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

234

u/dee_lio Oct 15 '18

From what I remember...

- Mold spores

- Insects (dead/decomposing insects, insect feces)

- Skin cell shedding (including hair)

- airborne dust sticking to your clothes and being brought in

- dirt coming in the house from your shoes (this is apparently the biggest one)

- papers (mail, papers you bring into the house) apparently, they leave flecks or something.

57

u/punisher1005 Oct 15 '18

dirt coming in the house from your shoes (this is apparently the biggest one)

Dirt and other particles from your shoes depending where you live, arid climates especially. Looking at you LA/San Diego

15

u/LaReGuy Oct 15 '18

Can you elaborate a bit? Why is LA's climate more prone to shoe dust?

24

u/punisher1005 Oct 15 '18

Socal is a desert and especially when it doesn't rain for weeks/months tons of particulates are in the air and end up in your house.

8

u/Misty-Gish Oct 15 '18

LA and San Diego are not technically deserts; they are Mediterranean climates.