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I don’t believe in that whole “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” adage. Just because something works doesn’t mean it couldn’t be better somehow. For instance: Yeah, you know how to dust your house. But is it fast? Is it as efficient as it could be? Or is it an annoying task you put off until things hit a dangerously gross point, then have to really grind on? Your microfiber cloths and trusty old feather duster can get the job done, but a few easy swaps and hacks can get it done better.
Use a pillowcase to dust your ceiling fan
This is what I consider a “classic hack.” It’s tried, true, and trusted. To use a pillowcase to easily dust your ceiling fan (which is, arguably, one of the most important things to dust), power the fan down, then slip the pillowcase over a blade. Tighten your grip around the opening and pull it toward you. You’ll scrape all the dirt and grime into the pillowcase instead of letting it float down to the ground, where you’d then have to vacuum it up. This way, you can do all the blades, then toss the pillowcase right into the washing machine.
Use a paint brush to dust
This tip comes from Clean Snob, a social media cleaning guru, who suggests using a paint brush to dust small spaces, textured surfaces, and tricky spots like vents. The bristles are simultaneously sturdy and wiggly, allowing them to get into cracks and tiny spots, then yank the dirt right out. Just use the same motion you would use if you were actually painting, moving the brush back and forth to dislodge any debris.
Try some tongs to dust your blinds
Oh, you don’t want to shove a cloth or duster into every slat on your blinds? Completely understandable. There’s a much easier way to get the dust out of them: Grab a small pair of kitchen tongs and rubber-band a sock or microfiber cloth to each of the two ends. Then, clamp down on a blind, slide the tongs all the way across, and repeat until the job is done, periodically shaking the dust off or switching out your socks or rags.
You can also attach dryer sheets to the tongs—or just use dryer sheets to dust in general. Like ready-made dusters on the market, they come with a little bit of an electrostatic charge, so they pull up dust quickly and easily. The more you know!
Repel the dust from the start
Usually, when you put off dusting for a while, the dust piles up and makes a big mess. What if you could space out dusting sessions but not have a big mess? Try making a dust repelling solution. Mix two cups of water, one cup of vinegar, and two tablespoons of olive oil and a drop of two of dish soap, put it in a spray bottle, and coat your dust-prone surfaces and wipe them down with the mixture. This will repel dust. But not forever—bank on getting an extra week or two of dust-free living out of this.
The best dust-busting tips
In general, no matter what you’re dusting or how often, you want to work from top to bottom. Get the upper ceiling corners before the fan, the fan before the tops of your bookcases and furniture, and your bookcases and furniture before your baseboards. The last thing you want is dust falling from above and landing on something you’ve already cleaned, forcing you to clean it again. Working from top to bottom means all the dust will, eventually, end up at floor level, so you can do one big vacuuming session when you’re finished and call it a day.
Also, while a wet microfiber cloth pulls a lot of dust off your surfaces, you don’t want to use one exclusively. You’ll end up having to swap it out or rinse it way too often as dust builds up on it. Instead, use a duster tool, like the Swiffer Duster Heavy Duty, to trap the biggest pieces of dust before you go in afterward with the wet cloth.
