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Key Points
- Swap out bedding, vacuum floors, and deep-clean showers weekly to prevent long-term grime.
- Clean appliances like microwaves and fridges to stop bacteria buildup and keep your food fresher longer.
- Dusting and wiping down trash cans keeps dirt from piling up and makes deep cleaning easier later.
If you want your home to truly feel and stay clean, a periodic deep clean is not the answer. Doing the expert-recommended, non-negotiable tasks on a weekly basis are what will keep your house clean. When short on time, prioritize the odor- and mess-prone areas like the bathroom or kitchen.
We talked to cleaning experts for their insights on which household tasks you should do every weekend.
Meet the Experts
- Laura Smith and Derek Christian are owners of All Star Cleaning Services.
- Roxy Aviles is the COO of Maids and Moore.
Change and Wash Bed Linens
Experts recommend changing and washing bedding on a weekly basis to maintain good hygiene and keep your bed fresh.
“Most people sweat at night,” says Derek Christian, the co-owner of All Star Cleaning Services with his wife, Laura Smith. “It can get to be a smell issue. You wear it out."
"Things like body oil, which actually comes out of sheets pretty easily if you do it weekly, but if you let it build up too much, it's at that point it's ruined.”
Bedding also holds the dead skin cells shed at night, which "can harbor bacteria," says Roxy Aviles, the COO of Maids and Moore. "You want to make sure that you change your bedding once a week, at least."
Vacuum and Sweep Floors
Christian and Smith advise removing dirt, dust and pet hair from floors using a broom or a vacuum, especially if you have wood floors. It's not just good for cleanliness, but also to keep the wood well-maintained.
"The grit and dirt on wood floors actually can act like sandpaper and wear it out," Christian says. "It literally will destroy your floors if you don't keep it clean on a regular basis."
If you don't feel like taking out an upright vacuum each weekend, Smith suggests using a robot vacuum to clean the floors until you have time to do a deep clean later on.
"I am a huge fan of robot vacuums," she says. "They do a good enough job that they will keep things at bay throughout the week."
Scrub Down the Shower
Smith and Christian advise giving the shower a thorough clean on the weekend, because certain grimy build-up will get harder to clean over time.
"Then it becomes more of a permanent problem," Smith says." It's going to infiltrate the actual grout and you can't just clean it off at that point."
Once you do the deep clean on a weekend, Smith suggests maintaining shower cleanliness by scrubbing down the shower each time you bathe.
"I used to keep a bottle of dish soap and a sponge in my shower," she says. "I would just hop in there to shower, and before I cleaned myself, I would just put some dish soap on a sponge and go to town on the walls, rinse them off and then take my shower."
Wipe Down the Microwave
The microwave is a kitchen staple you use throughout the week to heat up quick meals and leftovers, but it can accumulate lots of food stains from regular use.
"Typically, there's food splatter in there that is going to grow bacteria over time," Smith says. "You want your microwave wiped out at least once a week.
Clean Out the Refrigerator
Christian recommends cleaning expired food out of the fridge and giving the appliance a weekly cleansing.
"I normally do it every week right before I go shopping," he says. "It gives me a chance to throw out anything old and figure out what I need to replace. Or else, food goes bad, you get mold growing, then it spreads to the good food."
He advises that any food stains or leaks in the fridge should be wiped up immediately.
"If you spill something in your fridge, if you wipe it up pretty quickly, it comes up really well," Christian says, "but if you leave it for a long time, I think it is hard, next to impossible, to remove."
Dust Convenient Areas
Experts say you don't need to do a thorough job dusting your home on weekends, but they recommend at least doing a once-over of some easy-to-reach areas of the home.
"You can do in walking through your house in 10 minutes, if you do it once a week," Smith says. "Once it gathers to the point where you're getting your cleaning cloth dirty in half a room because there's so much dust, then it's gonna take you a really long time."
Aviles advises concentrating on areas like vents, fans, door frames, and baseboards.
Disinfect Trash Cans
Often a forgotten area of the home, Aviles suggests using part of the weekend to wipe down and clean the garbage containers.
"Some people have their trash cans inside cabinets, so they need to keep those clean and disinfected," she says. "It can be a breeding ground for germs."
Read the original article on The Spruce
