Reading Time: 6 minutes How Often Should You Clean Your House? Room By Room Tips
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A clean house feels like a home. It’s also a healthy space where you can kick back and relax while doing your favorite things or spending time with the family.
Household chores are not fun. But how often do you need to clean your house? How often you should clean depends on the room. It also depends on how hard your water is. The good news is that you don’t need to keep every square inch spotless daily.
There is a rhythm to vacuuming, carpet cleaning, and everything else. If you create a cleaning schedule and clean on a regular basis, your home will become more welcoming and healthy.
Table of Contents
Cleaning the Floors
Floors get incredible wear and tear, especially in high traffic areas. They are walked on constantly. They also catch all the spills, dust, dirt, pollen, and debris thanks to gravity.
How often should you Vacuum?
Vacuuming once a week is sufficient unless you have kids or pets or live in a dusty or sandy area.
How often should you clean the carpet?
Cleaning your carpets will prolong the life of your carpet. In higher traffic areas, use a carpet cleaner every three to six months. Be sure to move furniture when your carpet colors match longer.
How often should you Mop Your Floors?
Similar to vacuuming, mop your floors once a week. Your kitchen floor is high traffic and may need more frequent attention. Sweep your kitchen floor frequently.
The Kitchen
A clean kitchen is a perfect way to prevent germs from spreading. A kitchen requires a light daily cleaning and a deep clean every one to two weeks.
Clean dirty dishes and countertops daily. Don’t let dishes pile up in the kitchen sink. Every day wipe down your kitchen counters and other surfaces.
One of the first surfaces that need your attention is the refrigerator. Wipe it down from top to bottom as required. As part of your weekly cleaning, address the inside of your fridge. Throw away expired food.
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Learn how to reduce your food waste, so you don’t need to throw so much away. If there is food spillage, clean it up when it happens. Spray the shelves to kill any bacteria. Then wipe the inside clean with hot water.
Next, it’s the microwave. Your microwave might be the most used appliance in the house. Microwaves get gross. It’s pretty easy to clean a microwave with vinegar.
Of course, the same goes for your coffee maker and other appliances that look insignificant until you need them. You can descale a Keurig with white vinegar.
Now, to make sure your kitchen is spotless, check your backsplash – this is the area that gathers grease and dust, and germs love it. Clean your backsplash with soapy water.
How often you should clean your dishwasher and oven depends on how often you use them. Learn how to clean your oven with vinegar, baking soda (and salt!)
If you are in a hurry, then try speed cleaning a kitchen.
The Bathroom
The sink should be cleaned daily or every few days, especially if you have kids that spit out their toothpaste.
Toilets can get gross too. It’s not just human waste that makes a toilet look bad. Hard water stains the toilet. Even toilets in bathrooms you don’t use often quickly appear dirty thanks to the mineral build-up. It’s easy to clean a toilet without harsh chemicals.
Bath towels are a breeding ground for bacteria. It’s easy to put off washing bath towels and hand towels, but try to clean them a couple of times a week. A bath mat and tub can also attract bacteria. Clean your tub, shower, and bath mats regularly.
Shower heads are easy to clean. How often you clean shower heads depends on how hard your water is.
The Living Room
The living room is a space where people relax and unwind, so it is important to keep it tidy. Dusting surfaces, vacuuming carpets, and washing windows are all necessary in order to maintain a clean living room. It is also recommended to declutter the space on a regular basis to prevent build-up.
Jen Stark the founder of Happy DIY Home recommends cleaning the living room every week. She added: “These rooms see less traffic than the kitchen and bathroom, so they do not need to be cleaned as often”.
The Bedroom
Angela from Hellamaid says, “If possible, thorough cleaning of the bedroom should be done once per week. Weekly cleaning keeps the mess under control and makes sure it does not take too much time to finish each week.”
Most mattresses need a bit of vacuuming and spraying with a solution that kills bacteria. If you clean your mattress regularly, you shouldn’t have problems with allergens, dust mites, dead skin cells, or bed bugs.
Also, clear the clutter. Put all your clean laundry away when you bring it to your room. Put dirty laundry in the hamper when you take your clothes off.
Angela added, “Performing minor everyday tasks in addition to a weekly deep clean might help the process of a weekly deep clean feel like it’s a lot less labor.”
More tips to add to your cleaning checklists
- Covers to light switches: light switch covers and outlet covers are easy to clean. Just run them through the dishwasher. These can be cleaned annually.
- Door handles and knobs can be cleaned monthly. Spray them with an all-purpose cleaner.
- Clean mirrors with Windex or your favorite all-purpose cleaner as you see dust or smudges.
- Light fixtures can be cleaned annually. If any glass is removable, it can be cleaned easily in a dishwasher. But only put the glass in the dishwasher, not the light fixture!
- Ceiling fans run constantly. But when you turn them off, they tend to have a layer of dust. Clean your ceiling fan blades as the seasons change.
- Empty trash cans as they fill up. Get them out of the house when full to avoid pests.
- Wiping down walls should also be one of your yearly cleaning tasks. It will buy you a few years more of not needing to paint.
- It’s a good idea to vacuum the air ducts, including the dryer vent. Add these chores to your list of annual tasks.
Wrapping up: How often to clean Your house
We recommend you develop a daily and weekly cleaning schedule for flooring and surfaces. An annual cleaning is enough for areas that do not get much traffic. For small appliances, a monthly cleaning schedule should be enough. If you clean regularly, your house will feel more like home.
Parting Thoughts from a Professional Housecleaner
Sara, a professional housecleaner left us with these words of wisdom: “There really is no set-in-stone schedule for how often you should clean your house. There are certain things you should do every day, like wipe down the kitchen countertops and do the dishes. Picking up things on the floor and putting away clutter every day keeps things tidy.”
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Erin is the mother of identical twin girls and their slightly older brother. She is a domestic engineer, and previously had a career leading customer service teams for a major HVAC company. Cleaning without harsh chemicals, and cooking easy and usually healthy meals are part of Erin's daily life. She volunteers with youth leaders, and genuinely wants to help others win. Erin has a degree in Communications, with a focus on Broadcast Journalism.