HOW DOES A DIRTY HOUSE AFFECT YOUR HEALTH?

Coming into flu season each year we are all on high alert to stay away from people who are coughing and sneezing. Little do we know that one of our best lines of defence is a clean home! Not only will a clean home prevent illness, a clean home can also be good for your mental health.

Cleaning Your Kitchen

We don’t recommend giving your house a deep clean every day, however, your kitchen is a different story. Your kitchen is a breeding ground for all types of germs as it comes into contact with various foods, liquids and objects every day.

To help prevent stomach viruses, giving all your cooking equipment a wash as soon as you’re done with it as well as a good wipe down and spray of disinfectant on all counter tops.

An area often forgotten about in kitchen cleaning are the floors. Along with your equipment and counter tops, your floors are exposed to all the germs that spread during cooking. With bits of sauce, liquids, meat and veg that fall onto the ground (sometimes unbeknown to us) our floors then become another breeding ground for germs. It’s especially important to keep your floors clean when you have pets as they can get sick from uncooked or dirty food scraps they find on the floor.

Unfortunately, kitchen floors often miss a spot on kitchen cleaning check lists. Along with your equipment and counter tops, your floors are exposed to all the germs that spread during cooking. With bits of sauce, liquids, meat and veg that fall onto the ground (sometimes unbeknown to us) our floors then become another breeding ground for germs. It’s especially important to keep your floors clean when you have pets as they can get sick from uncooked or dirty food scraps they find on the floor.

Cleaning Your Bathrooms

You don’t need to clean your shower or bath more than once a week as the water you use to wash with often washes many of your germs away with it. However, Your sink, toilet, floors and counters need to be cleaned more regularly. In an ideal world these would be cleaned daily as they come into contact with bodily fluids and other germs without being washed away. A quick wipe down of these areas can be done in under 5 minutes at the end of each night to prevent the growth of any germs left behind from the day.

Cleaning Your Floors

Clean floors play a massive role in your health, especially if you have carpet. Although your floors may look clean they can actually be a ticking time bomb. With food crumbs, dust, mites, pollen, mould and other allergens laying dormant in your carpet fibres or even on your hard wood floors, once walked through these then become airborne causing respiratory issues.

You don’t have to clean your floors daily but giving your floors a vacuum every other day a mopping once a week will significantly improve your overall health and reduce allergy symptoms.

Cleaning Tables and Counters

Something often forgotten in everyday cleaning can be tables and counters that aren’t used for food prep. That’s because we don’t see the things we place on these surfaces as ‘dirty’.

Let’s say you use your hallway table as the place you put your bag at the end of the day, you put your mail their before sorting it and you put your mobile there to charge – no need to worry right? Wrong! These items are much dirtier than you think.

Did you know that handbags or work bags and mobile phones can be dirtier than your toilet seat? Due to the number of germs and surfaces these items come into contact with and the lack of cleaning they receive these items can often be the dirtiest items in your home.

Cleaning your counter tops and tables (as well as the bottom of your bag and your phone) at the end of each day will prevent the growth of any harmful germs in your home.

Cleaning your mind

We’ve all heard people say a cluttered house is a cluttered mind, but what does a cluttered mind do to your health?

A messy house can actually impact your sleep as your mind can find it hard to shut off when it believes it has ‘unfinished’ tasks e.g. house cleaning. Sleep plays a massive role in your immunity, stress levels, concentration and overall mood. When your sleep if effected all of these areas of your life can be negatively effected.
Having a messy house can make a person feel as though their life is getting ‘out of control’. When people feel areas of their life are not ‘in control’ it can lead to stress and frustration. Prolonged stress can lead to anxiety, depression and break down of relationships.

It is always important to remember there is a strong connection between mind and body, one is not healthy without the other.

How Does A Dirty House Affect Your Health?