There is nothing more deflating than to spend time cleaning your house and it still not look clean. Let’s discuss 12 reasons your house still looks dirty.
Hey there friends. Today we are talking about cleaning. But specifically, we are talking about the things that can make your house look dirty or messy even after you have cleaned or things that make your house look dirty even when it is fairly tidy. Here are 12 reasons your house still looks dirty.
Dirty Baseboards and Corners
I am going to share a big secret to making your house look cleaner. Get down on your hands and knees. Wait, don’t click away! I know the idea of getting down on your hands and knees to clean is really unappealing! But I am always amazed at all the dirt and grime that is missed when you don’t get down to floor level. When we vacuum, sweep, and mop, dust, and dirt gets pushed towards baseboards and corners where it accumulates and settles. I’m going to give you an embarrassing peek into my own home. I hadn’t done a deep clean in my Master Bath for about a month. I had wiped down the bath, toilet, shower, and sinks, but I hadn’t mopped or descaled the glass in four weeks for no reason that I was just being lazy. At first glance, it doesn’t look bad.
But then I got down on my hands and knees to deep clean the floor and here is what you can see. Dirt and grime in the crevice of the tile wall and baseboards. I had to get down and zoom in so you can see it, but it’s there. I always get down on the floor and clean the perimeter of the room, baseboards and corners to make sure I pick up all the dirt.
Not Re-Caulking
Caulk is used to seal the seams of your house – like where wood and drywall meet. It prevents bugs, water, and air from entering your home. Silicone caulk is used to seal around your cooktop range, sinks, and often tubs. Over time, the materials in your house settle and flex. Temperature changes outside cause your house to expand and contract. After years of this, you may notice gaps in molding, baseboards, sinks, tubs, showers, etc. You may notice that the caulk flakes off or has shrunk over the years. The cracks can make your house look aged and dirty. Just take a look at an area in my bathroom. I put some fresh caulk on the molding in about five minutes, but it took years off the wall. If you have gauges in the wood, you can fill it in with a little wood filler then paint over it. Take a look at all these uses for caulk in your home.
Clutter
Clutter…everyone has it! My maternal grandmother was a master at handling clutter! Her house was small and simple, but beautiful. Not only was she always cleaning it, but she constantly purged. I remember her having garage sales multiple times a year in order to expel the clutter from her home.
Clutter is any collection of things that are disorganized. Clutter is the opposite of clean. It creates a frenzied, messy appearance in your home. It also creates more work for you. The more things you have, the more things you have to put away. If you want to spend less time picking up and clearing away surfaces, get rid of the clutter! The most important thing about keeping a clean house is having a place for everything. When you have too many things you will find you don’t have room for them. Surfaces, cupboards, and closets will be spilling over with things and will resort to stacking and unsightly piles. Even when decorating, remember less is more. Too many decorative things makes a house look messy too.
If you want to get started, take a look at my post, 50 Things To Throw Away Right Now. Not all of us are willing to do the Konmari method of decluttering. That’s fine. Start small if you must by setting decluttering goals every week. There are even apps for your phone that challenge you to do one decluttering activity a day in just a few minutes. If you are hesitant to throw things away because you spent good money on it, read my post 8 Places to Cash In Clutter. No matter how you decide to start, set some goals, and make decluttering a habit.
Dirty Walls
Walls get dirty. I’m always surprised at how dirty they can actually get. They are easy to scuff and scratch. In kitchens, you may find splatters and drips on them. Believe it or not, these unattractive marks can make your house look dirty when it really isn’t. That’s why spot cleaning walls should be on your seasonal deep clean checklist.
You’ll be glad to know cleaning walls isn’t hard. I will add that flat paint is harder to clean up than satin or eggshell finishes. All you need to clean painted walls is some warm water and mild detergent. If you need a little more scrubbing powder you can add baking soda and scrub gently.
Lastly, keep in mind that paint dulls over time. If walls are really dingy a fresh coat of paint can do wonders for a room facelift.
Windows
For years I underestimated how much windows made a difference in your home. A while back we were touring some new homes and I couldn’t figure out why those houses were so bright and airy. It made the house feel so clean, fresh, and open. It was the windows. The windows were clean. Honestly, that’s why I don’t have blinds in my house. It kills so much natural light and when you kill the natural light it can make your home feel dark and dank. There is a reason why when you look at gorgeous homes on Pinterest none of them have blinds! I’m not throwing any shade at you if you have blinds. (No pun intended) Lots of people are in a position where they need extra privacy. I get that. I just think it is just important to know that there is a trade-off for it.
Lastly, dirty windows are also a mood killer. Dirty windows, including window screens, create a haze on your windows which again filter the natural light coming through your windows. It is amazing how clean windows can make the house feel cleaner and brighter. I find my first-floor windows are much dirtier than my second story. This is because they are closer to the dirt and soil in the ground. I recommend cleaning your windows seasonally or every six months. You can hire a service or use a pole washer like this below.
Paper Clutter
Paper clutter is the devil! I am a pen and paper girl. I prefer using a paper planner rather than a digital one. Honestly, I don’t like whiteboards and command stations. I prefer paper lists. And can I be honest? I forget about paperless bills! Out of sight out of mind. I prefer using paper to organize my life. Of course, that means that I also have to deal with the paper that accumulates from those things.
