How Often Should You Clean These 20 Household Items? (2023)

FAQs

How often should you clean household items? ›

Spills and trash get taken care of on an as-needed basis every day or two. Vacuuming and mopping should happen at least once a week. Clean carpets every three to six months. Living rooms and bedrooms should be attacked at least once a week.

Some things need to be cleaned every day, while a general clean can be done once a week, and deep clean every few months or annually. To make cleaning easier, you should: Keep clutter to a minimum. Wash hands regularly and wipe shoes on entry rugs or mats.

It really depends on your needs. Homes with lots of fur and hair should consider giving the baseboards a swipe once a week, but if you live solo and keep everything else pretty clean you might be able to get away with doing it once or twice a month.

Daily: Flush your toilet every day (even if it's not in use) to discourage the growth of bacteria. Weekly: Deep-clean your toilet once a week or biweekly—this includes the toilet bowl, exterior and toilet seat. Yearly: Clean your toilet tank twice a year.

Experts recommend washing or changing sheets once a week.

But as a rule of thumb, you should mop your floors at least once a week—especially in areas that are more likely to get stains from drips and spills, like the kitchen and bathroom. “Of course, you need to vacuum or sweep the floor before mopping,” explains Leiva.

How Often Should You Clean Your Shower? Koch advises cleaning your shower weekly, but don't worry, it doesn't have to be a serious deep clean every time. She says at the very least to clean the floor, any shelves, and glass doors (if you have them) as part of your weekly housekeeping line-up.

How often should you shower? While there is no ideal frequency, experts suggest that showering several times per week is plenty for most people (unless you are grimy, sweaty, or have other reasons to shower more often). Short showers (lasting three or four minutes) with a focus on the armpits and groin may suffice.

Clean your blinds regularly—every week or two is best—and the dust won't have a chance to build up, says Sara San Angelo, a professional housecleaner and founder of Confessions of a Cleaning Lady. Invest in a hand-held blind-duster tool that quickly picks up lint and other particles in a jiffy.

How often should you clean ceiling fans? ›

Ceiling fans should be cleaned once every other month, says Beth McGee, author of "Get Your House Clean Now: The Home Cleaning Method Anyone Can Master." (If you live in a particularly dusty environment or often keep your windows open, they should be cleaned monthly, she says.)

A Gentle Cleanser. Because it's such a mild cleaner, dish soap is an ideal first line of attack for dirty walls. A mixture of 1 ounce of your favorite dish detergent per gallon of warm water removes general dirt from most surfaces as well as smudges from walls with a gloss or semi-gloss finish.

I Suggest You Consider a Day in the Beginning of the Week

If you have your cleaning service come Monday or Tuesday the house will stay pretty clean all week. Then when Friday comes, it is still in pretty good shape. During the weekend, in most households, is when the mess happens.

How often should I wash my bath towels? Dead skin cells, bacteria, and even sweat can accumulate quickly on your towels, so using a fresh one about every three days is a simple rule of thumb—for all kinds of towels. You can of course change them more often.

Frequently asked questions. Can you put bleach in a toilet bowl? Yes, Clorox® Bleach is safe to add to the water in the toilet bowl. Always flush the toilet first before scrubbing, and then again when toilet cleaning is finished.

People should still flush their toilets at least once a day. "Things like to grow in urine and after a while the chlorine will inactivate in the toilet bowl water. It will being to bubble away and things will begin to grow. The odor will increase so it can get disgusting, smell bad and stain your toilet," he said.

An average toilet's lifespan is about 15 to 30 years, and its original toilet seat shouldn't last that long due to obvious hygiene factors. Typically, you should change toilet seats after every five years, but there are some definite signs that tell you that you should replace yours immediately.

How often you need to wash your bras isn't an exact science. But dermatologist Alok Vij, MD, says that as a general rule, you should wash them after every two to three wears.

But when should you replace your mattress? Under normal conditions, mattresses should be replaced every 6 to 8 years. Of course, this is a general guideline and not a one-size-fits-all solution.

Most people should wash their sheets once per week. If you don't sleep on your mattress every day, you may be able to stretch this to once every two weeks or so.

What is the best thing to mop floors with? ›

The best solutions for mopping a floor include using white vinegar, dish soap, window cleaner, or rubbing alcohol methods. These floor cleaners are easy to make at home and keep your floors clean.

Sweeping at night is bad luck

“In ancient times, when there was no electricity, brooming at night with minimal lighting might also sweep away expensive items like rings, earrings, and chains out of the house,” he says.

Even if you live by yourself or don't experience frequent activity in your home, your floors still need attention if you want it to remain spotless. In this case, we recommend giving your floors sweep and mop sessions once a week. Dust and dirt can accumulate over time if no one is going in and out of different rooms.

Roand says that blankets that are between sheets and don't come in direct contact with your body can be washed monthly, while large comforters and duvet covers should be washed at least every two weeks.

Using either disinfecting wipes or a combination of disinfecting spray and a rag, paper towels, or a sponge (that you reserve just for this task), wipe down all of the external surfaces of the toilet, paying special attention to any areas you touch regularly such as the seat and the flushing handle.

Aren't our bodies clean after showering? It turns out, people aren't as clean as they feel after showering. Sure, soap and hot water go a long way. They scrub the body of a lot of dirt and germs.

“Humans tend to perspire at night,” Dr. Goldenberg said. “When you wake up in the morning, there's all this sweat and bacteria from the sheets that's just kind of sitting there on your skin.” So take a quick shower in the morning, he said, “to wash all of that gunk and sweat off that you've been sleeping in all night.”

