I used to let dust build up until I could write my name in it, then spend a whole Saturday sneezing through a deep clean. My allergies hated the big clean as much as the dust itself, because I was stirring up weeks of it at once.

Then I started the two minute rule, and my house has stayed mostly dust free without a single marathon cleaning day.

The rule is stupidly simple

Every day, I spend exactly two minutes dusting one surface. Not the whole house. One surface. Today the living room shelves, tomorrow the bedroom dresser, the day after the baseboards in the hallway.

The reason it works is that dust never gets a chance to pile up. A quick daily pass catches it while it is still a light film, so there is never a thick layer to stir up and never a big allergy flare from a deep clean.

Make the dusting actually work

The biggest mistake people make is dry dusting, which just pushes dust into the air where it settles again an hour later. I use a barely damp microfiber cloth, which traps the dust instead of kicking it up.

• Top to bottom. Dust shelves first, then lower surfaces, so you are not knocking dust onto clean areas.
• Do the bedroom too. Most dust is skin cells, and you shed the most of them where you sleep.
• Wash bedding weekly. This cut my morning sneezing more than anything else.

The sneaky benefit is that two minutes is so small I never talk myself out of it. It has become as automatic as brushing my teeth, and my allergy symptoms have calmed way down.