Do This and You’ll Never Have to Dust Your Hard-to-Reach Spots Again

I’ve written a lot about dusting, but like a doctor who stops for Krispy Kreme on the way to work, I have some blind spots when it comes to this one part of homekeeping. Namely, I’m not the best at staying on top of dusting the hard-to-reach spots in my home. Not that it doesn’t bother me that the tops of my built-ins and kitchen cabinets are coated with a thin coating of dust (ok, more than a thin coating). But I recently came across a tip that solves this problem—without having to dust(!).

Jillee of One Good Thing, in a roundup of ways to use wax paper, suggests lining the tops of cupboards and the refrigerator with wax paper in order to catch the dust that collects on these inaccessible spots. When it’s time to “clean,” you just need to remove the paper and, boom, it’s dust-free.

Leave a fresh sheet behind and it’s like homekeeping magic—you’ve totally eliminated ever having to dust while standing on top of a stool or ladder or perched precariously on the kitchen counter.

Instead of wax paper, we like the idea of repurposing a layer of newspaper or pages from ad circulars or catalogs. This way, you avoid wasting new, clean wax paper and you can also recycle the newspaper or ad pages when you’re through using them as dust-catchers.

I might also wear a mask when taking the old stuff down, since you’re committing one of the two cardinal dusting sins (not using a tool that traps dust). The papers would need to be removed gently and stuffed quickly into a bag in order to avoid shuffling dust around the house.

All in all, replacing paper seems far preferable than infrequent dusting for addressing these out-of-sight, out-of-mind, and neglected dust-collecting surfaces. Try it on the top of the fridge, on top of tall upper kitchen cabinets without a soffit, or on any tall and dusty place that’s hard to see and hard to reach (like the top shelf of a bookcase).