How Clean Is Your Home, Really?
You’ve prepared the guest room, cleared out the fridge, and tackled the full-house Christmas clean… but how clean is your home, really?
There are a few hidden corners of the home that might be going unnoticed (and uncleaned) for years on end. You might have cleaned them when you first moved in, or maybe you’ve never even noticed them before, but over time they will collect dust, dirt, and grime that threatens the cleanliness of your home.
With Christmas just around the corner, and plenty of visitors on their way, now is the time to clean these often-overlooked areas of your home.
How Clean Is Your Home?
There is only one way to find out!
We’ve put together this list of places throughout the house that Brits are always forgetting to clean (or actively choosing to avoid!). Take a look below and find out exactly where your current cleaning checklist falls short.
1. The Extractor Fan
No one likes putting on rubber gloves and spending hours degreasing their oven, but even if you do this every week as part of your cleaning routine there is still a part that you are probably missing – despite it being very visible, and very loud!
The extractor fan is almost always forgotten about when cleaning the oven but smoke is sucked up into this almost every day, trapping food particles and grease that must be cleaned out before the mechanism gets too dirty to work properly.
What To Do: Remove the filter and leave it to soak whilst you clean inside the unit.
Or, if you are pressed for time, why not contact a local cleaning company to do this for you? Many cleaning providers also include a FREE replacement filter as part of this service.
2. Blinds
You open and close them every single day but blinds remain one of the most overlooked fixtures of the bedroom. Even though they’re not gathering pollen right now, as your windows are very unlikely to be left open in December, they will still be collecting dust which should be removed every week or so.
This is also true for blinds in other rooms. Blinds in the kitchen, especially fabric ones, are easily permeated by the steam and smoke of Christmas cooking, whilst days spent watching Christmas films and curled up under blankets can leave your living room blinds covered in a layer of dust.
What To Do: Give the slats a quick dust with a microfibre cloth or soft-bristle brush to gently scrub away any buildup.
If you have fabric blinds then remember that they are very delicate, and particular care should be taken when hoovering them with a soft attachment.
3. Mattresses
Your mattress may look clean and stain-free, but it should ideally be cleaned every 6 months; however, in some households they can go years without being properly cleaned.
This may not seem as important as other forgotten tasks on this list, and you may be thinking ‘I wash my bed linens so why do I need to clean my mattress?’, but a mattress can collect a vast amount of dust and bacteria that is invisible to the naked eye but disruptive to your sleeping conditions.
What To Do: Specialist cleaning machines are required to restore a mattress to its original condition and now is the time to have all your mattresses professionally cleaned before your guests arrive for Christmas.
4. Light Switches
These high-touch hotspots are used by every member of the household multiple times a day, presenting plenty of opportunities for bacteria to jump from carrier to carrier – especially during the winter flu season.
Despite this, since these fixtures are electronic, it is very likely that you (along with most British households) do not clean your home’s light switches on a regular basis.
What To Do: All that is needed to clean light switches is a little cleaning solution and a microfibre cloth, but never spray any cleaning solutions directly onto them or allow it to enter the fixtures.
5. Underneath Appliances
You probably wipe down your countertops and kitchen surfaces all the time, but when asking yourself how clean is your home it is also important to consider your appliances – and the surfaces hidden beneath them.
This includes your kettle, microwave, toaster and slow cooker, but it’s not just the countertop appliances that need to be moved and cleaned. If you have a freestanding fridge, or an oven that is not integrated, then dust, crumbs, and dropped food are likely built up underneath it.
What To Do: Move your countertop appliances and give the surface underneath them a thorough wipe-down with an antibacterial spray and some kitchen roll.
For larger appliances, get underneath them with an extendable duster, and carefully clean behind them at least twice a year.
Schedule A Professional Clean Today
How clean is your home? And (more importantly) do you have the time and energy to get it any cleaner?
If the answer is no, then have your home professionally cleaned without missing any spots this Christmas with a little help from Domestique.