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The King of Harts
Joined: 05 May 2009
Posts: 6712
Location: Mount Crawford, Virginia
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Posted: Thu Dec 30, 2010 8:29 pm
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What methods do people with bigger collections use to help keep the dust away? And how often do you clean it, if at all?
I need a new way of keeping my ever growing collection clean because my old way isn't cutting it anymore. My current method is using one of those Swiffer Wands, but my collection is getting too big and it's grabbing dust very fast, making it useless after just 2 or 3 wipe downs. Perhaps I'm just not doing it often enough since I don't do it until, well, I notice it. As strange as it sounds coming from me, I don't always look at my collection. I don't notice dust until I have to a lot of shifting after a large order, or if I'm stumped on what to watch next and I start running down the rows, and so I don't clean it until I come to either of those points, which is usually about a month.
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Blood-
![](/bbs/phpBB2/images/subscriber-silver.png) Bargain Hunter
Joined: 07 Mar 2009
Posts: 23978
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Posted: Thu Dec 30, 2010 9:30 pm
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...
...what is this "clean" of which you speak? But seriously, I never dust my collection. Occasionally, when I pull out a boxset to watch that is dusty, I'll clean it off, but I have no regular cleaning regimen. I guess that makes me a bit of a pig.
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Mylene
Joined: 07 Feb 2006
Posts: 2792
Location: Indiana
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Posted: Thu Dec 30, 2010 10:00 pm
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Because I keep my collection in its own room, it doesn't collect much dust since there is little activity in there--generally just long enough to grab a disc or put away a new manga or DVD. If I start to notice a bit of dust, I just use a Swiffer duster and wipe down the shelves/cases.
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Richard J.
Joined: 11 Aug 2006
Posts: 3367
Location: Sic Semper Tyrannis.
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Posted: Thu Dec 30, 2010 11:46 pm
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I've found that the best way to keep the collection clean is to keep the room it's in clean. So my advice is to first vaccum, dust and maybe wipe down the whole room you keep your collection in. (If there's carpet on the floor, you're probably fighting a losing battle. I've seen what filth gathers under carpet and it is not pretty.)
Next clean off the shelves or whatever you use to store the collection with extra care. Then the collection itself. You might want to check the filters in your air conditioning and heating system too. The cheap blue fiber ones work better than the expensive anti-allergon ones by the by and place less stress on the system, meaning less electricity is used to cool and heat.
If you want to increase the protection of your collection, consider placing some sort of white fabric or drawer padding under things.
Finally, I suggest never wearing shoes in the room you keep your collection in. A while back I started taking a page from the Japanese and leaving shoes off while inside the house (I wear slippers instead, comfy yet functional!) and that's reduced the grime accumulation.
Some bonus tips: If you don't already, shower once a day, giving your whole body a good scrub down. This reduces a major component of dust: flaked off skin. Also, use a minimum of soap. Over use of soap just leads to drier skin, more flaking and soap scum. Make sure your bathroom can air out after bathing if it is a small room, that cuts down on mold.
Of course, there's not much you can do if there are other people around who aren't very clean.
Hope some of that was useful.
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poonk
Joined: 05 Jun 2008
Posts: 1490
Location: In the Library with Philip
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Posted: Fri Dec 31, 2010 3:08 am
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The King of Harts wrote: | What methods do people with bigger collections use to help keep the dust away? And how often do you clean it, if at all? |
What part of your collection is getting dusty, the tops of the DVD boxes? My DVD shelves are spaced closely together enough that they don't get too bad (and as such I can't really see the tops anyway). When I do dust I generally take a mostly dry dust rag (an old cut-up t-shirt, probably with slight Pledge residue in it) and give stuff a quick wipe; this is probably every other month, maybe more frequently along the exposed "lips" of each shelf (this may be done with the bottom edge/sleeve of the shirt I'm wearing at that moment if I'm feeling particularly hurried/lazy ). As far as I can tell the Pledge residue doesn't hurt the glossy artboxes-- though I would never do that with matte paper finishes or books of course. However most of my manga, due to its nature, is kept on shelves behind closed doors so I don't really have to dust them much anyway.
Dusting is really a drag, isn't it? I mean, it's generally a pretty light task but it's neverending.
Richard J. wrote: | A while back I started taking a page from the Japanese and leaving shoes off while inside the house (I wear slippers instead, comfy yet functional!) and that's reduced the grime accumulation. |
I've been doing this for quite a while also and I find that it has really reduced the need for frequent vacuuming (granted, I also don't have pets that shed all over the place). If you share a living space though you have to convince everyone else to follow suit, otherwise it's pointless.
