Cleaning Mistakes You Are Probably Making

hey and welcome back I'm here at the amazing Melissa maker from clean my space because I recently did a podcast and Melissa schooled me that I've been cleaning wrong and my whole life is a lie your whole life is alive did I tell you that I'm here she's here to set the record straight and literally dish the dirt on how to really get rid of the dirt that was kind of close I thought that was good that was poetic that was poetic so Melissa's going to share with us the top 10 huge cleaning mistakes starting with the one I've been telling you to do for the past 15 years this thing do you see how nasty this is yeah I was gonna say why did you bring your used duster to my house like I don't need your dust in planting itself in my house listen because this is the only one I had because they're expensive and I keep buying refills this you guys know I talk about the Swiffer Duster all the time and how much I love it because it has an extending wand and when I talked about this with you you shamed me well oh my God I did not change it she was really shameful no she was nice sorry why why does this suck so hard okay so just like feel the quality of this has it ever broken on you have you ever had to replace it I've had multiples okay but I do use it a lot Fair no problem you have to buy replacements for these all the time I do because look it's gross okay so these products are designed to be disposable they're designed to be replaced of course this is what's called in marketing the Razer and blade method they will sell you the razor so that they can keep selling you a new blade all the time and it's sort of like an annuity business model if you will so just think about that okay but when we have this sort of flimsy product and I mean I love Proctor and Gamble but I'm flying I see as she shakes more cleaning for me to do later boo I love Procter and Gamble but you know I'm just not a fan of this product so um a reason I don't like it is because you have to spend so much money on maintaining this product that really you should only have to buy once and second of all I'm a big you know person against waste and disposable products so that's why I would not recommend this if you wanted a good quality solution something that you can do is you can take a good quality mop pole that you have if you like extendable things I like it because it's extendable right ceilings and cobwebs yeah so if you have a really great quality mop pool that you like you can make what I call a ghost you're you're somewhat crafty I am not crafty at all but let me tell you a microfiber cloth and a hair elastic look at me put this on Pinterest this is what I call the dusting ghost so you can then use your extendable pole exactly exactly and then you can sort of raise it up and you can do your high dust you can even go higher because you're actually using a real like pole that's right like a yeah an extendable not full and it's it's cheaper yeah it is cheaper because you're buying this one so you can wash it hundreds of times then you can even do that with like a a flat or a taco shaped mop with a microfiber pad okay I know I might or may not know so mistakes and I did know this was a mistake because this is just spreading dust I look so freaking cute this is lumiere's girlfriend and that's where it should stop and start this technology made a lot of sense in the year 1600. it is April I just leave my best love I don't want to know about what you enjoy your apron what's your tester unfortunately there's none of that okay but truthfully this is It's just shaky and it can't hold on to dust also they're really I mean there is a way to sort of clean these but who is Ever doing that okay we hate this we hate this and we hate this so this is the mistake this is the mistake the correction is to buy a good quality cleaning tool like there's a microfiber cloth a microfiber mop I feel like traps just microfiber trap eat the dirt yeah microfiber has that electrostatic charge that sort of you know sucks dirt right to it it's going I'm I'm ghosting yeah throw it right on my couch [Laughter] fine biggest mistake number one let me know in the comments below if you're making it let's jump to mistake number two I did know this one okay because every time I wanted to clean in the past the first thing I would do is go to the store and buy new cleaning products like that was somehow going to solve the problem yes yes of course it would just like the time I bought the rowing machine and now it's going to solve the problem of me not feeling like I was in shape and it's collecting dust downstairs yeah or like we have to get organized so we buy a bunch of bins and now we just have bins on top of our mess so you have to organize double the amount of stuff yeah so we don't throw plastic at our clutter and we don't throw cleaning supplies at our dirt yeah you can actually throw really simple things at your dirt so you know that I love DIY cleaning products made with dish soap baking soda vinegar a little bit of rubbing alcohol a little bit of corn starch you know you kind of whip all that stuff up together you put it into spray bottles you label them you know about labeling I I do and I like it homemade cleaner too because I feel almost like I'm crafting and then I'm excited to use the concoction I made but I'm also very lazy yeah high five for being lazy like also very lazy right here so I like having like one product that I love that I kind of can use on every surface yeah so for me that's