Is dusting or vacuuming more important?

[Laura Corin]

Trivial poll for the day.

I can't understand how Husband doesn't find dusty tables, window sills, etc. icky. He can't understand my lack of concern about unvacuumed floors. We don't wear shoes indoors, if that makes a difference. ETA we wear slippers.

We do actually do both tasks but with different priorities. There is no 'both' response.

Edited April 18, 2020 by Laura Corin

[Kassia]

I couldn't vote because I think they are both important, but I force myself to vacuum regularly and can't bring myself to do the same with dusting.  I hate dusting so much.  I get it done, but not as consistently as vacuuming.  Not because I think one is more important than the other, I just find it easier to get the vacuuming done than the dusting.

 

[Carrie12345]

To me, they’re basically the same thing, so I hate the idea of just picking one. But, given no other choice, lol, I pick vacuuming. The floor is the biggest surface in a house, generally speaking, right? So that is what collects the most ick, overall.
 

[barnwife]

I choose vacuuming because I detest walking on floor full of crumbs/dust barefoot. We won't talk about how I am now of am age where I must wear shoes all the time to avoid extra back pain, which renders that reason moot. Due to having spent most of my life barefoot indoors, and hating that feeling of "ick" on my feet, I chose vacuuming. 

Also, we are constantly walking on floors. But it's not like I am running my hands along the windowsills or whatever, so the dust there bothers me less.

FWIW, I distinctly remember a conversation with my mom from a few years ago. She said how she had helped my sister do something in her bedroom, and ended up dusting some shelves or something in there. Her takeaway? "It looked like they hadn't dusted since they moved in!" (Note: that was almost surely exaggeration.) But I am sure they vacuum on a regular basis. I was not phased/bothered at all by my mom's observation. 

So it appears that my sister is on the same page I am.

I should note that we don't have allergies. If we did, I would see both as equally important. (And I am sure that's partly why my mom is horrified by our lack of commitment to dusting. My dad had lots of allergies, so they dust and swept/vacuumed regularly.)

[slackermom]

I picked vacuuming. Probably more important in a home with a cat. In addition to the cat hair, she tracks little bits of litter around the place

[kiwik]

What's dusting?

Honestly if I can keep the dishes and washing done, clean the bathroom and now the lawn I am happy.

Edited April 18, 2020 by kiwik

[Pawz4me]

Dirty floors bother me much more than dusty coffee tables.

[Melissa in Australia]

vacuum hands down

 I vacuum  at least every second day. I dust once a month. I cannot stand walking on grit on the floor

[Guest]

I said dusting simply because evidently, dusty surfaces bother me more than unvac’d floors. We also don’t have indoor pets, though, and we don’t wear shoes in the house. All our main level is hard flooring, though there are two area rugs. 

In truth, I prefer both to be kept up. 

[Monica_in_Switzerland]

Vacuuming.  Our floor ends up not only with dust, but crumbs and bits of dirt from the shoe-removal area, hairballs from long-haired family members, legos, bits of paper...  The shelves just get dust.  And while I do realize that dust is made of dead skills cells and mite poop... I still prefer to walk on a clean floor.  I'm always barefoot and feel grit instantly.  

[May]

I vacuum about everyday. We have a dog that brings stuff in on its feet. Also, we’ve been working outside quite a bit  and bringing in dirt and grime from our shoes. We have hardwoods so it’s not too bad. I hate dusting and do it about once a month. I’ve asked DH to do it but he thought after one room, he was done🙄

[sweet2ndchance]

I dust when I see it start to obviously collect. I vacuum or sweep everyday but we live rurally. Even though we take our shoes off, dirt and stuff from outside still finds a way in and onto my floors. It seems like a never ending battle to keep the floors clean but when the floors are kept clean I see less dust overall so in the situation where I could only do one (which is a problem here since dh and I both deal with chronic illness/pain) I choose vacuuming/sweeping over dusting.

