I find large dusters, even floor dustmops, work well and quickly.

Be careful using your regular vacuum on drywall or fine dust. It can ruin the motor in your vacuum. Using a shop vac with special filters and bags made for drywall dust is a good idea.

holly3kids-- I mean this in NO WAY as a smart a** comment because I see a $1,200 charge on my bid form for our new house (that hasn't been built yet, but that's neither here nor there) for "final Cleaning" but why do you have to clean it yourself? I mean, for $1,200 I was thinking that all I had to do is move in. You mean there is cleaning to do, too? Tell me it isn't so.........

holly- when u find out the cleaning secrets please share. We are also do it yourselfers and will be moving in during month 6 of the 8 month build (with a tempory occ permit) that should be loads of fun and dirt!! Hopefully by that point it will be just trim/doors and master bath to complete.

Funny this post came up as DH and I were just discussing this today. I thought using the floor duster that has a fixed stiff head with a microfibre cover, would work well on the walls. I'll find out soon enough.

We have been in our new construction for a month. Builder had someone clean 3 times before we moved in. There is still lots of dust in the air. Someone told me it takes 3 months for all of the dust to settle--I believe it. I have stained concrete floors and I just keep using one of those dusting mops like janitors use.

For the walls we used the jumbo microfiber dust mop by Quickie that we got at Lowe's. It's the red one with the yellow cover that's made for floors/tile/walls. They pick up tons of dust and can cover a large area very quickly. Be sure to pick up a couple of extra covers so you don't have to quit working when one gets full. I think it was $15-20 for the mop & cover. The extra covers were about $6 each.

We also purchased 50 microfiber cloths on eBay for $30. They worked like a charm for getting the dust off of the woodwork. Toss them in the washing machine when you're done. I use them for cleaning the house now and you just can't kill these things!

I bought a Steam Shark for the tile floors which also uses microfiber cloths. It takes a whole 5 minutes to clean all of our tile and the cloth gets thrown in the washing machine when you're done. It's my favorite gadget. :o)

Be sure to have a good vacuum for after you move in. New carpet gives off lots of fuzz.

I used a plastic window scraper, scrubbies and Bar Keepers' Friend to get the drywall mud (and later the paint splatters) off of the tile & tubs in the bathrooms.

I used the large scrapers & blades for the windows. *tip* Spray the windows with glass cleaner and let it sit for a few seconds before you scrape. It makes it soooo much easier. I prefer Weiman's or Sprayway window cleaners that come in the aerosol can (no hand fatigue from pumping the spray). They also seem to clean much better! *Extra tip* The same glass cleaner is hands down the best granite cleaner/shiner that I've ever run across. :o)

Don't forget to change your air filters!!!

Persnicketydesign, Thanks sooo much! Those are great tips and I am at Lowe's about every other day so I will pick those up! Not sure about the steamer but that sounds like a good idea since all the subs have been using my toilets and leaving their not so desirable residue all over my brand new tile!! Yuck!
Thanks again!

Oh my! Thanks persnick! And thanks for the thread Holly - I was wondering the same thing!!

I'm glad this thread was started too. We were out cleaning up the construction site today, as we do every Sunday. You would think that the subs could throw their trash in the dumpster we have placed right outside the door but I guess they find the ground so much better.
Because of so much rain, we have framing lumber with red mud on it and every time I walk through the house it drives me crazy. Should I try to clean this off the framed walls before they put the drywall up or does it really matter? Also should we be cleaning up all the mud they track in on the subfloor and all the saw dust from installing electrical and plumbing or make them responsible? This is the first time we have built and we are the GC.

We kept a broom at the job site and swept every couple of days. After the sheetrock went up we started keeping a shop vac with a drywall filter at the house. I tried to keep as much "gunk" out of the house as possible.

We didn't expect the subs to do any clean up work, but we didn't want them to feel they could just leave their trash lying around either. We placed bright orange buckets from HD throughout the house during the construction. If I saw something out of place I put it in a bucket. It didn't take long for the subs to do the same. The cleaner we kept the jobsite the cleaner the subs kept it. :o)