dish soap and water straight up couple drops of dish soap use too much dish soap cast you actually have to rinse the surface and I like a no rinse product because lazy girls we don't want to rinse anything and you're going to save money I can't tell you how many times I've honestly decluttered people's homes and the messiest homes have the most cleaning supplies that's that's interesting to me I've never done the decluttering but I love that Insight have you ever tallied up I should but it's like it's like under every sink it's like 472. I also have an entire closet dedicated to clean supplies let me move the stuff out of the way so I can open the closet or buying multiple vacuums and mops and gadgets and all of this stuff but never actually using it and I think like I think almost it's sort of like clutter when you have too many cleaning supplies you're overwhelmed and you don't know what to pick so then you just are like I don't know which cleaning products the best so then you don't clean yeah it's like going to a restaurant and getting a Slimmer menu right and then you can just pick your things so much easier it's kind of the same with cleaning and you know I love that you said that it's just so much easier to go to it you know you load up your caddy with whatever you need or your virtual caddy if you're not bringing one with you you can load up your belt loops if you want yeah yeah and then you can just go with one or two products one microfiber cloth and do your business so stop going to the store to buy a bunch of cleaning supplies okay Cass the next mistake is how people clean their hardwood and their laminate floors they're buying steam mops and they're using far too much liquid when they clean their floors yeah yeah water's supposed to be bad right yeah like a little bit of water I always call it a sneeze so on hardwood floor you can use like a sneeze amount of moisture on the floor and then use a microfiber Flathead mop that's sufficient unless there's a spill on the floor or grease or oil or anything like that you're going to have to work a little bit harder but you can spot treat that stuff otherwise you should just do like a fine mist and then you can do a nice you know s pattern with your dry your dry mop and I do love my spray mop but I I used to have a steamer and I had like you know vinyl planks in the basement yeah and it kind of warped the glue and they all started lifting and then I have laminate floors and the edges started bubbling and I know people have ruined their hardwood floors too they're dull now they're using too much water so I want to tell you something I asked this question to Armstrong which is a flooring manufacturer company who actually provided the floors we have in this house when we were doing our Dream Home Renault series and they said to me because I said okay why is everyone so obsessed with steam mops what's the deal and can I use them on your floor and they're like people are obsessed with them because it's exactly like your your earlier point about Gadget you know just buying the thing to solve the problem but they said it behooves the manufacturer of those tools to sell them and tell you they do a great job but they're not the people who are manufacturing the floors so you have competing needs here right you've got the floor manufacturers who want you to use their products and take great care of the floors in the way that they determine you should and then you have the people who want to sell you the steam mops and they're going to tell you it's perfectly safe but it's not it's not steam mops ruin floors tile fine but it's tile is fine other than tile do not use a steam wrap if you have hardwood or laminate really the best bet is a flat head slash Taco shaped microfiber mop um like you know Maker's mop or like Libman has mops or whoever you prefer doesn't really matter to me I you know I love mine I should buy a maker's mop bad and Melissa I'm shamed over here for sure it's it's hands down the best way to clean the floor yeah okay so let me know if you're doing old school bucket and mop or if you're using a steamer oh that's really bad so the big mistake number four is using really abrasive cleaners on like tubs and tiles and toilet seats oh okay I gotta hear about the toilet seat but you're right abrasive products huge mistakes so I always say start low and then level up your cleaning product and Tool so again I always start with the dish soap and the water in the case of the toilet I will use something a little more powerful right um but that said I always test and I always recommend that you test your product on a hidden area first just to make sure that you don't have any damage and the second you notice damage stop and find an alternative so if you have like a fiberglass tub or something along those lines you want to make sure that the product that you're using says it's safe to use on that surface specifically let's talk about your toilet see what happened yeah so I sprayed it with a bleach spray and I walked away which is fine for some things but a plastic toilet seat it actually ate the way at the toilet seat so now it looks stained all like stains are good it looks nasty yeah I was trying to clean it but now it looks gross and and I've heard this so many times people like my toilet seat looks so bad it's actually because you're using abrasive cleaners which is eating away at the plastic so abrasive and then bleach would be corrosive so roast yeah those are the two things that are going on there either using