Have you ever felt like your attempt at cleaning created even more of a mess than it was before? Breaking a glass while drying it, spilling detergent all over the floor when doing a load of laundry, or bleaching your clothes while trying to get that stubborn stain from your shower.
If you’ve experienced this pain before, we are glad to report that you’re not alone. Just take a look at these people in the list below whose urge to clean ended up in far worse scenarios than those mentioned above. From breaking through ceilings to smashing shower doors, scroll down to wince and chuckle at some of the most unfortunate cleaning failures we at Bored Panda could gather from peeps online.
While you’re at it, don’t forget to check out a conversation with cleaning expert Alessandro Gazzo and professional cleaner Axel Avery, who kindly agreed to share a couple of tips on how to avoid common cleaning mistakes and learn to tidy like a pro.
#1 I Tried Cleaning The Stain Off This Mug Until I Realized It's Part Of The Design
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#2 My Mother Was Cleaning The Attic
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#3 My Wife Wonders Why The Vacuum Hasn't Been Working
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We have to admit that not everyone enjoys cleaning. At least not after smashing an oven door or covering the bathroom floor with bubbles. Cleaning expert Alessandro Gazzo believes that the reason many dislike tidying up is because it’s a repetitive and mechanical task.
“If you think about it, it’s like brushing your teeth: it’s not fun, but it’s important. You have to do it whether you like it or not, but you (and the people around you!) will notice the positive outcome. However, brushing your teeth is much easier and faster, of course. That’s why you need to focus on creating a routine that stops you from overthinking and allows you to jump straight to action.”
Meanwhile, professional cleaner Axel Avery says, “I think many people dislike cleaning because a) it’s tiring, especially if you do it for years and years; b) it’s often an imbalanced responsibility that usually falls heavily only on a single member of the household (which leads to arguing, frustration, etc.); and c) it takes time and energy away that you can spend doing something more productive or fun (which is why many people hire a house cleaning service).”
#4 My Mom Erased Part Of The World While Cleaning My Globe
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#5 Washed My Measuring Cup And All The Lines And Numbers Came Off
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#6 My Tenancy Ends Tomorrow After 2 Years In This Flat. Today, While Cleaning And Getting Everything Ready To Move Out, I Hit The Oven's Door And Broke The Glass. Bye Bye Sweet Deposit Money
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Indeed, cleaning can be a true pain sometimes, but it often proves to be very beneficial to our mental health—an aspect Gazzo finds the most enjoyable about it. “We all know a clean space helps you stay healthy in the physical sense (by sanitizing surfaces, killing mold, etc.) But what I like the most is that you also improve your mental health.
If you clean your home regularly, you feel more at ease, you forget about the stress of not finding your items, and you are more focused (this is key if you work from home). If you stop thinking of cleaning as a burden, it becomes one less burden in your life.”
#7 I'm Doing Renovations And My Roomba Found A Tiny Piece Of Sheetrock
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#8 I Clean Pools And Today I Knocked A Huge Potted Plant Into The Water
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#9 Got New Cargo Shorts And Accidentally Sat On A Stool That My Sister Was Cleaning With Clorox
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Avery likes to clean professionally because it makes other people’s lives easier. “You know, it’s not easy to run a home and have a social life, work, and spend time with your family. In a more personal sense, what I enjoy about cleaning is that it helps me keep my life in order and structured. I think your home is (most times) a representation of what is going on in your life. If your house is a mess, it’s highly unlikely that your life is under control.”
To befriend cleaning and avoid failures in the future, experts point out a few mistakes people should refrain from making. The first one Avery indicates is using the wrong cleaning products. “You don’t need a strong, borderline-toxic cleaning chemical. In fact, most things in your home just need an all-purpose cleaner. The simpler and more versatile your cleaning products are, the more efficient you will be at cleaning.”
#10 I Just Wanted To Clean The Window
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#11 Home Alone Cleaning The Roof And Gutters When I Heard A Loud Bang
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#12 My Brother And I Were Cleaning Out The Attic, But Then I Heard A Loud Crash And Saw This Above Me. I Chose To Take A Photo Before Asking Questions
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Another one he points out is cleaning in the wrong order. “This makes people over-clean wet floors, for example, or have to clean twice because they’ve forgotten to clean from top to bottom. Always clean from top to bottom and from the furthest point away from the door to the room you’re in, and move towards the door."
#13 Let’s Just Say That We Ended Up With Very Clean Laundry Room Floor… And Yes I’m An Idiot
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#14 When Your Flatmate Likes To Eat Seeds And Cleans The Floor Without Vacuuming First
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#15 My Robot Vacuum Curled Up And Is Sleeping When It Should Be Working
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Meanwhile, Gazzo believes that cleaning without a plan is the most common mistake. ”You start going around everywhere and don’t really finish cleaning anything. Besides, it’s frustrating not knowing what to do next and you need to make decisions on the spot. Create a plan first and you will jump from A to B to C. It’s easier and more organized, and you will have a more precise time estimate for cleaning.”
