5 Things You Should Steam Clean in Your New House

This post with steam cleaning tips is brought to you by HomeRight and their SteamMachine. All opinions are my own.

You guys know I’ve been busy working in our new house the last few weeks. There’s unpacking, cleaning, organizing, and thinking about how to decorate. Even though the house is only 12 years old and the previous owners were pretty gentle on it, there were some things I definitely wanted to clean well after we moved in.

Naturally, you’d clean the bathrooms and wipe out crumbs from kitchen cabinets and drawers in any house. But I’ve got a list of 5 things you may not have thought of that you should steam clean after you move in. For each of these I used my SteamMachine Multi-Purpose Power Steamer.

1) All the water faucets–up inside.
We know we’re pretty blessed and lucky to be able to turn on the tap and know that clean drinkable water is coming out. Much of the world doesn’t get that. So we don’t even usually think about cleaning the spout right where the water comes out. The water flowing through it is clean, it should be clean too, right? Not always the case.

With the brush attachment, I sprayed the faucet then wiped with a cloth until it was all clean. Look at the black that transferred to the cloth! Then run some water through and do it again to make sure everything is gone.

2) Inside the dishwasher.
Dishwasher doors can get pretty grimy. Since the door is usually closed, you often don’t even think of it.

But a bit of action with your steam cleaner (and maybe an old toothbrush to get in the really tiny spaces) will get that right off for you.

3) Kitchen vents.
Depending on how your kitchen is set up, you probably have a vent over your stove in a microwave, or hood, or like ours where it’s a down-draft.

Did you know that it’s recommended that those filters get washed every month? In reality, those filters probably haven’t been cleaned in years, which means there’s a lot of grease and dust built up in there. It makes your vent less effective, aside from just being kind of yucky.

Remove the filters and lay them on a lint-free towel. Use the brush attachment and spray with steam while scrubbing with the brush. Wipe with the towel and repeat until the vent is clean.

4) Sliding door track.
We have this nice sliding glass door to our backyard, but it was super dirty, with a bit of moss growing in there even (I do live in the Northwest after all.)

I decided to try the SteamMachine here too, to see if that would loosen out the dirt and stuff that my vacuum couldn’t get out. I simply sprayed it all with steam and wiped it out with paper towels and a few Q-tips. Such a difference, don’t you think? It even slides a little better now too.

5) Ice and water dispenser in the fridge. This was probably the most disturbing thing that I cleaned–there was so much black stuff up in there, mostly around where the ice door opened up to let the ice drop out. And you never think to look up in there, right?

But then I was so glad I’d cleaned it! Just look at what just one of the paper towels picked up (and I went through several.)

And now it’s looking so much better. I’m not scared to get a drink out of there anymore.

I think it’s pretty obvious that while I focused on cleaning these things after moving into a new house, it’s probably a good idea to clean them all in the house you’re currently living in too. Plus, it’s a totally chemical-free way to clean!

Read here for more chemical-reducing ideas for your home.

I hope you’re already thinking of what you want to clean with a SteamMachine.