[maize]

Seven kids means floors get dirty every day. Sweeping and vacuuming are critical.

Dust isn't even on my radar most of the time.

[Jentrovert]

I can't stand to walk on crumbs, etc. We don't wear shoes in the house, but still need to vacuum daily. 

I would prefer to dust weekly, but it actually happens monthly-ish. There are a few surfaces that get dusted more often.

[Laura Corin]

15 minutes ago, StellaM said:

I couldn't vote...neither?

I have a high tolerance for ignoring housework 🙂

How do your kids feel about housework? My grandmother equated cleanliness with virtue. My mother rebelled and rarely cleaned. I like a fairly clean house but without any moral weight to it.

[Ausmumof3]

Vacuuming here.  Dust takes a bit to built up but the floor gets gross after a day or two.  

Edited April 18, 2020 by Ausmumof3

[Miss Tick]

I'm with the others in that I can't stand grit under my feet or slippers. *Shudder* Additionally, I feel like the vacuum does a better and more efficient job of sequestering the debris and ultimately getting it out of the house via the vacuum bag. Lastly, it is easier to assign specific dusting jobs to my kids.

[Farrar]

To me, they’re just radically different tasks. I don’t like when the floor is dirty because we go barefoot mostly. But most of the house is hardwood, so I sweep - once a week or more in higher traffic areas. I vacuum a lot less because it’s just a few rugs. I spot dust pretty often... but I only do a thorough dusting maybe once every couple of months. I’m in an old house. I could potentially dust every day. If I let it get to me, I go crazy.

[Donna]

Both but I vacuum twice a week (we don't wear shoes in home either but somehow stuff gets on the floor) and dust once a week because it takes a little longer to build up.

[Hadley]

I can’t vote because I can’t imaging doing one without the other!  I am a bit of a neat freak, so the thought just sends me into shakes...However, I recently bought a pack of eight microfiber washrags.  I have stashed one in each room, or inside a large piece of furniture within the room, and it has become so easy to pull out the rag and run it quickly over the furniture and then return it to a drawer.  I only have to wash them every week or so.  It’s amazing how much easier dusting has become...less steps, I guess!

 

[wintermom]

If you had included wiping the kitchen counter, that would have been my first priority. That's not 'dusting' though, right? There's never enough time for dust to be noticed under all the other stuff left there with 3 teen boys and a husband around all day everyday! 😉

[Janeway]

I was injured vacuuming the other day. The next day, my little girl comes running to me in a frenzy. She tells me dad is acting really weird and come quick. Turns out, he decided to finish the vacuuming after I was injured. My little girl said she had never seen dad do that before. Hahahaha. I am tickled! 

[Laura Corin]

It's interesting hearing the responses.  To me, 'bits' on the floor don't matter very much - it's just my slippers that will be touching them.  But dust - dirt - on a table will be on my hands, and that matters more to me.

[Ali in OR]

I have gone a couple of months without dusting, but vacuuming has to be done at least weekly. Indoor cat and dog, a wheelchair and 4 pairs of feet that track in a bit of dirt when they come in (even though we typically get the shoes off as soon as we come in. Not always dh when he's working in the yard though).

[barnwife]

5 minutes ago, Laura Corin said:

It's interesting hearing the responses.  To me, 'bits' on the floor don't matter very much - it's just my slippers that will be touching them.  But dust - dirt - on a table will be on my hands, and that matters more to me.

Huh...I don't think of "dusting" tables. We have no end tables or coffee tables, though. Our only tables are our regularly used for eating/school tables, so they are wiped down frequently. I don't count that as dusting. The idea of not cleaning my table after eating squicks me out. To me, dusting is something I do to bookshelves or windowsills, the tops of doors, etc...and somehow I manage to live my life mostly oblivious to dust there!

