Household Cleaning Tips - Smart Ways to Dust Your Home

Any household cleaning tips would be remiss to not cover how to clear the dust in your home. Here's how to start cleaning dust from your home and where to look for it, including those less obvious spots often missed during typical household cleaning operations.

Grab a Dust Cloth - Give an after life to old or torn cotton garments by turning them into dust cloths. This could be anything from old socks to cotton sheets or pillowcases that were destined for the trash. The soft cotton is less likely to scratch most surfaces during dusting. It's a good idea to pre-treat the cloth with a dusting solution or furniture polish so dust will better stick to it. Or use a static dusting cloth. Stores sell dusting and polishing surface cleaner solutions for this household cleaning chore such as Endust™. Using this method, you'll have less dust flying through the air to resettle elsewhere.

Start at the Top - Gravity causes things to fall downward. So it's a good idea to start at the top when dusting or cleaning anything in your home and work your way downward. That means if you're dusting a book shelf, start with the shelf top, then the top shelf and work your way down to the bottom shelf and trim. A professional feather duster will work well on the tops and bindings of books on the shelves. Don't forget about the book shelf sides. Slide a broom handle or similar pole with a static dusting cloth wrapped around its end behind the bookcase too. That's where a lot of cobwebs settle. Later you can use the edge cleaning attachment of the vacuum to reach back there to the base board and floor to grab fallen dust and cobwebs. While you're at it, use your makeshift pole handle duster to grab dust and cobwebs sticking to the higher portions of your wall, especially the angles and corners where the wall meets the ceiling.

An Overlooked Spot - Ceiling fans collect lots of dust, especially the tops of the fan blades. Since this isn't obvious, you want to make a special point to remember to dust these fan blades periodically. Otherwise, every time you operate the fan, you're blowing that dust around. Consider using a special dusting brush that stores sells for just a few bucks for this job. A ceiling fan duster usually has a telescoping pole handle---the extension is so you can reach the fan from the floor. It also has two soft fabric paint roller shaped style brushes on the end that slide over each side of the blade simultaneously (one part on the top and one on the bottom). Brush end styles may vary. Some of these also may come with a little dust catcher feature attached to capture the dust as you clean each fan blade. But if you're expecting a lot of dirt and dust to fall, just lay some newspaper on the floor to catch the bulk of it. However, much of the dirt and grime will stick to the end of the brush and you can carefully shake it off outside or hold it inside a garbage bag (top closed) and shake it. You also can rinse the brush clean.

These are just a few household cleaning tips to capture and clear dust in your home. Do a scan with your eyes top to bottom and side to side and you'll find the other dusting hot spots.

Karen Fritscher-Porter is a nationally published freelance writer who writes about home organizing and household cleaning tips. Read more at her website http://www.EasyHomeCleaning.com