books and dust...

[TooPatient]

So the "extras" thread got me thinking.

FI and I both love books and re-read anything we like. We also both have a hard time parting with books (again, we like to re-read). There are bookcases anywhere I could get them to fit and we've still got books to find room for! (This is great!)

So.... how do you clean your books?


They get so dusty sitting on shelves! I dust the shelves often, pull out all of the books for a better clean, and make sure to vacuum the house daily (sometimes twice daily!) with a hepa-filter vacuum. We also have a super-allergen filtrete filter on our HVAC system and additional filters on some of our ducts.


I know there are a lot of book-lovers here on PS.... Any ideas?

 

[elrohwen]

I send a bunny behind the books - that dusts things pretty well!

I'm kidding, but kind of not kidding - I will dust in front of the books, but I realize there is 6" of shelving behind them that I don't reach. The only cleaning that area gets is when Hannah decides to jump back there and use her tummy to give it a good dusting.

 

[somethingshiny]

I use barrister book cases whenever possible. My old books seem to get dusty much quicker than new ones so all of those are behind glass.

 

[MichelleCarmen]

I take mine out to wipe down the shelves and then just blow the dust off the tops. lol I guess I could use my vaccuum attachment, but it's broken!

 

[kenny]

Clean paint brush and vacuum hose.

 

[JewelFreak]

We have books all over everywhere too. Re-read them frequently.

Good heavens! You're all so diligent. I dust the front & tops of books but as for behind them....if it doesn't move, I don't care if it's there!

Too many other things to do with my time, like hanging out here.

--- Laurie

 

[TooPatient]

I'd love to have those gorgeous cases with glass! Someday....

Kenny -- Paint brush! I hadn't thought about that! My vacuum has a "brush" attachment, but it just doesn't do anything useful.

Elro -- Can I borrow your bunny duster??

 

[zoebartlett]

I buy bookcases that have 4 enclosed sides. I've had others in the past where the sides and back weren't fully enclosed and I noticed that everything I put on them got dusty really quickly. I also push my books all the way to the back of the shelves so that I don't have to dust behind anything, just the front. That's about all I can think of for now.

As for the books themselves, I can't say I've noticed them getting dusty. Maybe I should check again...it's been a while.

 

[elrohwen]

I'd love to have those gorgeous cases with glass! Someday....

Kenny -- Paint brush! I hadn't thought about that! My vacuum has a "brush" attachment, but it just doesn't do anything useful.

Elro -- Can I borrow your bunny duster??

You can definitely borrow her! Though I have to warn you - she likes to take a few nibbles out of the books while she's back there. We try to keep the lowest shelves blocked off, but she always finds a way to get in there and peep out at us over a row of books.

 

[kenny]

Kenny -- Paint brush! I hadn't thought about that! My vacuum has a "brush" attachment, but it just doesn't do anything useful.

Yeah, the paintbrush is more gentle for delicate breakable stuff.
I'll just raise the dust and hold vacuum near it to suck up the airborne dust.

 

[elrohwen]

Kenny -- Paint brush! I hadn't thought about that! My vacuum has a "brush" attachment, but it just doesn't do anything useful.

Yeah, the paintbrush is more gentle for delicate breakable stuff.
I'll just raise the dust and hold vacuum near it to suck up the airborne dust.

That's a really good idea! Not sure I'll use it for books because I'm too lazy to dust them, but I would definitely use it for other areas - I love vacuuming up the dust instead of using a cloth.

 

[TooPatient]

I'd love to have those gorgeous cases with glass! Someday....

Kenny -- Paint brush! I hadn't thought about that! My vacuum has a "brush" attachment, but it just doesn't do anything useful.

Elro -- Can I borrow your bunny duster??

You can definitely borrow her! Though I have to warn you - she likes to take a few nibbles out of the books while she's back there. We try to keep the lowest shelves blocked off, but she always finds a way to get in there and peep out at us over a row of books.

Awwwww!!!!!!

I'd be THRILLED with nibbles at this point!

Millie (almost 6 months old!!) is still in the shred-everything-in-sight puppy stage so.... yeah... That's one way to weed out the extra books

At least yesterday she only got hold of an old Webster's Dictionary

 

[TooPatient]

Kenny -- Paint brush! I hadn't thought about that! My vacuum has a "brush" attachment, but it just doesn't do anything useful.

Yeah, the paintbrush is more gentle for delicate breakable stuff.
I'll just raise the dust and hold vacuum near it to suck up the airborne dust.

I'm going to have to try this. Someday I'd love to switch over to fully enclosed cases, but that isn't going to happen for awhile.

One of our cats was diagnosed with asthma and I've noticed a very strong connection between her health and the amount of dust/fur in the house. The basic vacuum/dust, animal-brushing, pet bed wash, couch cover wash is helping but there is only so many times I can rus stuff through the washer and since we're already vacuuming/dusting daily (or more!) I'm looking for other ways to reduce the dust in the house.

 

[elrohwen]

I'd love to have those gorgeous cases with glass! Someday....

Kenny -- Paint brush! I hadn't thought about that! My vacuum has a "brush" attachment, but it just doesn't do anything useful.

Elro -- Can I borrow your bunny duster??

You can definitely borrow her! Though I have to warn you - she likes to take a few nibbles out of the books while she's back there. We try to keep the lowest shelves blocked off, but she always finds a way to get in there and peep out at us over a row of books.

Awwwww!!!!!!

I'd be THRILLED with nibbles at this point!

Millie (almost 6 months old!!) is still in the shred-everything-in-sight puppy stage so.... yeah... That's one way to weed out the extra books

At least yesterday she only got hold of an old Webster's Dictionary

Ours are quite happy with some old phone books (covers ripped off) for shredding. Though they do think any book left within reach is theirs for the eating.

Tell Millie that she needs to get to work dusting if she's going to be eating your books!

 

[Tuckins1]

This is the one thing that I have tons of!!! Honestly, I don't clean them. Most of the hard covers are in the built-ins next to the fireplace, so they don't get too dusty. Any other books, I usually just dust it off when I pick it up to read....

 

[Laughinggravy0]

Eirohwen - a dust bunny as I live and breath.
I have a ludicrous number of books so I had to design my own bookshelves by working out metres and heights. Sooooo; I don't have to dust because in my desperate cramming to get the whole lot in, I couldn't leave much over a centimetre taller than the books in question. So i accidentally made a huge bookcase, rather than shelves. Yaaaaay, no dusting

 

[yssie]

I'd love to have those gorgeous cases with glass! Someday....

Kenny -- Paint brush! I hadn't thought about that! My vacuum has a "brush" attachment, but it just doesn't do anything useful.

Elro -- Can I borrow your bunny duster??

You can definitely borrow her! Though I have to warn you - she likes to take a few nibbles out of the books while she's back there. We try to keep the lowest shelves blocked off, but she always finds a way to get in there and peep out at us over a row of books.

Awwwww!!!!!!

I'd be THRILLED with nibbles at this point!

Millie (almost 6 months old!!) is still in the shred-everything-in-sight puppy stage so.... yeah... That's one way to weed out the extra books

At least yesterday she only got hold of an old Webster's Dictionary

Ours are quite happy with some old phone books (covers ripped off) for shredding. Though they do think any book left within reach is theirs for the eating.

Tell Millie that she needs to get to work dusting if she's going to be eating your books!

Oh my goodness how cute is this I can just see it, the covert snack