Once they have been living somewhere for a while, most people develop a cleaning routine that they slip into. While some people will carry this out regularly and others take a more ad hoc approach, neither group thinks much about how effective their cleaning habits really are. However, some common cleaning methods could actually be creating more work for them to do in the long run.
Before your next cleaning session, take a little while to think about what you could do differently for your cleaning to be more effective. This article will take you through a few of the common mistakes that actually make homes more filthy and how you can avoid them.
- Not cleaning your cleaning tools
In the short run, this means a little bit more work, but it really is important to wash your tools between cleans. These are things like mops, cloths and brushes. If you don’t, they are essentially rubbing dirt and bacteria all over the surfaces of your house, i.e. the complete opposite of cleaning, even if they are making visible dirt disappear.
- Not cleaning surfaces before disinfecting them
When it comes to cleaning the floor liquid cleaner will be much more effective if we’ve already swept or vacuumed away the dirt and debris on top. Most people understand this, but they miss a similar situation when it comes to disinfecting their kitchen and bathroom. When people reach those places, many just spray the disinfectant straight onto the surface and then wipe it down. But what they should really be doing is cleaning and wiping it down, then spraying the disinfectant. Otherwise, dirt and grime just stops the disinfectant from killing germs.
- Wiping surfaces too quickly
If you ever see a professional house cleaning service in action, you might notice that they spray several surfaces before they begin wiping them down. The reason is that spraying and then immediately wiping away the disinfectant doesn’t give it time to work. Read the bottle to find out how much time is required for the product to effectively kill the germs.
- Using the same cloth everywhere
If your cleaning routine involves taking your spray and one cloth, then working your way from room to room without changing them, then what you are really doing is dragging dirt from one room into the next. This has the potential to cause a serious health risk, for example, if you use the same cloth to clean your kitchen after you just cleaned your bathroom. Have a cloth for each room and wash them regularly.
- Not ventilating the house
Whenever possible, you should be using sustainable soaps and sprays that don’t contain harsh chemicals, but sometimes it is necessary to use stronger products that contain bleach or ammonia. These can cause irritation if you breathe them in, so open your windows for ventilation, or switch on an extractor fan or air purifier.
Conclusion
By fixing these common cleaning mistakes you can instantly make your home a lot healthier, and you’ll end up making less work for yourself in future. It’s really just about making sure that you are using clean tools to do your cleaning, and helping important products like disinfectant work a they should.
