Most of us can truthfully say that we try to keep our homes spic and span. In our attempt, we might enlist the help of a professional cleaning service, divide responsibilities up between family members, or tackle the dirty work ourselves. However we work to get the job done, most of us are missing the mark when it comes to certain areas of the home—the parts that are less obvious. For example, you know to wipe down your kitchen counters, organize your living room, and disinfect your bathroom, but there are many nooks and crannies in your house that aren't as visible yet still require the same level of attention.

To help point you in the right direction, we asked top cleaning professionals to pinpoint the areas in our homes that we're forgetting to clean—or the items that we need to replace entirely after a specific period of time. As for the culprits that fall into the former category? Think that hard-to-reach filter in your air conditioning system or washing unit—and your oven (we should all be switching on that self-cleaning mode much more frequently than we do). As for the items that fit into the latter? It's important to replace home safety mainstays, like smoke detector batteries, and even your refrigerator's front-facing water filter entirely.

Ahead, you'll discover the unexpected pieces that fall into each category. Stick to these guidelines and your space will be that much cleaner—especially in the places where no one is looking.