How often should you clean these 5 common household items?
Spring (cleaning) time is here!
If you are looking to do a deep clean of your home with the new season, here is a step-by-step guide for how, and how often, you should wash these common household products.
“Good Morning America” teamed up with the product review experts at Wirecutter to come up with a rough guide for some of your most commonly-used household items, like your coffee maker or microwave.
Wirecutter’s guide is largely based on manufacturer's recommendations and their own testing, but your routine should also depend on other factors, such as how often you use an item.
Check out their breakdown below for rough guidelines on how often you should wash your vacuum cleaner, washing machine (yes, you should wash this too!), coffee maker, microwave and sofa.
Ganda Suthivarakom, of the product review site Wirecutter, shared some pro tips with “GMA,” to keep in mind as you spring clean your space.
When it comes to microwave “explosions,” or when you or younger kids forget to cover the food when you pop it in, Suthivakarom shared a tip for tackling the hard-to-clean spots that may be left behind.
“What we recommend is you nuke a little bowl of water for a couple of minutes and that will help to steam things loose and you can wipe down,” Suthivakarom said.
For the washing machine, Suthivakarom recommends using the sanitize cycle in your machine and either fill it with bleach or use cleaning tablets specially made for your appliance.
Her pro tip for keeping it clean? “Keep the door open, which helps get rid of moisture.”
Finally, one of the most important items to keep clean that can be easy to overlook is the coffee maker.
One recent study found that 50 percent of coffee maker reservoirs that were swabbed had mold and yeast, and 9 percent had coliform bacteria.
Suthivakarom recommends cleaning the machine, approximately once a month, with half water and half white vinegar and running it until the vinegar smell is gone.
