There’s no denying the great feeling of having a clean house – a clean kitchen, clean bathroom, clean everywhere. But sometimes, you’ve not done as good of a job as you think you have. Are you making any of these common cleaning mistakes?
Cleaning with no gloves
Just because you only want to quickly run over the sides with a cloth and cleaner, doesn’t mean you shouldn’t wear gloves. Even if it’s just a simple kitchen cleaner out the cupboard, it can still be harsh on your hands.
Overusing the cleaner
As tempting as it may be to load up the cleaner on that annoying stain on your living room’s carpet, stop! You’re much better off using it sparsely with water – the water will soak the area, and the cleaner can help disinfect and wipe the stain away.
Using the wrong things for the job
Before you think about doing that ‘spring clean’, make sure you’ve got the right kit for the jobs you want to do. For example, don’t go using abrasives if you’re looking to clean the bathroom, and importantly, do not consider that a rinsed sponge is clean!
Scrubbing the carpet
When you accidentally drop something on the floor and it looks like it’s going to stain, the first thing you want to do is scrub it, right? Resist that urge! Scrubbing out spills in your carpet will only damage the carpet’s fibres. What you want to is blot the area with a clean white cloth or paper towel until the moisture is fully absorbed, and then treat the area with a stain remover (that won’t fade your carpet’s colour!).
Cleaning windows on a sunny day
Staring and looking out to a beautiful day may inspire you to clean those grubby marks off your windows to make the view even more beautiful. But guess what? That might make those grubby marks even worse. The heat of the sun can cause the cleaning solution that you use to dry too quickly, leaving more streaks than you started with. Wait for a cloudier, more miserable day and you’ll benefit when the sun comes out again!
Mopping a wooden floor with water
Whilst it may feel right to whip out the mop and bucket to clean your wooden floor from time to time, it’s not. Water and wood together is not a happy combination. Using it on your home’s wooden floors is a lot more harmful than helpful – stick to sweeping and vacuuming.
Vacuuming in the wrong way
Oh, you might just be doing that wrong too. Believe it or not, there is indeed a right way to vacuum, and a wrong way – well, a better way and a less efficient way, let’s say. Don’t think of vacuuming as a block-by-block job. You want to vary your direction so that you pick up dust and debris at all angles – hiding under every carpet fibre.
Forgetting to clean the cleaning tools
After all that cleaning, you probably think you deserve a sit down and a cup of tea, right? But, just before you put the kettle on, give your cleaning tools a clean themselves. Think of all the germs you’ve cleaned up with them, you don’t want to leave them settling in your toilet brush or kitchen cloths!
