I am most definitely not the best cleaner so the news in this guest post is great for me!
You probably think donning your rubber Nitrile gloves and scrubbing your house from top to bottom on a Saturday morning is doing your home a world of good, as the place smells of bleach and whatever other cleaning product you decide to blitz the rooms with and there’s not a speck of dust to be seen. However, there is such a thing as ‘over cleaning’ and you could be doing it.
Okay, don’t relax on the cleaning as much as some of the respondents to a survey by Method apparently do – with 13% those taking part claiming to only clean their bathrooms twice a year!
However, there are certain tasks you might want to tackle in a different way, here are just a few that could be causing more harm than good:
Putting more washing powder in an exceptionally dirty wash load
Adding more powder to your wash isn’t going to ensure the stains disappear or the clothes come out cleaner, instead it causes the washing machine to struggle getting the detergent out of clothes and actually clog up the fabric so the stains get trapped and don’t come out! Just add the recommended amount and walk away.
Washing clothes after every single wear
You wear something for the day, then put it straight in the wash, right? Wrong. Well, okay some things definitely need to go straight in the wash like your smelly workout clothes, pairs of tights or that shirt you had to wear on a business trip to London (you always come back from the capital feeling sweaty and grimy) but not everything needs washing immediately. Washing clothes too often can damage them and cause them to wear much faster than they should. Do a sniff test and avoid washing jeans altogether.
Spraying polish directly onto wood
If you think this is the best way to get those sides clean you’re actually causing more of a problem. The polish creates a film on wood, if sprayed directly, which will eventually attract more dust – which is the opposite of what you want to achieve. Just give your cloth a spritz then lightly wipe away the dust!
Being overzealous with the mop and bucket
If you have wood floors that you clean regularly using the traditional bucket and soap method, be careful when it comes to how much water you slop on the floor. If there are cracks or scratches in the wood, water can get in there and cause it to expand and swell or simply develop mould and damp.
But besides these issues, over cleaning can cause a problem when it comes to our health. We need some dirt and grime around to become resistant to illnesses and allergies, the NHS claims that in the last 20 years there has been a significant rise in the amount of people with allergies, which could be down to a lack of exposure to every day germs. While it’s impossible to completely sterilise your house, over cleaning can prevent exposure to necessary bacteria and in turn make you ill.
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