5 Modern-Day Housecleaning Challenges We All Face

Housecleaning has evolved significantly over the past 100 years, but so did our homes, our technology and our daily lives. If you are struggling to keep your Maryland home clean, you are not alone. Housekeeping is an acquired skill, and just when you think you’ve mastered it, something throws off your routine. You might think with all these gadgets and cleaning appliances we own these days, it’s a shame to have a messy home, but it’s not that simple. Just like our ancestors struggled with some things, we have our own housecleaning challenges that we face on a daily basis.

More Space to Clean

If you’ve ever lived in a house built in the early 1900s, you are probably familiar with the small rooms, cramped kitchens and narrow hallways. Master bedroom? Bathroom suite? There were no such things back in the day. It was an inconvenience in some ways, but it was also a blessing in disguise. Just think of all the tile and tub surface in your master bath you have to scrub. Or all the guest bedrooms in your basement that you have to clean even though no one uses them. Modern homes definitely have more corners for spiders to weave their webs.

Electronics and Appliances

These days, we are surrounded by technology in our homes. From TVs and gaming consoles to the surround sound, laptops and spot heaters, devices big and small are collecting dust at alarming rates. Various small appliances, while being handy and saving us time cooking or housekeeping, do also require regular cleaning. And if you’ve ever spent hours scrubbing the bottom oven tray or the inside of a washing machine, you know that’s not how you want to spend your Sunday.

New Materials

Our homes are filled with plastics, wood, vinyl, tile and textiles. While most furniture, floor coverings and other household items are designed with ease of maintenance in mind, they often have different recommendations for cleaning and maintenance. This not only means keeping 10 different cleaning products on hand, but also remembering which surface requires what treatment. Of course, you can just use your favorite product on everything, but then you risk fading, discoloration, staining and other issues listed under the “warnings” section in the item’s manual.

The Abundance of Cleaners

It seems like there is a cleaner for everything these days—and not just one cleaner, but dozens of different brands. Some are pet-friendly, others are “green” or oxygen-activated. Navigating the cleaning industry’s advertisements and claims is a science of its own. While it’s great to have a variety of choices, shopping for cleaning products often turns into a gamble with you grabbing whatever seems to claim the best value for the money. Sometimes, this leads to buying products that don’t do the job well and discourage you from cleaning.

Busy Lives

Ok, we are not saying that people weren’t busy 50 or 100 years ago—“busy” is timeless. If anything, we have it easy with the availability of personal vehicles that make it faster to get from place to place. However, there are some things that have changed since the 1900s when it comes to our time management, and the big one is more distractions. Things were simpler back in the days when there were just TVs and stationary phones. Nowadays, it probably takes you at least 30 minutes to go through your email inbox, social media notifications and regular mail when you get home. It’s easier to put things off for “later” when your devices and family members are pulling you in different directions. And this mythical “later” sometimes never comes or comes too late, when you let your home slip into chaos. Of course, modern-day technology has blessed us with time-saving dishwashers and vacuum cleaners. But if you don’t have time to use them in the first place, then there’s really no benefit in having them around. The truth is, after a long day at work, a trip to a grocery store, gym or to pick up your kids from their activities, there’s barely enough time left to shower and eat, not to mention clean. And if you are not spending weekends relaxing, then when’s your me-time or us-time? At Immaculate Clean, our mission is to give you the freedom to spend your free time the way you want to. And if you don’t want to scrub your house every weekend, then let us do it for you! A live-in maid might not be a financially viable solution for every household, but calling for our Carroll County Cleaning services whenever you need us is an affordable way to free your time up and keep the house clean. Contact us today to talk about how we can help you!