40 Of The Funniest Photos People Shared Under A ‘House Cleaning Fails’ Thread

Grievous errors and accidents can occur in the cleaning process unintentionally no matter how careful you try to be. We’ve all had moments where we’ve accidentally added bleach to coloured laundry, or spilt detergent all over the floor creating a slippery mess. Indeed there’s a myriad of other small things that can and do go wrong as many would attest to.  Scroll below to check out a list of anecdotes shared by folks who ended up in similar hilarious mishaps during a cleaning effort that rapidly deteriorated into a cleaning fail instead.

#1 I Tried Cleaning The Stain Off This Mug Until I Realized It's Part Of The Design

Image source: digitaldylantoddni WhyBother?: That's 10 minutes of OP's life gone

#2 I Clean Pools And Today I Knocked A Huge Potted Plant Into The Water

Image source: JapaneseKitten

#3 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

Image source: wtfitzjdoggwha WhyBother?: Uhhhh, hi there

#4 My Wife Wonders Why The Vacuum Hasn't Been Working

Image source: DDHRUGER Lulu John: Is she stuck in there?

#5 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

Image source: cheekibreekio Stephanie Did It (edited): OP has all my sympathy. I'm moving Friday and the more tired I am, the clumsier I get. This sounds so much like something I'd do.

#6 Let’s Just Say That We Ended Up With Very Clean Laundry Room Floor… And Yes I’m An Idiot

Image source: lyricmeowmeow ILoveMySon: I put regular liquid dish soap in the dishwasher when I was five and cleaned the floor as well.

#7 What Could Go Wrong When Neighbor Cleans Fireplace Into Recycle Bin

Image source: jakemailme123 Candid Panda: My Mom once accidentally set a garage truck on fire by doing this. The embers stayed in the garage bin and when the truck came and emptied the bin the air must have ignited the garage and set the truck ablaze.

#8 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

Image source: tabithadudley Sleestak: When robots attack!!!

#9 My Mom Erased Part Of The World While Cleaning My Globe

Image source: altrefdv Lauren Caswell: Dr Evil approves ?

#10 Got New Cargo Shorts And Accidentally Sat On A Stool That My Sister Was Cleaning With Clorox

Image source: vibraniumdroid ???? (???/????): Maybe soak the whole thing in Clorox to make it all that colour? It’s a nice purple imo

#11 When Your Flatmate Likes To Eat Seeds And Cleans The Floor Without Vacuuming First

Image source: mr_prout ???? (???/????): Well… now you have a mini ecosystem??

#12 Washed My Measuring Cup And All The Lines And Numbers Came Off

Image source: TranslucentTaco Outstanding Scarecrow: Oh Well... at least it still measures 1 cup

#13 I Just Wanted To Clean The Window

Image source: FunGoat9858 WhyBother?: What window?

#14 I Was Emptying The Dishwasher And Found This “Clean” Glass Break

Image source: Louismagooo

#15 My Dad Cleaned My Cat's Litter Box With My Spatula While I Was Out Of Town

Image source: a_n_v_s 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.

#16 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

Image source: Badiland flowingcomplexity: Time to learn Kintsugi

#17 Cleaning Your Toilet With Dishwasher Detergent

Image source: ChrisAllmeid Stephanie Did It: Holdup...what goes into one neighbor's toilet can end up in the other residents' toilets also? Including but not limited to--soap?

#18 I Was Cleaning My Glasses And Then This Happened

Image source: jeslmcm Stephanie Did It: They look pretty angry about it, too.

#19 My Mother Was Cleaning The Attic

Image source: prometheusapparatus Lulu John: HOHOHOHOHOUGHOH

#20 I'm Doing Renovations And My Roomba Found A Tiny Piece Of Sheetrock

Image source: AStrangerSaysHi Lulu John: I think those things are so awful for so many reasons

#21 Home Alone Cleaning The Roof And Gutters When I Heard A Loud Bang

Image source: orangeworker Lulu John: If you took the picture you have your phone

#22 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

Image source: Ellacod

#23 Shower Door Didn't Like Being Cleaned

Image source: Mafra357 Sleestak: Did you talk nice to it first?

#24 I Tried Cleaning My Oven Today

Image source: yunz_i

#25 I Cleaned My Glasses But Apparently There Was A Small Stone On The Cloth

Image source: Defight556 Outstanding Scarecrow: And you cant see those pesky stones without your glasses

#26 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

Image source: nochinesecrawfish Cindy Brick: She did a crappy job inside, though -- yuck

#27 My Mom Was Just Finishing Cleaning The Kitchen And Then Spilled A Bag Of Chia Seeds On The Ground

Image source: Streetcar21

#28 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

Image source: farmyfarmguy

#29 So That's How You Empty The Dust Container In A Vacuum

Image source: buttermuffinWX78

#30 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

Image source: leave_it_to_beavers

#31 Can't Argue With Dyson Ads, It Does Have A Lot Of Suction

Image source: psquared_28 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.

#32 My 3-Year-Old Thought It Would Be A Good Idea To Spray The TV With Water To "Clean" It

Image source: mavwubb Aballi: I had no idea spraying a tv with water would do THAT!

#33 Half Of These Pants Shrunk In The Wash

Image source: vestahound Sleestak: Put 'em in again

#34 I Spent An Hour And A Half Cleaning The Kitchen. When I Finished I Thought I'd Make Coffee

Image source: Friendly_Flytrap

#35 My Robot Vacuum Curled Up And Is Sleeping When It Should Be Working

Image source: Thisismybirdaccount Lulu John: So many examples of why these “suck”

#36 I Was Cleaning The BBQ... And Turned Around For 30 Seconds

Image source: KaczkaJ*baczka Stephanie Did It: That, sir, is not a BBQ.

#37 Trying To Clean Your Oven

Image source: kk653 Bouche and Audi and Shyla, Oh My!: The dark look really soots the chairs.

#38 I Appreciate Your Drunken Late Night Attempt To Clean, Random Party Guest, But Wooden Cutting Boards Do Not Go In The Dishwasher

Image source: FriscoDingo Data1001: I never liked cutting boards made from multiple sections of wood for that very reason. Often they look nice because the pieces are stained in alternating light and dark colors, but they're only held together with wood glue. Give me a solid piece of wood any day.

#39 Vacuumed Disposable Cutlery Under My Kid's Bed

Image source: surfh2o Sleestak: That's suction!

#40 Put My Remotes On My Heater While Cleaning And Forgot. Then Got Chilly

Image source: reddit.com Miss Tinker: Looks like licorice.