Using abrasives for a home project can be a down right dirty job. There are all kinds of products out in the market place today that give you the ability to do a job by hand or automatically. But any kind of sanding is dusty and dirty.
The cheapest way to sand a product is by hand, but that takes a lot of stamina and muscle to get the finish you want. Let's say you are wanting to paint your walls, but you have to fix the nail holes and there is some structural damage on the wall. So you take your spackling compound and apply it to the wall. Now you have to let it dry and then you have to sand it. Sanding it by hand takes a lot of time as well as muscle power.
You could use an electric orbital sander with no dust collection system. You will get a great finish, but you will have dust everywhere. You will need to wear a dust mask to keep the dust out of your system. This will give you a great finish, though, so this is an option. It will be more expensive than by hand, but it won't take near as long. So if you value your time alone, this could be the way to go.
Or the best route to go is to use a dustless sanding system. If you have a small air compressor you can run a random orbital sander that has a vacuum system attached to it. There are multiple kinds of these systems out there. But the best part of this kind of system is that you take the dust out of the air. You do not need to wear a dust mask to protect yourself. You don't even need to worry about cleanup after you are done sanding because 95% of the dust goes into the vacuum system of the tool. The finish you get will be almost perfect as well because you don't have to worry about sanding over the dust that is on the surface. Most of that dust has been sucked up into the vacuum.
So if you are working on your home improvement project and you are going to be sanding I recommend the dustless sanding system.