What non-obvious things make a house feel clean?

[Custardapples]

Obviously you can have a clean sink, loo, etc. but I think there are some non-obvious things that help make a house look and feel clean and I want to know what they are! My house never feels like this and some other people’s homes do. I feel like I’m missing crucial knowledge of how this works.

One thing I’ve just discovered is that the grout between our kitchen floor tiles hasn’t been sealed and that’s why it’s always so grubby. Things like that.

What else can I do to help my house feel clean, fresh and pleasant apart from the obvious?

Thank you!

Light switches and wall around them
Doors - the places where hands touch and leave grubby marks
Beds made
Clean toilet bowl - no murky brown water with build up of limescale
Vacuum sofa and cushions once a month- they hold a lot of dust and smell
Open windows every day without fail and leave open as long as possible
Get rid of dusty piles of clutter

Clutter free kitchen so toaster, kettle, air fryer etc [it away in a cupboard off the worktops. Makes the kitchen feel more airey and is easier to keep clean.

Shoes put away in a cupboard out of sight.

No life, and a compulsive cleaner?

Skirting boards, wooden banisters, around light switches and door handles and the light fittings. These all get grubby and a quick wipe with a damp cloth works wonders.

Clean windows inside and out makes a big difference to how clean a room feels.

This I fight a losing battle with my husband's black Labrador. Floors skirting, white sanitary ware. Those bloody black hairs get everywhere.

Clean, neat and tidy drawers. Get rid of the junk. Matching flatware. Get rid of the old stuff and don’t incorporate it into the new stuff. Cleaning out all kitchen cabinets and throwing away and chipped or broken ceramics. Dungee looking pots and pans. Ewww. Replace if you can and do it slowly to make it affordable. Just every day getting rid of papers and garbage in your area.

no pets = a sad, half life

I noticed how dirty our windows looked compared to our neighbours today and was horrified! We’ve not had a window cleaner around for 2 years at least (hangs head in shame) as neighbours had dusty building work so we kept putting it off. I think it’ll make a real difference when it’s done

And throw away random crap that has no function. It’s not worth something just bc someone bought it. If it’s not used, get rid of it.

I have a friend, who put metal "factory style" shelves wall to wall in his spare room. Anything not immediately required, goes into a neat, plastic IKEA storage cube, and is labelled and put on the shelf (think wrapping paper, books, camping equipment, table linen, out-of-season clothes). Once the door is shut, his house is SO tidy and "together". Like something American Psycho would have. Still though, if I had a spare room / spare space, that's absolutely what I'd do. I have started putting as much stuff as possible, in plastic cubes and "away". Make sure the cube has a lid, otherwise everything inside eventually gets dusty. For extra points, put a damp trap in every box.

Not that many people in the UK play baseball...

Getting rid of my hoarding, untidy husband would make the biggest difference. He's got so many teeshirts now his favourites are on the windowsill in the bedroom the three teeshirt drawers are rammed.. He's got clothes decades old that he intends to grow into. He was a medium now XXL. So four sizes of every type of clothing.

Our bedroom bin has to reside on my bedside table or the dog would eat the contents. Ditto every bin. His side of the bed used tissues pile up.

It's depressing at times.

Washing down all the woodwork, sides & doors etc.

Washing all the soft furnishings & the carpets.

Dusting and wet wiping all the hard surfaces.

Cleaning mirrors, windows and doors.

I buy huge 5 litre containers of alcohol (99 percent) every couple of months and wipe windows, floors, light switches, doors et c down with it. It's cheap and really does leave things clean.

I think my robovac is a huge benefit here. Obviously, my floors are not filthy, but turning on the robo vac before school run just makes the house that much cleaner when I come home.

The thing I always notice in other houses (and in my own - but I try not to let it build up) is grubby door frames and light switches. My current cleaners are TERRIBLE about doing this and drives me mad. I ask - they use a light feather duster! That's not going to cut it. You need actual cleaning materials and a cloth and it needs doing at least every few weeks. I actually find it quite soothing so tend to do a door here or there in passing if I happen to have cloth and some product to hand.

At certain times of year, it's essential to be making sure you vacuum regularly in th ehigher corners of the rooms/ceilings. Makes a huge difference.

Our lounge is looking distinctly grubby currently becuase it desperately needs a lick of paint. All the walls are just slightly stained and dirty.

Vase of flowers on the table - that's it....

Zoflora I discovered used on a micro fibre cloth rinsed and hung on the towel rail to dry wafts pleasantly.

No clutter, surfaces all clean and tidy and a nice smell. I have curtains at the front door just as you enter the house and I spray them with room spray so on entry everyone is greeted with a nice smell.

I'm all for 'clutter free', but no way am I putting the kettle & Air fryer in the cupboard after each use. I don't have a toaster as I have an eye level grill, but if I did, that wouldn't go in a cupboard either!

far too much faff.

That sounds harrowing @justasking111 You have more patience than me!!

Could you just pick out 10 of the best, in his current size...then wash the rest, and store them in a giant plastic box in the attic? At least then they'd be out the way, not dusting the place up.

Fresh, circulating air helps. If I hoover the kitchen, clean the sink, then open the front and back doors simultaneously, the whole house feels 100% better.

I also have a strict ‘no dogs upstairs or on the good sofa’ rule. And a square of kitchen roll dotted with Zoflora in the bottom of each kitchen bin, underneath the bin bag.

Totally agree. But some people have counters that are so cluttered it does become hard to imagine that it's clean.

Having said that, the counter I use to actually prep food is directly ahead from the front door. I do my best to keep that clean and tidy when I'm not actually cooking as I certainly find if I come into the house and it's tidy - the whole house feels tidy vs if I come into the house and DH and DC have left all kinds of mess on there it feels like the whole house is a mess!

M&S Do a lovely fabric spray which I spray on the sofas. And the bed cover.

Lifestyle - that's my belief. Some people are naturally very clean.

I have been cleaning houses for a very long time, and some feel incredibly clean when I arrive...it's only when you get down to it that you can find the dirt. Other houses look and feel no better even after a good clean.

The houses which look and feel clean are the ones where the owners have a rational handle on cleanliness, and make sure kitchen & bathroom surfaces are attended to after use, things are put away, clothes are washed properly & laundry is up to date, beds are changed, and they use lots of coasters & things under things, as well as door matting, to reduce the dirt and associate smells to begin with.

Bad smells are also a sure-fire way for even the cleanest home to feel utterly rank...bathrooms can smell really damp in a special sort of damp-mixed-with-dust-mixed-with-pee-with-no-fresh-air, especially if they have carpets. But simply having scents around the house rather than having fresh air and laundering furniture covers, bed linen, coats etc. will only put a layer on it...smells need to be found and irradicated, not covered up.

Regarding the floor grout looking off, it could be that as long as the tiles are clean, along with the other parts of the room, it may not look that bad...sometimes seeing that one thing isn't clean in a room that clearly is clean can lessen the impact significantly. This said, it never ceases to amaze me how people frequently choose floor and wall coverings which look dirty to begin with...and far from the pattern hiding the dirt being an advantage, it has the disadvantage of never knowing if or even when the floor is actually clean.

I know I'm biased about grey carpets as I don't like the trend for grey at all, but grey carpets to my eyes never look clean, simply because grey is the colour many a carpet goes when it's grubby.

Perception plays a huge part in the psychology of "clean", but without looking around your home, I couldn't say what (if anything) you could do differently.