Dust...It's Killing Me

MOST dust in a home is human skin, animal skin, microscopic insect turds, and clothing and bedding (microscopic fragments) shedding.
Very little is actually from the outside in a suburban environment (in a city or farming area, this may not be true)
Sealed homes have a much bigger problem because the air does not change naturally from leaks and open windows. The buildup of dust is major in a sealed home. (just take a Kleenex and shake it by a sunlit window.. you may just run for your life when you see the monster flurry of shedding crap from one good shake of a Kleenex. Then think of your entire home full of fabric stuff. Animals and Humans

Elizabeth, great points. Let me add that your Heating and Cooling system just rotates that all through the house and it finds places to settle. Your furnace filter can catch some but it still blows around. I'll second my opinion to keep a air cleaner/purifier next to your rig. Yes, it's loud but, obviously, you should turn it of when you listen.

Having your air/heat ducts professionally cleaned will cut atleast 50% of the dust from your home,addiny a layer of cheese cloth to the back of each register helps a ton too.

The attic is another dust trap,if you have insulation in your attic you can lift out the insulation,vaccume & clean between the joists & install a layer of plastic sheeting,tape all the seams in the plastic with duct tape & re lay all the insulation.

I know it seems like alot of work & it is but doing these things will make a massive difference in the dust in your home & on your gear & dosent cost much except your time.

Where I worked in aerospace (missile guidance systems) a so-called "clean room" is essential for assembly of the equipment. When it all started in the 1950s the Navy built us a factory with a state of the art clean room. It was a hermetically-sealed and slightly pressurized area, with very fancy air circulation and filtering systems. When you went in you had to don white coveralls, a cap, and booties. Entry was via an air-lock where a blast of air was directed over you. The air quility was tested three times a day. In spite of all this it proved difficult to maintain the required air purity. Over the years an entirely different aproach has replaced the traditional clean room. It is called a "laminar flow work station". The room is simply built and maintained to normal office standards. However the workbench is semi-enclosed under a hood, and smoothly flowing filtered air is constantly blown over it. Air quality at the only place which matters, where the hardware is being assembled, is much better than what was achieved by the elaborate clean room that was state of the art in 1955.

Unfortunately a laminar flow workstation does not fit in well with the typical home decor.

In addition to the whole house purifier and HEPA stuff run off HVAC, I operate a few portable HEPA units in the room when someone vacuums the room. I leave them on for a few hours.

I also have a HEPA unit that operates off a wall outlet clock and turns on for seven hours when I am away from work. I put this right next to the rack on the floor.

The portable unit with a power clock is a very inexpensive and effective package.