It is not often that you find a person who enjoys cleaning their home. And it’s hard to blame them; house cleaning is hard work, and the effects of it can be undone so easily and quickly.
Still, most of us are aware that cleaning our homes is paramount to a healthy life. After all, if you never dust your home, can you imagine what the air you breathe is like? So, cleaning your home is a must, no way around that.
And while most of us take the easy way out and do all of the principal things, like vacuuming, dusting and cleaning the kitchen and the bathroom, there are parts of your house that really should get more attention as well. These places tend to be hotbeds for bacterial or fungal growth, as well as a repository for dirt that you may not be aware of.
According to cleaning professionals at Dust & Mop, there’s a list of key things that people simply forget to clean, to their own detriment.
Your Bathmat Isn’t Impervious to Moisture
If you don’t have a bathmat, you’re safe from this problem, but also – get a bathmat. Not only is it so much better to get out of a shower onto a soft bathmat rather than on cold, hard tiles, it is also much safer. Tiles can be slippery, and a bathmat should give you some traction.
Still, stepping out of a shower, you will likely still be pretty wet. That means that your bathmat will absorb some of that water – which is a part of its job. However, if your bathroom isn’t properly ventilated, it is possible for that moisture to remain trapped in the bathmat – a warm and damp place. These are ideal conditions for mold and mildew growth if you’re not careful.
Fortunately, the solution is simple – make sure your bathroom is properly ventilated, especially after a shower, and that your bathmat is washed at least once every two weeks, although once a week would be preferable. Having two bathmats that you can swap out is perhaps the best option.
Frequently Trafficked Areas of Your Home
If a part of your home is used a lot, chances are that it will get dirty much quicker – that’s just common sense. This means that you shouldn’t treat a commonly used room such as the kitchen in the same way as you would a guest bedroom. One will require a lot more cleaning than the other.
The hallway, in particular, deserves a lot more attention than it gets in most people’s homes. At best, people give it a cursory wipe with a mop or an occasional vacuuming. Given that this is the barrier between your home and the outside, paying more attention to it would is preferable.
Frequently Touched Places
Along the same lines with the previous point, there are certain things in your home that you touch countless times a day, which we don’t really think about and most of us do not include in our daily or weekly cleaning.
Case in point, think back – what was the last time your light switches have been cleaned? Chances are you don’t really remember because you didn’t clean them or at least don’t do it all that often. Yet we touch those same light fixtures all the time – some even before we wash our hands after entering our homes. Doorknobs, cabinet and drawer pulls also fall under this category.
Our habits have changed for the better since the pandemic started, and more people are more aware and thoughtful about what they touch and how dirty it can be, but if you’ve not cleaned these items in your home, get on it – you’ll need some kitchen towels and rubbing alcohol, it’s that simple and quick.
Do You Clean Your Electronics?
When we say electronics, we predominantly mean phones (and laptops to a lesser extent). Our phones come with us just about everywhere we go – and we touch them all the time. Whether you are a fiddler who checks their phone every 10 seconds, or a busy person responding to calls and messages, chances are that you have touched your phone with pretty dirty hands today – and then placed that same phone on your face to answer a call.
While you may not press your phone to your face, especially with the advent of Air pods and similar Bluetooth headphones, you still do touch your phone. Make sure to clean it every once in a while – a simple antibacterial wet wipe should do the trick.
Our homes should be our sanctuary from all the bad things in the world. Try to make your home just a bit safer with these tips.