12 Bad Cleaning Habits You Need to Break

hero-4

12 Bad Cleaning Habits You Need to Break

By : Kate Windle
Cleaning with poor techniques and habits is detrimental to your home’s hygiene. When you sanitise your home inadequately, bacteria, viruses and other illness-causing pathogens can proliferate excessively. You need to clean and disinfect household surfaces daily because viruses and bacteria can survive on soft/porous surfaces for 24 hours and hard surfaces for up to 72 hours. You and your family can get sick if a dangerous pathogen is present in your home’s indoor air or on its surfaces. Hire a professional service for regular house cleaning if you don’t have the time or energy to sanitise your home routinely. Seek the assistance of bond cleaners in Sydney when ending a tenancy and need to get your bond back in full. However, to maintain household hygiene at all times, identify if you have any of the following 12 bad cleaning habits you need to break.

1. Backtracking while cleaning

One of the rookie mistakes you make while cleaning is backtracking due to a lack of planning. Professional end of lease cleaners Sydney performing end of lease cleaning or general house cleaning always work top to bottom or right to left in a circle to avoid re-contaminating cleaned areas. Thus, you must start from the top while cleaning to ensure you don’t have to backtrack and re-clean any surface.

2. Leaving dirty dishes in the sink overnight

Do you know the kitchen sink harbours more harmful pathogens than the bathroom? Matters get worse when you leave dirty dishes in the sink overnight, and illness-causing pathogens can grow exponentially. Develop the habit of loading the dishwasher every night & unload it in the morning.

3. Reusing cleaning tools without sanitising

No cleaning tool has a self-sanitising feature, and if you have the habit of rinsing them with water only after every use, it leads to bigger issues. Since most bacteria, fungi and viruses survive on hard and soft surfaces for days, you can spread them with dirty tools. Thus, wash cleaning tools with soap and water before putting them away.

4. Ignoring paper clutter

Newspaper, magazines, documents, mail, and other paper clutter on the table, countertops, shelves, and other areas add to the mess in your home. If you ignore them and let everything pile up, it overstimulates you visually and increases stress. Thus, keep things in their place or inside boxes to avoid paper clutter in your home.

5. Using harsh cleaners for convenience

Most surfaces and fixtures in your home only need cleaning with soap and water for adequate sanitation. However, a common mistake most people make is using harsh cleaners and tools because they work faster and are easy to use. If you are among them, let go of this habit before your household surfaces/fixtures get irreversibly damaged.

6. Not dealing with the milky residues on surfaces

Most commercial cleaners are alkaline and leave a fine film of residues, especially when you use them excessively. This film dulls surfaces and attracts dust and grime, causing the surfaces to become dirty faster and requiring more cleaners. You must break this cycle by using pH-neutral cleaners or using the right amount of cleaning product.

7. Using cleaners without reading the label

You are not alone in using cleaners without reading the directions for use on the label. This bad habit leads to people not giving products proper dwell time. When a product doesn’t get the dwell time it needs, it cannot break the bonds of stains and spots, which is why you cannot get optimum results.

8. Thinking bleach is a wonder cleaner

If you have the habit of using bleach to sanitise everything in your home, stop now. Bleach is a disinfectant that works best at killing germs. For complete sanitation, you must use a 10:1 ratio of water and bleach after pre-cleaning household surfaces.

9. Using one cleaning wipe for multiple areas

Cleaning wipes are great for sanitising a small area and only once. If you use one wipe to clean the countertops, stove, cabinet doors, or other areas, you are simply spreading germs rather than removing contaminants.

10. Wiping disinfectant immediately after application

Even the strongest disinfectants need 5-10 minutes to kill germs and mould. Therefore, most pathogens survive when you wipe it away immediately after spraying. Thus, after applying a disinfectant, wait at least 5 minutes before wiping the surface. Also, reapply if the solution dries before the dwell time is over.

11. Rubbing stains on carpets

When you spill something on the carpet, the natural urge is to rub the stain with a paper towel or cloth to remove it. However, you do more harm than good because this method is best for spreading the stain rather than removing it. The correct method that professionals performing end of lease cleaning in Sydney use is blotting the stain until it comes off.

12. Not sanitising high-touch points

Switches, doorknobs, appliance keypads, handles and other high-touch points in your home are hotspots for germs. Most people ignore cleaning and disinfecting them and wonder why household members repeatedly fall sick. Therefore, break this habit by wiping and disinfecting common contact points in every room during regular house cleaning.

Conclusion

It is never too late to review your cleaning habit and eliminate the bad ones. Thus, if you have any of the 12 bad cleaning habits, act now to get rid of them. However, hire professionals for bond cleaning in Sydney if you are ending a tenancy and want to get the rental property cleaned without mistakes.