Skipping This Step When Taking Care of Your Plants May Be Why They’re Not Thriving

Indoor plants can brighten up any space. They provide pops of color, make rooms look more serene, and are often relatively low-maintenance. When it comes to plant care, most people end up watering them and calling it a day. While that’s certainly a necessary step for keeping them alive, a lot of plant owners are missing a critical step: You need to actually clean your indoor plants.

Studies have shown that if you aren’t giving your plants a regular wipe-down, you could be undoing all of that other work to help them grow. When dust and other debris sits on a plant’s leaves, it ends up making it harder for it to undergo photosynthesis, where it harvests light and converts it to energy. Moreover, you never know what sort of chemicals, compounds, pollutants, and irritants may circulate around your home and end up on those leaves, possibly passing on a bacterial, viral, or fungal infection to your plant.

Luckily, keeping your indoor plants clean doesn’t have to turn into a massive chore; it just takes a little regular upkeep. Every week or two, take a moistened paper towel or microfiber cloth and do a quick sweep of all the leaves to get any random dust off. This routine can easily be grouped in with your regular watering.

On top of that, roughly once every month or two, you’re going to want to do a deeper clean. Depending on the size of your plants, you’re going to put them in your sink or shower and drench the leaves with water. Follow up by taking a paper towel or microfiber cloth and wiping down each individual leaf, including the underside, where dirt, dust, and bugs like to accumulate. Lastly, do a final check to see if there are any dead leaves or stems, and cut those off of the plant so that any infections don’t spread elsewhere.

After that, you’re all set! By regularly taking a few minutes to check in on those plants, you’ll ensure they stick around for a very long time.