Even with a heavy duty air purifier and regular vacuuming around the apartment, our book collection can be a pain to clean, gathering dust like a Katamari dustball. The books at the top of our bookshelves are especially hard to dust; we have to hold up the canister vac while standing on a step ladder to reach the top tomes. Using one of these book brushes might make clean up a little easier for those of us with a decent book collection...
The Book Brush by Arik Levy
The keen thing about the book brush besides it's book-mimicking form is the different heights of brushes to use across your collection (though we've been known to organize our books by their heights, eliminating the advantage of the brush). Ack, but at $80 each, we think we'd rather use a feather duster/vacuum combo and save the money for MORE books!
[via Better Living Trough Design]
Comments (13)
Daily Email
Top Tours
- Bryan's Fashionable Statement
- The Stitch Lab Studio
- Alysia's Treehouse by the Lake
- A Mid-Century Modern Musicians' Loft
- Joe and Kristin's Design Mix Craftsman
Top Posts
© 2009 Apartment Therapy
I love this! I'm always looking for a convenient/appropriate place to store the duster.
view Aaron's profile
LOVE it. Dust is actually very harmful for books. Dust mites get into the pages and start muching on the starch left over from gluing/sizing.
view Modfan's profile
Eighty bucks! I'll get a cleaning brush from Target for $3, thanks.
view PhillyLass's profile
Like the floating book shelves before it, this looks like a good DIY project. Especially if you can find a book with a really good ironic title.
view streepyj's profile
rather than buying a new item and just sweeping the dust around, why not use the brush attachment on the canister vacuum?
view lisaversa's profile
lisaversa: that's exactly what we do now, but admittedly for higher bookcases, it's not always the safest activity holding a moderately hefty item while balancing on a step ladder.
view gregory's profile
I should have mentioned that I'm not 100% a fan of the price tag - just the idea, and of keeping it tucked into the bookshelf for storage. :)
view Modfan's profile
It seems to fling the dust into the air where it will only settle back on the books or other items in your house. You are better off with the vacuum hose and soft brush attachment, as unwieldy as it is.
view LilyC's profile
Librarians I know rub the books with isopropyl alcohol--or rubbing alcohol--to remove the dust. It's usually a paper towel or cotton puff that holds the alcohol.
I agree that the item showed seems as though it will fling dust in the air, rather than removing it. But it's a worthwhile topic.
view bronxmaria's profile
And a regular bench brush doesn't work, because...?
view nashdp's profile
All a brush does is lift off the dust to settle right back down on the books or somewhere alse in the house.
That's why a small hand-held vacuum-cleaner with a flexible hose to pick up the dust and go into smaller spaces throughout the bookcase would be much more appreciated as a design/solution.
view SillyBug's profile
gregory:
I think Lisaversa means using JUST the attachment as a brush, not the vacuum.
view piez's profile
piez: you're absolutely right in correcting me.
view gregory's profile