[katilac]

1 minute ago, barnwife said:

Huh...I don't think of "dusting" tables. We have no end tables or coffee tables, though. Our only tables are our regularly used for eating/school tables, so they are wiped down frequently. I don't count that as dusting. The idea of not cleaning my table after eating squicks me out. To me, dusting is something I do to bookshelves or windowsills, the tops of doors, etc...and somehow I manage to live my life mostly oblivious to dust there!

Same. We dust stuff like the tv and audio components, bookshelves, the top of the entertainment center - we don't do that as often as we should (appearance-wise) because we rarely touch them. Counters and tables are things that get wiped down frequently, cleaned as opposed to just dusting. We do have end tables, but they get treated like tiny little kitchen tables because that is how we use them, lol. No coffee tables. 

If you count cleaning tables as dusting, then we dust multiple times per day! 

 

[MEmama]

Vacuuming for all the above mentioned reasons. Two cats, food bits, long hair, constant if mysterious leaves and salt and who-knows-what from outside even though we don’t wear shoes in the house...

I can happily overlook dusty bookshelves for an extraordinarily long time, but grit on the floors just squicks me out. 
 

[Laura Corin]

59 minutes ago, katilac said:

Same. We dust stuff like the tv and audio components, bookshelves, the top of the entertainment center - we don't do that as often as we should (appearance-wise) because we rarely touch them. Counters and tables are things that get wiped down frequently, cleaned as opposed to just dusting. We do have end tables, but they get treated like tiny little kitchen tables because that is how we use them, lol. No coffee tables. 

If you count cleaning tables as dusting, then we dust multiple times per day! 

 

I think of sills, coffee tables etc. as dusting. Kitchen tables as 'wiping'. We have sills that are two feet deep, the depth of the stone walls. So dust is very obvious on them.

[katilac]

3 minutes ago, Laura Corin said:

I think of sills, coffee tables etc. as dusting. Kitchen tables as 'wiping'. We have sills that are two feet deep, the depth of the stone walls. So dust is very obvious on them.

You need some cats. They will nap on those sills all day long and you will never see the dust 😄

[barnwife]

1 hour ago, kand said:

For those that vacuum daily, do you mean your whole house, bedrooms and all, or just the main living areas? Our kitchen is the area that needs vacuuming frequently, but I can’t imagine being able to vacuum all rooms daily. That may be because I have several messy kids and it’s a major project each time to get all the things off their floors to vacuum. 🙄

I only vacuum the kitchen daily. I keep a stick vac there. It also gets spot spray-mopped. Our stairs and entry area are swept by me once a week and the kids whenever they want extra tablet time. Our living room is swept/vacuumed well once a week. The rest of the week I only do areas that seem really bad. Bedrooms are done once a week-ish. We have no carpet in our house.

Actually, the above is my ideal. With 4 kids 9 and under, and another on the way, what I want/plan to happen, sometimes doesn't match what I actually get done! And yes, I have been known to put off sweeping/vacuuming because there are toys/forts/etc...everywhere as long as kids are playing with them. If they've moved on, they know they better pick them up when I say I am sweeping or vacuuming, as if they don't, I get to choose what to do with them. And, interestingly, my choice is often "donate them."

[Tap]

More surface area and the fact that the grime on floors gets tracked around, means vacuuming is more important to me.  This assumes that any table or surface that is more than dusty would get wiped up anyways. 

[katilac]

1 hour ago, barnwife said:

I only vacuum the kitchen daily. I keep a stick vac there. It also gets spot spray-mopped.  

I really need a stick vac, what one do you like? 

What do you use for spot mopping? 

[Familia]

Vacuuming.  Although our dog is a nonshedder, she tracks dirt in, the cat sheds, dirt generally collects on the floor.  I do not like to see it or feel it.  Vacuuming is my therapy, too.  I find it relaxing.  

Also, I love how my kitchen floor shines between moppings when it is vacuumed frequently.  We have a very dusty house, so that is also important to me.  I am not as regular about dusting.  Wiping kitchen and bathroom surfaces down is quite frequent, and I have added door knobs and light switches to my frequent wipe-downs.

