If you want to mitigate your dust allergies, you'll have to work hard to make sure that your home is as free as possible from dust. While removing dust from a particular room in your home may seem like a simple task, there are a number of common mistakes that might cause you to overlook certain dirty areas. So before starting on your cleaning, familiarize yourself with these three dust cleaning pitfalls.

Ignoring Dust On The Inside Of Ducts

Most people know that it's important to clean dust off of even hard to reach areas such as the tops of tall bookshelves. But few people realize how important it is to clean at least the first few feet of any ventilation duct leading out of a room.

Since dust particles are prone to sticking together, dust accumulation goes up when the amount of dust that already exists goes up. In other words, if dust from even a single concentrated area is allowed to circulate throughout a room, accumulation will be much faster.

Most duct covers can be removed with a screwdriver. The ducts themselves are easily cleaned with what you're using to wipe down wooden surfaces.

Not Cleaning Fan Blades

Because fan blades can be hard to reach with normal cleaning tools, many people don't bother to clear them of dust. But just as with ventilation ducts, dust on fan blades will slowly peel off and spread to the rest of a room.

Fan blades are best cleaned with a paper towel. Dampen the towel a little bit in the sink, but not so much that it's totally soaked. If the cage around the fan is so thick that you can't even push a paper towel through it, consider taking it apart with a screwdriver.

Vacuuming Too Little Or With A Weak Machine

As a result of its rough surface, your carpet is an especially ideal environment for accumulating dust particles. Even if you can't immediately see the difference made by frequent vacuuming, you're almost certainly sucking up a lot of dust.

But when it comes to vacuuming, quality is just as important as quantity. It doesn't matter how often you vacuum if the machine you're using is too old and weak to even suck up accumulating dust mites.

It makes little sense to cut corners when cleaning dust if you're suffering from inconvenient allergies. Ignoring even one dust cleaning pitfall could be enough to render much of your efforts futile. 

If you dust frequently but still seem to suffer severe allergies, consider getting in touch with an allergy expert such as Oak Brook Allergists.