Can You Over Clean Your House?
While most of us appreciate a clean home, it’s certainly possible to take this idea too far. Over cleaning your home isn’t as beneficial as you might expect it to be, both from a cost and lifestyle perspective.
So, can you over clean your house? The short answer is yes, but read on to find out what this actually means.
Signs of Over Cleaning Your House
What does over cleaning look like? Generally speaking, you should look out for the following signs that can imply you’re over cleaning your house.
1. You’re Deep Cleaning too Often
Deep cleaning is necessary, but doing it too frequently can be a bad sign. How often is too often depends on several factors, but more than once a week is definitely too much. In fact, you don’t really need to do a full deep clean more than once a month. Provided you’re hoovering and mopping regularly, there shouldn’t be much to deep clean.
2. You Disinfect Everything
Unless someone in your house has a medical condition, there’s no real need to disinfect everything. Sure, use disinfectant on kitchen counters, in the fridge, and when cleaning the bathroom. But everything else can just be cleaned with appropriate products rather than disinfectant.
3. You’re Cleaning Every Day
Sure, some jobs need doing every day, such as washing dishes, tidying up, and perhaps laundry. Pretty much everything else only needs doing weekly. You shouldn’t need to dust and hoover every day, as it’s unlikely that a substantial amount of dirt will build up. While there are exceptions, this is a good rule to live by.
Drawbacks of Over Cleaning Your House
Working on the assumption that it’s possible to over clean your home, what are the drawbacks of doing so? They might include:
1. Overspending on Cleaning Products
The most obvious issue is overspending on cleaning products. After all, if you’re using loads every day, you’re going to burn through them far more quickly than if you were only cleaning weekly.
It’d take a while for this overspending to become apparent, but you’d be amazed at how much deep cleaning your home every day could cost.
2. Damage to Surfaces
Some harsher and more abrasive cleaning products will cause damage if used too often. For example, excessively cleaning a granite countertop could erode the surface or any coating that’s sealed the stone. The same is true for flooring materials, such as wood.
Similarly, hoovering a carpet too often can cause wear to the fibres. Carpets are designed to be durable, but cleaning them too regularly will speed up the process of fibres coming loose.
3. Damage to Clothes
While we generally consider over cleaning to mean hoovering, dusting, and so on, it also covers laundry. It’s not necessary to wash most clothes after every wear (other than underwear), and doing so can damage the fibres. This’ll lead to loss of shape and fading far quicker than it should.
Cutting down on how often you do laundry will also free up some time. You might find you’re still doing washing every day, but hopefully it’ll only be one or two loads rather than several!
4. Stress and Anxiety
Keeping your home spotless is objectively more stressful than letting a bit of mess build up. If you’re determined to deal with every stray hair and bit of dust, you’ll find yourself cleaning your home all day every day – and this is definitely over cleaning.
What’s more, you’ll inevitably become anxious if you see something get dirty or messy. Generally speaking, the cleaner your home, the more obvious it is when something’s not clean. And if you’re determined to keep an overly clean home, you’re probably stressing yourself out by doing so.
It’s worth noting here that an overly clean home doesn’t have much (or any) impact on your immune health. You might have heard that dirt is needed to prevent asthma and other immune-response conditions, but this has never been properly proven. A 2006 study found there was no clear link between over cleaning and immune health.
Final Thoughts
The bottom line is that it’s entirely possible to over clean your home, but this doesn’t have any impact on your health. Of course, this isn’t to say you should stop cleaning important areas as much – the kitchen and bathroom need to be hygienic.
Provided you clean your home once a week, it shouldn’t need doing more regularly. Cleaning is about working smarter, not harder, so focus on streamlining your chores rather than extending them. If you would prefer regular cleaners to come to your house, then you can hire cleaners East London.
