The 6 Things You’re Cleaning Too Often

We know how important keeping a clean home is but unfortunately, that to-do list of chores seems to be never-ending.

What if we told you there are some cleaning jobs you’re tackling on a regular basis that don’t need to be done as often as you may think?

Here are six jobs you can take off your chore list.

1. The Oven

A once-a-week oven clean is completely unnecessary. Just make sure you wipe up spills when they happen or if you’re like my mum, include a quick oven wipe-down as part of the washing up after dinner (only if you’ve used the oven to cook tea, obviously).

You should really only need to clean your oven a few times a year and when you do, we’ve got a great oven-cleaning method here using just baking soda and vinegar.

Saving money on cleaning solutions and reducing the amount of toxic cleaning chemicals go hand in hand.

2. The Kitchen Pantry

While it’s definitely important to clean your refrigerator on a regular basis, your pantry is a different story.

We recommend doing a very thorough clean of your pantry to start with. This includes making sure everything has its own section, labelling what you can. Once you’ve done this, maintaining your pantry’s cleanliness will be a cinch in the long run.

It is worthwhile checking your pantry once a month for bugs and anything that needs to be thrown out and a wipe down every 6 months – yes, this means taking everything out and putting it back after wiping. This job shouldn’t be too hard if you’ve got your pantry organised in sections.

3. The Bathroom's Tile & Grout

Did you know that the main cause of dirty grout is using too much water and detergent when you’re washing the floor?

Most people use too much cleaning product and water on their tiles, which seep in below your grout lines. Grout is a highly porous material, so it does a great job of absorbing dirty water and all of the grime within it. This build-up is what creates that stubborn black film.

Try this homemade tile and grout cleaner

• Mix 1/2 cup of baking soda, 1 small squirt of dishwashing detergent and 1 cup of water in a bowl to form a slightly runny paste.
• Let it sit for 20 minutes and wipe off! You may need to lightly mop your floor afterwards as the baking soda may make the floors gritty.

4. The Dishes

With modern dishwashers and the liquids and tablets available on the market today, you don’t need to be spending time after dinner thoroughly rinsing every plate and cutlery item.

The enzymes in dishwasher cleaners break down food particles while your machine’s spray function will effectively rinse dishes clean.

Not only will you save time, you’ll save precious water, too.

You will still need to scrape away the larger particles of food so that they don’t clog up the dishwasher – just no need to rinse them completely clean.

5. The Carpet

You should definitely be vacuuming your carpets once a week and cleaning up any spills as soon as they occur but you need to go easy on carpet cleaning products. Carpet cleaners and sprays can do more harm than good, potentially damaging carpet fibres and attracting more dirt.

You should be getting your carpet cleaned professionally once a year and only use carpet cleaning products when treating stains.

6. Clothing

Stick with me here. Of course, your underwear, socks, activewear and anything visibly stained, stinky or dirty should be put in the laundry basket.

But most clothes don’t need to be washed after every single wear, especially if you have only worn them for a short amount of time.

Keep on top of that pile of clothes in the corner of the bedroom, too. It’s all too tempting to just throw everything in the machine even if not everything needs to be washed. You could save money on laundry products, electricity, water plus time spent doing and folding the laundry – win!