4 Things You’re Forgetting to Clean and How to Clean Them
You’re definitely not the messy type. You’d never stack filthy dishes in a tower beside the kitchen sink and leave them there. You don’t let your dirty laundry cascade out of the hamper and out onto the floor. You’ll always find the time to toss it in the wash, dry it, fold it and tuck it into your drawers.
Even as a self-professed neat-freak, you could be forgetting to tackle some everyday things, letting them collect dirt, germs and grime. Here is a brief list of four things you might be ignoring, and how to tidy them up:
Your Coffee Maker
Taking a sip of your morning coffee, you grimace. It’s surprisingly bitter. You sweeten it up with lots of white sugar to improve the taste. If you haven’t changed the beans or your brewing technique, the likeliest reason why your coffee tastes bitter all of a sudden is that your equipment is dirty. Your coffeemaker needs to be cleaned.
Start by taking any removable parts of the coffee maker and wash them. They are most likely dishwasher-safe. Then, you should clean your coffee maker by pouring a combination of water and white vinegar into the reservoir, letting it sit and then running it through a brewing cycle. It will get rid of any grime and mineral buildup from hard water. Run it through a few cycles with fresh water to make sure you get the vinegar flavor completely out.
Your MacBook
Unless you’ve been keeping your MacBook hidden away, it’s collected a lot of embarrassing smudges and smears. The majority of them are oily fingerprints that travel across the screen, keyboard and trackpad. Some of them are food splatters from days that you decided to eat near the screen. The origins of other stains remain a mystery.
Don’t let your MacBook stay in this sorry state. Follow the advice of Apple Support and clean your device by grabbing a lint-free cloth lightly-dampened with water and wiping the exterior, making sure not to get any moisture inside the openings. Unplug the power adapter and shut the MacBook down before you start.
Now, the problem is that after a quick clean, your MacBook can collect the same mess in a matter of weeks. To keep it looking good and smudge-free, you can apply a premium vinyl skin over the bottom, top and trackpad. Choose a noticeable upgrade from the standard silver like a white marble or purple carbon fiber pattern — click here to learn more about your options for your MacBook. This way, your device will always look impeccable.
Your Yoga Mat
There’s a reason why the yoga studio has a spray bottle and roll of paper towel handy. Even if you’re not doing an intense class, you still get sweat, germs and dirt all over your mat. Many doctors believe unwashed yoga mats can make users sick because they are covered in contagions, including transferable fungi like athlete’s foot.
If the mat really stinks, fill your bathtub with water and add some white vinegar. Dunk it into the water and leave it in for a minute. Pull it out and let it drip-dry indoors.
Every time you do a class, clean your yoga mat using a spray bottle filled with water, white vinegar and a few drops of essential oil for a pleasant scent. It’s better to use natural cleaners for this task because anything harsher will ruin the quality of your mat and irritate your skin.
Your Makeup Brushes
After a long day of wearing a full face of makeup, you gently wipe it off with makeup remover, wash your face with soap and rinse with warm water. It’s an essential part of your skin care regimen that makes sure you’re not clogging your pores and causing unwanted breakouts.
Sadly, this routine is undermined if you don’t clean your makeup tools. Dirty makeup brushes and sponges are covered in bacteria, oils and dirt built up from weeks of use. Using them over and over again will inevitably lead to clogged pores and skin breakouts, along with messier results.
You should be cleaning your brushes and sponges at least once a month. If you can, wash your eye brushes more frequently than that.
You should clean your makeup brushes with a combination of lukewarm water and liquid dish soap or store-bought makeup brush cleanser. Rinse the bristles, gently squeeze out the moisture with a towel, and then let the brushes air dry by resting them on the edge of a countertop. Standing them up puts the moisture down into the base of the bristles, where it could trap bacteria, ruin the glue and force bristles to fall out. These items are collecting dirt, bacteria and grime right under your nose. If you want to keep your home clean and germ-free, you should add these four items on your to-do list. Tackling them may not look as nice as putting away laundry or throwing out the trash, but it will feel just as satisfying to get them done.