Paper clutter can make your house look messy and chaotic. Toss junk mail in the trash as soon as it comes in. Set a time every week to open and shred mail so it doesn’t pile up. It baffles me how quickly paper can stack up. No, you don’t have to save every drawing your kids do. It’s okay to throw them away. Make a folder for the bills you need to attend to and when you are done, shred them. Set seasonal goals to go through file cabinets and see what can be shredded or thrown away. Store coupons in a folder or envelope.
Unmade Beds
Why should I make my bed when I’m just going to sleep in it again in 12 hours? Isn’t this one of life’s greatest conundrums? Believe me, I ask myself this a lot. What’s the point? The point is that making beds makes bedrooms look so much cleaner! You can have a clean bedroom but having an unmade bed makes the entire room look messy! I think of my bedroom almost like a sanctuary. It’s a private space or maybe more specifically, a private retreat. Unlike the common areas of the house where toys and shoes are spread in frenzied disarray, my bedroom is a place that is just for me to retreat. So with that, I want it to be a quiet, calm place. Making your bed brings calm and order to your bedroom. I also feel satisfied slipping into a clean, neat bed with crisp, fresh linens at the end of a hard day. It’s soothing. So maybe consider doing it as a treat for yourself when you are tired later. I’ve learned it only takes five minutes to make my bed.
Dirty Dishes
One of my least favorite chores is doing the dishes. It is tempting to put it off, but it is so overwhelming when they pile up. Even if the rest of your kitchen is clean, a sink full of dirty dishes makes your kitchen look dirty. Not only that but it makes your kitchen stinky which kills any clean vibe you had going. Frankly, I feel like a dirty stove also brings down the entire state of your kitchen. And personally I feel like when my kitchen is dirty, the whole house feels dirty. Maybe because the kitchen is the heart of the house.
I have found the best way to deal with dishes is to clean up after every meal. As a stay at home mom, I wash dishes three times a day! It’s a pain, but they’ll pile up otherwise, and letting dishes sit too long make the job harder. Food will get stuck on and you’ll have to resort to soaking dishes before you can wash them. I always try to remove all the food from dirty dishes before they go into my sink. I scrape the food out and rinse them really well. You may only decide to wash once a day. Whatever works for you! But the key to keeping a clean house is to make sure you are staying on top of chores.
Unstyled Shelves
Shelves are wonderful for collecting small objects or books in one place, but they can also make a house look messy if they aren’t organized. Also, having too many objects on your shelf can make it looked cluttered. The more things you have on a self, the less of a visual impact it makes.
Consider putting small or unsightly objects in baskets or boxes to hide them. Group books into small stacks and hold books straight and upright with bookends. You can place books vertically or horizontally, but make certain they are in neat stacks. Leave plenty of space between objects. Set large sculpture pieces or objects d’art by themselves. Showcase smaller items in pairs or threes. Lean artwork against the back wall of the shelf and keep an eye out for balance and symmetry.
Mounds of Laundry
Anyone who knows me knows one of my big pet peeves is piles of laundry! Whether it be dirty clothes on the floor or piles of clothes that need to be folded, I can’t stand to look at laundry. Laundry that isn’t tamed is a sure way to make your home look unkept. If you have a family, I’m sure you feel like laundry is one of those endless chores! Between linens, towels, and clothes, there is always laundry that needs to be washed, folded, ironed, or put away. That means that there are lots of opportunities for laundry to pile up and create a mess.
Make sure you have a hamper in rooms were clothes accumulate. Hang and fold clothes immediately after drying. Not only does this reduce wrinkles, it stops piles of washed, but unfolded clothes from accumulating. I set a timer every day for folding and putting away clothes. Keep a stain stick in your hamper for quick stain treatments. This also reduces the need to layout clothes for treating stains in your washroom. Consider a laundry schedule. For instance, maybe you wash all the bedding on Saturdays, towels on Sundays, and members of the household have a specific laundry day. You can also invest in a laundry sorter to make washing easier.
A few years back, I discovered how much better it is to store clothing vertically in drawers. You can get way more items into a drawer and it helps to ensure you don’t forget about clothes you own. Seeing it vertically helps you to put more of your clothes into your rotation.
Unused Products
Let me first say, I am totally guilty of this one. All one has to do is take a look in my pantry and you will see I have a bad habit of letting unused products pile up. This also includes products like toiletries and cosmetics. This problem is almost always created first while shopping. You see a bargain or perhaps you think you might need it, so you buy it and it goes unused once you get it home. Before you know it, you have shelves full of canned goods and toiletries that are just taking up precious space and making your house feel cluttered. I think that this is rooted in shopping impulses, but I also think that we need to be real with ourselves about whether or not we will actually use these items. It is hard to pitch unused things in the trash when you spent good money on them, so consider giving them to someone else or donating them.
Soiled, Dirty or Dusty Fabrics
The last reason that makes your house look dirty is soiled fabrics and dirty fabrics. Look at how much dust accumulates on wood furniture. That is how much is accumulating on your fabrics. It’s really important to vacuum and spot clean the fabrics in your home. Fabrics wear a lot faster than woods and as you already probably know, they seem to be a magnet for stains. Soiled, dusty fabrics can make your house look dirty even when it’s clean. That’s why it is so important to vacuum them regularly and spot clean. I talked to a few who maids that I know and they stated fabrics should be vacuumed twice weekly. Drapes can be done less often. However, they suggested that houses with indoor pets like cats and dogs should be vacuumed even more.
That’s it. I hope you are inspired to get cleaning. In the comments below, I’d love to hear what your most dreaded chore is. Confession, mine is descaling the shower!