something abrasive or corrosive but toilet seats are one of those funny things where you you have to actually use quite a gentle product on them to get them clean and unless you have heavy duty buildup on the toilet you know you probably need nothing more than just a simple disinfecting bathroom cleaner yeah and I don't use bleach in the house so that's just me we can talk about that it's okay yeah can that be mistake number five I always thought my mom was like old school like bleach everything and like use Windex on things here's what you don't do don't mix bleach and ammonia you don't like sleet with anything like you can mix it with water if you're using it but bleach is bleach does not play well with others it doesn't my cousin Tanya if you're watching this I'm going to throw you under the bus she closed your bathroom door she bleached everything she used Windex she had a hard time breathing do you know what makes chlorine gas I do no I do know that almost done no I do know that sorry Tanya so it's like dumb ways to die so many dumb ways to die don't mix Windex and bleach or any ammonia any glass cleaner yeah vinegar too really yeah yeah so um there are plenty of stories you can probably go on the Poison Control website and you know read all about them but there are lots of scary things that can happen with bleach that's one of the reasons why we stay away from it in the house right we don't have to just because my mom did it doesn't mean I have to bleach everything yeah but my head smells like a pool doing that well it does bring on summer Vibes but just because just because our parents cleaned a certain way or with a certain product or certain detergent or certain whatever doesn't mean that that's the best thing for us now technology has changed right Lumiere she's making fun of my duster over there you're right I'm giving up the bleach fine I'm giving up the bleach it's a bad mistake let me know if you're also feeling inspired to keep up the bleach in the comments below one of the first things I learned when I started cleaning professionally which sounds crazy because you know me like your house is spotless okay it's Flawless one of the first I nothing not the first things that I learned was that you had to clean from the top to the bottom because the way I used to clean and this is the mistake is that I would clean here and then I wouldn't notice something there and I would see something there and then there'd be a shiny thing in the corner and then I would just be like wasting my time all over the place and stuff from up here would fall down and then I'd have to re-clean a surface and it's just wasting time I learned this from you because I used to like oh the floor's dirty I have to vacuum and then I'd vacuum and then I'd be like oh I should dust while I'm at it and now I have to re-vacuum and now I'm ruthless like I'm a monster when I'm cleaning I throw things on the floor because I know that I'm just gonna vacuum the floor after so it doesn't matter and it kind of it like gives you the safety you're right the floors like it's last and you know I you're right every cleaning professional does that for a reason so why are we not following that top to bottom yeah I always say the snow falls from the top to the bottom so so does dust so does everything else so just work with gravity don't work against it honey so don't vacuum first vacuum last and then mopping obviously after vacuuming this next one this big mistake I feel bad because I know my mother does this and she always taught me to do this and so I feel bad saying it but she always told me to dust my furniture with pledge or like a Polish okay can we talk about this this is a mistake so again I wanted to share that there's been a lot of advances in cleaning technology and also our furniture has changed the finishes the materials all of that has changed so we have to re-jig the way that we clean things and the products and tools that we use in my personal opinion and I would love to know what's the clutterbug audience thinks about this I just think furniture polish is something that we can gladly Skip by in the cleaning aisle and just never touch again it smells nice but you know maybe because I have cheap furniture but I find like it's streaky and then it shows fingerprints and then I can just never it's like I just dusted this from The Neverending Story yeah yeah for some reason like a multi-purpose cleaner it's just it's over and it's nice and I don't have to why yeah okay so I'll tell you why so furniture polish is designed for wood for wood if it's solid wood varnished furniture with a high polished finish you can use furniture polish so it's got a very specific Target type of furniture if you will so I'm looking around my room here and there like there are pretty much no surfaces that I would be using it on in here like my ears would but I think plastic I don't know so for some reason I'm like it is solid but it's like why isn't it working so let's talk about what furniture polish is okay it's like a mixture of silicone oil that kind of thing so you're spraying it on and it is street it's streaky it's leaving an on even finish that's what you're getting right and then what happens is you build it up layer over layer over layer so you get this unevenness that leads to patchiness it's not absorbing either so you touch it now you got fingerprints so in my opinion you don't use it what I do instead I use a microfiber cloth a little bit of that dish soap and water and that is how I polish all of my