How to Clean Your Houseplants Effectively - Ensure Your Plants' Health

Houseplant at home gives you a feeling of purity and tranquility. It is a breath of fresh energy that keeps you alive and adds positivity to your life. Like any other items at home, the houseplants are also bound to accumulate grit and grime with time. The dust accrued leaves attract bacteria, mold, and viruses which can be harmful to your home environment. You may check our earlier article that highlights the health effects of the exposure to toxic mold. The layers of dust on the houseplants also block the light, stopping the plants from the process of photosynthesis. In this article, learn how to clean your houseplants ensuring a clean environment and surroundings at home.

How to clean your houseplants using a soft toothbrush or paintbrush

Spray lukewarm water to the houseplants.

When the sharp, spiky, thick, or coarse-leaved plants at home start accumulating layers of dust, use a soft toothbrush or paintbrush to remove the dust. Supporting the leaves with your hand, use the soft bristle of such brushes to remove the dust with gentle strokes from the base to the tip of each leaf. The houseplant’s own bristly leaves or a pipe cleaner can also be used to clean the houseplants. You can try this procedure at regular intervals.

How to clean your houseplants by dipping in lukewarm water

Big leafy plants in the house may have a relaxing effect.

Wondering how to clean your houseplants that is full of small leaves? The cleaning of the small leafy houseplants, one by one, can be really time-consuming. Instead, you may swish the small several leafy houseplants in the lukewarm water for removal of dust. Adding few drops of mild dish soap to the bucket of lukewarm water. Then, give support to the soil as well as the pot to turn it upside down into the bucket, dip the leaves into this lukewarm solution to get rid of the grime. Swish the houseplant around and let it air dry.

Tepid water use for houseplants cleaning

The Philodendron or the Christmas cactus houseplants can get real dust laden when they grow up. You may clean it once a year or alternate years. If such houseplant is large, set it on the waterproof stand and use the tepid water through hand shower to rinse the piled-up dust. Spray it gently and not for too long. Let it drip dry before you can restore it to its original place.

How to clean your houseplants with mayonnaise

Although it takes a much longer time to see the results, the magic of mayonnaise works for the houseplants, except the fuzzy leaf ones like African Violet. Firstly, dust the accumulated grimes and then, spray a solution of lukewarm water and mild dishwashing soap. Once the leaves are clean, take some amount of mayo on a damp cloth and wipe each of the leaves to see the shine on the otherwise dull looking plant. Later, dab off the excess mayo with a soft cloth.

Spruce up the plant

It is essential to keep your home plants clean in order to keep the plants in good health. Withering of plants can result in molds. Check out our article on how to prevent mold at home. Always remove the withered blossoms and the leaves and flowers that fall on the soil. If it keeps piling up in the soil, it can lead to harmful mold spread in the entire house.

Misting procedure to avoid overwatering

What is misting? How to clean your houseplants using the process of misting and which plants require such process? Misting is a kind of spraying using water droplets. Many houseplants like bonsai or pachypodium are sensitive plants that cannot fight overwatering. You might think it will require a shower as you are cleaning after 2 years but there you can go wrong if overwatering occurs. And, cleaning cacti with a cloth can harm your hands and also the cloth. The process of misting lets you acquire water as much and when required without spoiling things.

Conclusion

Caring for your houseplants is vital to keep your plants as well as the home environment healthy. Many times, you are not aware of how to clean your houseplants and that is where this article will be helpful. Check on some of the most useful tips for ensuring a safe and dust-free growth of your houseplants.