It is April Fool’s Day but Renew is not joking that your carpet contains 10 times more germs than your toilet seat.
April Fool’s is a great time to share some practical jokes and gag gifts – but the results of a commissioned study by SCS give off more gag vibes than anything else. Did you know that your toilet seats are cleaner than your carpets?
No kidding.
The Stigma of Filth
Do you trust the sanitation practices of your cleaning crew? Do you give your toilet seats a daily once-over with an antibacterial wipe “just in case”?
Do you avoid using public (and even some residential) toilets due to the yuck factor? But have no problem sitting on the floor in the same place to play with pets or grandchildren?
You may not want to think about all the dirt, grime, allergens, dust, dander, and biological remnants trapped in your carpets and hard flooring. But they are there, on a microscopic level, despite the efforts you employ to keep your home clean.
The truth is that carpets are much dirtier than toilet seats, yet the stigma of filth continues to plague toilet seats – when carpets can be the real culprits.
The Economic Benefits of a Clean Home
Clean and uncluttered homes and office spaces are said to lead to greater productivity, better educational opportunities, better health, and higher income capacity. Cleanliness matters. People who are more efficient with their time, can focus easily, have big-picture awareness, have emotional stability, and are disciplined also tend to live clean. You don’t see top earners living in dirty houses or driving cars with fast food wrappers littering the interior.
Consider the hidden costs of dirt and clutter – messes create higher stress levels and often lead to hurried decision-making, unhealthy food choices, less physical activity, and canceled engagements. “Mental clutter” (mentally cataloging unnecessary stuff) plagues your psyche – you can remember the location of your great-grandma’s linen tablecloths – but forget an appointment with one of your clients.
A busy home can still be a clean and productive home – but heavy traffic increases the likelihood of bacteria and viruses sneaking into your home on pets, shoes, and luggage. The more people and pets in the home, the more dander there is to feed dust mites in your carpet. And the more activity that moves across your hard surfaces, the more the pollutants go airborne.
Dust mites that feed on dead skin cells (shed by humans at an alarming rate of 1.5 billion cells every day) are blamed for 50-80% of allergic reactions in asthmatics and may be a cause of asthma in children. Anyone who has suffered from allergies knows that constant sneezing, headaches, nose blowing, and itchy, watery eyes impede your ability to work, think clearly, feel good, and sometimes, can even impact your ability to focus on your family.
But don’t seclude yourself just yet or let those little critters destroy your health. Dust mites are manageable with a strong cleaning schedule and periodic deep cleaning.
The Mental and Physical Benefits of a Clean Home
The link between a clean, decluttered home and mental health has been well-established in recent studies. Being in control of your environment and feeling confident in the way your home appears to others will remove the mentally taxing to-do checklists that prevent you from getting a good night’s sleep.
Even the act of cleaning can provide mental and physical benefits. Have you ever heard of “rage cleaning”? Rage cleaning is one of the most beneficial outlets for coping with stress, toxic emotions, marital strife, and feelings of inadequacy.
Rigorously cleaning the floors, counters, and windows to clear your mind are physically taxing activities – perfect for your heart health too! Luckily, if you are not enraged enough to get down on your hands and knees to scrub your grout, there are professional cleaning services that can deep clean your floors, carpets, and furniture.
After a deep cleaning, not only will you benefit from better air quality, mental clarity, and sparkling surfaces, but you will have increased your happiness and visibly transformed your interior space.
Keep Your Carpets Clean
Homeowners continue to install carpeting because of its versatility of color and style and its ability to impact the comfort and warmth of a room.
While it’s horrible to think that a single ounce of carpet can harbor up to 200,000 bacteria (using an oft-cited old Joseph Tierney study) you can limit the dirt with regular vacuuming and professional carpet cleaning.
The American Lung Association recommends vacuuming three or more times a week with a High-Efficiency Particulate Air (HEPA) filtered vacuum across both carpets and hard flooring. They also recommend having your carpets professionally deep cleaned at least once a year to minimize exposure to contaminants and allergens. And avoid using a wet rag mop on hard floors – that just spreads the germs and traps them in grout and crevices.
Professional carpet cleaning and proper drying techniques will eliminate the greatest number of indoor pollutants and dust mites from your home and improve your air quality. Professional carpet cleaning will also extend the life of your flooring investments and keep your home safe, inviting, and comfortable.
Renew Cleaning Services is a Scottsdale, Arizona locally owned and operated company that can help you keep your home healthy and clean. We will extract the pollutants from your carpets, stone, tile and grout, windows, and upholstered furniture – removing the waste for proper disposal. Renew proudly serves Scottsdale, Paradise Valley, North Phoenix, and surrounding areas, standing by their work with a 100% satisfaction guarantee. Call us at (602)-619-0687.