wood and all of my furniture and it looks beautiful and you know what if the furniture needs to be revived or rejuvenated that's when I would go ahead and buy like a proper you know like oil-based yeah like like a nourisher yeah like something well yeah you know like for my cutting board for example I have like a special cutting board oil so if my table needed that which it doesn't I would use something like that not a Furniture well we're not pledging it has to go it has to just die let it die it's the whole category like furniture polish goodbye big mistake cast one of the mistakes that I see people make is they get out the role of paper towel to clean things that they could be cleaning with a proper cleaning cloth like a microfiber cloth case in point windows and mirrors and paper towel yeah I I don't use paper towel a lot but when I do I don't know why I grab it it's because we think we have to well paper towel is so convenient I mean it's in a roll it's on your counter it's grabbable it's specifically designed to be easy to use but it does leave fluffs everywhere and it does make streaks it does and the thing is it's designed to be again a one and done product so when we think about like the intent of the product or the tool rather that we're using you know a flat weave microfiber cloth that is specifically designed to clean a mirror and leave a streak free finish so it doesn't leave lint it's a non-linting cloth it doesn't leave streaks behind it can lift up the dirt it is purpose built for that job yeah and I guess paper towels are purposely to absorb so you're just absorbing the clean that's all they're doing absorbing and then there's nothing left to actually clean that's right and the material that they're made out of is by nature like plenty so it leaves lint so we're just wasting products and making money worse that's bad for the environment and it is it is bad for the environment we use paper towel in the house but we use it sparingly right okay so microfiber microfiber everything is this is what you're saying but a different kind so like a flat weave for Mirror and Glass and like the soft one for dusting because it Electro traps it yeah electric I'm gonna I'm gonna work I don't know yeah I think you know what it makes sense I get it you get it we all get it I didn't know this until you said it but I love that it sucks exactly or like a big vacuum I love it yeah paper towels nope microfiber yes when I professionally cleaned people's homes I would always see the toilet bowl brush sitting in like a little soupy toilet bowl brush holder and that liquid that builds up I mean we know what's living in the liquid but the other thing is it also can lead to odors and it's just generally unattractive unless you're in a fight with someone and then you just kind of wow why is it pink because it's like it looks like it should be pretty but it's not so my toilet brush has like some goo water and then it's pink okay okay I'm gonna tell you about the pink I'm going to tell you is it bad because I don't want to know every toilet brush is pink in my house it is it's bad okay get me get me hit me okay so the trouble is not allowing your toilet bowl brush to drip dry anything in the bathroom that is left wet is going to grow or it's no no it's actually it's actually a bacteria so the pinky orangey stuff in your bathroom is a bacteria that thrives in warm damp environments just like your bathroom and once it's there it's impossible to get rid of so you have to continue to clean you have to continue to dehumidify the space so we can talk about that but yeah in your bathroom letting that toilet bowl brush drip dry okay is just the easiest thing to do you swish your toilet you clean it and then you just do it I've seen you do it so many times in your videos and I'm just like lazy and I throw it back in the pink festering bacteria that is the holder yeah I know I've been doing that I don't know podcast I wish I could explain it to you I'm gonna stop okay okay so the pink stuff so the pink stuff is harmless okay don't like don't stick your hand yeah lick it don't do that I'm not saying that okay but what I am saying is it's not going to kill you if it's just in your presence but it's easy to get rid of so what you want to do to keep it at bait is to ventilate so turn on your fan during showers at least 30 minutes after showers or open your windows whatever you have to do hang your towels to dry drip dry your toilet brush drift around the toilet brush squeegee your shower like just do everything you can to get the moisture out as quickly as possible because you're saying like the pink stuff is hard to get rid of the pink the pink stuff is hard to get rid of it's cleanable okay but it'll just come back as soon as it feels like it's in a little tropical destination I mean it's pretty but it's got to go yeah it's not pretty and it does have to go just because it's pink doesn't mean it's pretty I really like pink Melissa but not the pink bacteria growing in my bathroom okay so the very last cleaning mistake I feel like I've learned not to do this from you but I see this on Tick Tock and like variations of it what is happening why are they putting an entire thing of fabuloso and then a whole thing of shaving cream and then baking soda and then flushing it down the toilet and we've already talked about the Poison Control issues right so I don't know people are doing it to get views cast listen we're both in the social media business we understand when times get desperate people do crazy