You may spend a lot of time cleaning and working hard to keep you home looking nice but if you’re forgetting these little things, then you’re unintentionally making your house look dirtier than you want.
I know they’re not part of my daily routine so I forget about them sometimes too!
What are these so-called forgotten areas I’m talking about?
These are the skipped over areas that need a little extra TLC and elbow grease but leave your entire house looking great!
I also like to streamline my cleaning routine and only use one cleaning product to tackle everything. I quite literally use Branch Basics for countertops, bathrooms, windows, stainless steel, pots & pans, laundry, floors, walls and sticky finger marks, clothing and carpet stains and grease.
It’s a non-toxic, plant and mineral based cleaner that works better than 100% of all the other “green” products I’ve tried. (Receive $10 off your first order through this link. You can only buy it online and won’t be able to find it in stores.)
So, why do you have so many forgotten areas to your house?
Because these spots are probably not part of your normal cleaning routine – they’re aren’t on mine either – they can easily get overlooked.
Sure, cleaning these areas won’t make your home look better just by themselves but adding them to your routine once in a while will boost the level of cleanliness of your house.
If you want to streamline your mornings or evenings for less chaos, a cleaner house and more free-time, here are my favorite resources to do this:
DON’T FORGET TO CLEAN THE DOORS
How many times do you open and close doors? EVERYDAY… ALL-THE-TIME.
Are your hands clean every time you touch a door?
NOPE.
Chances are they’re not and you’re leaving dirt, grease and maybe even food fingerprints and handprints.
Do you have kids? Then, I can almost guarantee that you some build up on handles and door knobs as well as on the edges of the doors.
A wet cloth or magic eraser – depending on how long it’s been since you’ve cleaned – will easily remove these unsightly marks in seconds.
Make sure you also include your kitchen and bathroom cabinet doors – inside and out!
Dust and food splatter from cooking will collect on kitchen cabinet doors so make sure you take the time to wipe these down every week or two, especially the lowers if you have kiddos.
Branch basics works amazingly well and won’t strip off paint or leave residue on doors either.
LIGHTING SHOWS EVERYTHING
This includes floor lamps, table lamps, ceiling lights and fans and indoor and outdoor lighting. Because these aren’t cleaned regularly, you’ll really notice a build up of dust and dead bugs here.
Have you ever noticed that bugs flock to lights… and then they die inside of them. Don’t believe me, take a look inside your light fixture – the ceiling and outdoors especially – and you’ll see a nice little stash of dead bugs. Gross, right?
You don’t want guests waiting at your front door and seeing an inch thick accumulation of this inside your porch light or worse, laying in bed at night in the guest room and seeing a dark center of the ceiling light and knowing what’s in there.
- Dust off light fixtures and lampshades with a damp cloth and make sure you wipe down the blades of ceiling fans carefully.
Flying dust bunnies aren’t really conducive to any home, let alone your clean home.
- I use baby wipes (because I use them for everything) or a paper-towel sprayed with branch basics’ general spray to wipe down the fan blades and clean off excess dirt and residue build up.
- I’ve also heard about using old pillow covers to wrap around the blade so when you pull off the dust bunnies, they collect inside the pillowcase.
Pretty clever, eh?
Let those lights shine dust and bug-free.
BASEBOARDS + WALL ITEMS NEED A GOOD SCRUB
This is not my favorite thing to clean since things tend to stick really, really well but the baseboards are out in the open and very noticeable to guests.
Try to throw baseboards into your routine so you’re wiping these down once a week or every other week at the minimum to keep from accumulating build up of dirt and dog hair. Getting down on the floor and scrubbing with a toothbrush sounds about as fun as a root canal.
- If you use branch basics (I know, I love the stuff and tell everyone I know about it), you spray your baseboards generously, let sit and wipe down.
- If you need something to get more dirt and grime out, simply add some of the oxygen boost, then spray with the concentrated basic spray, and all you have to do is lightly scrub with a kitchen scrub brush like this one and lightly brush out the gunk.
Don’t forget
- window frames,
- the tops of doors,
- tops of mirrors,
- picture frames,
- anything hanging on your walls,
- thermostats,
- light switches,
- top of refrigerators,
- over the range microwaves
Want a super simple way to keep the top of your refrigerator clean?
Cut a piece of paper to size and leave it on the top of the refrigerator. All you have to do to clean the top of the fridge is to replace the piece of paper with a new piece.
WINDOWS + COVERINGS ARE DUST MAGNETS
If you want to make your home feel welcoming, larger and open, then you need to open your window coverings and let as much light in as possible.
But if you have handprints, wet dog nose imprints and water stains on your windows, then the light can’t shine through as well and it’s probably time to get the window cleaner out and use a little elbow grease to make those windows crystal clear.
