Keeping your house clean is like a second job—most people spend at least two hours a week cleaning, with some putting in nine hours or more. But no matter how much time you spend scrubbing, mopping, and dusting, there’s a good chance you missed a spot. Several spots, actually, because your home is a minefield of hidden filth, lurking mold, and forgotten crud in the form of items that need to be replaced more often than you might think.
These 10 household items might look superficially clean, or they might be hidden from view, or you might simply have grown blind to how dirty they are—but replacing them regularly is the only way to ensure your home is really clean.
How often to replace: Twice a year.
Bathrooms are natural breeding grounds for mold due to the damp environment, and the spot in your bathroom most prone to growing mold might surprise you: It’s your shower curtain (and your curtain liner, if you use one). You've probably already encountered at least one shower curtain that was more mold than curtain in your life, but you shouldn’t wait until yours resembles a Petri dish before replacing it—you should swap out the liner twice a year, and if you use a fabric curtain, make sure you’re washing it regularly as well.
Mattresses
How often to replace: Every 10 years
Your mattress is probably not very supportive—or comfortable—after a decade anyway, but if you’re not worried about your overall sleep experience on it, you should be worried about a decade’s worth of skin flakes, saliva, sweat, dust, and other stuff it has been collecting. Even if you clean and flip your mattress religiously, you should still replace it at least once a decade to prevent a buildup of dust mites, fungus, or even mold.
How often to replace: Every two years
Like our mattresses, we tend to hang onto our pillows for way too long. In part, this is because we discount the sheer amount of saliva and skin flakes we’re pumping into them as we sleep. Even if you still love your pillows and clean them regularly, you should replace them about every two years. If you use a pillow protector, you can probably squeeze an extra year or two out of them, however.
Toilet seats
How often to replace: Every five years
A properly cleaned and maintained toilet seat doesn’t pose much of a health hazard, but most toilet seats will show significant wear and tear within 5-10 years, depending on use. Once the seat gets stained, shows cracks, or begins shifting around when you sit on it, it’s time to swap in a new one—plus, it’s a chance for a quick and easy upgrade for your bathroom.
How often to replace: Every six months
A toilet brush can last longer than six months if you actually clean it and store it properly, but very few people do that, preferring to get it out of sight as quickly as possible after cleaning the toilet. If that’s you, then you’ve probably got plenty of mold and bacteria growing in the brush holder right now. Twice a year you should just get a new one—sooner if it starts to smell bad or show visible staining
Sponges
How often to replace: Twice a month
It shouldn’t be a surprise that sponges you use to scrape grime and bacteria off your dishes and counters are disgusting breeding grounds for bacteria. Even if you keep them dry or microwave them frequently, that kitchen sponge is going to become a health hazard within a few weeks. It’s best to have a supply on hand and swap in a fresh one every two weeks or so.
How often to replace: Every 2-6 months
Mops are essential cleaning tools, but they are not self-cleaning. Sure, you dunk them in soapy water and rinse them out, but mops are designed to absorb and hold dirt, so you’ll never get a used mop head totally clean, and over time they’ll become pretty filthy. A string mop should be replaced every 2-3 months depending on use. A microfiber mop head can last twice as long if you wash them regularly.
Aside from the germ factor, your mop heads will be less effective over time as they wear out. So even if your mop head looks pretty clean, you should replace it anyway if you want to keep your floors clean.
Brooms
How often to replace: Every two years
Like mops, brooms work by transferring dirt from your home’s floors to themselves. You can (and should!) clean your brooms about once a month—a brisk rinse with soapy water is all it takes—but even so, your broom will show real wear and tear within a few years. Broken bristles or bristles falling out is usually the sign that you’ve waited too long to replace it.
How often to replace: Annually
Cutting boards, whether plastic or wood, need to be replaced—or significantly refurbished—every year. No matter how thoroughly you clean them, your knives are slashing deep grooves into the material where bacteria can evade your cleaning efforts, proliferate, and potentially make you sick. And the cutting board will eventually stain, and no one wants to think about what caused that stain while they’re chopping fresh veggies.
Plastic storage containers
How often to replace: Every 1-3 months
Even though you wash your plastic food storage containers after every use, you still need to ditch them pretty often. Over time, plastic degrades (creating microplastics), and every time you thrust a fork or knife in there you’re probably creating a tiny slice. This all combines to eventually make those storage containers little bacteria farms. Consider replacing them with glass containers: They’re chemically inert, so they will last longer and pose much less of a health risk over time.
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