Excessive House Dust - Can it be from our cotton futons?

[taubel]

Our whole family has been making great progress towards having a decluttered, simplified home. With less stuff around, housework is easier than it was before. But now I am cleaning so often, I am noticing that we seem to have more than the usual amount of house dust.

Yes, we live in an older home, it is on the small side, and there are five of us living here. We have forced hot air heat, with old (and probably leaky) ducts. Our humidity levels are also too high.

BUT we also have three twin size futon mattresses (that my kids sleep on). These are 100% cotton with cotton stuffing inside. We also use cotton futons for the couch and chair in our living room. (We want to avoid flame retardant chemicals in foam, etc. and can't afford organic mattresses and living room furniture.)

I'm thinking these are probably a huge source of dust. Am I right? If so, is there any way to cover them to reduce the amount of dust they create? I know there are special covers for mattresses to help prevent dust mites, but I'm not sure how "natural" these covers are. Anybody know anything about these?

I was hoping my decluttered, organized, clean house would have LESS dust than before!

[homemademom]

I wouldn't think those would create a *ton* of dust, but I could be wrong. Do you wear shoes in the house? Do you have carpet?  Are your back and front yards landscaped or is there a lot of exposed dirt? Do you have air filters over your air vents (I don't know anything about forced air heat, so you might not).  I know these have all been sources of our excessive dust that we've tackled over the years.      

[doubledutch]

hmm, i also don't know that they would be a major source of dust.  what about changing your furnace filter more often?  or having your furnace and duct work serviced/cleaned?

[dejagerw]

Does your vacuum have a HEPA filter?  If not, vacuuming may just be spreading the dirt and dust around into the air.

[taubel]

Originally Posted by homemademom 

I wouldn't think those would create a *ton* of dust, but I could be wrong. Do you wear shoes in the house? Do you have carpet?  Are your back and front yards landscaped or is there a lot of exposed dirt? Do you have air filters over your air vents (I don't know anything about forced air heat, so you might not).  I know these have all been sources of our excessive dust that we've tackled over the years.      

Thanks. We don't wear shoes in the house, we don't have carpet (aside from three area rugs throughout the house). We probably do have too much dirt in our front and back yard. Our lawn has not been growing well, and we are trying to convert to clover, so there was more bare dirt this summer than usual. Although now it is winter, and there is snow cover, so that should not be an issue. 

We don't have air filters over our heat registers. Not sure if we can do that or not. I did notice that our return air ducts run through the garage and through the basement (both of which are very dusty areas), so dust could be getting sucked in there. I'm going to ask our furnace guy about that.

Thanks for the tips!
 

[taubel]

Originally Posted by doubledutch 

hmm, i also don't know that they would be a major source of dust.  what about changing your furnace filter more often?  or having your furnace and duct work serviced/cleaned?

Yes, I think we better call our furnace guy. We probably don't have the right filter. Also, we have never had our ducts cleaned, and we've lived here almost 8 years. The furnace guy said the companies don't really get them clean and that there would still be dust in them. Of course, less dust is better than more dust, so maybe we should look into this again and ignore what he told us!

Have you had this done and noticed an improvement?

[taubel]

Originally Posted by dejagerw 

Does your vacuum have a HEPA filter?  If not, vacuuming may just be spreading the dirt and dust around into the air.

Our vacuum does have a HEPA filter. It's not a top-of-the-line vacuum. I think it's a Eureka Boss. It seems to work fairly well, but of course I can't tell for sure!

Do you know of certain vacuums that are better than others? I know the vacuums themselves can vary widely, but is there a difference in HEPA filters?