Dusting tips — or how to find your home under a layer of dust 

Featured: Plenty Original

Buy Now

Ever grab something from a shelf and notice it’s feeling a bit furrier than usual? Or have you seen something your partner used to use that’s now so covered in dust that you could write your name in it with your finger? Well, handily, dusting is an act love for everyone in your home.  

So, here’s how to wipe dust from all those hard-to-reach corners, and how to remove dust properly from any surfaces so that they’re not covered in scratches.  

How often should you dust?

Before we get onto our top tips, let’s answer the question on everyone’s lips: how often should you dust? The main thing to consider is whether you have someone in your home with allergies or a breathing condition. If you do, you’ll need to wipe dust away every one to two weeks.

If you don’t have any sufferers, you’ll still need to be cleaning dust every couple of weeks from your TV or any electronics, your furniture, and any other place it seems to appear. But you could be more flexible and leave other areas for up to a month, depending on how much it bothers you.  

Your easy dusting plan

1. Get your kit ready before you start cleaning dust

If you’re thinking about how to dust, the best way to start is to get together everything you might need before starting. Dusting often requires little more than a microfiber cloth, especially for a thin layer, but if the dust is thick, you’re going to want to soak your cloth in warm water. You might also want to grab some furniture polish and your vacuum cleaner so that you can get every speck of dust. Well, maybe not every speck. 

2. Cleaning dust the right way

If you want to remove dust properly, make sure to:

• Work from top to bottom
• Move around the room systematically

Working from top to bottom means that you’ll always be knocking dust onto surfaces below, which you can then remove with more dusting or vacuum cleaning. And if you want to be super-efficient, focus on an entire section of a room (top to bottom) before circling round. Start in the corners of the ceiling and dust down to the baseboards. Don’t forget to remove dust on the walls as you go. We know, dust on walls, who would have thought?

3. Wipe dust from forgotten areas

There are going to be some areas where you didn’t even think dust could gather (and that’s fine, us neither). Here are some places that everyone forgets: 

• Shelves. When you’re working top to bottom as you remove dust on the walls, clear anything on your shelves and give them a good dusting too
• Picture frames. Wipe dust not just from the top of your frame but on the sides and front too — can't have your favourite group photos being clouded with dust!
• Behind appliances. Yep, here too. If only dust wasn't so small and able to get everywhere.
• Vents and fans. While you can use your duster to get into your vent or fan, the soft brush attachment (oh, that's what it's used for) on your vacuum cleaner will probably do a better job
• Under beds. We know we’re asking you to look at your bed without jumping into it, but it’s worth pulling your bed out and giving it a good vacuum and wipe around skirting boards

There you have it, our top dusting tips. And remember, you’re never going to get every speck of dust, and that’s OK. Even making the effort itself will make your loved ones feel a little bit more loved. We’d say they might even try to make less dust, but we don’t think that’s even possible…