Cleaning your books and shelves is something you don’t have to do that often, but when you do, it’s good to know what materials and techniques to use.
If you suspect your books are harboring germs, there are a few additional approaches to sanitizing them outlined below.
You are reading: How to clean books from dust
Before we get started, there are a few things you should know about books in general:
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As a general rule, books and moisture don’t mix. so be careful with liquid cleaning products and the amount of water used. your books can end worse than when you started if you’re not careful.
If you have collectible books, you need to approach them differently than other books. rare books, old books, and first editions can be fragile. it’s best to test your cleaning skills on newer/less valuable books first.
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disinfect your books
If you’re concerned about germs on your hands in books (or perhaps the little ones that put them in your mouth), there are two things you can do:
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clean books with isopropyl alcohol – 70% isopropyl alcohol is what I recommend. my rule of thumb: if it’s shiny, you can wipe it down with rubbing alcohol to clean the surface. this includes most board books and their pages. most children’s books and some other books have shiny covers that can be wiped clean. most book jackets are glossy and can also be wiped clean. (please note that our juniper book covers should not be cleaned with alcohol, see regular tips below). you can use isopropyl alcohol on your shiny jackets to brighten them up overall!
The other technique that will kill all germs is to freeze your books. it won’t harm books and most germs will be killed within hours, leaving them in the freezer for 48 hours will certainly kill them. this method will also kill stubborn bugs and things like mold and mildew. When I use this technique, I put the books in plastic bags or wrap them in plastic wrap and then put them in the freezer.
routine cleaning
For general maintenance of your books and shelves, the process is even easier. I recommend using a damp microfiber or other cleaning cloth (or even an old t-shirt) and just a bit of water. you can use the fabric on almost any surface or type of book. when I’m cleaning shelves or just dusting the top edge of books, I also like to use a softer cloth.
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When there is a lot of dust behind the books (as it often is), I like to take all the books off the shelf so I can do a good cleaning. do this one shelf at a time so you don’t get overwhelmed. however, if you’re rearranging or styling your shelving at the same time you’re cleaning, you can remove everything (there are more tips on the styling process on the blog).
a good cleaning will usually last a year or more; however, you can dust the shelves and top edges of books more often.
other cleaning techniques
an artgum/white eraser is endlessly useful for general and precision cleaning. the pentel eraser is my favorite. you can use it to erase pencil marks on books (for example, pencil price notes from used book dealers). you can use it to clean ink or other stains from the outside of the page edges. You can also use it to remove adhesive from price tags on jackets, or simply clean and freshen jacket spines.
difficult sticker residue may require more aggressive techniques. one of my favorite techniques is to fry the adhesive with a hair dryer and scrape it off with a putty knife. If you do this, be patient and remove a little bit of the sticker and/or adhesive at a time. sometimes it can also work to use rubber cement and have sticky attract sticky, this can take a while and doesn’t always work depending on the underlying material, plus it can cause some damage as it requires a lot of agitation.
Old leather books require specialized techniques, so I’ll write about how to care for them in another post.
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