5 Unobvious Cleaning Mistakes That Make Cleaning a Hard Labor

Irregular processing of handles

Many people, while restoring order and cleanliness in their home, completely forget about the places of contact. These include: door handles, faucets, light switches, burners. These items most often accumulate dangerous microorganisms, so it is imperative to regularly treat such places with special disinfectants.

If at least once every 30 days a general cleaning is carried out, then for the rest of the time the hostess will not have to spend a lot of effort on putting things in order, she will only maintain cleanliness, allocating 10-15 minutes a day for this. You should start wet cleaning only after finishing dry cleaning. It is necessary to accustom all household members so that they perform elementary household duties daily, then the apartment will always shine with cleanliness.

Question 4. How to make sure that you never get out?

Unfortunately, this is currently not possible. Dust alone is already a problem. Dust is particles of skin, hair, materials, products, and it is formed every day. We also bring dirt from the street into the house, and we also leave traces of food.

There are options for self-cleaning houses designed to wash all surfaces. But, as you understand, the cost of building such a house will be rather big, and not everything can be automated.

An option that makes cleaning a little easier is to choose finishes and furniture surfaces that are easy to clean at the repair stage (not textured, washable, not collecting dust, and not those on which every stain will be noticeable). You can also choose furniture with an antistatic coating.

Inventor Frances Gabe shows a model of her self-cleaning house. 1979

Do not clean hard to reach places

At least several times a year, it is necessary to clean the most inaccessible places in the house. They are real breeding grounds for pathogens. For example, ventilation holes from which dust flies all over the room, radiators, the back wall of the refrigerator, roller shutters, external and internal blinds.

These items should first be vacuumed using a narrow nozzle or brushed, and then be sure to wash with soapy water and wipe dry with a soft cloth.

It is also periodically necessary to remove dust from lighting fixtures, figurines and souvenirs, ceramic products, crystal, candles, books, artificial flowers. These items, which may be in sight, also sometimes do not reach the hands.

Before you start cleaning your apartment, make a plan of action. This will not only make the task easier, but also allow you not to be distracted from the goal. And remember that if you always keep your house in order, then cleaning will become much easier.

"Home" cleaning products

The current trend in cleaning is the use of various natural and natural products, as well as "grandmother's" recipes. For example, baking soda and vinegar. Yes, it is less harmful than household chemicals - it does not corrode furniture, does not harm the eyes and lungs. But it is a mistake to use the same product for all surfaces.

For example, vinegar is far from being as versatile as it is presented on forums and social networks. It does not disinfect, therefore it is not suitable for cleaning the toilet or, for example, kitchen surfaces and boards after butchering meat. Vinegar can also dull marble, limestone, travertine, and onyx surfaces.

The right way: use vinegar to get rid of plaque on ceramic tiles, shower heads and faucets, fiberglass bathtubs. And for other surfaces, especially natural stone, use specialized products.

Rule number 2. Don't grab everything at once

If you still like to save up some housework for yourself, then do everything in stages.You can't start mopping floors without finishing vacuuming or hanging laundry, or anything else. And not because it’s not logical (although it’s true), but because you’ll quickly get exhausted and probably won’t be able to do any of the things you started with high quality (this, by the way, applies not only to cleaning).

To make cleaning effective, mentally zone the apartment into the upper, middle and lower “layers”. And get to work, starting from the top - wipe the dust from the chandelier, wash the windows - and then gradually go down. The final point, as you might have guessed, will be mopping the floor.

Kitchen cleaning

Oddly enough, often the kitchen is one of the dirtiest and dustiest places in the house, and cleaning here should be especially thorough. To start:

- put in place everything that interferes with cleaning;

- get rid of dust and dirt on lamps, refrigerator and kitchen cabinets;

- wash the accumulated dishes in the sink and the sink itself (wash especially carefully around the drain hole, make sure that there is no dirt in it, and also pour detergent into the drain itself).