[KungFuPanda]

I don't have a dusty house.  It will need to be vacuumed several times before any visible dust can be seen, so vacuuming is more important here.  Even without wearing shoes in the house we manage to track stuff in.  I have a lot of black furniture, so I do see the dust when it accumulates; it just takes a while. I might dust once every 6 weeks.

[Mbelle]

I chose vacuuming, because I simply have to do it more often with the dog coming in and out of the house and at least 4 people (right now 5) coming in and out of the house.  Then there are crumbs and I have a very dark wood floor and see every speck.   

I dust 1x a week.  I mop 1x a week.

[barnwife]

1 hour ago, katilac said:

I really need a stick vac, what one do you like? 

What do you use for spot mopping?

OMG, my stick vacs and my spray mops are absolutely key to keeping up with our tile floors. In fact, I keep a set on each floor. (Our kitchen is downstairs; all else is upstairs, including living room.) Our floors were always...terrible until I gave in and ordered a set for each floor. I hated carrying things up and down the stairs, so I just avoided the cleaning. I am much happier and our floors are decent now. 

FWIW, a child recently broke one of the stick vacs. It wasn't the stick vacs fault. I ordered a new one the same day, same kind I'd had. And I may have given our kids dessert when it came because I was so happy. This is the stick vac. I had one by...Bissel (I think) before. That one was a hand-me-down to me and didn't last long after I got it. The Eureka is far superior, anyway.

This is my favorite spray mop. It gets way more dirt off my floor than I ever expected, and the velcro to attach the is much stronger than on others I've tried.

[katilac]

1 hour ago, barnwife said:

I hated carrying things up and down the stairs, so I just avoided the cleaning. 

FWIW, a child recently broke one of the stick vacs. It wasn't the stick vacs fault. 

This is my favorite spray mop. It gets way more dirt off my floor than I ever expected, and the velcro to attach the is much stronger than on others I've tried.

Thank you! 

I don't even have stairs, but if it's not RIGHT THERE, I'm not using it too often. Our kitchen/dining room area is a little problematic for keeping stuff nearby, but I'm going to figure it out. 

It wasn't the stick vacs fault. This is making me laugh way too hard for some reason. 

[Liz CA]

I would always rather dust than vacuum / mop - in terms of importance- depends whose standards. Mopping (I don't have carpet) is harder on my back but I do a lot of spot cleaning with paper towels or cloth, especially in the kitchen. 

[mumto2]

Vacuuming.....probably because my kids do it for me. 😂. Honestly I don’t think my house gets as dusty when the vacuum is ran often but no proof.

[Melissa in Australia]

2 hours ago, StellaM said:

 

I don't think of table cleaning as dusting though. 

All tables are cleaned here.

Dusting is for the knick knacky type things or the bookscases or something. 

Same 

[kbutton]

14 hours ago, sweet2ndchance said:

It seems like a never ending battle to keep the floors clean but when the floors are kept clean I see less dust overall so in the situation where I could only do one (which is a problem here since dh and I both deal with chronic illness/pain) I choose vacuuming/sweeping over dusting.

I agree. If we vacuum faithfully, we have far less dust.

I think that it also depends on type of heating in your home--radiant heat is FAR less dusty. 

5 hours ago, CuriousMomof3 said:

Dusting doesn't actually remove anything from your house.  It moves stuff from the sills or surfaces to the air, and eventually the floor.  Vacuuming is what gets it out of the house.

I guess I don't see the point of dusting if you aren't going to vacuum it up.  

Agreed, unless you dust like Seasider. Also, I find that vacuum plus Bona is the gold standard for our hard floors. One or the other just doesn't cut it.

