15 Often Overlooked Areas When Cleaning Your Home

This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of CuVerro for IZEA. All opinions are 100% mine.

Do you do spring cleaning every year? It’s easy to forget about some of the nooks and crannies in your home when doing your regular cleaning. But spring is a great time to do an extra thorough job and tackle those often overlooked areas when cleaning your home!

BTW, I have a great giveaway for you at the bottom of this post! Scroll down and enter for your chance to win!

15 Often Overlooked Areas When Cleaning Your Home

Ceiling Fans

Even if your ceiling fans are running most of the time, dust can still collect on the blades. Get a pillowcase slightly damp, put it over one blade of the fan, and use the inside of the pillowcase to wipe the dust off of the blade. Any dust that falls off the fan while you’re cleaning it will end up inside the pillowcase instead of all over your floor!

Lamps, Wall Sconces, and Other Light Fixtures

Lights are another overlooked area that often collects dust. Wall sconces, lamps, chandeliers, and any other standalone light fixture can get really dusty. Use a damp cloth to carefully dust your light fixtures, including the light bulbs themselves and the interior of the fixtures as well!

Baseboards and Molding

Baseboard stick out from your walls just a bit, so they are a prime spot for dust to collect, and since they’re so close to the floor, they’re often overlooked when cleaning. The same goes for other molding such as the trim around your doors or molding on top of your kitchen cabinets. If there’s a ton of dust in these areas, use a vacuum first to get up the majority of the dust. Then use a damp cloth to finish the job.

Blinds and Curtains

Your window coverings can collect tons of dust and dirt, especially if you have pets. Our cats spend a lot of time sitting in the windows, looking out into the yard, so our curtains collect a TON of cat hair! If you have blinds, you can make dusting each slat a lot easier by using a pair of tongs. Wrap a cloth around each arm of the tongs, then just “grab” each slat in the tongs, run the tongs along the length of the slat, and all the dust will come up on the cloths! Repeat for each slat and your blinds will be clean in no time!

If you have curtains, vacuum them using the upholstery attachment on your vacuum. This will help get rid of the dust, dirt, and pet hair that accumulates over time.

Knobs, Handles, and Pulls

It’s easy to remember to clean your countertops and other horizontal surfaces, but what about the handles in the bathroom or kitchen that you touch every day! CuVerro sent me an ATP tool to test how clean our home is, and I used it to test our bathroom doorknob; it came back at more than 5 times the level considered “sanitary”. GROSS!

Make sure you thoroughly disinfect your door knobs, cabinet handles, and drawer pulls regularly to keep those germs at bay!

Stainless steel is often the metal of choice for things that people touch, like door knobs, kitchen appliances, faucets, etc. but while stainless steel does a good job of looking clean, it isn’t necessarily any cleaner than any other surface.

Antimicrobial copper is different. It kills bacteria and keeps on killing it. Antimicrobial copper is EPA-registered and proved in testing to kill 99.9% of bacteria within 2 hours of exposure. EPA tests also prove that antimicrobial copper continuously kills bacteria – even after repeated contamination. How cool is that?! Just think, if your door knobs, cabinet handles, and drawer pulls were made of antimicrobial copper, it would be way easier to keep the kitchen and bathroom clean and sanitary!

Faucets

Faucets are another thing that you touch all the time, but are often overlooked when cleaning, especially if they don’t look dirty. We tested our bathroom faucet handle with the ATP tool CuVerro sent and it came back at 4 times the level considered “sanitary”! Luckily, it’s easy to clean faucets; just grab a disinfecting wipe and wipe away all the germs and dirt. Don’t forget to get the handles too! If you want to take it a step further, email CuVerro and ask about availability of faucets made with CuVerro antimicrobial copper.

Trash Cans

Even if you use a bag in your trash cans, dirt and grime can still accumulate inside the bins over time. Take your trash cans outside and spray them out with the garden hose to get rid of any gunk that has accumulated. Use a soapy sponge to wipe out the trash can, inside and out, then rinse them out with the hose and turn them upside down to dry.

