TikTok is a great place to learn new and easier ways of doing common household chores, but experts warned one viral trend could put your home and family in danger.
As people look to rid their homes of dust, one hack shown on the social media platform offers to stop dust in its tracks. By wiping down surfaces with a mixture of fabric conditioner and water, it's supposed to prevent the combination of pollen, soil, pet dander and dead skin from forming on surfaces.
But organisation expert Scott Jones, from Pink Storage, warned the viral trend is "useless", simply allowing dust to settle elsewhere like carpets and furniture. He said: "This makes the hack useless as you have moved the dust rather than getting rid of it, but that isn't the biggest problem with this hack.
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"Fabric conditioner is highly flammable and smearing your home in this liquid is very dangerous. If a fire were to break out in your home this hack would make the fire spread much quicker endangering the lives of everyone in your home."
Other variations of the cleaning method use olive oil instead of fabric conditioner. Olive oil isn't flammable, but it will catch ignite at high enough temperatures, which Scott says can "also put your life and family at risk". He said: "If you want to get rid of the dust in your home there are safer alternatives."
Instead of searching for a quick fix to eliminate dust, which will keep accumulating whatever you try, Scott suggests regularly using a vacuum cleaner, concentrating on the areas with the most footfall. He said: "While not groundbreaking or cool enough to go viral, the best way of getting rid of dust in your home is to vacuum it at least twice a week."
Scott also suggested swapping a feather duster for a microfibre cloth to remove as much dust as possible instead of spreading it around. Scott said: "Microfibre cloths are cheap and can be used wet or dry to remove the dust without having to worry about spreading flammable liquids all over your home and furniture."
If you still have dust problems after that, Scott believes you could have a clutter problem, which creates "an environment where dust can multiply". If that's the case, Scott suggest you "get rid" of the clutter.
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