What Is Dust Even Made Of? (And How to Manage It)

New York Times

13-03-2025

Cut down on items in your home that hold on to dust and allergens. This is the first preventive step. Carpet, upholstered furniture, drapes, and linens all hold on to dust, so the less of them you have in your home, the better for your allergies and breathing.
Frequently wash your bedding and linens. We recommend washing bedsheets about once a week and changing towels every three days or so. This is especially important if you have pets.
Dust regularly. Rather than using something like a feather duster, which ends up redistributing dust onto other surfaces or into the air, the American Lung Association recommends damp-dusting. I like to use a microfiber cloth dampened with all-purpose cleaner to dust most flat surfaces in my home, and I tackle corners and crevices with a handheld vacuum. Michael Hession/NYT Wirecutter
Instead of using a feather duster, which flings dust back into the air, use a damp microfiber cloth to wipe down surfaces while trapping dust. $5 from Amazon
(pack of eight)
Because cleaning can agitate dust and recirculate it into the air, Checkley recommends that you open windows while cleaning; those who are exceptionally sensitive to dust can also wear a well-fitting N95 mask to avoid inhaling fine particles. Work from the top of the room (tackling overhead fans and the tops of picture frames, for example) down, since dust settles.
Buhr also encourages people to run their HVAC system for a few hours after cleaning to suck stirred-up dust into the filtration system. You should also want to change your HVAC filters every three months, he says.
A typical house cat might shed 75,000 hairs a day. A robot vacuum can help manage all that fur between deep cleans.
Vacuum regularly to help reduce the amount of dust in your home. This is particularly important if you have shedding pets. Checkley recommends using vacuums with HEPA filters to trap dust particles, though home-improvement senior staff writer Liam McCabe, who previously reviewed vacuums for Wirecutter, found that HEPA filters aren't a cure-all for reducing your exposure to kicked-up dust while you're vacuuming. Marki Williams/NYT Wirecutter
Although HEPA filters are certainly the gold standard, they can filter only what they touch, and many vacuums have air gaps that allow fine particles to travel around the filter or spew out from the vacuum's seams before the filter catches them. 'Depending on your goals and expectations for your indoor air quality, an expensive upgrade isn't always necessary,' Liam says. In general, it's better to clean carpets and upholstery even with an imperfect vacuum than to just let the dust pile up. We have recommendations for the best vacuums if you are shopping for a new one.
Buhr also suggests emptying vacuum dustbins outdoors directly into the trash can to reduce exposure to the cloud of dust that often puffs up as you empty it.
Run an air purifier to cut down on dust buildup. An air purifier can also help reduce the allergic reactions that dust triggers by filtering airborne allergens, mold spores, pollen, bacteria, and smoke from the air.
Under typical conditions, Wirecutter recommends running your air purifier 24/7 on the 'quiet' setting, which is generally the medium setting on three-speed purifiers or the high-medium setting on four-speed machines. Dedicate a purifier to each room in your home and place it at least 18 inches from a wall and any furniture, ideally near the midpoint of the room you're using it in. Connie Park/NYT Wirecutter
Although people might never fully win the war against dust (and those pesky mites), you can certainly keep dust at bay with some targeted cleaning and preventive measures. That's good news, too, because I don't want to think about all the dead skin cells and potential allergens floating around my home, even if it is a fact of life.
This article was edited by Katie Okamoto and Megan Beauchamp. Get cleaner air in a range of room sizes with air purifiers we've tested and measured firsthand.
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