Vents and Exhaust Fans

If you have forced air heating or cooling in your house, the vents probably collect a lot of dust and dirt. The same goes for exhaust fans in your bathroom or above your stove. Vacuum any loose dust and dirt off your vents and fans, then use a damp cloth to finish cleaning them. If the vent is covered in grease (like the exhaust fan above your stove), use a soft cloth and a degreaser to really clean it off.

Behind Large Appliances

It’s a huge pain to move large appliances like your fridge, oven, and washer and dryer, but dust collects behind and underneath them. In the case of your fridge, the dust can collect on the coils and reduce the efficiency of your fridge, and if dust or lint collects in your dryer vent, it could even start a fire!

Pull out your large appliances and vacuum behind and underneath them. You can also use a long-handled lint brush to reach behind your fridge or your dryer to remove dust and lint. Check out this post on how to clean out your dryer vent to prevent a fire.

Shower Curtains and Liners

You probably remember to clean your shower or tub, but how often do you clean your shower curtain? Most fabric shower curtains can be washed in the washing machine, and many liners can too. Even some plastic liners can be washed in the washing machine on a delicate cycle; just be sure to throw a few towels in with them to help “scrub” away the grime!

Once they’re clean, hang them back over the tub and let them dry in place. (Be sure to check the labels on your shower curtain and liner first to make sure they can go in the washing machine. If not, you can scrub them with a bristle brush and soap and water to remove any grime.)

Pillows

Did you know you can wash your pillows in the washing machine?! Most pillows can just get tossed in the washing machine, and dried in your dryer (along with a few tennis balls to help bounce around and remove any lumps).

Washing Machine

Speaking of cleaning things in your washing machine…how clean is the washing machine itself? When we first moved into this house, the washing machine in the basement was totally gross. But even if it isn’t visibly dirty, you should clean your washing machine every once in a while to get rid of the dirt and grime that builds up in the drum and in the water lines.

Grout

You may remember to wipe down your shower or tub every time you use it, or mop your kitchen floor every week, but how often do you clean the actual grout between the tiles? Grout can get really dirty; you may not even realize how dirty your grout was until it’s clean! Luckily it’s super easy to clean your grout with this homemade grout cleaner!

Stairs

Stairs get a lot of traffic, but not necessarily a lot of cleaning. If you have carpet on your stairs, you can vacuum the stairs when you vacuum the rest of your floors. If you have hardwood, you can vacuum your stairs to get any dust bunnies, then use a damp cloth to wipe away any gunk.

Vacuum Cleaner (And Other Cleaning Tools)

Last, but certainly not least: your vacuum cleaner! Your vacuum cleaner does the dirty work of cleaning your house, but don’t forget to clean it out as well! Besides just emptying the bin, remember to pull out and clean (or replace) the filters, clean the bristles and brushes, and clean out the bin with soap and water if you can. Every once in a while, remove all of the removable parts of your vacuum and give them a good cleaning with a damp cloth, or in a sink full of soapy water if they are waterproof.

And don’t forget your other cleaning tools! Toss your rags and cloths into the washing machine and wash them. Clean your mops and brooms with soap and water. You can microwave your sponges for a few minutes to get them clean; just get them soaking wet in soapy water, then pop them in the microwave for a few minutes. Bonus: clean your microwave while you’re at it!

If you’re interested in learning more about antimicrobial copper, check out CleanAsCopper.com. They also have pens and phone cases made of antimicrobial copper in their shop! Want to win your own CuVerro copper pen and phone case?!

One lucky reader will win a CuVerro gift set! The prize includes (1) Cross Century Copper Ballpoint Pen made with CuVerro® and (1) iPhone 7 Case made with CuVerro® Antimicrobial Copper. The giveaway, which is sponsored entirely by Practically Functional, is open to U.S. residents only (sorry, international friends) 18 or older and will close midnight 2/21/17.

Enter using the widget below for your chance to win!

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Disclosure: I received compensation from CuVerro and IZEA in exchange for my participation in this campaign, and my honest discussion of their products. But all opinions in this post are 100% my own. I would never write a post about something I didn’t think was useful or interesting for you guys, and Practically Functional will only publish sponsored posts for companies or products I love and believe in! 🙂