The laundry room is usually the cleaning center of your home: otherwise known as a utility room or a cleansing space, the laundry room allows you to clean any and every part of your home, from laundry to dishes and more. The laundry room sees a lot of dirt, grime, and muck trek through its walls, and because of that, it can get dirty in a jiffy. Cleaning the room where you clean everything is just as important as the rest of your home, but will take some extra forethought to make sure you’re cleaning everything correctly. Knowing how to clean the laundry room will help you keep your home in top shape.
Cleaning a laundry requires taking a few different steps in order to target every type of mess. Dusting, sweeping, mopping, odor removing: all of this will require attention and elbow grease in order to maintain. You may even need to use more challenging cleaning techniques like bleach in order to truly scour out dirt, something that needs some experience to use safely. Luckily, our team has spent time researching the best trustworthy cleaning routines for your laundry room that will help keep your laundry room in top condition year-round.
Wiping Down Your Laundry Room
Materials Needed:
Microfiber Cloths
Distilled White Vinegar
Bleach
Disinfecting Wipes
Baking Soda
Vinegar
Wiping down the laundry room is one of the best ways to get your laundry room clean regularly. Standard disinfecting wipes can help take off dirt, dust, and other debris that collects in your home. For seriously built in stains, you can spray a layer of vinegar over any dirt and allow it to sit before scrubbing it clean.
Hard water stains creeping up along the inside of your baseboards? Apply a paste of baking soda and vinegar to caked-in stains and allow to rest overnight. Scrub with hot water the following morning and dry with a towel. For extreme stains or discoloration, you can apply a highly diluted bleach solution to very small spots. Rinse with water and make sure no food or pet is exposed to the area until it’s dried.
Cleaning Your Washing Machines
Materials Needed:
Distilled White Vinegar
Washing Machine Cleaning Solution
Disinfecting Wipes
Cleaning out your washing machines isn’t just part of cleaning your laundry room, it’s also a part of keeping your clothes clean. Eliminating build up in hoses, pipes, and other waters helps ensure that you’re actually cleaning your clothes instead of just washing them in dirty water. You can start by running some commercial washing machine cleaning solution through your washing machine and run a cycle of hot water through the machine.
For a natural solution, you can repeat with two cups of distilled white vinegar, running a hot cycle through your washing machine twice with water.
Wipe down the exterior of this machine with a disinfecting wipe to prevent dust and other build-up from accumulating on your plumbing. Make sure to clean out your lint trap monthly on the dryer to clean out the opening for lint to gather and vacuum to thoroughly suck out additional lint and damage. Check for different stains or build up inside your dryer to make sure nothing is staining inside your dryer, as that can eventually stain your clothes or spread to them. Wipe down the inside and outside of your dryer with water and vinegar and dry.
Mopping Your Laundry Room
Materials Needed:
Bleach
Water
Vinegar
Mop
Towels
Mopping the laundry room is the easiest way to scour the floor and cleanse any and all dirt or build up. For the laundry room, it’s best to head straight for the heavy chemicals: bleach will do the trick. Take a diluted bleach solution into the laundry room after making sure there’s not any pets or little ones that could get in the way. Dip your mop in and work slowly across the surface of the floor, being careful not to allow water to pool up while still treating the entirety of the surface. Once you’ve finished, allow to air dry. Then, go back over the surface with a mop soaked just in plain water. Towel dry any excesses off.
If you’d rather not use bleach, you can turn to a mixture of vinegar and water instead. Mix 1/4th cup vinegar into your water bucket and repeat the mopping process until your floor is sanitized. You can add in a few drops of essential oil for scent as needed.
Sanitizing Your Cleaning Appliances
Materials Needed:
Mild Dish Soap
Vinegar
Bleach
Microfiber Cloths
Cleaning the laundry room doesn’t just involve cleaning your washer and dryer. There are other important appliances that are a part of the laundry room process, including irons, sinks, or steamers as well. To clean out irons, fill the iron reservoir with distilled water and boil to clean out the interior vents. When cool, scrub the outside with diluted dish detergent and a sponge before air drying. Do not soak- you’ll ruin the electricity that helps heat the iron up. Repeat the same process for your steamer, and add a little vinegar to the water reservoir there in order to dissolve any build up inside the machine. You can scrub your sink out with soap, bleach, vinegar, or just plain water; whatever will help you feel cleanest will work!
Maintaining Your Laundry Room
The laundry room doesn’t need a regular cleaning, but the more often you clean it the easier it will be to keep it from accumulating particularly damaging build up or other stains. Mopping your laundry room should take place at least once a week, more in winter months when salt and other dirt might get tracked in. Clean out your laundry machines and appliances monthly to prevent any buildup from accumulating inside of them, but don’t be afraid to wipe everything down more regularly or whenever you suspect a mess might be gathering.
The laundry room is an under appreciated part of your home, and keeping it clean is an important part of keeping a generally clean home. Follow these tips on how to clean the laundry room and have your home is clean every day of the year!
