How to Clean Your Home’s Most Touched Areas

If you’re looking for a simple Spri

ng Cleaning task that will have a big impact in a short amount of time, cleaning your home’s most touched areas is a great place to start. This is also a great cleaning task to tackle after illness in your home or if you’re looking to do a little batch cleaning. I have these areas on my Rotating Cleaning Tasks, but find that cleaning those most-touched areas are a great task for seasonal cleaning too.

I find the most efficient way to clean those pesky most-touched areas is to batch them together. I go in order of the below list and do all of the light switches and switch plates, then move on to clean all the door knobs, all the kitchen handles, etc. This keeps me on task, I don’t miss anything, if a certain cleaner or cloth works better for an area I can use that for the whole house, and if I can’t get through the whole list in one go, I can come back to the list.

MOST TOUCHED AREAS:

• light switches and switch plates

• door knobs

• bonus points for cleaning your doors

• kitchen appliance handles (fridge, dishwasher, oven)

• bonus points for cleaning your appliance fronts

• telephones (landlines + cell phones)

• staircase railings

• cupboard and drawer knobs and pulls in the kitchen

• cupboard and drawer knobs and pulls in bathroom(s)

• bonus points for cleaning your cupboard and drawer fronts

• TV remotes

• game controllers

HOW TO CLEAN:

Generally speaking, all you need is a little all-purpose cleaner and a microfiber cleaning cloth or bar mop towel to clean most of these most-touched areas. All-purpose cleaner can be sprayed directly ON your cleaning cloth and then the area can be wiped clean. Spray, wipe, repeat.

All-Purpose Cleaning Spray

• 1 1/4 cups water

• 1/2 cup white vinegar

• 10 drops of your favorite essential oil (lemon and clove is my favorite blend)

Mix in a spray bottle, spray liberally on surfaces and wipe clean with a soft cleaning cloth (I prefer microfiber or bar mop towels)

Door Knobs + Pulls, Light Switches, Remotes

When cleaning areas like door knobs, light switches, and remotes/game controllers, I’ll usually pour a little rubbing alcohol on a cleaning cloth or mop bar towel and wipe. This will kill germs and clean the area easily.

Doors and cabinets

When cleaning doors and cabinets I like to mix up a little cupboard and cabinet cleaner. This simple recipe will tackle most cupboards and cabinets but this post goes into a couple more recipes.

Cupboard + Cabinet Cleaner

8 cups warm water 2 tablespoons liquid Castile soap or dish soap 3 drops lemon essential oil

Mix all ingredients in a bucket. Work from top left and scrub your way down to the right using a microfiber cloth or bar mop towel. Be sure to wring out your cloth frequently and well.

Ready to get started? I’m pretty sure if you start with a little spring cleaning you’ll find that it’s not as hard as you thought it might be to get started!