6 Widespread Cleaning Myths - Busted!

Posted on 18/08/2015

Cleaning Myths You Need to Avoid

People often either make their home cleaning harder than it needs to be, or oversimplify it by listening to what people have to say. You hardly ever think that there are any myths when it comes to house cleaning, but you would be very surprised to learn that there are actually quite a few, and people do keep repeating them to anybody willing to listen without actually testing them out themselves. This often leads to others being misled and to a prolonged or underdone spring cleaning that ultimately does you no good. You should not be amongst those fooled souls, so here are some of the cleaning myths you need to avoid.

• Bleach works for everything!
Wrong. Bleach is not even a cleaner. Sure, you might think that something that takes the colour out of everything can do wonders for any stained surface, but it only cleans some stains. It is not a universal cleaner, it is a universal disinfectant. It does kill all bacteria, so if you need to sanitize something, then bleach is the product for you, but otherwise stick to known and useful cleaners for certain types of stains and keep bleach at hand only when you think that the surface needs disinfecting.

• Carpet cleaning is bad if done too often!
Wrong. People will say that if you send your carpet to the cleaners, or you use too much carpet cleaners, they will eventually start shrinking, discolouring, or otherwise damaging your carpet. And that might have been true way back when carpets were made of natural fibres. But today’s synthetic materials used for carpets are barely, if at all, affected by detergents and cleaning agents.

• Vinegar can be used to clean everything!
Wrong. Well, kind of. Vinegar is a useful cleaning agent, and it does help with most stains. But you should remember that vinegar’s efficacy lies within its acidic properties, and those same properties make it an unviable candidate for many surfaces. Sure, you can do your oven cleaning and hardwood scrubbing with it, but apply it to any gentler surface, and it will cause damage. Some carpets even suffer from discolouration after meeting vinegar’s acid.

• Apply wood polish often to keep your surfaces shiny!
Wrong. While wood polish does good work, shines the surfaces and protects them, if used too often, it also wears out the wood, so it will become more and more unstable and susceptible to damage. Wood polish is nice when used less than once a week, why not even once a month, but if used regularly when cleaning, it will eventually do damage to your furniture.

• Tile grout is difficult to clean!
Wrong. Very, very wrong. Cleaning all the grout between your wall and floor tiles is an extremely tedious job, and most people prefer not to do it and hire a professional cleaner to scrub it off in their stead. All you need for grout cleaning is baking soda, an old toothbrush, and some diligence while the work lasts. Don’t listen to people making things up just because they are lazy.

• Use newspapers for glass, windows, and mirrors!
Wrong. While it was a viable option once upon a time, as an alternative to the paper towel which tears easily and sticks to the glass surface, sometimes newsprints stick to the surface and you are left with a bigger mess to clean. Newspapers can also tear and leave leftovers on the surface. Be smart and just use the marvel that the microfiber cloth is.

Now that these myths are dispelled, you can go back to home cleaning the proper way. Just be careful when cleaning – use your brain and not other people’s advice.