Then:

- wash or replace all rags and sponges with new ones (you won't believe how quickly germs accumulate there!);

- clean dull cutlery to a shine;

- do the same with glass and crystal dishes;

- wash the glass doors or headset inserts (if any);

- if there are roof rails, wipe them well (as well as all objects on them) from dust and grease;

- thoroughly wash the stove, as well as the oven and baking sheets;

- even more carefully - the hood (if necessary, wash or change the filters);

- get rid of dirt on small household appliances (kettle, blender, toaster);

- wash the inside and outside of the microwave;

- change kitchen towels, apron and tablecloth to clean ones;

- if there are napkins for serving - wash or wash them too;

- do not forget about other available kitchen textiles (perhaps your kitchen has carpets and runners, decorative pillows and seat cushions, furniture covers, etc.);

- put things in order on the shelves and in the drawers of the kitchen set, wash them thoroughly;

- pay attention to the refrigerator: get rid of expired products, clean the shelves, egg trays and compartments for vegetables and fruits;

- empty, wash and disinfect the trash can.

And finally:

- sweep or vacuum the floor in the kitchen;

- wash it (again: if necessary, you can do this twice or even thrice); if there is grease and serious dirt on the floor, you can first apply detergent to dirty areas for a while - and only then start washing.

1. Dryness and peeling

Wind and cold air destroy the skin's protective barrier. As a result, it becomes dull and dry, begins to peel off. Dryness and the appearance of new wrinkles around the eyes or in the décolleté area cannot be avoided. To fill the skin with moisture, you should use a more intense moisturizer and serum, which contain fatty acids, peptides and vitamins. To restore the water balance, we recommend using nutritional products

Pay attention to creams containing algae extracts, nourishing oils, hyaluronic acid and vitamin C.

In addition, you can return to the beauty diet products with retinol (or vitamin A), which were on the shelf in the summer (they cause sensitivity to the sun, so they are best used in the cold season). Retinol is a miracle cure for the skin. It stimulates cell renewal, helps reduce the intensity of inflammatory processes, and is involved in the production of collagen and elastin. Experts advise introducing retinol into care slowly to allow the skin to develop tolerance to the substance and ensure the longest possible effect.

Consider cleaning as “heavenly punishment”

For some reason, the majority have in their subconscious that cleaning is hard work, emotionally unpleasant (I don’t take into account cleaning enthusiasts - there are some). But if we cannot change the situation, we must change our attitude towards it.

Cleaning the apartment is inevitable, so make it fun, interesting. There are many ways, the main thing is to let your imagination run wild. (Remember Tom Sawyer and how he painted the fence)

It could be "cleaning-slimming". We must specifically try to make cleaning physically intense - bend over for each trash can, wash the floor without a mop, etc.

“Dance or musical cleaning”. This cleaning will be quick and fun.

With children, cleaning can be even more interesting. Perhaps it will be fantasies. Or so my sons and I saved our apartment from the Queen of Mudlindia and her troops.

Sometimes the kids received quests from me, like in computer games. When completing all the tasks, the boys were dedicated to the Knights of Purity. And it was very cool! :good:

3. Pigmentation

After the end of summer, many women notice the intense appearance of a variety of age spots.It can be both freckles and solar lentigo, which can be dealt with with the help of various bleaching agents. If lentigo appeared a long time ago, and melasma is already in its place, you can’t do without the help of a cosmetologist.

The fact that the sun is increasingly hiding behind the clouds is not a reason to stop using sunscreen. You need to protect your skin from the sun throughout the year. So you prevent the appearance of freckles and age spots, dryness and premature aging.

Ultraviolet penetrates the skin even through the glass of a window in a room or in a car. Therefore, cosmetologists insist on using SPF products on cloudy days, but they recommend looking at light textures that are “friendly” with make-up, but at the same time care for the skin and do not irritate it.

How to identify dehydration

Source here and below: Unsplash

Dehydrated skin reacts very sharply to washing: after cleansing, a feeling of tightness and dryness appears. There may also be slight peeling and redness. The skin becomes dull, small wrinkles appear in uncharacteristic places. The light moisturizing gels you might have used in the summer don't provide long lasting relief.

