Cleaning behind doors

Why is it that people forget to clean behind doors?  Is it because as the doors are open one doesn’t see the rear, or is it laziness?  I am of the opinion that it is a little of both.  But, on those days when you do close the door and see the dust and dirt that has collected on the indentations or cut outs in the wood, one realises the rear of all doors need cleaning regularly.

The worst doors to leave uncleaned are in the bathrooms and kitchens.  Because of the humidity and dampness in both these areas the doors get damp and sticky and hold on to any dust floating in the air.  Even plain solid doors in these rooms get damp and hold the dust.

In the bathroom the doors get closed regularly.  It is a different matter in bedrooms because they are quite often left open, but it’s those moments when one closes the door that the dirt and dust behind is seen.  Of course, if you had a cloth in your hand, you would give it a wipe over, but generally that is not the case, so the cleaning of the back of the door is left until the next clean of that room.  Hopefully the door is remembered at that time and the job gets done.

I have found with bathrooms that as I go around with a micro-fibre cloth and glass cleanser, cleaning the tiles, when I need to close the door to reach the tiles behind, I clean the front and then the back of the door.  Not only does this remove the dust on the rear of the door, it helps remove the black marks that seem to appear around the handle on the front of the door. 

Many people do not clean tiles in the bathroom, but the tiles, because of the dampness and the dust from the towels, get a fine dusty coating which after a while builds up to cause a dullness over the tiles.  Giving the tiles a buff on a regular basis is a good opportunity to get behind that bathroom door and clean it.  Use glass cleanser and a micro-fibre cloth.

Doors in the remainder of the home, don’t need to be damp dusted, they can be rubbed over with a duster-on-a-pole while walking around the room and dusting the woodwork and furniture.  If you are running the duster along the skirting board the door has to be closed to get right into the corner. That is the time when you rub over the back of the door dusting across the patterns.

As I said, maybe it is laziness or the fact that doors remain open that stops us from cleaning the rear of doors, but as all the collected dust on the back comes into view when the door is closed especially by a visitor, a regular wipe over and dust is necessary.  Check the rear of your doors and see what I mean.

Julie Finch-Scally

The Guru of Cleaning®

Author: Stinking Cleaning

www.cleaningguru.online