things and toilets are gross but I think like flushing seven dollars worth of cleaners away seven that's like 25 but no it's absolutely unnecessary that's the mistake okay it's unnecessary to overuse product and it's unnecessary and wrong quite frankly to put product on a surface and wipe it off right away okay so I've learned this from you we don't just spray and wipe like spray and wipe we let the product do the work yeah because we are lazy yeah okay so when you use too much product you're wasting money and you actually have to work harder Let Me Explain If I put three times the amount of baking soda in my sink to scrub it clean then I have to spend more time rinsing it right and then baking soda kind of leaves that fine powder it really does if I use too much let's say dish soap to clean my floor well now my floor is sticky so then I have to do more work and clean my floor to get rid of the stickiness that's why the Goldilocks amount of product is always what you should be following or a tested recipe by someone who you know and trust who might be wearing a green and white swirly shirt I don't know the other thing I would say about putting your product on a surface is when you apply it to a surface you want to let it sit and do its work like we said we're lazy but not bleach but not of course not bleach we don't use bleach in this house but what you would do you would put the product on whatever kind of product it is aside from something like a bleach and this is of course after you've read the package right you want to let the product sit the liquid in the product is going to start breaking down whatever sticky stuff is on the surface it just it loosens the dirt for you if there's a soap uh component of your product the surfactant in there is going to lift that dirt to this Earth so science yes I'm getting sciency here because this is important thank you let me let me let me go more nerdy if it's an enzyme then the cleaning enzyme is going to start breaking down whatever it is that you have to try and clean it literally digests it for you it like eats it eats it like if someone gave you a pizza and was like you got to eat it in 30 seconds you wouldn't be able to do that you'd like that's so brilliant so your cleaners are literally eating the dirt and you've got to give them time to finish their meal and you're disinfectant I mean if if you want to get really micro about it like a disinfectant's job you spray it on the surface the disinfectant product has to go it then has to like rip apart the envelope of the cell we all know about that because of covid please and thanks right it's got to expose it to air that doesn't happen you know like that it takes a few minutes so that's why when you read the product label and it tells you how long the product needs to sit for and you follow those product instructions you will be absolutely masterful and you will be lazy yes okay so we're let using less product and leaving it on longer yes yes like she's so good she's like a the more you know like a scientist over here I'm excited to clean my house I'm not I'm lying did I just make you excited to clean your house I'm so excited than I was before I started chatting with you about cleaning the house because we have to do it man and why successful to me we just let's do it right if we gotta do it let's do it right stop wasting money and time and effort that we don't have to yeah and only do it once a week [Laughter] love you thank you so much so much I hope you loved these huge cleaning mistakes and that you've learned something I've learned something she's a legit scientific genius and I'm feeling inspired to clean thank you guys so much for watching make sure you head over to Melissa maker and learn all her amazing tricks I'm gonna put the link to her down below and we'll see you guys next time hey guys thanks so much for those of you who have stayed to the end working with Melissa was awesome and her husband Chad I forgot how fun it is to do like old school YouTube collabs we used to call them collabs like collaborations where you got together with another YouTuber and you made a video together and so this was fun now Melissa lives about three and a half hours from me so I got to do that in person but I think I want to do collabs with other YouTubers too either helping them organize their space or I don't know just do an old school collab with them so I would love to know in the comments below a YouTuber that you think I could do a collab with and I'll reach out to them and also just let me know your favorite YouTubers I love like learning about new channels that I didn't know about and meeting new people who are also doing content creation so let me know in the comments below who you think would be cool to do a surprise makeover for Maybe on YouTube or just hang out with them and make a video together I appreciate your help and thanks so much for watching I'll see you guys next time

Channel: Clutterbug

Views: 368,753

Keywords: Melissa Maker, Clean My Space, Cleaning, Clean, Cleaning Mistakes, clutterbug, cleaning tips, house cleaning, common cleaning mistakes, how to clean, clean like a pro, how to clean like a professional, how to clean like a pro, cleaning mistakes, how NOT to clean, why my house is messy, dirty house, steam mops, how to clean wood floors, how to clean wood floors and make them shine, best cleaning products 2023, cleaning mistakes to avoid, cleaning mistakes at home

Id: BEel9jLooos

Length: 26min 38sec (1598 seconds)

Published: Wed Apr 26 2023