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egoist
Joined: 20 Jun 2008
Posts: 7762
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Posted: Fri Dec 31, 2010 3:10 am
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A spit and a piece of the cloth I just used to dry the dishes, and we're all set!
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John Casey
Joined: 31 May 2009
Posts: 1853
Location: In My Angry Center
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Posted: Fri Dec 31, 2010 9:54 am
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I dunno...? :/ A plain ol' duster and a tiny dyson vacuum cleaner?
It's not like DVD box sets are made of anything particularly sensitive, or they smudge easily... It's mostly just cardboard. :/ So, a duster and tiny vac suffice.
But, it's really mostly just the tops of my sets that get dusty.
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FaytLein
Joined: 21 Jun 2008
Posts: 1260
Location: Williamsburg, VA
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Posted: Fri Dec 31, 2010 10:15 am
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I personally use canned air to remove any major dusting, and follow it up with some cleaning wipes to make sure the spines are dust free. As for how often I clean them up, I do a quarterly reorganization of my stuff, since it grows a little each week. Plan on doing one today, since I'm already feeling pretty sick, might as well do something constructive.
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archaron
Joined: 10 Oct 2006
Posts: 1024
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Posted: Fri Dec 31, 2010 11:30 am
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I use a microfiber cloth and duster to clean off the major dust and then use a vacuum to clean up the rest. I know it’s a bit old fashioned, but hey it works. A can of air does sound like an interesting idea FaytLein. How well does it work for you FaytLein?
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chefneer
Joined: 27 Aug 2009
Posts: 1686
Location: Fort Worth, Texas
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Posted: Fri Dec 31, 2010 12:23 pm
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My housekeeper cleans them on a regular basis, so they don't usually get very dirty. I usually try to get out of her way, but when I am around I've seen her use a cloth for the spines and shelves. My shelves don't leave a lot of space above the boxes so she uses a kind of fuzzy wand for the tops. I've also seen her use a feather duster.
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FaytLein
Joined: 21 Jun 2008
Posts: 1260
Location: Williamsburg, VA
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Posted: Fri Dec 31, 2010 12:49 pm
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archaron wrote: | I use a microfiber cloth and duster to clean off the major dust and then use a vacuum to clean up the rest. I know it’s a bit old fashioned, but hey it works. A can of air does sound like an interesting idea FaytLein. How well does it work for you FaytLein? |
It works really well for heavy dust, a quick blast along the spines gets rid of most dirt very quickly, you just have to make sure if you have the discs packed together with little room, too much will blow them out of your racks.
chefneer wrote: | My housekeeper cleans them on a regular basis, so they don't usually get very dirty. |
You mean a maid cleans your manga and anime? That is AWESOME.
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luffypirate
Joined: 06 Oct 2006
Posts: 3187
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Posted: Fri Dec 31, 2010 1:50 pm
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I've got an anime room so keeping it clean isn't too tough. I dust my electronics and shelf once a month or so. Anything that I won't be rewatching goes into storage (aka the closet) I like to keep everything neat and orderly.
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DieHardBleachFan
Joined: 05 Oct 2007
Posts: 277
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Posted: Fri Dec 31, 2010 4:38 pm
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I dust my shelves about every month so nothing gets too dusty. As far as cleaning my collection goes, my stuff doesn't get very dusty and when it does, it's mainly just the top of the box or case so I'll usually just take a dry cloth and wipe it off.
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darkhappy1
Joined: 26 Jan 2009
Posts: 495
Location: PA
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Posted: Fri Dec 31, 2010 5:22 pm
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I don't consider my collection all that large (about 4 full 2 ft. shelves), but I keep them inside a cabinet. It doesn't go very far in, so the boxes almost touch the doors when they close. There isn't a lot of space above the boxes when placed inside too (there's about half an inch between the top of the box to the next shelf), so dust has little room to float in and stay. The door blocks outside dust from collecting inside anyway. No cleaning for me.
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chefneer
Joined: 27 Aug 2009
Posts: 1686
Location: Fort Worth, Texas
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Posted: Fri Dec 31, 2010 5:57 pm
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FaytLein wrote: |
chefneer wrote: | My housekeeper cleans them on a regular basis, so they don't usually get very dirty. |
You mean a maid cleans your manga and anime? That is AWESOME. |
It works for me, and she's never made any comments or given me funny looks when cleaning my collection, either. Not that I've noticed, anyway.
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