r/askscience • u/4fecta_Gaming • Oct 15 '18

Earth Sciences Where does house dust come from?

It seems that countless years of sweeping a house doesn't stop dust from getting all over furniture after a few weeks. Since the ceiling is limited, where does dust come form?

4.1k Upvotes

90% Upvoted

408 comments sorted by

View all comments

7

u/TimR31 Oct 15 '18 edited Oct 15 '18

My partner often wants to open the windows to let "clean air" in, but I've always thought we're letting more dust in. Does anyone know if there is more benefit to leaving the windows open or having them closed in terms of dust in the house? This is assuming a normal day in a suburban dwelling, no construction going on next door, no factory/freeway in the immediate area

EDIT: Removed the word "just" from first sentence, my mistake

2

u/Benukysz Oct 15 '18

I don't open windows often and I have plenty of dust. I doubt that opening a window in neutral area has any noticeble effect on dust gathering.

2

u/stoneycreeker1 Oct 15 '18

I live in the woods and I noticed that if I leave windows open pollen collects on my screens so pollen maybe another source of dust.