5 hours ago, Seasider too said:

To “dust” I use 2 cloths, 1 damp and one dry, and take a sliw swipe with the damp followed by the dry. The dust definitely sticks to the damp cloth, which I toss in the washer after use. I understand what you mean, but I’m not just fluffing dust into the air like one night do with a feather duster. 

I am learning to embrace the vacuum and Bona as close to daily as possible. Not only does it help tremendously with dust (I have allergies), it's actually a decent amount of exercise if I do most of the house. 

A neighbor once told me that the number of people in your house equals how often you should vacuum to keep things reasonably tidy (and I bet pets count as people, lol). For our family of four, every other day is pretty much essential. 

I find walking on dirty floors to be really uncomfortable. 

[Excelsior! Academy]

Vacuuming.  I can't stand stuff on the floor.  It drives me batty.  

Dusting?  Meh.  

[sweet2ndchance]

2 hours ago, kbutton said:

I agree. If we vacuum faithfully, we have far less dust.

I think that it also depends on type of heating in your home--radiant heat is FAR less dusty. 

We really didn't use our central heat at all this past winter and just used radiant heat space heaters as needed (we live in a very mild climate, we are already past our last frost date). The difference it made in the amount of dust and my allergies was fantastic! We are now looking into ways to just use radiant heat from now on.

[Jentrovert]

16 hours ago, kand said:

For those that vacuum daily, do you mean your whole house, bedrooms and all, or just the main living areas? Our kitchen is the area that needs vacuuming frequently, but I can’t imagine being able to vacuum all rooms daily. That may be because I have several messy kids and it’s a major project each time to get all the things off their floors to vacuum. 🙄

Well, I said we "need" to vacuum daily. It doesn't always get done. 😊 But it often does. For us, this means almost the whole house, but our house is small and single level. A couple of the bedrooms only get done every 3 days or so. They don't strictly need it, but it only takes a couple extra minutes. We pick up floors twice daily and just vacuum around temporary projects.

[Pawz4me]

17 hours ago, kand said:

For those that vacuum daily, do you mean your whole house, bedrooms and all, or just the main living areas? Our kitchen is the area that needs vacuuming frequently, but I can’t imagine being able to vacuum all rooms daily. That may be because I have several messy kids and it’s a major project each time to get all the things off their floors to vacuum. 🙄

Most of our house is hard flooring (everything except the sunroom). I sweep and dust mop the downstairs main areas at least once daily, with more spot sweeps if necessary. The other downstairs areas (master bedroom and bathroom, laundry room and half bath) get swept/dust mopped at least every other day. The upstairs gets it about once a week. We're all grown here (and there are only three of us) and there are two small, non-shedding dogs. So things don't get as messy/dirty as they did when the boys were younger and we had bigger dogs and cats that all shed. I vacuum the sunroom as needed.

 

13 hours ago, CuriousMomof3 said:

Dusting doesn't actually remove anything from your house.  It moves stuff from the sills or surfaces to the air, and eventually the floor.  Vacuuming is what gets it out of the house.

I guess I don't see the point of dusting if you aren't going to vacuum it up.  

I dust with a slightly damp microfiber cloth. The dust accumulates on it and isn't just pushed off onto the floor. But when I'm doing both I do dust first. That's out of habit from back when I used less efficient dusting techniques.

[Carrie12345]

18 hours ago, kand said:

For those that vacuum daily, do you mean your whole house, bedrooms and all, or just the main living areas? Our kitchen is the area that needs vacuuming frequently, but I can’t imagine being able to vacuum all rooms daily. That may be because I have several messy kids and it’s a major project each time to get all the things off their floors to vacuum. 🙄

I generally pull the regular vacuum out once or twice a week, but the robot vacuum goes out just about every day for the living/dining/kitchen/hall area.

The majority of what the robot picks up is DUST, so that’s why my vote was vacuuming.  Sure, it gets our crumbs, tracked litter, and dead grass from our front mat, but every day I shake out a pretty substantial tray of dust.  Our cat prefers to shed on my bed or on the top of the couch that traps his hair, and our dog is less than 4lbs and doesn’t shed. It’s mostly just the effect of having 6 people in 1100sf. 

