The bathroom, the kitchen and the bedroom are the three most common rooms that will always be on any cleaning list. However, have you ever thought about cleaning the keyboard on your desk? The can opener in your kitchen? Or, the ice trays in your freezer?
If the bulb above your head just switched on, then here are some of the spaces or objects that you’d never thought of cleaning, but which you should ASAP!
Ice Trays
I don’t know if you are familiar with this scene, but I am: You are over at a friend’s house or at a party and you are offered your favorite classic iced drink. However, as soon as you take a sip of the drink, a weird taste stays in your mouth; it’s none other than the flunky and weird flavor of old freezer-scented ice cubes.
That’s one version of what can usually happen when freezers or ice trays are not cleaned. Sometimes, you can also end up drinking tonic water with acrid or musty ice cubes. But, I guess the most horrible experience is when you smell the stale odor of leftover food as soon as you take your first sip. But, if there’s anything else that can make you refuse a cold beverage during a hot summer season – other than plasticky or stale-smelling cubes – it’s frozen bacteria.
Many people believe that bacteria or viruses cannot survive in icy cold conditions, such as in a freezer. Well, according to experts, there are some bacteria like listeria that have the ability to withstand very cold conditions and can thus thrive in the freezer or in ice trays. For instance, studies show that in 2013, musty and dirty ice cubes served at a golf course in Phoenix sickened around 80 individuals. Furthermore, as per the analysis of Benjamin Chapman, a food safety specialist and an associate professor at North Carolina State University, claimed that consuming dirty ice cubes can result in chills, vomiting, diarrhea, fever and many other health issues.
But, the question is: How Where do the bacteria come from?
Some have found that water could be the very source of the bacteria residing in the ice cubes, while others blamed the ice maker in the freezer or the filters. However, some experts have been asking homeowners to take a look first at their ice trays and to clean them if they are dirty and musty.
If you have the habit of always filling your ice trays with water, then they should be cleaned properly.
How to clean ice trays?
- Start by getting rid of any ice residue and then run the ice tray under lukewarm water.
- You can wash with water and dish soap.
- Or, you can use a mixture of baking soda with warm water and use that combination to clean each section of the ice tray.
- And, remember, if your ice trays still smell bad after a thorough washing, I highly recommend you get new ones.
Pillows
When I was a kid, I remember my mom used to clean all the pillows of the house at least thrice a year –even when they looked clean.
At first glance, your pillows may look clean or even sometimes brand-new; that’s because you’ll never ever see the tiny particles of dirt lying on your pillows. When a person sleeps, the human body automatically sheds thousands of dead skin cells and while some of those dead cells get on your bedsheets, some reside on your pillows. But, wait, there’s more – remember the time when you slept with an oily and unwashed hair, the build-up of oil stayed on your pillows. Oh and if you usually drool when you sleep, I’m sure by now your pillows have become a disgusting wasteland of saliva.
So, if you don’t want to keep resting your head on a pillow that’s packed with dirt, dead skin cells, oil and saliva, here are some suggestions on how to clean your pillows:
- You can wash them in a front loader with hot water (but I don’t recommend the use of any detergents).
- You can then dry them in a tumble dryer.
