It is a deflating feeling. You spend your entire day off cleaning your home from top to bottom, vacuuming the carpets, mopping hard floors, sterilizing your kitchen and bathroom and dusting every other visible surface you can reach.
Surely that should be it – your house should look spotless and pristine for, oh I don’t know, a couple of weeks at least. But a mere matter of days later, there is dirt speckled all over your kitchen floor again, suspicious looking smudges on your carpets and fine dust of indeterminate origin settling everywhere you don’t want it to settle.
How does your lovely home get so dirty so quickly? What can you do to slow the inevitable tide of grime and grot, so you don’t have to do all those unpleasant cleaning chores quite so often?
The majority of dirt in our homes originates from outside, taking the form of mud, soil, sand, grass cuttings, pollen and the physical residue of urban pollution that finds its way inside. So, logic dictates, if we can stop more of that getting inside, our homes will remain cleaner for longer. Here’s how.
Invest in a good door mat
Shoes are the main culprit for carrying dirt indoors. One of the most effective preventative measures is therefore to have an industrial-quality dust control mat at every entrance, coupled with a strict regime of foot-wiping as people enter. It’s a good idea to go industrial in your choice, rather than opt for a flimsy glorified towel that might look pretty, as proper door mats do the job so much more effectively – they can gather an astonishing 6kg of dirt and 3 liters of moisture, a frightening quantity of filth that would otherwise be traipsed all over your home.
Keep shoes out
Given the fact that shoes carry so much of the blame for defiling our squeaky clean homes, it is also a good idea not to wear them indoors at all, even if it is just to walk to your usual storage area. Find somewhere to store shoes outside or immediately inside the main door to the interior of your home – a porch or anteroom is ideal. If you don’t have that option, make space for a shoe rack so shoes can be removed and placed on it straight away.
Think about open windows
We all like to get a little fresh air into our homes, especially when the weather is warm. But a blanket windows-open policy can lead to all sorts drifting inside. If you do want to keep your window open, it is a good idea to keep tabs on weather forecasts – if pollution or pollen levels are high, that will mean a lot of barely visible dust drifting inside, which will soon become visible when it starts to build up on your nice clean surfaces. Also, keep an eye out for anyone setting a garden rubbish fire in the neighborhood, as smoke will soon cover a house in a thin film of ash.
