7 things in your house I know for a fact youse aren't cleaning

People are a bit nervy bout the idea their cleaner is judging them. I've heard the stories. One of my clients said they came home one day and their cleaner told them, "You know, you have to do better." The gall!

This post isn't to judge anyone. I'm in and out of a lot of houses, is all. And I know for a fact none of youse are cleaning these bits.

Do you have to clean all this stuff? No way!

Will it make you feel good to tick them off on a boring Sunday afternoon? Maybe.

In order of least to most yuckiness:

1 - Top of doors

A primer on dust: it's mostly skin cells and clothing fibres. You kick it up through normal human activity - and abnormal human activity, too. Then gravity pulls it down from floor to ceiling. If your house is dusty, look up.

Dust collects in places above eye level, like the tops of doors, windows, and picture frames. If you don't wipe it down, it will eventually settle where you can see it or breathe it in. Any dust you grab near the ceiling is dust you don't have to vacuum up later.

Just run a lightly damp microfiber round the top of your room. You'll be surprised how much you pick up.

2 - Skirting boards

I'm saying this through gritted teeth, but your property manager is right - you gotta clean your skirting boards. You know that little ledge where your wall meets the floor? Wiping the dust off actually makes a big difference. I think of it as the difference between walking into a room and going "hmm" versus walking in and going "aah".

Grab a microfibre cloth or a duster. Or if bending is difficult, use the crevice tool on your vacuum, and whip around them skirting boards. Aah!

3 - Windows

I'm in people's homes all week and I'm here to report: everyone has Windex in their house, and literally no-one is cleaning their windows.

If you go to a friend's house, and they have clean windows, don't say anything but please know they did that just for you.

4 - The toaster

Every toaster has a cute little drawer at the bottom that catches crumbs. Based on my experience, I might be the only person who knows this.

Just rinse it under the kitchen tap and give it a wipe, then the crumbs won't get knocked around the counter every time you make toast, and your whole kitchen will feel cleaner.

5 - Vacuums

Now we're getting yucky. In my experience, most people don't service their vacuum, even the $900 rocket powered ones. Vacuums usually get an absolute thrashing until they conk out, and then they're replaced.

All that dirt, clothing fiber, food, dust, skin, toenail clippings, and hair that your vacuum picks up gets caught on the appliance itself. This is fine. It's not going to make you sick, but it does impact the life of your vacuum.

Look at your manual and figure out how to take the brush head, tubes and hoses apart. Most newer vacuums actually come with a cleaning tool. Pull the hair off and give the internal mechanisms a quick wipe or rinse with soapy water and let them dry off. Take out the filter and clean it according to the manual.

When the motor isn't fighting against all that built-up hair and dust, it lasts a lot longer.

6 - Bathmats

This one's really easy to forget. And if you've got a bulky, rubber-backed bath mat, it's kind of hard to throw in the wash - I get it. But some of these bath mats are getting stinky, y'all.

Sometimes I offer a gentle "want me to throw this in the wash for you?" and hear back, "no, it's fine!"

Once, I took a stained, visibly crusty bathmat and put it in the laundry basket. Next week I turned up and that same bathmat was back on the bathroom floor, clearly unwashed and crusty as ever.

I see some clients weekly, and I see some fortnightly. You want to be washing that bathmat weekly. If you don't do laundry weekly, get a few and rotate them out. I get mine from the op shop!

7 - Toothbrush charging base

I said I wasn't going to judge, but if you have an electric toothbrush, go to the bathroom right now and tell me what you see.

Actually, don't tell me. I know what it looks like. I know what everyone's looks like, and it ain't good. I don't even keep my toothbrush on its base any more. Not after the things I've seen.

A spritz of bathroom cleaning spray on a clean cloth, a quick wipe, you're good as new. And if you wipe down the handle after every use, the base doesn't get nearly as yucky. Especially if you live somewhere humid!

Are you one of the rare eggs that actually cleans everything on this list? Congratulations!

Have you never in your life washed a window or cracked open your vacuum? That's fine, you also get nothing!

It's hard to think of any major consequences of having dust on your window sills*. There's no gold star for having a spotless electric toothbrush charger. But if walking into a room and having it "feel" spick and span makes you feel good, these are the spots I often see people miss. Happy dusting!