Your personal hygiene priorities should determine whether you take a bath or a shower. If you're interested in promoting relaxation, easing fatigue, and treating chronic pain, a bath might be the right choice for you. If you're more interested in an efficient daily cleansing, a shower might be the better choice.

Don't take a bath every day: Daily baths can dry out your skin by ridding your body of its natural oils. Try for baths no more than twice a week. Shower between bath days. Use warm (not hot) water: Some people may experience dizziness or weakness when the temperature is too hot.

Though it depends on how frequently you use your microwave, a good rule of thumb is to clean your microwave about once a week. Frequent cleaning helps prevent messes from getting caked on and makes each wipe down that much easier. Be sure to clean your microwave immediately after any large spills or splatters occur.

How often should I clean my door? ›

For starters, you could plan to deep clean your doors once a month. If you find that's too frequent, pull back to once a quarter or even just twice a year.

Cleaning Drawers in Dressers and Nightstands

While they don't require frequent cleaning, your drawers could use a gentle scrub about once a year.

In order to keep your home's air quality top notch, you should be dusting at least every other week, if not weekly. Choose a time each week, like Wednesday after you pick the kids up from soccer practice, to dust your house, or dust a certain area each day.

Although it could run for over a 24 hour period, it is still best to turn off your ceiling fan when you are at work or out of the house for an extended time to give the ceiling fans' motor a rest and reduce electricity use and cost.

Is Dawn Soap Toxic? Yes, Dawn Dish Soap is toxic because it contains harmful ingredients like Triclosan, 1,4-dioxane, synthetic dye, fragrance, and the dreaded methylisothiazolinone. These ingredients can cause mild to severe health conditions like nerve and liver damage, skin irritation, and allergic reactions.

You may be able to adequately wash walls using plain warm water. If there are stains or marks, use soapy water (especially if crayon-happy children live in the house). Make a mixture of water and a small amount of mild detergent. Wear kitchen gloves.

Use a small amount of dye-free hand soap or dishwashing detergent dissolved in warm water. Glossy and semi-glossy finishes are a bit hardier, and you can use cleaners with a degreasing agent, including stronger types of dish soap.

Optimal Season For Power Washing

A good rule of thumb is to pressure wash your house between the months of March and November. This is the ideal window of time to make sure your home is clean and protected before harsh winter weather and freezing temperatures set in.

Where do you clean first in a house? ›

A washcloth will come in handy when cleansing their body and gently scrubbing their scalp. It can also help with rinsing to avoid getting soap in their eyes, as well as drying off afterward.

Never wash white towels with dark colors. Since towels are so absorbent, the lighter colored towels can pick up some of the dye color from the darker ones which can cause them to become dingy or discolored. Do Not Overload the Washing Machine – Place towels in the washing machine and avoid overloading.

The best way to prevent germs from growing on your bath towel is to let it dry completely between each use, and wash it frequently. The Cleaning Institute recommends washing bath towels after three uses. If you shower every day, that means laundry almost twice a week.

It is advisable to declutter, dust, wipe, and vacuum your bedroom once a week as you don't want to face a serious build-up of grime, viruses, and bacteria. Also, you should change your bedding every seven days to ensure you get a good night's sleep. Certain areas you can tackle less frequently.

The short answer is daily. Though you won't do a deep-clean every day, daily cleaning can keep your house neat and avoid buildup of dirt and grime. Don't wait until it's laundry day to make your bed, keeping bed linens off the floor means they don't collect dust or allergens.

How often do you clean and disinfect items people touch frequently? ›

Regularly wash/wipe and disinfect all the items people touch frequently, such as work surfaces, sinks, taps, door handles, switches, can openers, cash registers, telephones and scales. Where possible, allow these to dry naturally at the end of each day/shift.

But as a rule of thumb, you should mop your floors at least once a week—especially in areas that are more likely to get stains from drips and spills, like the kitchen and bathroom. “Of course, you need to vacuum or sweep the floor before mopping,” explains Leiva.

How Often Should You Clean Your Shower? Koch advises cleaning your shower weekly, but don't worry, it doesn't have to be a serious deep clean every time. She says at the very least to clean the floor, any shelves, and glass doors (if you have them) as part of your weekly housekeeping line-up.

Most people are on a three-to-four week cleaning cycle, all things considered. On average, men wait a week longer than women to clean their bedrooms. Men clean their bedrooms every 30.04 days vs. every 23.59 days for women.

Stick to cleaning once a day. If you wash any less, you might not be getting rid of the buildup of sweat and secretions; if you do it any more than once a day, you could be disrupting the delicate balance of your vaginal area.

If you don't dust or vacuum, your home will turn into an allergy festival. Pollen will gather in all the nooks in your home, pet hair will lie in wait, and dust mites will come out in force. All the things that make your eyes water and your nose run will be sitting around your home making your allergies worse.

How Often to Clean Doors. There is no set schedule for cleaning doors. You want to wipe them down every few weeks to once a month to avoid dirt build-up. You can also give them a good deep cleaning every 3-6 months, depending on how dirty your doors get.

How Often to Clean Walls. As part of your regularly scheduled chores, painted walls should be dusted and cobwebs removed at least monthly—twice a month is even better. You should clean smudges and dirt around doorknobs and light switches weekly.

How often should I clean my phone? ›

Health experts suggest cleaning your phone at least once a day as a preventative measure. Before you begin, check with the manufacturer for guidance on how to clean your device. Apple and a number of Android device manufacturers offer similar recommendations: Unplug the device before cleaning.

At a minimum, you should get your furniture cleaned 1-2 times a year. This will help keep the accumulation of dirt and dust under control and leave your home and air quality much cleaner. If you have kids or pets, chances are your furniture gets much dirtier much faster.