 

[sweet2ndchance]

19 hours ago, kand said:

For those that vacuum daily, do you mean your whole house, bedrooms and all, or just the main living areas? Our kitchen is the area that needs vacuuming frequently, but I can’t imagine being able to vacuum all rooms daily. That may be because I have several messy kids and it’s a major project each time to get all the things off their floors to vacuum. 🙄

I spot vacuum throughout the day the areas that tend to get dirty fast, like the kitchen. When I only have one little left at home but he can and does sweep and vacuum too. All my kids could sweep a floor to "kid-cleaned" standards by the time they were 6 or so and they could run the vacuum on their own by the time they were about 8 or 9. I often made a game out of vacuuming by saying "My vacuum cleaner is hungry so you better get your toys up before it eats them... you know toys are his favorite snack." That was usually enough to get them running ahead of me while I vacuum to get the toys picked up. I probably also helps that if they miss a small toy, I'm not afraid to vacuum it up. They can dig through the dirt cup if they want it back. I only had to do that once or twice before they realized that I was serious and that picking through the dirt cup wasn't fun.

I only do deep clean vacuuming, like under furniture or in bedrooms where the floors don't get dirty as quickly once every week or maybe two sometimes. I just vacuum areas that get dirty fast like around entry ways and around the dog bed and the kitchen floor every day. I would love to vacuum the house top to bottom everyday  but the reality is I really can't do that with only 24 hours in a day.

[Soror]

I don't have any carpet, only a few area rugs so we don't do a lot of vacuuming but it gets done more than dusting. Now, in the kitchen counters and table being cleaned off come before sweeping and mopping, I can't sweep the floor with dirty counters and can't stand my counters to be cluttered. 

[Pam in CT]

On April 18, 2020 at 6:00 AM, Carrie12345 said:

To me, they’re basically the same thing, so I hate the idea of just picking one. But, given no other choice, lol, I pick vacuuming. The floor is the biggest surface in a house, generally speaking, right? So that is what collects the most ick, overall.
 

 

Yeah, icky floors are grosser than dusty other-stuff.

I'm abnormally sensitive to sound, so I really HATE vacuuming, and also our house is all hardwood or tile, with only area rugs here and there. So I manage the floors with more sweeping (near daily downstairs, and any time I notice crumbs or accumulated dog in any particular spot like around the kitchen or dining room table) than vacuuming (maybe every 7-10 days?).  But I feel like vacuuming actually REMOVES THE ICK FROM THE HOUSE whereas both sweeping and dusting do a certain amount of just moving-the-ick-around and reintroducing it to an airborne state, KWIM?  Emptying out the vacuum is a HIGHLY gratifying task because I can actually see that yuck actually leaving the premises, much like cleaning out the drier filter, LOL.

[MEmama]

28 minutes ago, Pam in CT said:

 

Yeah, icky floors are grosser than dusty other-stuff.

I'm abnormally sensitive to sound, so I really HATE vacuuming, and also our house is all hardwood or tile, with only area rugs here and there. So I manage the floors with more sweeping (near daily downstairs, and any time I notice crumbs or accumulated dog in any particular spot like around the kitchen or dining room table) than vacuuming (maybe every 7-10 days?).  But I feel like vacuuming actually REMOVES THE ICK FROM THE HOUSE whereas both sweeping and dusting do a certain amount of just moving-the-ick-around and reintroducing it to an airborne state, KWIM?  Emptying out the vacuum is a HIGHLY gratifying task because I can actually see that yuck actually leaving the premises, much like cleaning out the drier filter, LOL.

If you are ever in the market for a quiet vacuum, my Miele is SO quiet. Even the kitties don’t mind it at all; they actually follow it around. Just FYI in case it’s ever helpful.