A little dusting goes a long way, and it's the task to tackle first when you’re doing housework. In every room of the house, including bathrooms and the kitchen, if you let dust build up, it becomes grime. Grime requires heavy-duty (and invariably toxic) measures. Counterintuitive as it may seem, dust accumulates more easily in newly constructed homes: The airtight building methods and materials minimize air circulation, while older, draftier homes naturally self-ventilate. (But make no mistake — they stop well short of dusting themselves.)

Read on for the tools and techniques you need to get the job done.