At the same time, if we are talking about a combination or oily type, sebum continues to actively stand out, and the pores in the T-zone remain enlarged. That is, you can simultaneously observe oily sheen in some areas and dryness and irritation in others.

Leave the stains to the professionals

Do not try to wash difficult stains from upholstered furniture and carpets yourself.Each type of stain requires specific chemicals, and no one-size-fits-all “furniture and carpet shampoo” can remove a stain like a professional cleaner can. Therefore, if a piece of furniture or a carpet is dear to you, do not experiment. Trying to save may lead tothat in addition to the stain on the surface, there will be stains from poorly selected household chemicals.

A cleaning specialist can also be entrusted with general cleaning, for which there is absolutely no time in your schedule.

According to the calculations of cleaning specialists, a full-fledged cleaning of a two-room apartment, as a rule, takes from two to three hours. The average time can be calculated as follows:

• About 20-30 minutes - collection of small debris;
• About 40 minutes - cleaning the kitchen (including contamination inside the microwave and oven);
• About 50 minutes - cleaning in the rooms and corridor;
• About 30 minutes - bathroom and toilet.

However, if you have pets living in your apartment, cleaning will take a little longer.

What not to do during a renovation

• Save on careful leveling of all surfaces.
• Save on high-quality insulation of window slopes.
• Save on soundproofing.
• To make expensive decorative finishes in typical housing.
• Lay glossy dark and / or embossed tiles on the walls in the bathroom, on the floors in the kitchen and hallway, on the kitchen apron.
• Choose a light grout for floor tiles.
• Install a lot of recessed spotlights.
• Plan few outlets.
• Tightly sew up access to communications in the bathroom and toilet, as well as heating risers.
• Lay cheap laminate.
• Buy household appliances with excessive functionality.
• Remove the door between the kitchen and the room.
• Combine a separate bathroom.

What factors cause dehydration

The skin is dehydrated if its water-lipid mantle is injured, primarily by external factors. Among them are ultraviolet and inadequate protection against it, as well as windy and frosty weather. To explain what frost does to the skin, we can draw a parallel with frozen strawberries. When we take strawberries out of the freezer, they are "shrunken" because all the water has come out of the berry. About the same frost does with our skin: it dehydrates it.

Improper cleansing of the skin can also provoke dehydration. Aggressive cleansers (for example, hard gels with the wrong pH) damage the water-lipid mantle. A similar effect can be given by products for combination and problem skin, if they are used by a person with a normal type.

Hard water can also play a role. People who complain of skin sensitivity can try washing without tap water (for example, with cleansing balms) or replacing regular water with mild micellar water. But note that the last remedy must be removed from the surface of the skin, for example, rinse with tonic, lotion or mineral water.

Rule number 5. Protect your hands

It's great that now there are many different cleaning aids. And it's not cool at all that some of us don't use gloves when washing floors, washing dishes, or cleaning a bathtub.

The sensitive skin of the hands, if it were a person, would have sued for such treatment of itself long ago. And she would be right.In order to harm the skin of your hands, you need nothing at all - for example, just dip them in water with a floor washing solution or spray a mirror and glass cleaner on a dust rag.

All this to the fact that in your household and cleaning arsenal there must be gloves for cleaning. They are not expensive, but the benefits from them are tangible.

It is best to replace regular rubber or latex gloves with cotton-lined or cotton-backed models.

Living room

The main miscalculations in the living room relate to the creation of a light scenario. Apartment owners who are ignorant of the calculation of lighting standards often miss choosing the “right” chandelier. Before you buy a lighting fixture you like, check whether it will be possible to illuminate the living room with it, that is, to solve the problem of general lighting. It should be remembered that the lack of light affects not only vision, but also the psychological state, causing discomfort and leading to fatigue of the nervous system.

Use a simplified calculation scheme: to illuminate 1 m² of a room, you need 20 W of an incandescent lamp, or 5 W of a fluorescent lamp, or 2 W of an LED lamp.