#16 I Was Emptying The Dishwasher And Found This “Clean” Glass Break
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#17 After A Long Flight We Decided To Wash And Dry The Pillows. We Brought And Made Our Laundry Room Look Like A Bird Horror Movie
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#18 What Could Go Wrong When Neighbor Cleans Fireplace Into Recycle Bin
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He also notes that elbow grease doesn’t always fix everything. “You don’t need to tire yourself out cleaning for hours and spending unnecessary energy. Let cleaning agents act on the surface for 10–15 minutes, and then wipe. You avoid getting tired, and you also protect surfaces from scratching, for example.”
#19 I Was Washing The Dishes When The Sink Decided To Fall Out Of The Counter. First Time My Strange Habit Of Hoarding Large Bath Towels Has Proven Itself Useful
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#20 My Dad Cleaned My Cat's Litter Box With My Spatula While I Was Out Of Town
My dad is living with me at the moment. I was out of town for several days and came home to a spatula next to my cat’s litter box. The actual litter scoop was in the small closet in plain sight. He didn’t call or ask about the location.
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#21 I Was Cleaning The BBQ... And Turned Around For 30 Seconds
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For some cleaning do's, Avery recommends having a plan before going into it. “Always try multitasking: while you’re leaving your toilet cleaner act on your toilet for 15 minutes, wipe your sink and your mirror in the meantime,” he adds. “Try alternating your tasks so you don’t get bored. Look for house cleaning services online that have blogs with cleaning tips, so you can learn from the best. They have refined their cleaning techniques many times and will help you work easier.”
#22 I Hear Screaming Coming From The Living Room, Only To Find My 5-Year-Old Daughter On The Floor With Her Hair All Sucked Up & Tangled In Our Ilife Robot Vacuum
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#23 Shower Door Didn't Like Being Cleaned
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#24 Can't Argue With Dyson Ads, It Does Have A Lot Of Suction
One taste of my iPhone cord, and in seconds, it was ripped from the wall and all wrapped up in. Thank goodness Dyson makes it easy to unravel this love triangle.
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Gazzo’s professional tip is to create a cleaning calendar and put aside 15 minutes to tidy up a different room each day. “By the end of the week, your entire home will be decently clean and tidy. If you have more family members, include them on your checklist. If you have kids, make sure their tasks are age-appropriate and easy to carry out. This will give them a sense of responsibility and accomplishment once they finish.”
#25 Trying To Clean Your Oven
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#26 Moved 15 Times Over 30 Years With An Antique Vase My Grandma Gave Me. Today I Cleaned It For The First Time And It Slipped Out Of My Hands
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#27 My 3-Year-Old Thought It Would Be A Good Idea To Spray The TV With Water To "Clean" It
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#28 My Mom Was Just Finishing Cleaning The Kitchen And Then Spilled A Bag Of Chia Seeds On The Ground
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#29 I Tried Cleaning My Oven Today
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#30 Cleaning Your Toilet With Dishwasher Detergent
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#31 I Cleaned My Glasses But Apparently There Was A Small Stone On The Cloth
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#32 Spent Literally 6 Hours Yesterday Hand-Scrubbing, Soaking, And Vacuuming This Couch. Left My 2-Year-Old Alone For 5 Minutes In The Living Room
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#33 I Appreciate Your Drunken Late Night Attempt To Clean, Random Party Guest, But Wooden Cutting Boards Do Not Go In The Dishwasher
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#34 Half Of These Pants Shrunk In The Wash
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#35 Vacuumed Disposable Cutlery Under My Kid's Bed
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#36 Props To The New Roommate For Cleaning The Whole Kitchen, But She Scrubbed The Microwave Oven So Hard, All The Ink Came Off The Dials
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#37 I Was Cleaning My Glasses And Then This Happened
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#38 So That's How You Empty The Dust Container In A Vacuum
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#39 I Spent An Hour And A Half Cleaning The Kitchen. When I Finished I Thought I'd Make Coffee
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#40 Put My Remotes On My Heater While Cleaning And Forgot. Then Got Chilly
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#41 I Guess I Don't Have To Mop The Floor Anymore
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#42 Woke Up This Morning To My Plant Falling Off My Shelf Onto My Head… And While Cleaning It Fell From The Same Place Again
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#43 Got Reminded By Myself That Ceramic And Glass Aren’t A Great Idea To Put Together. Tried To Clean My Pepper Grinder And It Fell Down Directly Into My Washing Machine Door
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#44 Wife Tried To Clean My Cast Iron. How Much Alimony Should I Get?
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#45 My Robot Vacuum Just Sucked Up Half A Roll Of Toilet Paper
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#46 I Broke My Boyfriend's Tempered Glass While Cleaning Up His PC, Time To Pack My Bags Because I'm Gonna Be Single When He Gets Back Home
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#47 Soaked My Blinds, In The Tub, To Wash Them. Hung Them Up To Dry Last Night. Come Downstairs This Morning, And They Are Like Tubes
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#48 Failed Attempt To Clean The Bathroom For Hubby
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#49 How My Knife Broke Through The Glass While I Was Washing It
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#50 It Turns Out My New Roomba Is Perfectly Tall Enough To Absolutely Obliterate Itself On The Bottom Of My Swivel Chair
I know the damage is basically just cosmetic, but I would like my expensive shiny things to stay shiny (for as long as possible) especially if they're expensive.
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