Spring cleaning ensures your home remains a pleasant, safe and healthy place to live. Did you know there are some items you need to replace rather than clean? Here are eight things you should consider getting rid of during your yearly deep-clean ritual.
Nonstick Cookware
Cookware may not come to mind when you think about spring cleaning, but they should since the nonstick coating can be dangerous. Baltimore professional business and home cleaning company, Park Avenue Cleaning, maintains a helpful home maintenance-related blog. According to the brand’s January 23, 2019 blog post, nonstick cookware that’s been scratched can release toxic fumes into the air. The blogger suggested replacing nonstick cookware once a year, no matter how light the damage. To avoid cookware toxin exposure altogether, a one-time replacement with a high-quality, non-coated, set of pans would be advisable.
Towels
After use, bath towels usually hang in a warm, moist room – your bathroom. No doubt you wash them frequently. Did you know that bath towels can quickly reach a point when they can no longer absorb moisture? You should replace them every one to two years. Don’t fret about waste, though, because old towels can be repurposed for pet care, baking, garage tasks, and so on.
Pillows
When it comes to dust mites and other microscopic nastiness hiding in bedding, you should consider the cleanliness of your pillows. Like pillowcases, pillows get nasty after having had heads placed on them over a period of time. Even if you occasionally wash your pillows and not just the pillowcases, the pillows can never be as clean as they were when they were new. All your bedding accumulates dirt, dust mites, skin cells, oil, and so on. Since your face makes contact with pillows and pillowcases, and since pillows are cheap to replace, you should replace your pillows yearly.
Refrigerator Water Line Filters
Do you frequently use your refrigerator’s water filter? It’s easy to forget all about maintaining refrigerator components. However, these filters need to be replaced every six to twelve months, depending on how much you’ve used them. If you use a whole-house water filter, you’ll need to swap them out every three to six months. Staying on top of water filters keeps dangerous bacteria out of the water you consume.
Toilet Brush
Cleaning toilets is an unpleasant job, and the toilet brush generally remains nasty. Many people don’t replace them for years at a time, possibly because they remain nasty after just one use. You can sanitize your brushes, but you’ll find it easier and less daunting to just replace them.
Smoke Alarm Batteries
Many people maintain their smoke alarms on the same day they have to change their clocks either forward or backward. Whether you do it then or during your annual deep-cleaning session, it is important to maintain them regularly. You need to put fresh batteries into your smoke alarms once a year and test your alarms monthly. It would be advisable to replace the alarms every 10 years.
Area Rugs
Area rugs define spaces, such as seating areas and dining areas. They also add color and interest to the room. They give young kids a comfortable place to sit on the floor and play. Dogs and other pets regularly lay down on them. Area rugs also help to hold heat in your house during cold weather. Obviously, a lot of living happens on area rugs. This makes them targets for heavy soiling. Food particles drop onto them, get lost in the pile, and then get stepped on. There’s dog dander, mud, dust, and other things there too. Every year, you need to get rid of them and order replacement area rugs online.
Air Filters
The clean air that air filters enable you to breathe gives relief from respiratory problems such as asthma. The packaging on air filters may recommend a replacement frequency. If not, one yearly changeout should be okay under normal circumstances. You’ll need to replace them much more frequently if your area’s air is full of pollutants.
You’ll need to tailor your annual deep cleaning ritual to your situation. Eight items to consider replacing include nonstick cookware, towels, pillows, refrigerator water line filters, toilet brushes, smoke alarm batteries, area rugs, and air filters.
