have rugs you can take them outside and beat them., although vacuuming is often easier. If you have carpets… You’re really screwed unless you get a vacuum.
The hardest part is decorations. Frames hanging on walls are just a pain because you simply have to wipe them down. Knick knacks on open shelves are terrible because you’ve got to pick up the thing, wipe it off, and wipe off the spot under it. Glass display cabinets are much easier to keep clean because dust will almost never get inside. As long as you keep the horizontal surface clear it’s just an easy flat thing to wipe off. Vertical glass panes will need the occasional wipe, but not as frequently and it’s still way easier than all the books and crannies of a figure or crystal or trophy or whatever else you’ve got on display.
As for prevention, I brush my hair in one particular spot in my bedroom and clean the brush out after each time. Shower regularly. Stay on top of laundry. The idea is to get skin and hair disposed of, and doing so with water tends to prevent it from getting into the air and settling as dust. Trim your nails somewhere so they will be disposed of properly. Brush your pets.
