Before we dive into Roborok’s top five tips on creating a dust-free environment at home, let’s take a moment to establish what dust is made of and how it builds up in your home. I’d put money on the assumption that you’ve heard “dust is made up of dead human skin cells”. Firstly, gross. Secondly, not necessarily. Whilst there is an element of truth to this, the majority of dust in your home is actually made from airborne particles that enter your home from the outside… including pollen and soot.
As the components of dust are made of airborne particles, it complicates cleaning dust bunnies and dusty areas as the substance is fragile and becomes airborne quite quickly, dissimilarly to solid or wet messes. To heighten this difficulty, using the wrong cleaning tools can lead to creating more mess - whilst your intention is to clean up the dust, instead, you end up kicking up the dust into the air. Making it impossible to clean until it’s settled. You and I both know how incredibly frustrating this can be! Worry not, we’ve got your 2022 dusting hacks covered. In this article, we’re going to look at 5 ways you can keep your home dust free.
Tip #1: Buy a doormat
A magnitude of the dust inside our homes actually comes from the outside world. A simple way to combat bringing dust into your home is to purchase a doormat… and use it! Place a doormat at every entrance of your home, and wipe your feet before entering. This quick and easy hack will significantly reduce the amount of dust in your home, as two-thirds of dust inside your home is brought from outside.
Doormats will keep your floors clean for longer, prevent dust build up, and reduce the amount of time you need to spend cleaning! However, be sure to clean the doormats every week for maximum efficacy. Simply shake them outside or vacuuming them. Pro tip: be sure to clean both sides!
Tip #2: Clean your pets outside
Although we all adore our furry friends, what we tend to underestimate is the extent of which pets can add to the mess in our home… including dust! Unfortunately, the truth of the matter is if you have pets your space is going to collect dust a lot faster. This is due to the extraordinary amount of dead skin cells shedding, air particles brought in from outside that sits on their fur, and hair shedding. A tip on reducing your furry friends' participation in dust build up is to regularly groom them… outside! By brushing your pets outside you remove fluff, situated air pollicles, loose hair, and dead skin cells. If you can’t do it outside, do it in an area that you can easily clean up afterwards or on an old towel that you can later shake off outside. For more on how to have pets AND a clean home, click here.
Tip #3: Regularly clean your ceiling fans & aircon vents
I’m going to ask you a question, and I want you to answer honestly! When was the last time you cleaned your aircon vents or fans? I know, it’s been a while. For some reason we tend to forget these areas also require cleaning, especially since they heavily influence air quality and dust circulation in our homes! Every time you turn a fan on, or turn your aircon on, the dust build up within the vents (or on the floor) re-circulates and spreads within your home.
Here’s tip #3, keep the air vents and ducts squeaky clean by checking them weekly. You’ll be surprised by how a simple hack like this can result in a huge reduction of dust build up in your home. Plus, you’ll stop seeing dust floating around whilst you watch tv or read in bed!
Tip #4: Dust from top to bottom
This is two tips in one. Firstly, always clean from top to bottom, that way, the dust you may displace has time to settle before you get to it. Also, if you clean from bottom to top you’ll end up double handling as dust misplaced from the top will land on the already-cleaned areas!
Secondly, whilst feather dusters are old-school and quite cute, they are terrible at picking up and removing dust. The best tool to use to clean dust? A vacuum. However, if you are cleaning hard surfaces or table tops, the best tool to use is a microfiber cloth that is slightly wet as it holds onto the dirt instead of moving it around. Be sure to use a fresh cloth each time and rinse them after each use!
Tip #5: Use a robotic cleaner for everyday cleaning
I’m sure by now you’ve realised that keeping your home dust free does require a lot of cleaning, perhaps more cleaning than you have time for. To break it down, how often your floors should be vacuumed depends on how many people are in your house and how big your house is… but put simply, your common and high-traffic areas should be vacuumed daily, whilst your entire floor space should be vacuumed weekly.
To counteract the amount of cleaning necessary, we recommend using a robotic cleaner. Why? Because this modern tool significantly reduces the amount of manual work you have to put in. You can schedule a daily clean, and you don't even have to be home for it! Simply use the app! This ensures your floors are looked after daily and frees up your time so you only have to do the manual work a robot can’t do… yet.