Your Guide to Cleaning the Hard-to-Clean Spots in Your Home {Guest Post}

Guest Post by Dixie Somers

Even if you clean your house regularly from top to bottom, there are probably still places that are much harder to clean. Since you can’t very well ignore these areas when you dust your furniture and sweep your floors, here are some tips that will help you tackle those hard-to-reach places.

Ceiling Fans

Ceiling fans collect a lot of dust, especially if you go a long time without turning it on. The best way to clean the blades of a fan is to invest in a duster with a long extendable handle. These dusters can reach the blades of most ceiling fans as well as the tops of tall cabinets, so they’re a great thing to have in your home. Some dusters that are designed for ceiling fans even wrap around the blades so you can wipe them completely clean.

Cabinet Tops

Just like ceiling fans, the top of a tall kitchen cabinet can be cleaned with a duster with an extendable handle. As with all things related to cleaning your home, try to do this regularly so you’re collecting dust on your duster instead of pushing it down to the floor.

Shutters and Blinds

The slats of shutters and blinds from companies like Danmer Custom Window Coverings can be particularly tricky to keep clean. You can go over them once with a cloth and assume they’re clean, but there will always be some dust that you didn’t catch. A static duster works well to pick up dust from slats, but you will need to open and close the slats to get both sides of them.

If you’re cleaning wood shutters, never use soap and water. If you must use anything to clean them, invest in a product intended for dusting wood. Water will only cause your shutters to warp.

Behind the Toilet

While most of your bathroom floor can be swept and mopped, the area behind the toilet will require a little extra work. Grab some rubber gloves and a dry stiff brush to break up the dirt and debris that will be there. Once you’ve loosened all of that dirt, you can wipe it up with a wet sponge and some disinfectant.

Heating Vent Covers

If you’re lucky, you might have the kind of heating vent covers that can be removed from the wall. If this is the case, all you need to do is remove them and spray them with a water hose or run them under a large faucet to remove the dust. If this isn’t the case, you will have to use a microfiber cloth wrapped around something thin enough to go between the slats in the vents. You can also go over your vents with an upholstery brush attachment on a vacuum cleaner every month or so to prevent too much dust from building up. In any case, it’s good to stay on top of your vent covers to keep your HVAC system from working harder than it needs to.

More About Dixie

Dixie Somers is a freelance writer and blogger for business, home, and family niches. Dixie lives in Phoenix, Arizona, and is the proud mother of three beautiful girls and wife to a wonderful husband.

*Photo courtesy of Dixie Somers