6 Things No One Ever Cleans (But You Should!)

While in college I worked cleaning houses for a while. Because of that, I have this superhero-like capability of seeing all the dirt in someone’s house as soon as I walk in. While I cleaned houses, that was a blessing. Now, its a curse—except for the fact that my house is cleaner than anyone I know.

Since I acquired my dirt-finding super power, I have discovered that there are certain items in the home that people tend neglect—whether it be because you hadn’t noticed or because you couldn’t think of a good way to get it done. Consequently, today I want to talk about deep cleaning your home. These are a the six items that I notice people slacking on the most, and some tips on how to get them looking like new!

1. Vent Covers

Most of us probably don’t have high dusters laying around the house, so there might be a bit of dust building up on the vent covers. This is probably the easiest thing to fix from the list—you really just need to take your vent covers outside and hose them down. If you have a patio, lay them down there. If not, consider laying something down in the grass to put your vent covers on. If they need a little extra care, you can wipe them with a rag and a basic sanitizing cleaner.

2. Blinds

This is by far the main thing I see being neglected in peoples’ homes. There are a number of different ways to clean your blinds, but I prefer the way my mom taught me.

All you have to do is run some warm water in your tub (enough to cover the amount of blinds you have in one layer; you might have to do a couple loads) and mix in a tiny bit of dish soap and some vinegar with the water. Then, you just let your blinds soak for at least a half hour, rinse them off, and hang them to dry. If they are extra grimy, you might need to wipe excess dirt off with a rag before hanging them.

3. Ceiling fans

While I am sure that most of us aren’t just leaving our ceiling fans covered in dust, some might not know this quick trick to spruce up your fans! You can use a pillow case to clean your fans, so that dust doesn’t fly everywhere. All you have to do slide the pillow case on the blades, one at a time, and pull the fabric back. All that dust will go right inside the pillow case, which is machine washable!

If it’s really bad, or you want to prevent dust from returning, I recommend misting your pillow case with some pledge before you start cleaning.

This process only takes a few minutes, so there really is no excuse for putting it off.

4. Baseboards

Photo Courtesy Sitka Projects, CC BY 2.0

Ew. Just ew. Baseboards don’t get a lot of attention, even though they really need it. Especially if they’re white. Even my mom, who I thought was the cleanest woman I know, was shocked when I told her she needed to take a lap of her house and check out her baseboards.

Baseboards aren’t going to be a quick and easy fix like a lot of these, since they are probably in every room of your house. I suggest you clean one room at a time so the task doesn’t seem so daunting.

Really, you just need a rag, a cleaner of choice, and some elbow grease. I suggest using warm water and soap, a magic eraser, or maybe even vinegar and water. Then… you just scrub. If you get them fresh enough, you may be able to simply mop over them when it is time to do your floors.

5. Tile grout

It’s hard to remember a time where the grout in my kitchen was white… I usually mop my floors with some sort of vinegar/lemon juice combination, and if I do some serious scrubbing, it will brighten my floors up a little—but its nothing incredible.

However, baking soda and hydrogen peroxide is the way to go for fresh looking grout! It’ll definitely take some time and effort, but this site has some great tips and details on the process.

6. Cabinets

While I tend to focus on my kitchen cabinets, this will work in your bathrooms and other areas of your home as well. Cabinet fronts have a tendency to be neglected, even though they are prone to all kinds of gross spills and sticky hands—especially around the handles.

Nevertheless, its a super easy clean up. I use dish soap diluted with water (about 1/2 cup of soap in 1 cup of warm water) and I try to use a sponge on my cabinets instead of a rag, so that I can scrub where it is needed. A lot of people will suggest that you use a wood-friendly soap, like Murphy’s Oil Soap, but I haven’t had a problem with my dish soap yet.

After you get your cabinets all scrubbed down, just wipe them completely dry with a clean rag! You want to make sure you aren’t getting your cabinets too wet, and you’re welcome to spot clean your cabinets if they aren’t too bad.

There you have it! Once all of these things are cleaned up, you can honestly feel the difference in your home. And, once they everything is all fresh and sparkly, the upkeep will be really simple; and you’ll have a super clean house!

Is there anything you forget to clean in your home? Anything you don’t know how to clean? Leave me a comment below!