Humidify the room. Keeps the dust down! I know, my shark mop steams the floors and my shelves on the bottom two rows never need dusting.

kellyhughes: hmmm. We're in Houston so humidity is something we have a LOT of, unfortunately. However you gave me a thought. Do you think it's possible that humidity could actually CAUSE the problem? The master bathroom steams really bad. They use a ceiling fan in the bathroom to dissipate it, so I'm sure most of it blows into the bedroom.

Does she only have one return in the house? Is she sure that all the returns are working correctly?

The reason I bring this up is when we bought our current home it was three years old. I had air conditioning put in the home and the HVAC guy could not get it to cool correctly. It was finally determined that one of the returns (there are three in the house) was clogged on one side with insulation. The amount of insulation filled a large garbage bag. The original owners apparently had problems with the furnace, which was noted by the service calls on the furnace panel. The furnace repairman apparently could not figure out the problem. But because one return was not working properly, it was not circulating the air correctly. If her ductwork is clogged it could be not pulling the air from her bedroom.

When I lived in Houston/Texas our A/C only had one main return air vent where the filter goes. It is not like that in Ohio where I live now...they seem to feel it's necessary to have return ducts all over the house? ANYWAY....I have a suspicion it's coming off the popcorn ceiling. Or it could be from her carpet. Maybe her vacuum isn't cleaning it that good? Carpet is very dusty, so are curtains.

Higher quality filters. Most people seem to use the cheapest ones that sure dont filter much dust unless it by chance bumps into a cobweb.

Maybe add a portable hepa filter in that room or a couple or more of the big ones for the whole house. Big better ones are amazing at reducing dust.

i'm going to give those ideas to her. She swears that the 2 returns aren't blocked. Hadn't thought about the quality of the filters though. She has always blamed the popcorn ceilings but since they are all over the house it seemed that it might not be the case. I want the cause to be the soon-to-be-replaced berber. It is the devil. I'll pass all this along and see what happens. yall are great. thanks for your input.

I live in south Louisiana and we are "humid". But I still get dust. When I bought my steam mop I started to notice that the dust wasn't there on the bottom part like on the top. I am seriously thinking of buying a humidifier for my living room just to see if it cuts down.

Home Depot and Lowe's have several electric room size filters, with hepa filters. I bought a set of 3 fromm HSN once and I was just shocked at how black those filters got! The reason I would get one at Home Depot or Lowe's is easy access to new filters. They really do work good and would be worth a try....

I think I'M going to buy a humidifier too now. dbfirewife: 'Electric' room size filters ? electrostatic?

I'm curious about the furniture that is what is probably 'showing' the dust. Is it a dark wood or maybe even a black lacquer finish? Years ago a friend had a black lacquer set and she got rid of it saying that no matter how hard she tried and how much she cleaned, the furniture was always showing dust.

chemocurl, the furniture is dark indeed. I think it is old ethan allen with a fairly slick finish. It's in pristine shape. Perhaps it "attracts" more dust? I still wonder about the large amount of dust under the bed. I'm passing all this along to her. thank yall.

geguymw

Thanks for the excellent ideas.

My friend is indeed a neat neat neat freak. She would change the sheets twice a week if possible, but I see tons of ideas in your post. She probably fluffs the dust right out of pillows and bedding daily. And then because of the steam in the bathroom the ceiling fan in there blows it out into the room. I'm not sure how to remedy the problem unless she takes everything outside to fluff and then brings it back in. Or vacuums instead of "fluffs". The steam problem in the bathroom isn't going away i don't think. brilliant information. thanks.

She does not need to "fluff" so much, or not so aggressively. There are also pillow covers, which hold allergens inside. Then all a person does is put their regular pillowcase over it.