Professional Dusting Tips

House Cleaning Tips

• Top Ten House Cleaning Tips
• Cleaning Tips for Efficiency
• Deep Cleaning
• Cleaning Checklist
• House Cleaning Checklist

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How To Dust- Dusting Tips From Professional House Cleaners

Dusting is a boring job. It is also one that causes a great deal of work for someone that is unsure of how to do it properly. Remember to look up at the ceiling, in the corners and overhead light fixtures, and skylights for those annoying little cobwebs that occasionally come floating down when a guest walks through!

Dusting your home is essential. Not only do you need to do so to have a clean home, but the dust from pet dander, pollen and other substances can actually help to increase the chances that you or someone in your family will have allergies.

The up-side is that it's not a whole lot of trouble to dust and the results are easy to see - not like cleaning and organizing your closet,  then closing the door on the time you invested.

What You Need To Do First

One of the first things prior to using elbow grease and a dust cloth is to have the air ducts in your home cleaned. This cuts down significantly on the amount of dust particles floating around the air in your home. Also be sure to keep fresh bags in your vacuum cleaner so that it works more efficiently to remove lint and dust particles from your carpet and draperies. Keep your air filters clean as well. From here on, you'll just need to do some basic maintenance work in the realm of dusting.

Supplies

In order to get started, gather up these supplies.

• Vacuum: A good quality vacuum cleaner is necessary. Look for one that has a HEPA filter as this will keep the dust you collect inside and off the areas around you.
• To learn about vacuums and filters, see Types of Vacuums
• Furniture polish
• Window cleaner
• Disinfectant
• Cleaning rags, consider terry cloths. You can also use micro fiber cloths or mitts that are slightly dampened with a bit of water. Micro fiber can be helpful to anyone that has allergies as it traps the dust effectively.
• Canister vacuum
• Duster: Look for ostrich feathers. This tool will help you to get into hard to reach areas and will conform to the shape of the item. Look for one that offers a good level of dusting capabilities by having a larger surface area to it. The higher the surface area it has, the better. Also consider real lamb’s wool dusters for a good quality product.

Here are some tips to dusting to get you started on the right foot.

• Use your duster for places that are intricate, the top of drawers and those hard to reach cobwebs. But, do not use it on the flat surfaces, walls or baseboards. You will want to use your dusting rag for this.
• Get organized first. Clean up the room first, organizing it. If you fluff the pillows, put things away and fold up blankets you are probably going to release more dust into the air. So, do this first then go back to dust.
• Start with the ceiling. Dust the cobwebs in the corners, the light figures and other things that are high up in the room. Dust all surfaces.
• Pick up and move objects to get under them.
• When you come to things that you use regularly, wipe them down with disinfectant. This includes your telephone, your light switches, dining room tables and end tables.
• Don’t forget the molding, pictures, stairs and furniture.
• Clean the glass too. Use a glass cleaner and a new, clean terry cloth or paper towels.
• Polish your wood furniture with furniture polish. Do not put this polish on your hard wood floors though.
• Now, use your vacuum carefully and effectively to reach all areas of the floor.

Dusting Check List

Did You Dust Everything Carefully?

To help you to make sure you got everything done right, here is a dusting checklist for you to use. Make sure to adapt it to fit your home and rooms.

1. Straighten up the rooms, putting everything where it goes. Shake out things before putting them away so that the dust on them ends up on the floor.
2. Get rid of cobwebs and high level dust from the tops of furniture and light fixtures. Scan the tops of doorways too.
3. Dust and polish all of your furniture. Use a good quality furniture polish to help shine, remove fingertips and to protect your furniture.
4. Get to the frames, baseboards, televisions, and window sills. Look for all areas of the room that need to be cleaned and dusted that you may not notice regularly.
5. Go back and clean windows and other glass objects. Use a clean cloth and make sure that they are streak free as well. You may need to clean screens as well.
6. Clean and polish doors, disinfecting as appropriate, clean off any fingerprints. Don’t forget to clean the light switches and telephones too.
7. Shake out your rugs as much as possible outdoors. Don’t put them back in place until after you vacuum.
8. Vacuum the carpets effectively. That means taking the necessary time to go back over the carpeting in several directions. This will help to pull all the dust and particles out of the carpet. When it comes to vacuuming, you need a high quality machine with a high efficiency filtration system.