We’ve all heard the saying, “Cleanliness is close to Godliness,” right? Keeping a clean, tidy house is always high on the priority list of most families. However, the trouble is that even when we have managed to make the house shiny and gleaming on the outside, lurking in long-forgotten nooks and crannies are millions of dirt, germs, dust mites, and creepy crawlies!
Check out my list of top areas around the home you MUST absolutely give special attention:
1. The Top of the Refrigerator
Wow, I have found some serious relics on the tops of some fridges. A lonely wilderness above our heads, we hardly even think about what nasties might be lurking on the grease-encrusted, dust savanna.
Top Tip: Lay some parchment or greaseproof paper on top of your fridge, peel and throw away every couple of weeks to keep the top of your fridge grease and sticky stuff free.
2. Behind the Television
Oh, the nasties that flourish behind the television! The tangled up forest of wires provides excellent camouflage for mice, cockroaches, and geckos!
Top Tip: Be sure to sort your wires into neat bundles and make sure a broom finds its way back there at least once a week! You hear?
3. Rugs
Rugs are a real dirt magnet. You sweep around them without lifting them up, transferring grit and dust deep into their crevices.
Top Tip: Get them outside once a week or every fortnight and shake the living daylights out of them. You’ll be amazed at what comes flying out!
4. Your Bathroom Drains
There is a parallel universe of germs and general yuckiness residing in our drains. Let’s face it, once the tooth brushing is done and the water has disappeared down the plughole, we don’t give a second thought to whether or not the toothpaste has got caught in a great big hairy furball along the way! There the bacteria will while away the weeks and months, multiplying in the moist environment until suddenly and out of nowhere a putrid, foul aroma will emerge, causing you to make the SOS call to the plumber. But it need not be so. A bit of mindful regular flushing will keep your drains clean and healthy for years to come.
Top Tip: Pour a cup of white vinegar down the drain, let it stand for 30 minutes, then rinse with hot water. Do this at least once every two weeks.
5. The Crusty Shower Curtain
Yes, I really do mean crusty! The shower curtain can become a neglected workhorse. Open, close, open, close. After all, are you not in the shower getting clean? We forget all the dirty soap suds or flacked off skin that gets flicked onto the shower curtain every day. We also forget that the folds in a pulled back shower curtains are bacteria nirvana. In the end, the shower curtain starts getting eaten by the bacteria until it becomes brittle, hard, and crusty!
Top Tip: Remove your shower curtain at least once a week, wash by hand or in the washing machine and allow it to dry in the sun before returning to the bathroom.
6. The Toilet Brush!
I literally break out in a cold sweat every time I have the misfortune of handling the toilet brush. I wish someone would just hurry up and invent a smart, hands-free toilet cleaning device.
Left on the brush after swirling around in the toilet bowl are MILLIONS of germs and bacteria. So, what should you do?
Top Tip: Pour some diluted toilet cleaning liquid into the brush holder and soak the brush in it to disinfect. Replace the solution every three days to maintain a fresh, clean toilet brush always.
7. Tops of Paintings
Yup! Remember when you moved into your new house and hung that wonderful painting you found at the market? I bet that if you run your finger along the top of that painting right now, you would find enough, dirt, dust and fluff to knit a woolly jumper.
Top Tip: Invest in a feather duster, it makes light work of all those hard to reach areas.
8. Inside your Furniture
When was the last time you lifted off the cushions on your sofa and cleaned it on the inside? Your jaw will drop when you do. Cutting combs, 50 kobo coins, last year’s birthday cake crumbs, mummified cockroaches, and that second slipper you’ve been looking for ‘since’. You’ll find them all down there.
Top Tip: Get out your dustpan and brush or handheld vacuum cleaner and brush away the detritus, at least once every couple of weeks. Also, invest in some fabric odor eating spray to help keep your furniture smelling fresh.
9. Blades of your Fan
The next time your reach for the fan button, STOP and look at the blades. What do you see? A thick film of dust, right?
The fan, be it ceiling or standing, is one of the household objects that hardly see the cleaning duster. Every day, it accumulates dust and when you turn it on, it blows all that lovely dust back onto your face. Dust mites and other allergens might be living in that dust.
Top Tip: Wipe fan with a soapy solution, regularly. This will help reduce the amount of dust sticking to the surface in between cleans.
10. Mosquito Netting
We’ve all been to that friend’s house that always seems to feel gloomy and dark even in the daytime, with all the curtains open! Take a closer look, the problem might be the mosquito netting! Most people do not even think about the amount of dirt and pollution that gets trapped in their mosquito netting. Sometimes years’ worth of buildup accumulates, blocking the air circulation!
Top Tip: Get a traditional broom and beat the nets from the inside. You might have to cover yourself in a beekeepers suit to stop yourself from being covered in dust!
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