I have a chronic "dust" problem. I have no carpet, but two dogs, who are both inside and outside dogs! Help
Question:I have two area rugs, but hard wood floors throughout my house. I have two dogs who are both inside and out and I'm sure they are responsible for some of the dust, but I get very thick dust that requires cleaning every week. Please offer suggestions. I do have one of the Ionic Breeze air cleaners, but it is worthless, any positive suggestions will be considered.
Thank you,
Answers:
It sounds like you have excessive dust mites. If you don't know, dust mites are microscopic organisms that feed off of dead skin cells. The dust is their excrement (how gross is that)?
Controlling the dust mites controls the dust. I'd start by steam cleaning or even having an outside company clean your rugs and furnature, then and then look into mattress and furnature covers like this one:
http://www.allergysolution.com/products.
Hope things get better!
Have a media filter installed on your forced air system, assuming you have one, and run the fan continuously, this will knock down most of the smaller particles but not things like dog hair.
There are these stick top films that are about the size of a door mat. You could put that inside each outside leading door. This will take a lot of the dirt off both shoes and paws. Probably a lot of your dust is from the dog's hair and cannot be avoided.
Note, in particularly dusty houses like this, the refridgerator cooling coil can get clogged up with hair and dirt. You should check this regularly and clean with a vacuum so you don't have your fridge working overtime.
Start changing your furnace filters every two weeks. plus all the other things you are doing to stop the dust.
Check your dryer vent and your A/C duct work. A loose dryer vent can be a nightmare as it spews lint out and into the house. If your duct work is loose, you could be getting dust from the attic as well as the normal dust from the dogs and things you track in from outside.
Change your A/C filter(s) every 2 weeks. I've found that the pleated filters work best in my area (West Texas.very dusty).
Since you don't have much that really needs to be vacuumed, don't use the vacuum any more than you have to in order to keep the 2 rugs clean. The vacuum stirs up dust and sorta defeats the purpose of cleaning in my opinion. Use a dust mop every where you can and keep the dust mop clean. Mop as you normally would for the hardwood floors, making sure to clean under everything you can reach. Periodically you need to move all the furniture and clean under it.
Never use a feather duster. Use a slightly damp rag to dust so you are actually picking up the dust instead of just moving it around. There's no need to use furniture polish every time you dust.
Take your dogs outside and brush them daily. Bathe them every week and wash their bedding the day you give them their baths.
Good luck!
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