There are a lot of old wive’s tales surrounding the most effective means of house cleaning, learned by most of us from our parents or the other adults in our lives – who also learned from their elders, and so on and so forth. The end result? A lot of non-ideal, or at least time-inefficient, cleaning solutions and practices that could be updated to save time, energy and money. Today, our premier Bucks County cleaning company is offering up what we believe to be some of the biggest myths about house cleaning, and how you can change your cleaning regime if you’re guilty of following these outdated ideas!
1. Use furniture polish every time you clean wood. Nope! Part of the reason furniture polish is so helpful is because it is absorbed by wood, nourishing it and creating a protective barrier. However, wood can only absorb so much polish, and after a while you will notice a subtle, sticky layer on your table that can be difficult to remove. Stick to polishing wood once every two weeks or so.
2. All cleaning products will do the trick when it comes to killing germs. This is one mistake that can have terrible consequences, especially in the kitchen and bathroom. What most people don’t know is that “sanitizers” and “disinfectants” are entirely different solutions; sanitizers kill 99.9% of all bacteria, while disinfectants can kill both bacteria (and a slightly wider array of it) and viruses…which can help stave off cold and flu season.
3. Okay, but bleach will work on everything, right? Bleach is an affordable, effective disinfectant, but the sad truth is that it’s entirely too harsh for many materials, and can cause damage to some materials. On top of that, certain kinds of bleach – scented and colorsafe in specific – are not technically disinfectants, just fabric whiteners.
4. Washing machines are automatically clean, since they run a new cycle with every load. Surprisingly, washing machines can harbor bacteria, mold and mildew – and not just those which have drainage issues. Although loads of laundry are washed in hot or very hot water, they are never boiled, which is the only surefire way to get rid of most contaminants. Add a cup of bleach to a small load on the hottest setting to take care of this issue – you can wash a load of whites in this, if you’d like to be green about it.
5. Err on the side of vacuuming less; otherwise you’ll wear out your carpets. Actually, vacuuming helps preserve carpets; dirt grinding against carpet fibers is what causes them to separate and fray. You can pretty much vacuum as much as you’d like, within reason – but once a week is generally the recommended number.
We hope you found these cleaning mythbusters to be helpful! If you can come up with any of your own, we encourage you to leave them in the comments section of this month’s Minch Professional Cleaners blog!
