8 Common Lies You Tell Yourself About Cleaning
When it comes to cleaning there are several lies we all tell ourselves, to make us feel better. Here are some of the most common:
1. I Don’t Need to Wash the Kitchen Sink
This is actually pretty common. One may think that with the constant cycle of hot water and washing liquid, surely this is enough to keep the sink clean. In reality, most of us could probably wash sinks more often. With germs and bacteria from all sorts of food including raw meat, this is one area of the kitchen that you can’t afford to ignore. Cleaning your sink is quick and easy. For an eco-friendly solution, you can use half a cup of baking soda poured down the drain and washed down with half a cup of vinegar and a spritz of lemon.
2. Dishwashers are Self-Cleaning
The logic behind this is similar to that of the kitchen sink; every time we turn the dishwasher on we think we are essentially cleaning it. Wrong! Have you ever looked at the filter of your dishwasher, and found it filled with old food? Unless you regularly clean your dishwasher (including paying particular attention to the filter at the bottom), old stuff is left at the bottom. Not only is this unhygienic, but it can damage your machine, causing blockages which prevent it from draining properly. Start by removing all the food debris from the bottom. Next, place a safe cup filled with white vinegar on the top rack. Run a full cycle with hot water and let steam dry. You can wipe any remaining gunk out when the cycle is complete.
3. I Don’t Need to Change My Sheets Every Week
Washing your sheets every single week can feel to most of us a bit excessive. After all, we shower every day and change our PJs often, so how dirty could our sheets really get? Most of us sweat throughout the day, and it’s no different at night. Not regularly changing your bed sheets causes sweat to build up on your linens, not to mention dust mites and bed bugs. I’m afraid there’s only one thing you can do to prevent this: to change the bed sheets. To make things easier, buy at least one extra set of bed sheets, so you don’t have to get them washed the same day and spend your nights scrambling around, making sure they’re dry while putting them back on.
4. It’s Not Going To Stain
You may be having a nice night, drinking red wine, watching Coronation Street and soaking up all the drama and then, all of a sudden, you spill some your drink and your floor starts soaking up the dark red stain. I understand you may have had a few, and it might be nice to believe that it’s not going to stain – but trust me, it will. What you need to do is to immediately contain the spillage: cover it with a cloth or a paper towel and dap it out. Do not rub, as this can smudge it into the carpet. Then rinse the carpet – this dilutes some of the wine, helping to stop the stain from worsening. Same goes with clothes: remove the article, dab the stain and then rinse with water. That’s all you need to do! This may not remove the stain completely but it helps the day after. Also remember to scrub the floor the next day, preferably with a carpet cleaner. Remember that time definitely is not your friend.
5. I Don’t Need to Empty the Hoover Bag Until it’s Full
Much like Mary Poppins’s handbag, vacuum bags can seem endless, able to hold limitless amounts of dust, dirt and whatever else gets sucked in. We have a habit of postponing emptying the hoover till the very last second possible. While this may seem time efficient, saving unnecessary hassle and bother, it is also reducing the effectiveness of your vacuum cleaner. This may not apply to the latest vacuums, but in most cases, as soon as your upright is about three quarters full, you start to lose suction power. So all that time you spent vacuuming with a nearly full vacuum, thinking you were cleaning the carpets, you probably weren’t able to pick up all that much dirt. This also applies to robotic vacuum cleaners. You need to check their bin often, and to empty it as soon as you get notified.
6. It Won’t Matter Just this Once
This is another vacuum related one. How many of us have seen something we knew we probably shouldn’t hoover up like a small coin or a paperclip or a hair class, but were too lazy to bend down and pick it up. So whoosh up it went into the hoover often occupied by an unhealthy screech. This is an all too familiar experience for most of us, and generally it works out alright and we do it again and again until one day we realize the vacuum isn’t picking up anymore dirt. After years of abuse, it’s given up on us. There is only one way out of this and that is to make sure the floor is cleared before vacuuming.
7. Regular Detergent is Fine for Hand Washing Clothes
Standard detergents work well inside the washing machine, but they are not suitable for delicate hand wash only items. The chemicals in these detergents can cause damage to fabrics such as silk and wool. Using a gentler soap, especially designed for this chore, will ensure that your sensitive clothes remain in good condition and their materials won’t shrink. This is also kinder to your skin, and will reduce that irritating dryness that often accompanies hand washing.
8. I’ll Do it Later
This is perhaps the biggest lie we tell ourselves. ‘I’ll do it later’ means only one thing – it’s not getting done. Let’s face it, cleaning is hard. Life can be stressful and when you finally get the time to relax, you don’t want to be spending it scrubbing floors and dusting shelves. However, a messy house can just add to stress – so get it done. ‘I’ll do it later’ might sound like a white lie with the right intentions, but it’s not. You may say it, hell you may actually mean it! But I’m willing to bet you’re never going to actually do it.
What lie(s) do you tell yourself about cleaning?