Yes, You Can Use Too Much Soap When Cleaning, And It's Making Your Home Way Dirtier

We blame the commercials. You know the ones, where the person doing the dishes rinses away scores of suds for a sparkling clean pan. Or maybe you remember the one where someone pours what feels like an entire bottle of cleaner onto their floors, scrubs for a minute, and walks away with glimmering floors. While it's true soap can clean all sorts of unexpected things, we've been trained that more soap is better. The reality? That extra squirt of soap could actually be making your home dirtier.

It all comes down to how soap works. By nature, soap draws dirt in and traps it to make it easier for water to wash it away. But when you use too much soap, it's harder to flush. The remainder? It makes it easier for even more dirt and grime to latch onto surfaces, making things look dirty — which is exceptionally frustrating after you've spent all that time and effort to clean. The good news is that by just tweaking how much soap you use, you can get your home truly sparkling clean.

How much soap do you actually need when cleaning? The best way to tell is to use the amount on the soap's label. No label? Err on the "less is more" approach. You'll know if it's too much if there are too many bubbles or if it feels like the surface looks cloudy when you're cleaning.

The amount of soap needed varies depending on the chore. To keep your floors looking like new, you probably need around an eighth of a teaspoon of dish soap in your DIY floor cleaner. For sparkling clean countertops, add about a thumbprint-sized dollop of soap to a wet towel and squish to build up some light suds before scrubbing. Windows need a little cleaning? You'll need just one drop of dish soap per four ounces of hot water to make an effective cleaning solution that'll make your windows shine. For mirrors, you need even less soap; just a squirt of dish soap mixed into eight cups of hot water. Make sure to properly rinse away the soap afterwards to prevent it from building up.

If it feels like you've got too many suds while cleaning, the floors feel a little sticky, or the countertops look dull, you might have used too much soap. Give everything another solid rinse to remove it. If that doesn't work or you notice the soap buildup later on, don't worry; there's a DIY vinegar cleaning solution for that. Create a mix that's half water, half white vinegar, apply it to the area, and give it a moment to break down the residue before wiping away.