I don't dust either, but i don't have asthma either. I occasionally clean the base boards or the tops of the heaters when I go on a cleaning spree but I don't do it on any kind of regular basis. i don't think i've ever dusted my books ever, I got rid of a bunch of them though and they all fit on one large bookshelf and one small bookshelf.
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Posted 1 year ago #
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I always remember when as a newly married in 1970 I was invited next door to a meet-the-neighbours coffee evening, and the topic of conversation got around to housework. My neighbour was telling us that she always did the same tasks on the same day each week and among them was her "high dusting" day. As an innocent, with a mother who had a casual (healthy) attitude to the importance of housework, I asked what high dusting consisted of.
"All the tops of everything - cupboards, doors, picture rails, cobwebs. Everything that's high up."
Inspired with enthusiasm, I tried it the next day. All that happened was that I had a whole load more low dusting to do. Never did work out the point of disturbing high dust, every week, so it could become low dust instead.
As someone else said, when I dust now it's not just fluffed off but wiped with a damp or beeswax polishy cloth, so it doesn't just fly off to land elswhere. And my high dusting gets done when I'm in cleaning mode, with damp cloths and soapy water, so that too is under control.
Posted 1 year ago # -
OK, I can see how dusting is necessary to asthmatics (but I agree that otherwise it is definitely so 1950s!!). So it seems you need a way to keep the dust off things so you have less dusting to do and less stuff looking at you going 'you need to do something with me!'. Once you have tackled the stuff you can easily get rid of (sounds like you have something of a plan) then you can break down the other jobs you have (could you enlist help on the scanning maybe? a friend could come over for dinner and you could do it together and you make dinner as a thank you? Or a scanning party?!). The dead tree books you can't get rid of but don't want on display could you maybe box up and stash out of sight? Or I do really think that blind idea could work. A roman blind you could shove in the wash when it gets dusty? Ikea has stacks of ideas for hiding stuff on shelves, they have fabric panels you can slide across, glass doors for Billy bookcases (pretty cheap too), stacks of different ways you could cover your books so you have less work to do.
Posted 1 year ago # -
I always considered dusting to be a part of caring for your possessions. Dust damages electronics, it dulls surfaces such as wood and glass.
Zora, does it cost money to get rid of the old sewing machines? If not, they are just taking up space and creating negative mental energy. Get rid of all fabrics that you don't love and give those away. Same with the quilt tops. Your quilt guild will be able to finish them and give them to charity. It's ok to say that you don't have the time right now to do everything. It truely is freeing to get rid of excess and you will probably find yourself more energized and maybe even more creative. Once you have pared down the fabric, make a rule for yourself to not buy more fabric until the current project is completed. On keeping all your fabric scraps -- Sometimes this isn't always the best thing to do. The scraps lay there like future unknown projects sucking up mental energy. There are sewers and quilters who get rid of all the scraps when they finish a project. I think this is perfectly fine to do. If you feel guilty throwing them in the trash, make arrangements with someone in the guild to take the scraps off your hands. Maybe you could write up a flyer for the guilt listing everything you are getting rid of that will help release you from all the pressure.
Posted 1 year ago # -
I don't like to dust,as I cannot reach the high shelves without a ladder or a stepstool minimum, and it is seldom just a swipe-with-a-damp-cloth kind of dusting in this flat.
This particular place gets a lot of sticky yellow dust, especially in the kitchen as there is no exhaust fan in the kitchen nor bathroom. Places I have lived in which had exhaust fans had very little dust. So now I have to remove everything off the shelves, balancing on a ladder, and wash with hot soapy water. I do it--but far less often than I should.I run the vacuum over the spines and tops of books and other items in the bookcases weekly, but only a couple of times a year do I remove everything and really clean it. This seems to be enough. The kitchen surfaces and walls are a different story.
Point? I think that dusting is one of those things which varies from house to house, room to room, and should be done when it needs to be done, and not more or less often.
No point dusting something that isn't dusty, just out of a sense of obiligatory this-is-what-you-do-on-Saturdays.
Having said that, I really dislike being in someone's house and seeing dust you could write a novel in.Posted 1 year ago # -
There is a famous quote by Quentin Crisp, something along the lines of: I never dust, after 4 years you don't notice it :) I tend to only do the obvious surfaces, stuff up high I can't see so why bother? For our house, it depends on the weather a lot, and whether the neighbours in the street are having dusty building work done, when they are the house gets dusty really fast. If it's damp outside then it doesn't build up. I think the local environment really has an impact on how often you need to do it as well as what your individual dust tolerance is like.
Posted 1 year ago # -
DH & I live in a dustbowl (Los Angeles) and both have allergies, so yeah, I dust.
But as soon as we started earning enough to buy good furniture, we bought closed storage. Everything has doors. The only open shelves are in the home office (not for long ...) and the bathroom.
So I can dust the whole place AND Swiffer the floors in about two hours.
Posted 1 year ago # -
Chacha, that's *EXACTLY* the way I'd like to live. Wish I had the $$$ to do so.
Posted 1 year ago # -
Zora, I wish you did too! OX
Posted 1 year ago # -
I live in an old apartment with less than great air circulation, 2 cats, and a boyfriend with dust and cat allergies. Thankfully the area I live in doesn't get all that dusty, but weekly vacuuming and dusting are requirements at our house all the same, mainly due to cat hair getting everywhere.
Making my life easier are:
- an air purifier that runs 24/7 in the bedroom
- closed storage as much as possible
- drastically reduced number of dust-gathering ornamental objects
- terry cloth blankets (washed and dried without fabric softner) lining the cats' favourite sleeping spots. The cats love them, and they gather up hair like crazy (the lack of fabric softner makes them even more of a cat hair magnet) so the amount of shedding in the rest of the house is reduced.
- dusting with used fabric softner sheets (makes shelves collect less dust)
- airing every room out at least twice a week, even in winter.Posted 1 year ago #
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