5 Reasons Your Bedroom Gets So Dusty, According to Cleaning Experts
If you’ve noticed that your bedroom gets dusty more quickly than the rest of your house, don’t worry – you’re not losing your mind. It’s a thing! If you’ve ever asked yourself, why is my room so dusty, you’ve come to the right place. We ourselves were stumped by this phenomenon, so we reached out to experts to determine a few possible causes.
So if you’re hoping to banish the dust bunnies in your sleeping space, keep reading! Whether you have a tiny apartment bedroom or a stylish master bedroom, we’ve got all the information you need to keep your space dust-free (for longer than just a few days, anyway!).
From a thin layer of dust on your dresser to the massive dust bunnies under your bed (not to mention what the tops of those fan blades look like!) bedrooms are dusty places. If you’ve ever found yourself wondering, why is my room so dusty, keep reading for some of the top reasons.
Textiles generate a lot of dust.
You want your bedroom to be a haven. But those cozy comforts, like rugs and blankets, are the things in a home that can generate the most amount of dust.
“Some rooms may have a tendency to collect more dust due to the contents of the room. Bedrooms are often heavy on things like curtains, rugs, throw pillows, plush chairs and even stuffed animals, ” said Mariliee Nelson, the co-founder of cleaning company Branch Basics. “The bedroom, for example, has a tendency to generate dust from the bedding fibers, dust mites, and skin cells. If a room has carpet and other upholstered furniture, dust levels increase even more.”
To keep a handle on it, make sure you’re washing bedding regularly (including your pillows), and vacuuming carpets and rugs often (with a clean filter on your vacuum). You could also consider not making your bed: Skipping your morning bed-tidying routine helps your sheets air out better throughout the day, which could kill dust mites lurking within.
You don’t have enough ventilation.
Your dust problem may very well be due to your room’s most-used appliances: the air conditioner and ceiling fan.
“The job of an AC filter is to remove debris from the air before it enters the system,” according to Marla Mock, VP of Operations at Aire Serv, a Neighborly company and heating and air conditioning service provider. But if your filter is dirty or clogged up with pet dander, dirt, or other air pollutants, it won’t do a good job of collecting new dust that pops up—which would end up settling on your bedroom’s surfaces.
The fix is simple: Change the air filter. It will improve more than your dust situation, too.
“When things clog up, you’ll also notice the unit won’t cool as well and in fact, work much harder and use more energy-causing a substantial rise in the electric bill,” Mock said. “Changing the AC filter can potentially help families combat allergies and improve the air quality in the home.”
“Whether you run your ceiling fans or not, dust will accumulate from time to time,” said Mary Hromadka, Brand Manager Aire Serv, a Neighborly company. “Once on, the dirt on the fan blades will start to swirl around the rooms in your home, so it’s highly recommended to clean your ceiling fan frequently —weekly in the hotter months of the year when we need to keep our homes cool.” An extendable duster might help you stick to the routine more often, but Hromadka says you can also use a damp microfiber cloth to deep clean your ceiling fan blades occasionally.
You might be dusting inefficiently.
Even if you clean your ceiling fan and AC filter regularly, it doesn’t mean that all your dust problems are solved. You’ll still have to make a plan to clear dust from the room regularly—and it might be worth rethinking how you do that, too, according to Nelson.
“Using a traditional duster or cotton cloth is your first mistake as these just spread the dust around and agitate it back into the air rather than pick it up,” Nelson said. “Microfiber cloths do an amazing job of holding on to dust particles, and you can use [them] dry or damp.” For dampening your cloth, water works, or introduce a cleaner; Nelson recommends mixing up a solution with Branch Basics’All-Purpose Concentrate for the task.
You’re bringing in outside contaminants.
It’s possible dust is coming in from the outside. Wearing shoes in the house can be a dust-collecting culprit. According to Sarah Jameson, marketing director of Green Building Elements, “This can be common in households that allow outdoor shoes to be brought inside. And if you’re the type to open windows in the daytime to let the air circulate, chances are there are dirt and pollen particles that enter through the window in the room.
Your room is too humid.
Dust particles can adhere more easily to damp surfaces, which can occur if the humidity levels in your bedroom are too high. “Humidity causes static electricity, which is regarded as the culprit that helps dust cling to surfaces,” says Jameson. “Set your humidity level to anywhere between 40% and 50% to at least lessen the amount of dust that settles into fabrics and surfaces,” she advises.
The Bottom Line: If after all this you suddenly feel the urge to take a closer look at your bedroom and see if you, too, are living with more dust than you realize, I can’t blame you. Lucky for all of us, though, the answer to keeping things clean might be a lot easier than dusting twice a day.