What are your must-cleans that people don't think of?

If you open your dishwasher, open the door only halfway. Then look under that door....

Vacuuming the back of your fridge once in a while - makes your fridge work more efficiently-saves energy.

Cleaning out your dryer vent once or twice a year - can prevent a fire.

Clean everything in your bathroom before you clean the toilet. Clean your toilet last and then disinfect your toilet cleaning rag (I soak in Javex & water) so you don't cross contaminate germs and bacteria.

Add a bit of javex and water or vinegar and water in the base holder of your toilet bowl brush to remove germs and bacteria.

Cleaning your gutters once or twice a year and ensuring water flows through to the bottom.

Ensuring your gutter pipe (part on the ground) is far enough away from your house to prevent water from flowing back to your foundation.

Ensuring your patio or grass in the backyard slopes away from your home. Same goes for the front of your house. Ground all around your house should slope away or be graded away from your house.

Just had water run into my basement through the window, from both these factors, and you do not want to clean up this kind of mess - mould, ruined furniture and on and on!

YOUR REMOTE CONTROL IS SAID TO BE THE DIRTIEST THING FROM EVERYONE HANDLING IT ALL THE TIME.

ALSO, NEVER PUT YOUR PURSE/POCKET BOOK ON YOUR COUNTER TOPS BECAUSE IT HAS SO MUCH BACTERIA FROM WHERE YOU PUT YOUR PURSE WHEN YOU ARE OUT AND ABOUT. LIKE ON BATHROOM FLOORS.

NEVER LET YOUR BABY PUT YOUR KEYS IN THEIR MOUTH, SO MANY GERMS.

ALSO, I PUT MY TOOTHBRUSHES EVERY MONTH IN MY DISHWASHER.

GAIL JAMES, GA

Two words: shower drain

Pill boxes

garbage disposal......rubber at disposal ...underneath. Just for instance...to see why...take a paper towel or cloth. ,stick your hand down,and rub between the rubber folds...arrrggghhhh! BLACK SLUDGE builds up. I take a brush about once a week and clean under the rubber and the metal fitting where it curves Down.

Inside of your medicine cabinet. I also dribble hydrogen peroxide over my toothbush every time I use it before placing back in the medicine cabinet.

And if you have "track windows" - they need a good cleaning too along with the tracks of the sliding glass doors.

Light switches/door knobs - I go through once every couple of months and wipe them all down (more if someone in the house has a cold)

Walk through pet/baby gates - wipe the handles on those too.

Around the inside of the dishwasher - someone already mentioned the bottom part.

Window sills for sure - they get gunked up - I do this at least twice a year.

Ditto on the toothbrush holder - GAAAHHH.

Pet food bowls/water bowls can get oogey too.

Your can opener.

The toilet brush holder needs some attention once in a while. All your drawer dividers could be washed occasionally, don't you just love to get a spoon out of a drawer and see a ton of crumbs or something in there. Makes looking to see if the fork is clean a whole different subject. The bottom of the frig door and the rubber seal on anything that has one. The underneath of a dishwasher door or any door. The under edge of a counter and the tops of cabinets, frig and trim. Have fun. Hope you are a real princess and don't have to do any of this. If you are though it is good to know your staff is taking care of all these suggestions written to you. Can't be a boss without knowing the job.

CEILING FANS.....they are horrible dirt magnets and simply spread the germs and dust everywhere as soon as you turn it on:-(

Bannisters. I read somewhere that one of the worst places to pick up germs in public are the handrails on escalators or stairways. Same goes for your own home I think.

I use lysol wipes and either walk up or down my stairs cleaning the banister. Light switches. Door knobs.

I spray a bleach/water solution inside all my window tracks once a year. It cuts down on any mold.

I use magic erasers around door sills especially, at the height of my dogs, as they get DIRTY.

Baseboards, again, dog fur. Edges of carpet where it meets the baseboard, did I mention dog fur? ;o)

Light switches - oh I hate dirty light switches.

This is not inside the house but you need to clean water heater every year by emptying the water either into a sump pump drain or outside depends your locations. You turn it off completely let water cool down connect hose to spout on bottom open empty it until it's done. I just put the hose towards lawn to not waste water down sewer. This will eliminate calcium and minerals from building up that will make it less efficient and lifetime shorter. Not to mention that it could rust out the bottom and you will have a flooded area. If you don't want to deal with it your heating and cooling company will do it for a price. That is assuming that you have both heater and AC cleaned every year which is a must. I hate cleaning inside the house but love to make sure structure is taken care of because although you live inside you can't without one of these items broken. I don't use a tooth brush holder everyone has shelf in linen closet and also if you don't close toilet lid everytime you flush that is all in the air,gross. Same with hand towels, you won't find one in my house we use paper towels and dry everything off with it once we have dried our hands. And yes I realize that closing lid will only help but that's something and as for papertowels, oh well I guess I'm not a tree hugger. I use cling wrap on top of fridge to just replace with clean cling wrap because the kitchen has grease in the air if you cook and then dust settles what a pain so this is easier. Everytime you clean stove top ( let me stay that I don't cook much anymore but I do wipe sovereign down even if no one has used it every night) clean vent area where grease collects and don't forget to clean filter of dishwasher everytime you put dishes away. Then wipe down door and gasket. Yes with paper towel. I also don't believe in kitchen towels hanging around with germs to be spread. Not to mention that I hate having them hanging on door of fridge,worse yet all of you that have them over oven door everytime you open door they touch floor that's disgusting.