I have decide to make Sundays a day for short and simple posts that is quick to read and simple to follow. I will call them Simply Sunday I hope you enjoy the concept.
This post poses a series of simple questions for you to ponder but the solution is up to you.
- Do you like dusting?
- Which room in your home requires the most dusting?
- What is it about this room the creates the necessity to dust so much?
- What would you rather 1.) that this room needs less dusting or 2.) to keep all the things in this room that require dusting?
At this point I would suggest you go to this room and carefully scrutinise the items collecting dust and decide should they stay of should they go.
This room in my house is the lounge room. It is slowly improving on the dusting scale but there is a ways to go yet to get it to the point where I will be satisfied with it’s level of simplicity.
ITEM 311 OF 365 LESS THINGS
This bag is a duplicate due to poor organisation when can happen it you don’t plan ahead when moving house.
5 things I am grateful for today
- Sleeping in.
- Enough of a break in the rain to take a morning walk.
- Catching up with friends even if only briefly.
- Getting to the end of the day and realising that I had been more useful that I thought – I went for a long walk, baked a cake, did a load of washing, made lunch and dinner, did some grocery shopping, tidied up, did some ironing and visited Liam twice.
- My little girl is coming tonight and will be able to spend the week visiting her little brother.
I’m getting rid of all the dust collectors I have left 🙂 I have very little tolerance for decorative items. I’d rather “decorate” with useful items I need anyway, like a vintage enamel bowl for fruit, nice towels and a soap dispenser.
Hi Cat’s Meow,
that is one of the advantages of decluttering and not wasting money on chinsy crap you can afford to buy good quality items when you do find you have a need. Even better you can pull out the precious stuff from the china cabinet and use it everyday rather than have in sitting there going to waste and if it does get broken so what.
Exactly! That’s why I took out a crystal spoons holder from my china cabinet and I’m using it for a spoon rest at the stove. Practical AND beautiful!
I think the same lint that collects in your dryer is the main cause of dust. Anything made of fabric sheds.Bed linens,carpets,bath towels,etc.I ,too, struggle with it daily.I bought one of those micro-fiber mitts. It’s suppose to be great for dusting. No need to add furniture polish or window cleaner. Just wipe until mitt is dirty, then toss it in the washer,but don’t use fabric softner on it.We’ll see.
Hi Sawn,
welcome to the comments section of 365lessthings. It is good to hear from you and I hope you will become a regular contributor here because we all have so much to learn from each other. I don’t know if you have read my Microfibre and Microfibre 2 post but you will find a lot of tips there for cleaning with microfibre products. When dusting with the mitts I usually spray a light mist of water on the mitt first which I think makes them even more effective.
As for where the dust comes from most off it is actually dead skin cells. I have a car with a dark interior and it is like a dust storm in there after a while and most of it is from my own body which seems a little grose really.
Nice new look, Colleen! I love all the blue colour – very restful.
It’s still Saturday night where I live, so I’m putting off answering the dusting questions until tomorrow 🙂
I hadn’t really thought about the fact that you are still in Saturday when my Sunday posts come out but that is OK. Feel free to answer it because it is definitely Sunday here where I will see your replay. You must find it odd getting the Favour Five for Friday posts on Thursdays too I suppose. Oh well that is half the fun on the internet and being able to communicate with people all over the world.
It’s Saturday where I live too, but I’m going to answer now. I think my bedroom is worst for dust. We have two bookshelves in there and I just don’t think about wiping them down. If we had fewer books, it would be easier. But downsizing the book collection may not happen for awhile. The rest of the house doesn’t seem to catch as much dust or maybe I just don’t notice it 🙂
Hi Willow,
bookshelves are a pain to dust I have to agree. Luckily I only have one and I use my microfibre mitt on it and it works well.
I have no friends, so no one ever visits. Therefore, I feel no compulsion to dust anything ever. To quote Thoreau, one of the original minimalists: “I had three pieces of limestone on my desk, but I was terrified to find that they required to be dusted daily, when the furniture of my mind was all undusted still, and threw them out the window in disgust.”
Hi Jude,
I really need to read Thoreau because reading that passage you could be given to believe he was just plain lazy. I am sure that this isn’t the case because I know he is a highly revered minimalist. I wrote a post last month on the difference between sheer laziness and smart laziness.
I’ve been contemplating the dusting question. Dusting is really my least favourite activity except for cleaning the shower 🙂 And for me, books are the worst thing to dust, followed closely by the piano and organ. Unfortunately, I will not be getting rid of much in this department. BUT, since I pared down “other stuff”, it’s okay. And it’s good to know that the microfibre mitt does a good job on books. It’s always nice to pick up a new tip on cleaning old favourites!
Hi Jo,
knowing where the limits are to what you are prepared to keep and maintain is what decluttering is all about. It isn’t about living without your prize possessions.
Mopping is my least favorite chore, then dusting, even though it’s easy. My bedroom is the worst dust collector. It’s not that it has more stuff than the other rooms, it’s just that the other rooms get more use, so dust doesn’t stick to the surfaces quite as much. For example, our dresser has a clock, some photos of the kids, and a little jewelry bowl on it. Things get put into and taken out of the jewelry bowl, but nothing else is ever touched, so the dust really builds up.
Hi Cindy,
we all have that room the annoys us the most when cleaning. Anywhere where there are things on display especially if they are clusters of little nic naks is what drives me mad. The living room in my house is the area where this is a problem. I will be working on that before the 365 days are up I can assure you.
I know I am quite late in responding to your question, but dusting is my least favorite cleaning chore and always has been. My dustiest room is probably the bedroom and living room which are on the south side of the house and receive a lot of sunshine. I probably think they are the dustiest because I can actually SEE the dust in the bright light. The funny (ironic) thing about not liking to dust is that I work in a retail establishment that sells gift items and a lot of useless knick knacks which is my job to dust!!! I am so turned off at having to dust all this junk and the shelves upon which they sit that I keep my own decorations at home to a minimum.
Hi Di,
it is interesting that no one has said yes I love dusting. Like that was going to happen. You picked the area that I picked and for exactly the same reason. Most of the Knick Knacks as you say are usually in this area and if dusting them isn’t bad enough trying to get to the space underneath them is even a bigger pain.
I love dusting. since I have my new place, I admit that. but I dont have a lot of things standing around, I go once a week with a wet cloth through the flat and am done in 10 minutes.
I like it because I notice the tidyness of my flat, the corners I tend to accumulate stuff and fix it right away. I think its one of the easiest chores and somehow quickly done.
I hate vacuum clean for example. Moving around chairs, tables, and lifting couches, as well as handling those stupid rugs that just wont stick to the floor… thats annoying and I have to push myself. like right now!!
I think Lena the only reason you like dusting is because your home is uncluttered and that was the whole point of this post if I remember correctly. You are clearly at your level of simplicity. Good for you. My living room has pretty much reached that level over twelve months since writing that post. Most of the dust collectors weren’t mine either so I have celebrating the decluttering of each and every one.