Well I had (they've dissipated now) severe dust allergies, so my mummy hypothesised that the amount of dust accumulated in my Lego over the past decade or so may have been a contributor to my probs. Basically we just washed the Lego in ample batches in a large soapy basin, then rinsed them and lay them out to dry in the sun. There is a bird where I live called a Bower Bird, an animal who collects blue trinkets and junk to decorate its nest.

It stole some of my lego

That sounds like a really good way to ruin the inside of your washer and dryer. That's a lot of hard plastic corners banging around at high speed, I'd say washing them by hand and air drying (not drying in the sun, that will fade the colors) is the best way to go.

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I talked to a friend of mine who has made some pretty radical MOC's of his own and he told me that his way of keeping his LEGO dust free is by simply getting a small paint brush wet and cleaning off the bricks that he is going to use. Everything else, like his city, he just uses an average air duster before the dust sets in and builds up on his LEGO.

(https://www.flickr.com/photos/tot-lug/c … 735009218/)

*cough*

I keep getting my base plates all dusty and such, how you you guys clean base plates clean?

I generally use a soft bristle toothbrush to actually get the dust off then a small hand vacuum to actually clean up the dust, obviously, provided there aren't loose pieces laying around.
Water and dishwasher detergent works well too (I've used that before on large lots of pieces) but for a few baseplates it seems like more trouble than it's worth.  With a huge lot of used pieces/minifigs/baseplates I do it this way, for a few pieces a toothbrush (or even a damp toothbrush) works the best, I've found.

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