One of the common mistakes is related to the wrong height of sockets under the TV in the living room. They must be done in such a way that at what angle sockets it was visible and the hanging wires did not violate the interior design. The optimal height of their installation is 120-130 cm from the floor. Usually, a special block is used, in which, in addition to two ordinary sockets, there is also a socket for a TV cable and an Internet socket that allows you to directly connect the TV to the Internet.

Question 2. How to get out quickly?

In order not to spend a whole day off cleaning, there are systems like “Fly Lady” (in Russia this system is also called “jet housewives”), which are designed to optimize household work. On the Internet, you can find ready-made schedules for zones that you must clean during the week for 10-20 minutes per approach. With the help of these checklists, you can avoid useless rewashing of the same thing, reduce time, and also distribute responsibilities between households by giving everyone such a list of work for a week. And we already wrote about how to involve children in cleaning.

A fragment of a checklist from the flylady system.

Decluttering is a popular modern trend to get rid of from unnecessary thingsthat take up space, create clutter and collect dust. If you follow these recommendations, you can significantly reduce the number of surfaces that need to be wiped and washed, and the total amount of dust in the room. For information on which surfaces make cleaning easier, see paragraph 4 below.

2. Toning

Even after such a seemingly thorough cleaning with make-up removers and cleansers, the skin is considered insufficiently prepared for evening beauty treatments and bedtime.

Cleansing the skin before going to bed is on a micro level, so before applying a night cream or mask, it is important to use a tonic. . The main task of the tonic is to clean the skin, tone it up and normalize the pH balance after contact with hard water, so it should be applied immediately after washing.

Apply with sponge or fingertips. Tonic will help rid the skin of pollution completely, even out the tone, texture and just give a pleasant feeling.

The main task of the tonic is to clean the skin, tone it up and normalize the pH balance after contact with hard water, so it should be applied immediately after washing. Apply with sponge or fingertips. Tonic will help rid the skin of pollution completely, even out the tone, texture and just give a pleasant feeling.

Tonics and lotions can also come in handy when your skin needs extra hydration or gentle exfoliation. If you feel that such help would be useful, choose a product based on the type and needs of the skin: for example, pick up a moisturizing tonic or lotion that will tighten pores.

How to adjust your care to get rid of dehydration

1. Temporarily cancel annoying procedures

If you use a lotion or tonic with glycolic or salicylic acid, you should exclude them for a week or two. Aggressive gel or foam for washing can be replaced with balm or mousse.

2. Change up your skincare routine as the cold weather approaches.

People with combination skin often forget that the cold season has arrived and continue to use light gel or emulsion products. For this time of year, such cosmetics may not be enough. In autumn and winter, it is worth switching to dense creamy products, but non-comedogenic, that is, those that do not provoke a rash.

3. Add care-enhancing products to your beauty routine

You can enhance care with a serum with hyaluronic acid, which in cold weather must be covered with a cream. Products with NMF (natural moisturizing factor) and niacinamide (vitamin B3) components are also useful.

4

Pay attention to emollient creams.If the skin is naturally dry, and in addition also dehydrated, special oils can be used instead of serum before the cream.

It is also worth paying attention to emollient creams that soften the skin and prevent moisture loss. Typically, such products can be found in series for dry, atopic and sensitive skin.

If the skin is naturally dry, and in addition also dehydrated, special oils can be used instead of serum before the cream.

It is also worth paying attention to emollient creams that soften the skin and prevent moisture loss. Typically, such products can be found in series for dry, atopic and sensitive skin.

Make sure your moisturizer doesn't contain drying ingredients like menthol. In summer, it can bring pleasant freshness, but in winter it should definitely be excluded.

5. Don't Forget the Cold Cream

If it is windy and frosty outside and you are going for a walk, apply a protective cold cream. It creates an artificial film on the face that prevents the skin from losing moisture.

toilet cleaning mistakes

There are several common mistakes here.

