True story. As I was getting our house ready for an upcoming trip, I found myself looking at everything through our housesitter’s eyes instead of my own. Suddenly, things I’d walked past hundreds of times jumped out at me. Fingerprints around light switches. Smudges on doors. Dust on places I’d completely forgotten existed.
Let’s be clear. I saw these things not because our house was dirty and not because I’d neglected it. It was simply because I see these things every day without really looking at them!
When I leave the kitchen, I don’t look at the light switch. I know exactly where it is. Muscle memory takes over and my hand finds it automatically. The same goes for doors, trim, vents, and dozens of other little details throughout the house.
It wasn’t until I started looking at my home through someone else’s eyes that I noticed what had been there all along.
Turns out, even the cleanest-looking homes have a few dirty little secrets hiding in plain sight. So learn from my mistakes. Here are 10 overlooked spots to clean that you might be forgetting —and quick fixes to make them sparkle again.
1. Light Switches, Door Handles & Door Sides
My kitchen light switch was a humbling experience.
I use it multiple times a day, yet somehow I hadn’t noticed the collection of fingerprints surrounding it until I started preparing for our housesitter’s arrival. Once I saw it, I immediately began noticing every other switch plate and door handle in the house.
Then came the doors themselves.
Light switches, door handles and door edges are just one spot that we see every day and yet forget to actually look at.
2. Ceiling Fans & Light Fixtures
Dust has a sneaky way of collecting in places we rarely look. Out of sight, out of mind, right?
Then one day the sunlight hits your chandelier just right and instead of sparkling, it looks a little…fuzzy.
The same goes for ceiling fans. Everything looks fine until you turn the fan on and wonder where all that dust came from. Spoiler alert: it was there the whole time.
3. Baseboards & Trim
I swear baseboards have a magical ability to disappear from view.
Months can go by without me giving them a second thought. Then one day the sunlight hits just right, or I bend down to pick something up, and suddenly I’m wondering how long they’ve looked like that.
The funny thing is that dirty baseboards can make an entire room feel less clean, even when the floors themselves are spotless. They’re one of those little details that most people don’t consciously notice, but they definitely notice the effect.
4. Tops of Doors & Window Trim
When was the last time you looked on top of a door? Not at it. On top of it.
If you’re like me, probably never.
That’s exactly why these spots become magnets for dust. They sit just above our line of sight, collecting layer after layer until one day curiosity gets the better of us and we run a finger across the top.
Let’s just say it’s usually not a pleasant discovery.
5. Air Vents & Return Registers
When my kids were little, I cleaned our air vents all the time. I was constantly pulling up the vent covers to rescue crayons, puzzle pieces, Legos, and whatever else had “accidentally” fallen down them.
As they got older, the toys stopped disappearing into the vents, and somehow I stopped thinking about them altogether. They just became part of the house, blending into the background like the trim or the ceiling.
When I started getting the house ready for our housesitter, I finally looked at them again…and let’s just say they needed a little attention.
6. Remote Controls, Phones & Keyboards
These are probably the most handled items in our homes, yet they’re also some of the easiest to overlook.
We pick up our phones, grab the TV remote, and type on our keyboards dozens of times a day without giving them a second thought. Since they’re usually in our hands, we don’t notice the fingerprints, smudges, and crumbs that gradually build up.
Then one day you actually look at them. Yikes.
7. Window Tracks & Blinds
No matter how often I clean these areas, they somehow manage to collect dust, leaves, dead bugs, and all sorts of mystery debris. I swear window tracks manufacture their own dirt. Well, that’s my story and I’m sticking to it anyway…
The problem is that unless you’re opening a window, you’re probably not looking down into the track. Out of sight, out of mind, right?
Blinds are similar. We spend most of our time looking through them rather than at them, which makes it easy to miss the layer of dust building up on each slat.
8. Dishwasher Seal, Door Edge & Filter
This was one of my biggest surprises.
I always assume that because the dishwasher cleans dishes, the dishwasher itself must be clean. As it turns out, that’s not the case!
The first time I wiped along the rubber gasket around the door, I immediately regretted my decision. Let’s just leave it at that.
Food particles, soap scum, and even mold have a way of collecting in the seal, around the door edge, and inside the filter. If your dishwasher ever develops a mysterious smell, this is usually the culprit.
9. Trash Cans (Inside & Out)
For some reason, I tend to assume that if a trash can has a liner, the trash can itself must be clean.
But in reality, there’s always that bag that eventually leaks, or something drips. And then one day I catch a whiff of something that definitely isn’t coming from the fresh trash bag I just put in.
So learn from my mistake and give the trash can itself a little attention.
10. Pet Feeding Stations
Mimi and Phoebe may be small, but judging by the area around their food bowls, you’d think I was feeding a pack of wolves.
No matter how much I try to keep the area clean, I always find some food splatters, a little hair, and tiny puddles of water.
And yes, before anyone asks, those are framed photos of the dogs hanging above their bowls. I wanted to zhoosh up their little dining area, and the framed photos make it easy for our dog sitter to know whose bowl belongs to whom. Cute, right?!
Because their feeding station is part of my everyday routine, it’s easy to stop noticing the gradual buildup until I’m looking at my home through fresh eyes.
Take the 5-Minute Fresh-Eyes Challenge
The biggest lesson I learned while getting ready for our housesitter wasn’t that I needed to clean more, it was that I needed to look at my house with a fresh set of eyes.
So the next time you’re cleaning, first walk through as though you’re a guest. Imagine that you’ve never been there and you’re really looking around and taking it all in.
My guess is that you’ll probably spot two or three things that have completely disappeared into the background simply because you see them every day.
A Few More Places Worth a Second Look
Before you put away your cleaning supplies, take a quick look at a few other often-overlooked spots:
- The wall where your cat insists on rubbing before dinner (if you have a cat, you know exactly what I mean!)
- Cabinet fronts around knobs and pulls
- Around kitchen and bathroom faucets
- Refrigerator handles and the edge of the refrigerator door
- The inside lip of the washing machine (it’s like the dishwasher!)
What’s the one spot you always forget to clean? Send me an email so we can all add it to our cleaning checklists!
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