dusty house
 

i've had my air ducts cleaned a few months ago, but my house continues to collect dust. i just bought a new stereo system, and i would like to keep it clean and working, any ideas how to alievate the dust? (besides dusting daily)

When you had the ducts cleaned, did you also dust every surface and then vac. everything? if not, then there's your dust problem.

Also, dust is composed of (among other things) dirt, dead skin cells, and lint. If you're alive, you go outside, and you do laundry, you're gonna have dust. You'll just have to. . well. . dust it!

As for your stereo system, I wouldn't worry too much. Mine's 8 years old and spent 3 years in a very dusty college dorm (they were drilling thru cement to install ethernet, and there was cement dust EVERYWHERE) and it's working just fine.

dust happens...

as far as your equipment... you can keep it in a ventilated rack, and you should wipe it clean it every so often.

yeah, it is in a ventilated rack.

and yes, we did sweep/wash/scrub every where after they cleaned, there was a black residue from the duct cleaners all over the house.

redrover,
What type of air-filter does your HVAC system use? A better filter will help reduce the dust. For a simple solution, try using an electro-static filter. I believe the 3M makes them and they can be purchased at Home Depot. An even better, but much more expensive solution would be an electronic air filtration system. That's what we use (my son is very allergic to dust and dust-mites). Those systems can cost $500 or more. But even so, our house still gets dusty. As Cynthetiq said, Dust Happens!
http://www.homedepot.com/cmc_upload/...s/163127_3.jpg

http://www.homedepot.com/cmc_upload/...s/162460_3.jpg

What wondash said, ditto. He is exactly right.

If you have a low voltage, DC - variable speed blower fan on your hvac system then you can turn it to "on" for a while every day to suck up dust. You can program this with a nice aftermarket thermostat. This would be if you aren't using the fan for A/C or heat every day or two.

Read The Secret Life of Dust by Hannah Holmes (published by Wiley; ISBN 0-471-42635-0).

Quite entertaining, if a bit "chatty" in a popular science kind of way.

Mr Mephisto

I have a sony 5 disc cd changer, and it skips from playing cds. I bought a cd lens cleaner, and that doesnt work. Should I take it apart and try to clean it? It's about 5 years old, so I doubt there is a warranty to break.

I had the same problem at my old place, but my new house has hard wood floors (as opposed to carpet) and the dust is almost gone.

redrover - Have you ever moved in the last five years? Did this stereo get moved too? Chances are, if you answered "yes" then it might have received a shock and gone out of alignment. There are special screws that you either have to engage or save when you unpack, etc. before moving it. If you don't then the unit can be damaged. You are probably better off getting a new unit. They are very cheap now. Maybe a new dvd player could play cd's, etc. too.

redrover: we had the same sony 5 disc cd changer. it did the same thing. we finally learned by dumb luck that if we turned it on for awhile BEFORE playing CDs that it wouldn't skip. sorta like it had to warm up or sumthin. weird.

we have a friend with exact same cd player & she had the same problem. that warm-up solution also worked for her.

you might give it a try :)

and if anyone finds a cure for dust i wanna know!!

we have not only the bane of dust, but also that of pet hair of 2 dogs & one cat :\

thank goodness we have a GOOD vacuum cleaner ;)

One word: Humidifier.
There is always some dust in every house. You can minimize dust amount by keeping your house not too dry. But don't set the humidifier too high either, cuz then u'll have to much moisture...which can cause molds and stuff to grow.