Maintaining a clean home is never easy; a home is comprised of hundreds of components, all needing special, cleaning, and maintenance attention. Besides the usual suspects that have to be cleaned regularly, here’s a roadmap to clean some of the murkier areas of the house, and timeframes to help you plan your cleaning correctly.
Bed linens
You might think that your bed linens are filthy since you sleep on them every night. However, the Allergen and Upper Airways Group at the Woolcock Institute of Medical Research explains that you don’t get exposed to dust mites in bed as much as you might believe. Dust mites hit you while you move, not while you’re asleep.
So, you could just wash your bed linens every week or two. However, make sure you do so with hot water for the best results.
Swimming pools
The subject of cleaning a swimming pool has always been a bit of a hot-button issue. Several blogs contain various estimates, but what they all agree on is that you should clean your pool as much as possible.
Apart from just the bodies that these pools house regularly, you also need to remember that they contain a lot of chlorine, and when left unattended to, the water gets contaminated.
Regardless, it’s generally recommended that you clean your pool and change the water weekly. You can also get some helpful tips for cleaning above-the-ground pools from Susan.
Towels
Your towels also need to be cleaned somewhat regularly. While you’ll usually see estimates of one or two weeks, research suggests that washing your towel after just three uses takes out millions of dead skin cells.
So, to avoid dusty smells, wash your towels every three days.
Refrigerator
Your refrigerator is one of the most essential appliances in your home, and you know you’re supposed to maintain it properly, or you risk having to get a repair sooner than you thought.
Scientists believe that salad drawers alone contain up to 750 times the average level of bacteria, thus making them one of the most important places that should be cleaned. Also, the refrigerator itself holds foods of different classes and origins., bacteria profiles differ, and if you don’t take care of the fridge regularly, there’s no telling how these could affect you going forward.
So, don’t wait for spring before you get your refrigerator cleaned. At least, you should declutter it and give it a god wipe every month.
Pillows
You will indeed be able to get proper protection for your pillow if you just use pillowcases. Still, this isn’t enough leeway for you to neglect washing the pillows themselves. The ideal cleaning regimen should be every three months for a pillow, although this will also depend on how much you use it.
In addition to cleaning, it is also recommended that you swap out and replace your pillows every six months, depending on your allergies. If you don’t have any allergies, however, you could very well use a single pillow for up to 2 or 3 years.
Carpets
Now, we’re getting to some of the problematic stuff. Your carpets do more work than you could imagine, taking dust from feet and shoes every day. However, while a lot of people tend to vacuum the carpet and leave it as that, vacuuming in itself doesn’t count as cleaning.
Research suggests that you could be posing a significant health risk to yourself if you don’t steam your floors regularly. Dirty floors can deteriorate the indoor air quality up to 10 times worse than that of the outdoors, and research suggests that your carpets alone could contain up to 200,000 bacteria per square inch.
Generally, you should opt to get your carpets to a professional cleaning service every 6 to 12 months; if you have a pet, then you might want to reduce that to 3 months.
Kitchen countertop
If you cook often, then you most likely wipe the countertop daily. While that’s great, you should focus on some important areas. Most people clean the countertops after washing the sink area or their pates, so when washing one, make sure to be extra careful.
Your bathtub
Undoubtedly, one of the dirtiest areas of the house is the bathroom. However, just like the toilet itself, the bathtub is somewhere that holds a lot of dirt. Research suggests that tubs could contain as much bacteria in trash cans.
Without saying much, you should at least clean the bathtub in your home once every week. With the number of bacteria these things hold, even that might not be enough, but it’s a start.