Why is my house so dirty?

[TheTempest]

It sounds like a daft question I know, but I’m sure my house is dirtier quicker now than it used to be!

I’ve never been particularly good at house cleaning, but in the last couple of years I’ve made a real effort to declutter, keep it tidy and clean. I do at least an hour a day, DH does about the same, and we have a cleaner 4hours a week. Yet every day I have thick dust, I hoover thoroughly daily but within 5 minutes it looks the same, and I cleaned the skirting boards a few days ago, thick dust again today. So am I missing something obvious?!

It’s a busy house with 4 dogs, so I know it’s going to be harder to keep clean than my immaculate sisters house with less people and one tidy dog. But help me out here, is there something I’m not doing/should be doing/ can make it easier to keep it clean?

Sorry, I've just seen you've answered the doggie question, I'm too slow.

I find you can see more dust on wooden floors and leather sofas than carpet and fabric sofas (including dust bunnies). As the fabric does absorb a lot. In India my in law’s house has beautiful marble flooring and a housekeeper who is constantly mopping and sweeping the floors, but it still always looks dirty 30 mins later.

Do you dry your clothes inside on airers/radiators? I used to get so much dust, and mostly dark coloured dust so it showed lots! When I moved all the clothes drying to the utility room and kept the door shut I stopped getting so much dust in the house and got it in the utility instead! A dehumidifier with a filter has helped reduce it drastically - I just clean it out of the dehumidifier filter now.

Sounds gross but do any of the family have skin problems? My DP has bad eczema and is just a generally dusty man because of it.

Yabu to mention 4 ddogs and not include pics!!

My house is the same , but I do live near the railway , I dont know if that makes a difference

Dogs... but if that hasn't changed probably coming in from the road. Has it got busier?

Dogs. Makes a big difference. Dust level in my house has plummeted since we’ve been without one. I was shocked by what a difference it made.

Wooden floors - are they floorboards over a suspended floor? I think a lot of dust comes up through gappy floorboards.

It's probably your dogs. They bring it in with them even when it's not as obvious as on muddy paws. Our dog doesn't shed because of my stupid allergies but you can still tell the parts of rooms he hangs out in the most. Beautiful little mucky critters.

I’ve noticed much more dust in the past year over lockdowns and haven’t done anything differently. No pets, no nearby construction work. I’m assuming that it’s from the people in my town who are now at home more than before (and getting cosy by their woodburners and fireplaces).

Our downstairs bathroom used to be terrible for it and that was the room with the window left open most often and the drive next to it.

The rest of our old house was ok, it was much worse after building work and that seemed to take years for the dust to settle!

New house I should dust once a week - but don't.

I live on a main road (big lorries go past) and my house is incredibly dusty. It's definitely the traffic, because it's the thick kind of black dust not the normal greyish kind. It even appears on my walls! I use my swiffer across it, but then the dust appears again after a couple of days!