After completing my gift shop, it was bothering me that all those tiny pieces in there on the shelves would be so hard to dust, even though they were all secured in place using sticky tack. So I came up with a method to keep dust out of the building. The door and all the windows of this building are all solid, so only the top and the front side were open, allowing dust to settle. SO I came up with the idea of using clear cellophane to cover those two sides, completely enclosing the shop so no dust could get in. This is the type of cellophane I used:
It is not the type you use in the kitchen to cover food, but rather the kind you use to wrap gifts.
(it's the same stuff I use for water, except I use blue for water.) It's thicker and stiffer, and smooth, not sticky. It doesn't bunch up or anything. I found it at my local Dollar Tree, but any party store would also be likely to have it.
I just removed the roof pieces, and cut a piece of cellophane about an inch wider than the building and long enough to cover the top and go all the way down the front, with some excess to fold under. I then placed the cellophane in position on the top opening, with about a half-inch overhang on all sides. Then I started snapping the roof pieces in place through the cellophane, so that the roof pieces held it in place.
Be sure to keep adjusting the cellophane and straightening it out. Once all the roof pieces were in place, I allowed it to drape down the front, and tucked it under. You could tape it on the under side, or just tuck it under. I used sticky tack to hold it on the underside so I can easily pull it up to access the shop. The sides seem to form a fairly tight seal on their own, as long as you have it taped or tucked tightly at the bottom, so I didn't feel the need to put ugly tape on the sides. Oh, and you will also need to trim off the excess along the sides once it is all in place. Here is the end result:
In the front, you can't even tell it's there. In real life, the cellophane is so clear, it doesn't interfere with the view at all and looks quite nice. I think I will be using this method for all buildings, though for ones with frame windows, I will have to add cellophane over the windows also to create a seal. It also helps if you are using some sort of tack to keep everything in place. Otherwise, you may knock things over while getting the wrap in place, and then have to remove the wrap to fix what you knocked over!
