Your home is your safe sanctuary for your family. And for a happy and healthy life, it should be clean and organized.
Most often, we focus on washing bed sheets, curtains, scrubbing cupboards, walls and floors while cleaning our home. But often we forget important spaces and articles, which later become a breeding ground for germs.
Fret not, for this can happen to even the most scrupulous cleaners. So, here are some of the unconventional places that require frequent cleaning trips.
Garbage Bin
Most homes segregate waste religiously and make it a point to discard them on a daily basis. But how often do you clean your garbage bin? Probably when it starts to stink? Ideally, you should clean your garbage bin every 2 weeks.
Maintain a separate toilet brush for cleaning your garbage bin and scrub it thoroughly using a little bit of detergent or dishwashing liquid. Then, disinfect it with bleach to get rid of germs.
Refrigerator
Have you noticed a pungent odour coming from your fridge when you open it? Your fridge could smell weird due to the different kinds of food, mouldy vegetables, or accumulated spills.
Ideally, you should go through your refrigerator before your weekly grocery shopping to get rid of old food and buy only what is necessary. Clean spills immediately so that it doesn’t coagulate and become hard to get rid of.
Deep clean the refrigerator every 3-4 months by taking out all the shelves and drawers. Wash them in running water with dishwashing liquid and a soft brush. Wipe off the excess moisture with a dry cloth and keep the shelves back in the refrigerator.
From burnt utensils to cleaning refrigerators, baking soda is your best friend. To clean the interiors, make a solution with two tablespoons of baking soda and a quart of water. Dampen a rag with it and run it across the surfaces. Your fridge will smell better in no time.
Also, don’t forget to clean the rear side of the refrigerator by brushing or vacuuming any accumulated dust and debris.
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Laundry Basket
We always pile our dirty clothes atop a laundry basket before throwing them in the washer. Obviously, your laundry basket is accumulating the germs, dirt and grime from your dirty clothes.
Wash your laundry basket thoroughly every 2-3 months.
To prevent infections, you could disinfect the inside of your basket using anti-bacterial wipes every 2 weeks. If you plan to spray sanitiser, do a patch test first as the alcohol content in sanitizing sprays could discolor your basket if it’s made from natural material.
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Oven
Wipe off any spills and oil splatters immediately after using the oven. Then, deep clean it every 3-4 months.
Baking soda is again to the rescue to help clean your oven. To thoroughly cleanse your cooking oven, make a solution with baking soda and water. Use that solution to clean the oven. Baking soda breaks down icky marks and oil stains. Hence, it is the best ingredient to clean your oven with.
You could leave the baking soda solution in your oven overnight. In the morning, spray it with vinegar. Give the oven one last wipe with a damp cloth.
Bath Towel
Bath towels are the most prone to develop a musty and disgusting odour due to the accumulating sweat and grime. Ideally, wash your towels at least once every week.
Use the hottest wash program in your washing machine. If you handwash it, soak it in hot water for a few hours to eliminate any dust mites.
Often, towels become scruffy after some washes. Rinsing them in diluted vinegar can help get rid of any accumulated residues and make the towels soft again.
Dishwasher
Ideally, you should clean the dishwasher filter every two weeks. This would be a good time to clean the interiors too.
Your kitchen cleaning best friends, vinegar and baking soda would again rescue you. Wipe off any leftover food or debris. Spray the interiors with a solution of vinegar, and water and run a cycle without loading any dishes to clean the interiors.
Also, don’t forget to descale the dishwasher on a monthly basis. You could use the same drum descaling powder that you use for your washing machine and run the dishwasher on the hottest program.
Kitchen Sponge
Kitchen wipes and sponges are probably the dirtiest objects in a kitchen. Always squeeze off excess water and dry it thoroughly between uses.
Use vinegar or bleach ( NEVER mix them together) can be used to disinfect the sponge every 2-3 days. It would also be a good idea to discard the sponges every 1-2 weeks.
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Pillow
Pillows are also prone to smelling musty and damp, especially after the monsoon season. You should wash your bed linens on a weekly basis.
And ideally, you should wash your pillows every 6 months. Check the tag to see if it is machine washable. If so, you can wash it in the washing machine with hot water and spin it at maximum speed to remove excess moisture. Then, air dry it and break apart the lumps so that your pillows are fluffy and fit to snuggle. For detailed instructions on how to wash pillows, check our article here.