Reader’s Digest: 10 Ways You Don’t Realize You’re Over-Cleaning Your House

Maeve shares with Reader’s Digest ways you are over-cleaning your house.

10 Ways You Don’t Realize You’re Over-Cleaning Your House by Marissa Laliberte.

---

Bed sheets

If you wash your sheets just for the clean smell, go ahead and wash them every week or two, says Maeve Richmond, founder and coach of organizing company Maeve’s Method. But if you don’t mind a more lived-in bed, throwing linens in the wash just once a month should do the trick. Washing too much can wear out the fabric and fade the colors, Richmond says. If you haven’t been sweating much, you might not need to rush your sheets into the laundry. “Winter months are a time when we can swap bed linens out less frequently, mostly because our bodies are cooler, so our linens aren’t absorbing as much sweat,” Richmond says. These are other ways you might be messing up laundry.

Carpets and rugs

If you have kids who play on the floor, you have reason to make sure your floors aren’t dirty, but families without young children can hold off longer, Richmond says. Rugs with little foot traffic, like under a coffee table, can be vacuumed as little as once a month. “Save time and do yourself a favor by holding off on vacuuming so it doesn’t become a chore,” she says. However, when there’s a stain, you need to act fast. Try one of these homemade stain removers.

Kitchen towels

You might not necessarily need to add your kitchen towels to your load every time you do the wash, Richmond says. “To cut down the amount of washing you’re doing, I suggest taking a look at the condition of dish towels before automatically throwing them in the wash, because they might have some life left in them,” Richmond says. Her rule of thumb: Wait until you notice a stain or odor, which indicates bacteria from food, before you toss your towel in the laundry. And don’t make these surprising kitchen cleaning mistakes.

Bath towels

“Towels in the bathroom tend to be used after you’ve washed your body or hands, so they don’t get as dirty feeling as kitchen towels, which are used for food products,” Richmond says. While families with kids who use towels to wipe off dirt before a bath might need to wash regularly, other adults could wash their towels less frequently, she says.

Clothing

Even if your detergent says you need a full cup for your load, you might be able to get away with as little as half a cup. “Big companies have scientific test facilities and come up with what they think is the appropriate amount of detergent, but that also has a dose of marketing and sales,” Richmond says. She recommends going with your gut when deciding how much detergent to use. If half a cup can do the trick, you’ll save yourself some money.