Keeping a clean home is hard in today's fast lifestyle. Here are some forgotten and overlooked places to remember.
Cleaning your home entails so much work and so many details that it is easy to forget, overlook or simply not think about some areas that should be cleaned regularly. If someone in your home suffers from allergies this can be a nightmare to think that you have forgotten something that could alleviate their symptoms. Here are a few of the unusual places that need to be cleaned regularly.
Floors are, for the most part, the most often cleaned space of any home. Spills are cleaned up, crumbs and dirt are swept up and muddy prints are mopped up. Unfortunately these things keep us from remembering the out of sight, out of mind areas of the floor. The floors beneath your refrigerator, stove and dishwasher are rarely seen but will collect dust, dirt, hair, crumbs and spills as much as your open floor. To get to these areas you can either move the appliance or, if they have one, remove the bottom panel for easier access. If you live in a home with an older refrigerator you may want to check the back to see if the coils are in the open or if they are enclosed within the body. If the coils are mounted on the back of the appliance you will want to dust them off with a dry rag or vacuum them. This will keep the coils clean and reduce the dust in your kitchen.
The stove is one appliance most people take for granted as being clean if the top, front and sides have been kept clean. Unfortunately there are hidden spots that can collect debris from cooking that can not only invite bugs into the home but unsafe and unsanitary conditions as well. Most stoves, other than smooth or flat top, will have a liftable top to clean beneath the burners and around the pilot lights (for propane or gas burning stoves). You will also want to clean the edge of the oven and broiler or storage drawer if your stove is a combination stove/oven unit. The bottom edge of both doors is often forgotten even though this is where most liquids will inevitably end up. Run your vacuum or dust rag over the back of this appliance as well as it can collect grease, dirt, dust, hair and other ugly stuff. One last place to keep clean is the hood over your stove which houses the fan and light. Not only does the top and sides need to be kept clean but the inside needs to be kept clean as well. Go ahead and take a peek in there. You are not going to like what you see. Keep the screen covering your exhaust fan clean as well. This will help the fan to draw the smoke and grease away from the stove top while cooking.
Many small appliances, though generally kept clean, have areas that are often overlooked. Toasters will collect crumbs, dirt and dust in the bottom that can interfere with the actual cooking, or toasting, of your bread and food. Toasters will have a small cover on the bottom that can be opened to remove most of the crumbs but you will want to use a damp rag to completely remove the crumbs. Remember to UNPLUG the appliance before doing this as 110 volts of electricity will remind you rather rudely. Electric and manual can openers also need to be cleaned to remove any liquids and/or dust and dirt from the blade and the gears that turn the can.
Aside from large and small appliances there are other forgotten areas to clean in the home. Counter tops are easily cleaned, constantly wiped and never forgotten. But do you think about the front and side edges of the counters? How about the bottom edge that collects drips and drops of spilled juice, milk, egg, and batter? The top and side edges of the backsplash are in the same category as the bottom edge of the countertop. The best way to remember these is to simply run your dish rag along the bottom of the counter and the top and side edges of the backsplash as you clean the counters. In no time it will be as automatic to do this as it is to wipe your kitchen table.
Though this is not an all-inclusive list of forgotten places it will give you a good idea as to how many things are easily overlooked not only in the kitchen but throughout your home as well. A quick list of other places is: filters and vents of your heating and cooling system; cabinet interiors; ceiling fan blades and screens for the motor; underneath and behind furniture; tops of doors and door frames.
This article is not meant to turn you into a neat freak or create any form of paranoia of dirt and germs. It is only to remind you of the easily overlooked and often forgotten places where dirt and germs can be lurking. The best home is always the one that is clean enough to be healthy and dirty enough to be happy.
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