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How do you keep your homes clean?

I’ve just swept and mopped. Once the floor dries, I could easily go sweep again and turn up more dust and dirt. If I were to mop again, I’m almost certain the water in my bucket would be filthy. It feels like it’s never actually clean.

Beyond that, there’s dusting, cleaning windows, sinks, countertops, bathrooms, and probably things I don’t even consider. How do you all stay on top of these things?

dream_weasel ,

ITT a bunch of dirty mofos.

You can sweep and mop one time to a quality that you shouldn’t be able to see dirt and grit on your floor. Maybe a different story with pets… But I wouldn’t keep a shedding creature in the house besides my wife, personally lol.

Evotech ,

robot vacuum that runs every day and I have a couple of air filters. They work well picking up some airborne dust.

I got the side table from Ikea which have a built in air filter. And I put that in the corner of my seating group.

charles ,

I’ve been thinking of getting 1 or 2 of those Ikea air filters, how loud are they when they run? Anything you wish you’d known before getting it?

Evotech , (edited )

No. At the lowest setting you have to check if it’s on at all. It’s got three speeds. The highest is very noticable… The table got a sort of auto function that speeds up sometimes. Which seems to work well.

I got two of the standing normal ones too. No complaints

Drunemeton ,
@Drunemeton@lemmy.world avatar

The best advice I have is one I found on the internet: Whenever you walk through a room pick something up and dispose of it, or put it back in its place.

CuttingBoard ,

Don’t Walk Past It. That is the name of the rule. It’s a great rule.

Sunny ,

Routine.

Simulation6 ,

Part of my routine is to do a more deep clean on one thing/section each week.

daltotron ,

Smaller houses tend to be better for this, generally. Cut down on all the stupid useless crap you own that you only use like once every 3 years, it’s not worth it to keep it sitting around. Buy and sell everything on craigslist, and rent the rest of what you might need. Maybe look into a storage shed or something, or dedicate a portion of your house to this, a room, something like this. Most people have a garage, I think. Pawn stuff off on everyone around you, call them when you need it, and then that’s a good opportunity to socialize. The same goes for “makerspaces” or whatever. Get out of your house more.

Work from the top down, start in an area with your fans, cobwebs, whatever, then work down to the pictures and higher shelves, the windows, lower shelves, tables, then hit your walls and baseboards, and then, after all that’s done, do the floors.

Remove clutter and little aesthetic baubles on shelves where dust and hair and crap might accumulate, unless you’re actively using the things in that space, or frequently moving stuff around in that area. It also pays to be conscious of how airflow moves throughout your house and how dust settles. It always tends to be the corners, but then corners also tend to be the deadzones where people put things anyways. If you can turn this on it’s head, and keep things away from the walls and corners more, that’s probably a decent idea, and could also help you open up your house more. If you can’t do that, you could look into like, these triangular dust guards they make for the corners of things, especially stairs, though those are mostly for sweeping, and I think dust might end up sticking to them regardless. The best solution for most people is probably just to go in the complete opposite direction, and get some big sealed corner cabinets with actual doors, instead of just having a bunch of open shelves everywhere.

Make sure you always remove your shoes when you come in from outside, and if you’re especially dirty, your outerwear. It’s easier to clean this all in one location by the door. Cats and dogs and all your other pets also shed a ton which can suck really bad and get on everything. I really like having pets, but god damn it can get pretty nasty. I would probably not do it all over again if I had the choice. Maybe look for breeds that don’t shed as much. Or just brush your pets maybe more than daily, that might also help.

Also, invest in a good stick vacuum, don’t get one of those huge corded garbage vacuums, or those ones that roll around and have the tube, those also suck and are awful. Also a good spray mop with the bottom that sticks to the cloth pad, and not like a normal stupid mop with a bucket or whatever, because those suck.

Yeah. Do all that, revolve your life around just cleaning and maintaining the shit that you own, and then you can probably get away with like an hour maybe once or twice a week for your whole house. How fulfilling!

litchralee , (edited )

Beyond that, there’s dusting, cleaning windows, sinks, countertops, bathrooms, and probably things I don’t even consider.

Of all the items you’ve listed, I personally rank floors as the most important to clean, followed by bathrooms, countertops, sinks, windows, and finally dusting. These are in order of which are used more frequently and how easily they’d be noticed. A dirty window (on the outside) is rarely dirty enough to outright block the sunlight, but grime on the floor will be tracked into other rooms, worsening the issue. Bathrooms are used daily, so would bother me if they’re not at least reasonably seemly.

