I own a luxury cleaning service. Here are the 5 things people do wrong when cleaning.

• As a stay-at-home mother for 11 years, I did my fair share of cleaning.
• I’ve also owned two professional cleaning services and cleaned hundreds of homes.
• Here are the cleaning mistakes I’ve seen people make.

I was fortunate enough to be a stay-at-home parent to four children for 11 years. As you can imagine, I did a lot of cleaning.

I previously owned a traditional cleaning service with over 300 residential and commercial clients.

My children are now adults. I’m a grandmother who owns a second cleaning business, this time as an empty nester and solopreneur. I cater to those who desire luxury cleaning care. My clients are primarily executives.

As someone who’s cleaned professionally her whole life, I’ve seen firsthand what works and what won’t to clean a house. I’ve seen what products and methods get houses to sparkle and shine and what is a waste of time.

As a luxury cleaning service owner, here are five things people get wrong when cleaning.

Smelly clothes, sheets, and bathroom rugs need to be washed

If you have to smell an article of clothing to see if it is clean, it’s dirty. Same with bed sheets and bathroom rugs. Bed sheets should be washed weekly. Depending on how much traffic is in each bathroom, the bathroom rugs may need to be cleaned weekly — they should be fluffed in the dryer on a delicate cycle at least once a week.

The cycle you put your washer on matters

If you wash all of your clothes on the same cycle, you are probably wasting more time, water, and energy than necessary and possibly ruining your clothes.

If you’re washing sheets, blankets, or even towels, I highly recommend using the setting for each. However, if you’re doing a mixed load consisting of a pair of jeans, a T-shirt, a couple of towels, and a sheet, I recommend putting on the bedding/bulky cycle.

You can also use the quick wash option as well. However, the items inside may get a shorter wash cycle than is needed. Some clothes need a longer wash cycle — for example, your family’s sports choices.

Here’s a checklist of dryer do’s and don’ts

Some items can and should be dried using a drying rack.

Not all items washed in the washing machine need to go into your dryer. For example, if you’d like the jeans to last longer, you have them hung dry or brought to a dry cleaner, especially if they are black; you don’t want the colors to fade.

Some items, especially those with embellishments, need to be hand-washed. Bathroom rugs need to be refreshed in the dryer or shaken outside, at minimum, weekly.

When washing a comforter, quilt, blanket, or event sheets, you can let them air dry as soon as they come out of the washing machine. Then, refresh in the dryer to give it a soft feel to save energy and save on your electric bill.

Do this to leave your floors sparkling

Hand- and foot-washing your floors helps keep you fit and your home clean. Cleaning a home is a full-body workout. The more you clean, the cleaner your home will be, and your body will thank you for the exercise.

The closer you are to the floor, the more you will see with hand washing. The dirtier the floor is, foot washing will help make cleaning easier and offer a deeper clean due to the strength of your legs.

Mops are only sometimes necessary. Should you use a traditional mop to wash your floors, you could miss quite a bit of debris, and you’ll need to clean the mop head, which creates more laundry items.

Don’t forget to clean kitchen cabinets and shelves

If your kitchen cabinets aren’t flush with the ceiling and you have an air conditioning vent just over the top of the cabinet and just underneath is your stove, the air blowing out of the air conditioning is not only spreading the dirt around the house. It is also getting in the food that you are serving your family. I recommend this type of cleaning quarterly, semi-annually, and, at the very least, annually.