How Often Should You Clean Your House

After seeing me cleaning window screens a newlywed neighbor asked me how often should you clean your house. I pondered the question a minute and realized that I couldn't give her an answer because I clean some parts of my house more often than others.

The young bride (read: novice housekeeper) may been more interested in conversation than a cleaning schedule but as this may be a topic that lots of young wives and mothers might be interested in I made the following list. Please remember that I don't claim to be an expert on homemaking plus I probably clean the dusty parts of our family's home more than the average person because my babies have such severe asthma and allergies.

In other words I don't know the answer to how often should you clean your house because your circumstances may be completely different from mine.

How often should you clean your air ducts?
I clean my heat and air ducts monthly using my crevice tool because I see them as a major contributor of dust particles. If you have a good air filter, you could probably get away with cleaning them at the start of each season or a couple of times a year and don't forget to use green house cleaners!


How often should you clean your bathroom?

As you probably know, we've been fighting MRSA (staph infection) in my house so I clean mine after each family member takes a bath.

If you have no such problem, you could probably get away with cleaning your bathroom once or twice a week. To make weekly bathroom cleaning easier:

• always crack a window or run the exhaust fan while showering to keep the bathroom from getting moldy
• wipe down the sides of the tub or shower walls using a squeegee. This is important because removing hard water stains from glass shower doors is a pain in the ass!
• toss the bar soap and use body wash
  pour a cup of vinegar into the toilet once a week and let sit over night to break down hard water stains

How often should you clean your carpet?

This question is a no-brainer for me because I don't have carpet. Allergies and carpet don't mix. I have no rugs that can't be washed. As for others, it's still an easy to answer question; once a year or when it looks nasty. In my personal opinion carpet is nasty all the time even when it looks clean. If you don't believe me, hang around and take a peek underneath next your old carpet pad next time you have new wall to wall carpet installed. If that doesn't make you want to tile your floors nothing will, my friend.

That's just hitting the high points but it should give you some idea of how often should you clean your house as well as easy ways to keep it looking good in between scrubbings.