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.

HOW TO CLEAN A TOILET

Modern homemakers don’t just need to know how to clean a toilet. They should educate themselves as to the environmentally friendly way to clean tough toilet stains that won’t unnecessarily pollute our water supply or accidentally poison the family pet or even worse, the kids! I'm not the only person whose baby has mistaken the commode for a water park, am I?

TANK CLEANERS

Tank cleaners that come in the form of tablets or hanging capsules were all the rage for awhile. The belief was that if you properly cleaned the reservoir tank that those stubborn toilet rings would never show up in the first place. Now we know that this is wrong thinking in that we found out that this was not the magic cure it was held up to be. Plus, if you had a dog or a cat that enjoyed a refreshing drink from the commode from time to time we realized that toilet cleaner did little to enhance this experience. Even if you don’t have an animal to worry with, why do we think it is a good thing to pour an unending supply of chemicals in our water? We should be more concerned with REMOVING chemicals from water rather than dumping more in.

HOW TO CLEAN A TOILET THE GREEN WAY

The facts are that there is no magic cleaner or tip that I can share with you for how to clean your toilet while never having to go into the bathroom. I CAN tell you how to clean the commode and never get your hands dirty; wear gloves! Ok, I know that was cruel but let’s get real.

NO HARSH CHEMICALS NECESSARY

Cleaning the toilet is an unpleasant task that takes some elbow grease and a cleaner helps. But chemical toilet cleaners are not part of how to clean a toilet in a safe, green and environmentally friendly fashion.

DISINFECTING

Did you know that plain soap and water do a very good job of killing germs? The only problem here is that pesky ring in the toilet bowl. That is a little harder to get rid of so here are some safe toilet cleaners that might make the job a little easier.

(1. Reduce the water level in the bowl and sprinkle it liberally with baking soda. Dash some (cheap) vinegar in the bowl and scrub with one of those green scrub pads or the toilet brush of your choice.

(2. Take one cup of Borax and add enough lemon juice or vinegar to make a paste. (I prefer lemon juice for its safe bleaching properties) Smear the recipe on that ugly toilet bowl ring and let it sit for two hours then scrub.

(3. Drop two denture cleaning tablets in the bowl when you go to bed at night. Scrub the bowl first thing the next morning.


So, that is how to clean a toilet without poisoning the family pet or our planet. If you use any of our green household cleaner recipes, please come back and give us a review as to how they performed.

Return to Home and Baby Parenting and Family Issues to find more tips on how to clean a toilet and green household cleaner recipes.

OPINIONS ON HOUSEHOLD NECESSITIES POLL

I saw a story about how American families’ opinions of what they considered to be basic household necessities had change significantly since the year 2006. The report seemed to focus on appliances and a few h not so necessary household items atellite television and microwaves, not the bare essentials.

Some of the report’s findings were encouraging to me as they indicated a rise in green living practices. As an example, 16% (or somewhere close to that number) of the people polled said they didn’t’ consider clothes dryers to a necessity. This number is considerably higher than the number reported in 2006.

The most disturbing and probably misleading number was associated with dishwashers. The number of people who consider dishwashers to be unimportant rose significantly. People, the reason dishwashers have fallen off of the list of household necessities is not because of a rise in green living practices and above all it does not indicate that family members have suddenly taken a shine to washing and drying dishes the old fashioned way.

What this finding may indicate is the amount of junk and fast food that families are eating. If you shop for meals at the local drive-through restaurant, there’s no need to wash the dishes or the environmentally unfriendly Styrofoam containers. I admit to feeling a tingle of excitement over the number of moms hanging their organic cotton baby diapers on an outdoor clothesline, but the thought of losing the happy chuckle of the dishwasher filled with dirty dishes after a home cooked family dinner is disturbing.

Return to Oooh Baby Family, Parenting and Environmental Issues to see more opinionated rants and raves from Claire.

Not so Fast

I just scanned yesterday's post and I can't believe how energetic I sounded. I don't feel very energetic today, that's for sure.

The babies just didn't sleep very well last night. Thunder woke them up, I think. I'm tired and they are testy. Cass got into something that has flared her allergies up something awful. On top of that when I was shampooing the carpet she slipped and bumped her chin on the hearth. She told her Mawmaw on the telephone she had a "goose egg" on her chin.