When you’re cleaning your home, there are always those areas that you absolutely dread doing. The bits that are hard to reach or stubborn to clean and you can spend hours trying to clean them properly. But the good news is, there is usually a way around it. These are some of the trickiest areas to clean and how you can make it easier for yourself.
Hard To Reach Dust
Trying to keep on top of the dust around the home is a bit of a pain. It’s not a problem in most places because you can easily polish the tables and other surfaces, but there are always those tough to reach spots or even the areas that you forget about entirely. For example, around the edges of picture frames or on the top of kitchen cupboards tend to get missed out when you’re cleaning. Anything that is hanging on the wall should be taken down and dusted every once in a while and you should invest in a duster with an extendable handle so you can get to those hard to reach spots. Cutting down on the amount of dust in the first place is the easiest way to keep on top of those tricky areas so make sure that you’re vacuuming as much as possible and dusting other areas regularly. The less dust there is in the house, the less will settle in those frustrating spots.
A Greasy Hob
When you’re cooking, there’s always bits of grease and food that splash out of the pan and end up on the stove top. If you’re a particularly messy cook, you’ll know this problem all too well. When that stuff gets burnt on, it’s a real pain to get off and you’ll spend ages scrubbing at it to try to get it clean. But it doesn’t have to be that hard if you don’t want it to be. Often, it’s so hard to get off because you’ve left it until it’s dried on and you have to go at it with a scourer to get it up. But if you give it a quick wipe to get the excess off and then spray some kitchen cleaner on there as soon as you’ve cooked, you can let it sit for a while until you’ve eaten. Then, when you come to do the washing up afterwards, all of that grime and grease should wipe off easily. If the grease is particularly stubborn, you might need a stronger degreaser to get it off. You should also use a microfiber cloth because it’s the best for soaking up the grease. Rinse it out between each wipe to get any excess grease out and it’ll pick up more with each wipe.
Behind The Toilet
This is definitely one of the worst places to clean in the entire house because it’s so hard to get into. It’s the area that gets neglected the most but that’s dangerous because the bathroom is one of the most dangerous areas for germs. If you’re going to keep your home germ free, you’re going to need to find a way to tackle it. The easiest way to get around it is to install a floating toilet bowl and eliminate the space altogether so next time you’re redoing your bathroom, you should definitely consider one. In the meantime, you might just have to suck it up and get down there. You can get a mop with an adjustable head that makes it easier to get behind there but the best way to clean it is to get on your hands and knees and give it a good scrub. As long as you do it regularly and don’t leave the dirt to build up, it should only take a few minutes. It only gets bad when you avoid doing it until it gets really bad.
Behind The Radiator
The space behind the radiator is another tricky area because it collects a lot of dust and it’s hard to get in there and clear it out. The inside of the radiator can get clogged up with dust as well which is bad news for you because they won’t work as well and you’ll be paying more money for your heating. Cleaning the radiators is a bit of a tricky job but if you do it regularly enough, it will get easier with time. First off, you need to switch the heating off because it’s easier to clean a cold radiator and they suck up dust while they’re switched on. Then you need to get the vacuum out and get rid of any dust around the radiator. Now comes the hard part, getting inside and behind it. If you’ve got the right attachments on the vacuum, you might be able to get inside but that won’t clear all of the dust further down. You can get specific radiator cleaning brushes which are the easiest way to get right down inside it, just remember to put a towel or something underneath to catch all of the dirt and dust that falls out. If you can’t get hold of a radiator cleaning brush, you can just tape a cloth to the end of a stick and use that instead. Using a hairdryer is another great tip, just put it over the gaps in the radiator and turn it up to the highest setting, this should push out all of the excess dust down there.
A Moldy Shower Curtain
When your shower curtain starts to get wet and damp, it’ll grow black mold spots on it and start to give off a musty smell. It’s pretty unpleasant and you might think that you just need to throw it away and get a new one, but if you start doing that every time you’ll be changing it every couple of months. Luckily, it’s actually easier than you think to get rid of that mold. First off, you need to stop it from happening in the first place. The best way to do that is to dry it out properly after you shower. Always pull the curtain across so it’s not bunched up and if you’ve got an extractor fan in the bathroom, leave it on for a while after you shower. But even then, you’re going to get some mold growing on there sometimes but you can get rid of it. Most shower curtains are machine washable but normal detergent won’t cut through the mold properly. Put the curtain in the machine with a bit of baking soda and vinegar as well as normal detergent and let it soak for a couple of hours, then put it on a normal cycle. If the mold is quite bad, you’ll probably need to do it a couple of times. If you’ve tried it a couple of times and the mold is still persistent, then you might need to get a new curtain.
These areas of the house are always a pain to keep clean but most of the time, people struggle with them because they try to avoid cleaning them until it’s too late. It’ll save you some time and trouble now, but you’re just adding to your problems further down the line. It’s best to suck it up and clean those areas regularly when you do the rest of the house. They’ll still be tough to clean but it’ll be a lot easier than it would if you left it until it was too dirty. Then you’ll really struggle to keep on top of your house.
