Household Cleaning Myths that could do More Damage than Good
We have all heard them at one time or another. Those prized little cleaningtips that keep going around, often with fairly unsubstantiated claims to actually be of any use.
Lets take a closer look at some of the more popular tips that are often recommended to find out if they are really useful, or just another cleaning myth.
Use bleach if you want a clean bathroom!
This tip is as old as the hills, however it doesn’t really stack up. Bleach doesn’t actually clean anything. Bleach is a very good disinfectant, so is actually great to use in a bathroom to disinfect surfaces, but it doesn’t actually do a great job of cleaning away grime and dirt.
You would need to use a cleaning solution beforehand to remove dirt and grime build up before using bleach to sanitise the surfaces. As many bathroom cleaners also contain added bleaching agents anyway, it may not be very cost effective to buy a bathroom cleaner and a bottle of bleach. You may as well use a solution that does both in one if you are on a tight budget, but if you want to follow up with the added disinfectant effect that bleach gives, use both!
You don’t need to clean your washing machine!
Much as we would like to think that the equipment we use to clean things would somehow magically clean themselves, unfortunately this just isn’t the case.
The whole purpose of a washing machine is to clean your clothes, but they also need to be cleaned too. Washing machines are damp places and have pipework and other areas where waste water can sit and become musty. Internal filters can become clogged with hair,fluff and debris that can cause issues with mould and scum build-up.
Cleaning experts recommend running a cleaning cycle each month to help keep your washer clean and working at peak performance. Many new models of washing machine will have a special cleaning cycle included on its programmes. You can add 100ml of vinegar and 4 tbsp bicarbonate of soda to the detergent draw and run a short wash cycle with hot water. This will help to flush out the machine and keep it smelling fresh.
You should always use wax polish on wood furniture
This is another old-fashioned piece of advice that also isn’t needed today. Commercial cleaning polishes contain a whole host of weird and wonderful ingredients, quite often including beeswax. This is great for polishing up your wooden furniture, but it does leave a waxy deposit on the surface that can build up over time and can trap dust and dirt.
Most wooden furniture is finished off with a stain and wood seal that help to protect the wood. This means that you don’t need to apply polish. You just need to keep the wood clean and free from dust and dirt build up. You can damp-dust wooden furniture to trap and remove dirt using a damp microfibre cleaning cloth. No need for any polish or cleaning agents!
You can ruin your carpet with too much hoovering
This is a myth that most teenagers love to use to get out of doing their household chores. However, it isn’t the vacuum that does the damage – it is actually the dust and dirt that gets trapped deep down into the carpet fibres that do the damage.
Running your vacuum regularly and lightly over carpets will help to lift off surface dust and dirt before it gets a chance to work itself into the base of your carpets.