For keep floor clean, the zeroth step is to prevent dirt and grime from coming in at the onset. A shoes-off policy in the home is probably the most substantial in this effort. That’s not to say you have to go barefoot – although I do think it’s quite nice – since indoor slippers or shoes are an option. The next step would be to rip out all wall-to-wall carpet, if possible. I have a full rant about the drawbacks of carpet, but it will suffice to say that carpet traps dust and dirt whereas hard surfaces like tile or laminate do not.

After that, you may need to identify what exactly is dirtying your floors. If it’s loose particulate (eg food crumbs), that’s going to need a different solution than if it’s loose hairs, which is different than dust or clothes threads. Crumbs or hair might suggest localized sweeping in the kitchen or bathroom will be most effective, while dust or threads suggest you need to adjust your clothes dryer settings, or your central air system needs a new/different filter.

The thing to keep in mind with all this is that grime does not come from nowhere: there is always a source, and the evidence will lead you to what’s most effective to keep your home maintained. Even if you conclude that the dust is fallout from the nearby coal-burning power station, there will still be things you can do, such as campaigning for a fossil-fuel free world electrostatic air filters or keeping doors closed when not needed.

mojo_raisin , (edited )

I use the concept of “vectors”, but it’s basically what you’re saying. Floors are a primary vector, clean floors will help keep other things clean. Another example, you can think of say e-coli on your kitchen counter and see your cat as a vector for the e-coli to get from the litter box to the counter. Oh, dirty hands are another huge one.

Tar_alcaran ,

I have a full rant about the drawbacks of carpet, but it will suffice to say that carpet traps dust and dirt whereas hard surfaces like tile or laminate do not.

Also, carpets wear, and generate dust themselves. Think of all the lint you find in a dryer, and compare the area of your clothing to the area of carpet.

litchralee ,

I didn’t include it in my original comment because it’s kind of tangential, but carpets also trap rusty staples and – very strangely – rusty finish nails. Over six years, my feet have found dozens of these staples and nails twisted within my house’s carpet, each of a shape which I have never owned.

I honestly don’t know what the previous owners of this place did, but I recently had every shred of carpet ripped out and replaced with wood-look tile. I bought myself some indoor slippers for winter and haven’t looked back since.

SorteKanin ,
@SorteKanin@feddit.dk avatar

We have a robot vacuum that runs automatically every day. And yea, it picks up a load of dust every day. Leaves me to do other stuff.

romano ,
@romano@lemmy.shtuf.eu avatar

Exactly this. You’d be surprised how much dust it can collect. After a week or two in my small home it can easily collect a fistful of dust, and that’s just from me alone.

takeheart , (edited )

Do you just sweep with a broom? A good vacuum cleaner is a lot more thorough. And if you mopp right after there’s a better chance to get most of the dust.

The other question is where the dirt is ultimately coming from. Most notably rom outside via air movement and shoes, but also consider shedded hair and skin from humans & pets, dropped food crumbs, lints from textiles and any hobbies/activities.

I like to avoid any “dust catcher” objects like carpets or rugs. In the end it’s a tradeoff between how clean you want it to be and how much time you’re willing to invest.

classic ,

What do you have on your floors? Just bare floors?

takeheart ,

floors are made out of poly vinyl chloride. not super pretty but quite smooth on the surface which equates to easier cleaning. anything that has ruts in it like wooden planks or ceramic tiles is going to be harder to clean

ebits21 ,
@ebits21@lemmy.ca avatar

I have 2 kids under 3…

laughs maniacally

volvoxvsmarla ,

As long as you don’t have roaches or other pests you’re fine. It’s clean enough. Sincerely, a fellow parent

zbyte64 ,
@zbyte64@lemmy.blahaj.zone avatar

If dust is the problem then you start at the top and work your way down. Ie Clean ceiling fans, Dust, then wipe surfaces then vacuum.

AA5B ,

Oh yeah, definitely ceiling fans. The top of those get pretty bad with first and hair

ohlaph ,

A plan. Clean all floors weekly.

CuttingBoard ,

If you’re lucky enough to have a furnace, replace the filters monthly if you can. They sell them in multi packs. Buy the cheap ones and replace them often.

dan1101 ,

Clean the worst of it and let the rest be. I try to do a more thorough cleaning spring and fall.

systemglitch ,

How to create mental illness 101.

bitchkat ,

Part of the reason I downsized and bought a condo was to reduce the amount of time I spend doing “house” stuff. I just try to clean things as I go so that I don’t have specific cleaning days.

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