My house is still coated in a fine dusting of central Australia's best soil after the dust storm. How can I get rid of it once and for all?

That dust storm has a lot to answer for. The problem with inexperienced housekeepers is they tend to swish the dust around the house so it can recirculate, rather than clean it away.

To get rid of all that dust, make sure you open your windows for a good few hours to air out the house the day before.

Then close all windows and doors, ideally blocking out drafts and airflow as best you can for about half a day.

Allow dust to settle before tackling each and every surface in the house – you can go over everything with a static or feather duster (ostrich feathers come highly recommended for their dust-attracting capabilities) and then wipe surfaces with a microfibre cloth, which will actually suck up all the dust.

Fold the cloth in four and keep changing the surface as you move about the room so the cloth remains clean. Keep changing the cloth as more dust is collected (throw it in the laundry or seal it in a bag so the dust can't escape).

You need to start at the ceiling and work your way down the room to the skirtings and floors. Once you've done the dust, whip out the vacuum cleaner, put a clean bag in it and go for your life.

Use the brush attachment to go over curtains, lampshades and furniture and make sure you empty the vacuum bag as it fills up (ideally into a sealed plastic bag to stop that dust gathering momentum and coming back to haunt you).

Cleaning my house depresses me. How can I avoid it?

Hiring a cleaner is the only way. But beware the trap of cleaning up for the cleaner – a complete waste of time and money.

If you're ashamed of your household grime, it's likely you will spend just as much time cleaning your house for the cleaner as you did before you were forking out money for someone to do your dirty work.

ServiceSeeking.com.au, a services website where you can ask local cleaners to quote on your job, says cleaners start at $15 an hour but larger agencies such as Dial-An-Angel charge more for professionally screened cleaners.

Dial-An-Angel still has a waiting list for people wanting spring cleans after the dust storm – a team of two cleaners will cost $336 for a four-hour spring clean plus an extra $66 an hour.

For regular domestic cleaning on a weekly, fortnightly or monthly basis, it's $118.50 for the minimum three-hour booking and $27.50 an hour for extras.

Most cleaners run their own business and rates will vary according to whether they bring cleaning equipment and cleaning products and how much time it will take to clean your house.

And apparently, Friday is the hardest day to get a cleaner booking as everyone wants to clean up before the weekend.

What is the quickest way to clean up the whole house?

Shut your eyes. Imagine the house is clean. Don't open your eyes again until someone has cleaned up for you.

No, seriously, I don't want to spend five hours on a weekend cleaning. How can I make it more time efficient?

The art of effective house cleaning is all about routines, good tools and simple techniques. Gabrielle Simpson, the founder of Clean Queens, a domestic, commercial and forensic cleaning service, says a two-bedroom unit that's cleaned weekly should take no more than two hours.

A family home with three bedrooms and two bathrooms should take no more than three hours. "Bathrooms take the longest to clean, followed by the kitchen," she says, explaining people who have dogs, cats or kids will have to spend longer cleaning.

"Pet hair and greasy fingerprints slow you down. And teenagers who leave clothes and underwear all over their bedroom are the worst."

Clean Queens relies on simple cleaning tools 99-cent scourers to clean oven racks and sinks, static dusters rather than feather dusters, cotton tea towels to polish surfaces and the all-important scourer with a plastic handle to clean the bathroom.

Her speedy technique is due to her "dry first, water last" method, which means tidying and dusting, then vacuuming and then finally spraying all surfaces and mopping floors. "The last thing you do is add water, mop the floors and scoot out the door," she says.

I can't stand the smell of bleach and all those cleaning products but how else do you get a bathroom clean?

Fresh air and sunshine are actually natural cleaners. The more fresh air you can get into a bathroom, the easier it will be to clean. It's even better if sunlight can enter the room as the UV from the sun is a great germ killer and deodoriser.

Ecospecifier founder David Baggs recommends white vinegar as one of the best disinfectants and mould killers for the bathroom – and it won't harm your lungs.

Sure, you'll smell like a salad for a while but Baggs says the acidity of vinegar actually makes it impossible for mould to grow. Wiping bathroom surfaces with a small amount of bicarb soda (small – you don't want a white dust storm) and then wiping over with white vinegar should be enough to clean up even scungy showers.

If you really don't trust the natural approach, there's a great range of environmentally friendly and low-allergy cleaners on the market, with brands such as Earth Choice, Seventh Generation and Ecover all making bathroom cleaning products that shouldn't have any toxic smells.

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