Is usual house dust which we can see in the sun rays or on the furniture surface so harmless? How dangerous are dust mites? Who should really think about buying an air cleaner? You’ll learn a lot of dust problems in the article.
Dust is everywhere – in your flat, in a small studio or in your country house. Not only people who suffer from allergies sensitive to it, healthy people can also suffer. “House dust is dangerous because it’s an allergen carrier. Light suspended matter of dust, going round your apartment, brings small parts of pets’ fur, feathers from pillows, hair, cloth and so on.” – says our doctor, an allergologist and immunologist. – “But most of the dust consists of small mites hidden form human eyes. The very mites cause the allergic reaction together with itching, sneezing, coughing, running nose, lacrimation and so on.
Numerous researches prove that each gram of house dust in our flats has hundreds of such mites. And it’s a quite enough for children and sensitive adults to trigger an asthma attack. The most effective solution to the dust problem is a regular wet cleaning of your apartment and room a airing. Families with allergic persons or pets are also advised to tidy up their flats every day. Besides washing the floor they should also dust all the furniture.
Is it Good to Use the Duster?
Nowadays there’s no problem with buying different cleaning supplies. In any supermarket you can find a great variety of cleaning towels and cloth of different colors and for different surfaces, made of natural or synthetic fibers. As a rule, they hold moisture quite well and don’t leave stains on the polish surface or glass. A soft fluffy whisk or the duster can help you to remove dust from small decorative things on your shelves or in your bookcases. Its fibers are made of special materials and can absorb even the smallest particles of dirt. Such a unique helper is able to clean the most hard-to-reach spots.
Of course, you can make a duster from your old loop towels or cotton clothes. In other words, you need a cloth that will be easy to wring out and which won’t break down. Napkins made of wool are also good in cleaning as woolen cloth, being electrified, can also absorb dust particles well.
Downward
Having the right strategy is another important part of cleaning your apartment. At first you should dust all the top parts of your furniture with a wet cloth – remove dust and webs from the ceiling, wipe all the curtain-rails and ventilation louvers, lampshades and top shelves of your furniture. Then you need to wipe walls, window sills (at the same time potted flowers can be taken into your bathroom and watered with the help of the shower), doors, picture frames, free surfaces of your tables and shelves and other decorative parts of your interior design. By the way, our allergologist and immunologist says that the dustiest things in our homes are woolen blankets, feather pillows, soft furniture, carpets, books and such decorative things as statues, vases, toys, things with artificial or immortelle flowers). And don’t forget about curtains made of heavy fabric. That’s why it’s advisable to replace feather bedding with ecological pillows and blankets made of polyester batting, get rid of carpets with glue basis, keep books in bookcases with glass doors and use jalousie instead of curtains.
What is the Easiest Way of Cleaning Radiators?
While cleaning the house you shouldn’t forget about radiators. Some housewives don’t want to waste their time on cleaning them due to their shape. But there’s an easy way to do it. You need to put a vast tray under the radiator and wash off the dust from it with the help of a sprayer. Dirty water flows down on the tray and the only thing you need to do is to wipe the radiator with a dry piece of cloth.
What is the Right Way to Cleaning Mirrors?
The last thing during the cleaning process is to wipe mirrors and glass surfaces as they used to magnetize dust. Your mirrors will shine again if you wash them with a sponge and a special cleaning product or any other liquid cleanser (a dish soap or a hair shampoo will be quite good). Then you should wash it off with pure water and only then sop up water with a cloth made of microfiber or with a piece of paper. Unlike cloth paper doesn’t leave any particles of dust or fiber and as a result doesn’t leave stains. Many housewives use a traditional home remedy – household ammonia. They take a spoonful of it and mix it with a glass of pure water. Then they put the mixture into a sprayer, work a mirror surface and then sop it up with a piece of paper.
Armed with a Mop
While cleaning up big rooms with little furniture you can’t do without a mop. There are many different kinds. Some housewives prefer a mop with microfibers, others like the one with a roller sponge and a special mechanism for wringing or the one with a replacement spin head and so on.
When choosing the mop you should pay your attention not only to its functions but to the characteristics of the floor. For example, the mop with microfibers will be perfect for the parquetry. It absorbs dust very well even if you soak it just a little. And the linoleum or tiled floor can be washed well by a sponge mop.
In apartments with small rooms it’s easier and quicker to wash the floor by hand. You should also remember that extra water can be harmful for laminated flooring and parquetry. You shouldn’t use hot water on linoleum, as its picture will lose color and there will be unattractive white spots on it.
The Last Battle
It’s advisable to begin washing the floor from the farthest part or room in your apartment, moving little by little towards the entrance door. The hall is “the last battle” of the cleaning process. Despite its small area we usually spend the most part of our time and energy on it, as you do not only wash the floor, but tidy up and wipe all the shoes as well. To make the floor shine many housewives add different cleaning products, a pitch of wash powder or a bit of liquid soap. One more effective home remedy is to add tea tree oil. 3-5 drops will be enough to make the air in the apartment after the cleaning up especially fresh. The finishing touch is airing the rooms.
Household Appliances
To keep a house or apartment clean and to get rid of dust is a very difficult task. That’s why many housewives use modern household appliances – wet and dry vacuum cleaners and air washers. And if a wet and dry vacuum cleaner can’t surprise anyone, air washers are just becoming popular. These air cleaning systems protect our body not only from the house dust, but from the harmful influence of chemical compounds. “In usual flats besides viruses, allergens and bacteria there is also fine dust which can contain particles of high toxic heavy metals accumulating in our lungs.” – said the chief engineer of LG Electronics company – “If the flat is situated below the 10th floor, benzpyrene, formaldehyde, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, carbonous oxide and others can get into your flat through an open window. The long-term exposure to these substances on our body can cause the development of asthma, allergy, chest-trouble, heart diseases and even cancer. Many people solve the problem by buying an air-conditioner with a special purifying system. But due to its characteristics the air-conditioner makes the air in the room dry and can hardly be used in winter. The main function of the air-conditioner is an indoor temperature regulation and the air cleansing is its minor task.
An air washer is aimed at fixing this issue. First of all the air washer blocks flying dust particles, hair and animals’ fur. Then the air goes through the antiallergenic filter where it’s purified from flower dust and other allergic agents. After the primary purification the triple charcoal filter starts its work. It blocks sulfur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide and formaldehyde with the 85.42% effectiveness. The last step is the HEPA air filter which blocks particulates PM 2.5with the 99.9% effectiveness.
After dry cleaning the process of natural air moistening begins. The humidity level is kept from 40 till 60% and such a level is quite comfortable for people, and especially for children whose body is affected by harmful substances due to the irritations like dry skin and mucosa. Unlike ultrasonic humidifiers natural air moistening means supplying the room with pure water particles which don’t contain any viruses or pollutants. Finally, with the help of the plasma ionizer the air is sterilized from bacteria and viruses and filled with anions which have a positive effective on our sleep and blood circulation.”
Begin Cleaning as the Mood Takes You
Tiding up isn’t a very interesting way to spend time. So don’t start it if you don’t have any wish to do it. It’s necessary to set the mood. For example, you can turn on your favorite music. You can also be motivated by the opportunity to lose weight while cleaning up. You see that if you vacuum clean for an hour, you’ll burn about 215 calories. If you sweep the floor, you’ll burn 240 calories per hour. And if you decide to wash the floor without a mop, you can slash 325 calories at once. It’s a good prize for gaining the victory over the dust, isn’t it?
