How often do you really need to clean your house?

It’s difficult to believe now but there was a time, late last century, when the frequency with which one had to clean one’s household was not up for debate. Firm rules regarding sheets, towels and other grotty materials were handed down, usually from mother to daughter. But times change, and although women are still doing the majority of cleaning, there are large pockets of society who still believe it’s acceptable to wash your sheets no more than twice a year.

So exactly how often should you be cleaning all that stuff that you swear passes the smell test? Shirin Lakhani, a cleaning expert with Fantastic Services Group, is here to give us the cold, hard truth: probably more often than you think.

Bedding

“We should be washing our sheets and pillowcases ideally once a week, but fortnightly at a maximum,” says Lakhani, who adds that the only acceptable amendment to this might be a change in seasons.  

“We are less likely to be sweating at night during winter than we are in summer,” she says. “But there are a few other factors at play here too! Whether or not you shower in the morning or in the evening if you use fake tan or use a lot of body products and lotions prior to bed.

“This is going to sound quite gross, but our bedding collects all of the oils and dirt from our bodies and this can lead to tough stains if we don’t wash them regularly. Anything that comes off our bodies is essentially ending up in our sheets, dead skin, hair follicles, so I’d wash more often than you think you need to, especially allergy sufferers.” 

As for your doona, mattress protector, underlay and pillows, Lakhani recommends washing these items at least every six months. “These are often neglected due to the amount of time they take to dry but it’s important that we can keep on top of these as well. Good practise would be washing them at the end of each season.” 

Towels

“I have some bad news about bath towels,” Lakhani says. “Almost all of us are not washing them anywhere near as often as we should be.” Ideally, bath towels should be washed after three uses. “So, twice a week if you shower once a day, more if you shower morning and night. Our towels multiply bacteria after each use and just keeps building up until its next wash – eww!” 

Tea towels, according to Lakhani, aren’t all that different. “You should really be using a new tea towel every day and never, ever use tea towels for multiple purposes, like drying hands and then drying dishes! To wash your bath and tea towels, don’t overcrowd the washing machine. Make sure they have plenty of room to soak and wash – hot cycle is best for these” she says.

Toilet and bathroom

You should be cleaning the throne with disinfectant at least once a week and wiping down the basin every day. Your shower you can stretch to two weeks at an absolute maximum.

Oven

“At Fantastic Services Group, we recommend a deep clean on your oven twice a year, normally before Easter and Christmas,” says Lakhani who adds that regular cleaning and maintenance ensures you won’t smell any fumes while cooking and your food tastes better. Letting your oven go too long between cleans will make it significantly harder to clean and cost you more money in the long run.

“Unfortunately, people with older ovens tend not to clean them as regularly and we’ve seen some pretty bad ones,” says Lakhani. “Some I haven’t even been able to see through the glass from all the grease and grime that’s built up. It takes a lot of elbow grease to get them back to a decent state. There are a lot of products out there specifically for oven cleaning, but you can also use baking soda and vinegar to make a paste, slather this around the oven, let it sit and wipe it away with a sponge. Sometimes we also soak your baking racks in the bathtub – it depends how bad they are!” 

Fridge

“Our fridges are quite possibly the most used appliance in our homes and what matters here is hygiene! Definitely clean your fridge on-demand as it needs it,” says Lakhani, who recommends a deep clean at least three to four times a year. 

“So often we can push something to the back of the fridge, forget about it and let it spoil … I always tell clients to rearrange and take stock of their fridge contents regularly to avoid ending up with a mystery Tupperware container that no one wants to open.” 

Pantry 

“Given most of our pantries contain long-life products, you can probably get away with a deep clean once or twice a year,” says Lakhani. “This is also great to remind you what you have that needs to be used and you can plan some meals around what you already have.” 

That is, of course, if you plan meals. For those who still believe it’s acceptable to wash sheets twice a year, planning anything further than a trip to Maccas drive-through might be a stretch.