When it comes to cleaning your apartment, you might consider yourself to be a pro. You don’t leave out a single space thanks to your handy weekly and monthly cleaning schedule, but there may still be some things you’re not cleaning as often as you should be. Here are some of the dirtiest things in your apartment, you should consider cleaning more:
#1 Kitchen Sponge
Seeing as how your kitchen hosts its fair share of cooking and regular daily traffic every day, you should care for your sponge as much as your counters; on which you probably already use a sponge. From food particles to spills, sponges contain a multitude of contaminants.
Soak your sponge in a hot water and soap solution daily. Afterward, you can even prop your sponge into the microwave for a minute or two to make sure the harbored bacteria is closer to being eliminated.
#2 Light Switches
Light switches are also among the easiest items in your apartment to clean, but they are the easiest to forget about, too. You should try to disinfect your light switches at least every two days or so.
Spray a paper towel with a regular household cleaner and gently wipe down your light switches. You can spray a paper towel with rubbing alcohol and wipe for an even more effective cleanse.
#3 Doorknobs
How many times do you touch doorknobs in your apartment on a daily basis? Similar to light switches, doorknobs are one of the items in your home people don’t regularly think of cleaning.
For shiny and bacteria-free knobs, use a cleansing paper towel, or disinfectant wipe to wipe them down. You may even do the same for your kitchen cabinet knobs and your refrigerator handle(s).
#4 Laundry Machine
You shouldn’t have to wait for your laundry machine to start smelling like a container of old laundry in order to clean it. Washers tend to shelter bacteria like ecoli and the growth of mildew and mold.
Set your laundry machine on the highest load setting and select the hot water setting. Don’t add anything else to the washer except for three cups of white vinegar and about half a cup of baking soda after a minute or so. Let the wash resume.
#5 Kitchen Sink Drain
You might think that the area you generally use for your dishes is already clean since you’re using soap and water after all, right? Well, it’s actually quite the opposite.
UPour a pot of boiling water down the sink drain followed by about half a cup of baking soda. Let it sit for about 5 minutes before giving a final rinse with hot water.
#6 Bathtub
Another soapy area in your home you wouldn’t quite consider a “germ zone” is the place where you get clean everyday. Bathtubs attract mildew, scum, and grime.
You should rinse your tub with warm water after each bath and then, after draining, use a cloth or sponge to remove any extra moisture. For a deep clean, you can spray on a white vinegar and water solution and let it sit in your tub for about 15 minutes. Then, just rinse the area with clean water and dry it off again.
#7 Remote Control
An item that you literally have your hands on every day, the remote control, can turn into a resovoiur of your food crumbs, handprints, and germs.
Before starting the cleaning process, be sure to remove the remote’s batteries. Then, just pour some rubbing alcohol onto a cotton cloth and wipe down the controller’s surface. Dip a Q-Tip into the alcohol, too, to clean around the remote’s buttons.
#8 Apartment Floors
Regardless of whether your floors are carpet or hardwood, they’re bound to get dirty every day since they are the first to catch the dirt and outdoor pollutants your shoe soles bring in. And yes, even if you have a “no shoes indoors” policy, it’s not enough to keep your floors clean alone.
As a rule of thumb is that you should vacuum on a daily basis whether your floors are wood or carpet. Whatever you do, make sure to never use vinegar to clean a wood floor. Use a fringe microfiber duster instead to go up and down an area while misting with a wood-friendly cleaner or water.
#9 Toilet Base
This one probably comes as no surprise—yet it’s still one of the places that you might not necessarily pay enough attention to. It’s always helpful to keep a cleaner in an easily accessible area of your bathroom, to simply remember to reach for it to clean.
To clean the area under the toilet lid, start off by spraying a disinfectant on the upper/exterior area of the lid and work your way down with a sponge soaked in hot water. Make sure you rinse the sponge in warm water often. Cleaning on a daily basis will make the process much easier, as it will prevent you from having to scrub off built-up residue.
#10 Microwave
Any area that regularly contains your food should be frequently cleaned. The microwave is one such area that piles up several food particles, and if not cleaned properly, an odor may develop. Stains left unattended for quite some time will become more persistent, too.
Using a sponge and warm soapy water, rinse the inside of your microwave and wipe the area dry. If you waited too long to clean and have residue that’s too stubbornly stuck, just run the microwave with a bowl of warm water for about two minutes and the steam will soften up the hard-to-remove residue.
GreenPro NYC
We know how hectic the New York lifestyle can be. GreenPro NYC has the tools to minimize the stress of keeping your apartment squeaky clean. So, contact us today for more information on how we can take care of your home for you so you won’t ever have to stress about it.