Blinds and curtains are also one of those areas that get neglected. Make sure you dust and vacuum using your extender tools to get rid of the yuck.
Throw these areas into your regular cleaning room and your house will be clean from top to bottom. Do you have any little tricks you use to clean these areas and how do you make sure your little spaces get cleaned?
WANT MORE?
- How to Have a Mess-Free Home While Raising Kids
- 13 Dirty Spots In Your House You Aren’t Cleaning Regularly – But Really Should
- Daily Habits for an Organized Home
- Create a Cleaning Schedule That Doesn’t Take A lot of Time
Want even more?
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I’ve never even considered cleaning doorknobs, but after reading this I feel like I need to go spray them down and scrub them! I’m sure they get so dirty with my one-year-old constantly trying to break into rooms I have closed off. Yikes. I try to clean baseboards at least.. well.. once a year 🙂 but you’re right. Cleaning them makes the room look way better!
I hear you, my kids seem to always have sand, dirt or food on their hands and it gets all over doorknobs and light switches!
Oh goodness I just cleaned my door for the first time since I moved in (3 years ago mind you) and I had no idea they got that dirty! Now I need to add baseboards onto my list. Thanks for sharing and linking up with us for some #mommatime!
I know right? Those little spots always sneak up on me when they’re not part of my routine.
The tip about lighting is a great one! I try to open up and air out my house at least twice a week, especially during cold and flu season.
That’s a great tip! I love getting some fresh air in the house, especially in winter when everything has been closed up for a while.
In my house it is the walls. My gosh my kids really mess up the walls. We have lived in our house less than a year and the place already looks like it needs a brand new pant job.
Thank goodness for magic erasers, right? I like to do a major sweep through the house for fingerprints especially on door frames every week or every other week.
I’m on top of the lighting and doors, but with three children and a small-child-sized dog, our windows are a disaster zone. It’s so depressing to give them a good clean and have them smudged again before I’ve finished the last window!
(followed via Momma time link party)
This is one of the areas that’s hardest for me too! I like to save it for when guests are coming over 🙂
Ugh. The doors! I do think about that occasionally but not often enough. You’re right. So dirty. Gross!
I love magic erasers for this reason 🙂
These are all items I keep on my cleaning schedule but definitely important to point them out 🙂 before I wouldn’t think to do them and it really does make a big difference on how clean a home feels. I also like to wash the outside of my house before company comes to stay. I get tons of dirt and even more cobwebs all over my siding and around window trimming that I find super gross so I love when my house (which is tiny so it’s easier to scrub down) is clean and fresh. I’m hoping to get a power washer to make it even faster work!
Yes, a power washer does amazing things to the siding of your house. Good tip! I always notice it when we’re outside on the porch too.
A trick I use all the time, in every house I’ve owned, is to line above the kitchen cabinets with paper towels. That way they never get greasy from cooking; when I need to clean them, I simply remove the soiled paper towels and replace them.
Oh, I LOVE this tip! Thanks for sharing
What I like to do is get my favorite cleaner (mine is spic n span) put some in a bucket,add water n get a rag n I wash every door handle, light switch, handles n the surfaces around them that everyone touches. I get more compliments on how nice n fresh my house smells when people come in. Another trick is spray your heat n air vents, when they go on its the first thing u smell. I’ve also put dryer sheets around my vents. I put dryer sheets (1 per pillow ) between pillow and pillowcase. When you lay your head down it smells nice and fresh every time in between washings.
Handles, switch plates and those surfaces are so dirty, this is a great tip, thanks! Love the dryer sheet ideas, I also put lavender or another scent on the filters in our HVAC system and makes it smell great.
Dryer sheets are great inside the base of bins too keeps them smelling fresh when you change the bag! And in the base of shoe boxes!
My doors and walls are always a mess because I overlook them! And then once you clean them, you can see how they brighten the place up. Thanks for the advice. I’m going to try to make the doors part of my regular cleaning routine.
Thank goodness for magic erasers for some of those dirty doors and walls!
Do you have any tips for cleaning Levalor window blinds. I have dark woodlands and white. They are very dusty. I Swiffer them but still are dirty
Blinds are hard, right!?! If they’re dusty, I like to use my brush vacuum attachment and stay away from dusters. I feel like those never work well and just move the gunk around. If you can get the entire attachment to unhook, try soaking them in a bathtub of warm soap and water, giving them a light scrub, rinse and letting them air dry outside. I know it’s extra work, but most of the time you’re cleaning the dust off and then 1-2 times a year, actually deep cleaning them. Let me know how it goes.
One thing we did that made a huge difference is to remove the vents and vacuum and wipe out our ductwork. We also cleaned and repainted our vents. Huge difference!