12 Household Items Everyone Forgets To Clean—And How To Tackle Them

Don’t forget: You’re not just stepping on your bath mat after a shower, but before, too, when your feet are sweaty. Add to that all the people tramping through your bathroom—you, your spouse, your kids, your friends. Just like your carpeting, bath mats can use a good cleaning every once in a while. Luckily, it takes virtually no effort at all. According to Clean Person Jolie Kerr, you can just throw them in the washing machine.

Given that it stores all of your shoes…it also stores all of the dirt your shoes bring in with them. This spring, we suggest you make note of the fact that the germs from outside come with you inside, and unless you’re regularly wiping the area down, you might get a few unpleasant surprises later down the road.

“Aside from cleaning it, you should also use this time to organize the shoes you don’t use anymore, or organize them according to how often you wear them/style of shoe,” Anna Harasim, founder of New York City-based company Anna’s Cleaning Service, elaborates. “To clean, make sure to take out every item in the storage area, vacuum for any dust particles, and then wipe with a damp cloth to get all the dirt out.” After everything’s dry, put your shoes back in. (A wet shelf will collect dirt all over again, wasting your precious effort!)

Just because your fiddle-leaf fig tree is alive doesn’t mean it’s self-cleaning. No, don’t bust out the all-purpose spray—a dry cloth or a feather duster is all you need to keep your plants shiny and dust-free. Some people recommend using bananas or milk mixtures to shine the leaves, but interior landscape artist Liza writes in her plant blog, Good to Grow, that anything beyond a plain, dry wipe is unnecessary (not to mention begging to attract pests!).

You’ll probably find way more than you bargained for up here, especially if you use it as extra storage space (which is totally understandable, especially if you live in a tiny city apartment!). “Take everything out, organize, and check your expiration dates!” insists Harasim. You can just wipe it down if the area is dusty, but if you have some really stubborn stains, try a solution of equal parts white vinegar and warm water, or a mixture of two tablespoons baking soda and a quart of warm water. Use a plastic, non-abrasive scrubber to scrub the stains for an added burst of pressure.

Bet it never occurred to you that the appliance that cleans your clothes might require cleaning itself, huh? Interestingly, though, it isn’t just the lint in the filter you need to be aware of. “You should really wipe down your washer and dryer inside and out,” cautions Harasim. For the interior, specifically, you’ll need to clean the grime that’s accumulated in the rubber seals by spraying it with hydrogen peroxide and scrubbing it down.

Unfortunately, lighting often gets avoided the most, but now, at least you know to clean the bottoms of your lampshades as well as the tops! A lot of dust can accumulate there on a daily basis, so make sure to wipe them down often with a multi-purpose cleaner and cloth. However, if your lampshade is made of fabric, you don’t want to use any solutions on it, since they will stain. Instead, opt for a microfiber cloth or feather duster, and just lightly clean off the dust.

If you have a closet full of delicate clothing that needs frequent ironing, it’s vitally important to maintain your iron’s plate—otherwise, you risk rubbing off the gunk that accumulates onto your clothing. Thrifty and Chic has an excellent tutorial for cleaning your iron with nothing but baking soda and vinegar, and it will even work if your iron is in terrible shape. Just more proof that vinegar and baking soda are nature’s perfect cleaners.

Let’s be real: In many homes, the television is the central focus—and yet the remotes never get cleaned, despite being touched all day by family members and friends. It’s a simple project that only takes a few minutes, and Melissa Maker at Clean My Space has super-easy instructions that won’t ruin your electronics. First, brush out any debris between the buttons with a toothbrush before wiping down the body with a cloth lightly misted with a water/rubbing alcohol mix. Still got some tough spots? Use a cotton swab to detail.

You may already clean off your showerhead’s exterior when you wipe down your tub, but you probably haven’t cleaned it right. After a while, mineral deposits can build up inside the miniature nozzles, making the stream inconsistent. You could take the whole showerhead off the wall to clean it, but Reddit’s got a much easier solution for you: Fill a plastic baggie with vinegar, tie it around the showerhead, and leave it overnight. In the morning, your showerhead will be pristine.

Despite being tools of cleanliness, toothbrushes (and the toothpaste-related havoc they wreak on any and all surfaces) can be really, really gross, especially if you don’t replace them often. We’ll assume you’re a superstar when it comes to replacing your toothbrush—every 3-4 months, according to WebMD—but you probably don’t scrub your toothbrush holder as often as you should. In fact, NSF International found toothbrush holders the third-germiest place in the house, so it’s clearly time to clean yours out. How to? According to the Huffington Post, you should rinse out the inside with hot water, use a pipe cleaner to pick up the grime, and then fill with antibacterial mouthwash for two minutes before rinsing and air-drying.

We’ve all cleaned out a trash can after a bag broke, spilling some kind of gross liquid into the bottom. But just because that hasn’t happened to you recently doesn’t mean you shouldn’t give the trash can a good scrub-down. It’s super easy: Just spray it down with some all-purpose cleaner and give it a good scrub. Ta-da! Clean, and less smelly.

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