The first of these is to pay attention only to the toilet, forgetting about the floor around it, as well as walls, furniture and various objects nearby. In this case, bacteria, splashes of water (and not only), dust (deposited when the hood is turned on) still remain in the toilet

The second common mistake is lowering the brush into its stand immediately after use. In this case, it remains wet (and unclean), and a humid, closed environment is an ideal place for bacteria to thrive.

The correct way: first, “walk” with a separate rag with soapy water or a special cleaning agent along the walls of the toilet, then thoroughly wash off household chemicals with another wet rag. Wash shelves, cabinets and other furniture, if any, with a separate rag or sponge. Wash the toilet outside with a rag, and inside with a brush. Wash rags and brushes with soap. Hang the rags to dry, and fix the brush under the toilet seat so that it does not touch the lid or anything else. After it dries, put it in a stand.

One rag

When cleaning, you need to have several different rags on hand. Thus, the process of cleaning surfaces from dirt will be much more efficient. When wiping furniture, you need to use a soft cloth. To give shine to wooden objects, you can apply polish to the sponge. To clean the mirrors, you should take a special microfiber cloth. Using different sponges during cleaning will help prevent the spread of bacteria from one item to another.

Cloths should be washed after each dusting. If they are no longer usable, they should be replaced with new ones. Microfiber products are not recommended for hand washing. These rugs are machine washable only.

Mistakes in the organization of cleaning

There are a lot of different shortcomings, but all of them can be divided into several groups.

Don't leave cleaning for one day

It only seems that way during the work week. And on Saturday morning you realize that you want to do something more enjoyable than cleaning. But there is nowhere to put it off, you have to spoil the weekend by choosing a mop and a broom instead of rest.

How to avoid such a situation? Clean up a little every day.

By the way, the last action can be easily shifted to those living nearby. Well, that is not entirely easy, but gradually the whole family will learn to put their things back where they were taken from.

Lack of work system

Cleaning "eats" a lot of time? Of course, if it is performed haphazardly.

The two most effective cleaning systems are:

• Top down. First, all upper surfaces are removed: cabinets, curtains, lamps. And then the lower ones: cabinets, tables and tables, armchairs and chairs. And only after that the floor.
• Circle movement. The room is tidied up clockwise (or counterclockwise). A good solution would be to first remove all the main rubbish, and then proceed to methodically wipe the surfaces. This will ensure the result from the very first minutes and give an incentive to work.

Wrong order of work

Do not neglect the experience of others. The advice of experienced housewives will help you get the job done without redoing it.

• No matter how hard a woman tries to carefully collect dust on surfaces, she will fly from the upper tier to the lower one. So first you should put things in order on the cabinets, then on the cabinets, and leave the floor “under the curtain”.
• Many cleaning products take time to work effectively. Therefore, cleaning begins with the application of all necessary preparations (for example, on the stove, plumbing). By the time they arrive, shall we say, on full alert, part of the apartment will already be shining. And then it will not be necessary to scrub the stains with force. It is enough, as the advertisement says, "just to run a rag over the surface."
• Clean up according to the SHS rule (dry-wet-dry). First you need to do a dry cleaning of all high surfaces. Then, if necessary, wipe them with a damp cloth and wash the floor.And in the end, once again walk on all wet surfaces with a dry cloth. In this way, unpleasant streaks on surfaces and wet footprints on a cleanly washed floor can be avoided.

One rag for all rooms

As usual, cleaning takes place - with a wet (at best, and most often with a dry one, which is also a mistake) they “run over” all the rooms to wipe the dust from the surfaces. It is not right. Dirt and dust, thus, is carried around the rooms, remaining on the same rag. Even though cleaners and detergents (if used) are used, it still becomes dirty.

The right way: use different rags (sponges, napkins) for different rooms and surfaces. For example, somewhere you need a dry cloth, and in another place you can not do without a damp sponge. To avoid confusion, you can leave the right rag or sponge in the room where it is used (say, in the corner on the windowsill or in the closet). Just make sure they are thoroughly washed or washed and dried beforehand to avoid the growth of bacteria.