How Clean Water Leads to Better Spring Cleaning

There’s nothing like a good ol’ spring cleaning to give yourself, and your home, a fresh start after being holed up inside during the winter. This time around, make it a more thorough cleaning by switching up the type of water you use. Here’s a look at the effects of using hard water when you wash linens and wipe down surfaces around the house, and how a soft water cleaning may get the job done better.

 

What Is Hard Water?

Before going into detail about the direct impact hard water has on your home surfaces, appliances and items, you may be wondering what hard water even is. In short, hard water refers to water that contains a high concentration of minerals. Some of the major ones that could be floating in your water include calcium and magnesium. These minerals have a tendency to bond with other types of metals, like your pipes. You may have hard water running through your faucets and plumbing system without even knowing it. Use Culligan’s online water diagnosis to find out if you have hard water running throughout your pipes.

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Cleaning Hard Surfaces With Hard Water

A deep cleaning of the house calls for a thorough wipe down of all surfaces, including everything from the marble counters, kitchen sink and stove top to the back of those cupboards, the baseboards and outside window panels. Cleaning with hard water can actually leave residue and mineral build-up on these surfaces, which defeats the purpose of your spring cleaning efforts. Furthermore, if you’re mixing soap with hot water, the calcium minerals react with the soap and can form soap scum.

Also, avoid the use of hard water to clean appliances like the metal toaster or tea kettle. These items can be overlooked, but still have hard surfaces made of favorable materials for mineral deposits to form. And don’t forget those floors you mop. Hard water could not only leave a layer of film on your floors, but can potentially cause damage to hardwood floors.

 

Using Hard Water To Wash Linens

Spring cleaning also calls for washing all the linens throughout the house. Those curtains, the guest bedroom sheets and that area rug could all use a good wash. Whether you use the laundry machine or hand wash linens, the hard water reacts with the detergent, similarly to the way it does with soap on hard surfaces. Minerals in hard water can prevent laundry detergent from doing its job and could form detergent curds that stick to fabrics. Using hard water to wash your linens could derail the whole purpose of your spring cleaning.

 

Cleaning With Soft Water

Before you dive into this year’s spring cleaning, call on Culligan to come check if you have hard water and help you find a water softening solution. Soft water cleaning is more effective because it poses less potential to interact negatively with the surfaces, linens and items you wipe down and wash. Do your home a favor and make the switch to soft water to give it a better, deeper spring cleaning it deserves.