Household Tips that are Truly Useful

I know that when the Spring sunshine starts to shine through my home, I start to notice all those extra little jobs that Winter’s darkness ably covers.  I’m talking dusty blinds, grubby windows and cobwebs in high places.  If you’re a dog owner like me, you may also notice more and muddy patches at dog height on your walls, as our canine friends love April showers and then to wipe themselves the full length of the hallway – well, my mutt does anyway!

Here’s a few tips that actually work and you can easily incorporate into your spring clean

The only way is down   
Start at the top of the house and work down. As you finish each room, shut the door to keep the dust out. Clean downstairs in the same way, ending with the hallway. By working methodically, you'll know the whole house is clean.

Make like a professional 

Chambermaids at The Savoy are trained to stand at the door to see what needs doing and then whatever needs to be done - dusting, mopping or vacuuming - the rules are left to right, top to bottom and back to front.

Think about a clear out

If you can't decide whether or not to keep something, ask yourself 'Would I take this with me if I moved house?' If the answer is no, but you still can’t bring yourself to throw/give it away, try having a 'maybe' sack to store things in for eight weeks. If you don’t use it during that time then it is time to part company.  A useful mantra is also ‘is it useful or beautiful?’ – if it’s neither, the get rid of it.  If you can live without it for that long, it's time to say goodbye.

Store away your winter woollies

Wash or dry-clean your woollies before storing them. This will deter moths and also remove perfume and deodorant stains, which may oxidise and worsen over time. Store out-of-season garments in cotton, breathable bags rather than plastic, which attracts dust and condensation.

Get your duvet dry-cleaned

As the nights get warmer we often swap our duvets for one with a lower tog rating.  Making now the perfect time to get it cleaned. Dry-cleaning is the best way to kill off dust mites and their allergens.

Love your linens

If your white bedding and towels are looking a bit grey and tired, add half a cup of lemon juice or a cup of white vinegar to your wash.  Or try a sachet of one of the many ‘glow white’ laundry products on the market

And on the subject of cloth and washing…..

Remove oil from silk clothing

I have used this trick for perfumed oil - gently rub cornflour into the area to absorb the oil, and lightly brush off. Cover the oil mark completely with more cornflour and leave to sit for a few hours. Shake clothing free of flour and then hand wash, or use a gentle machine cycle, using handwash detergent. 

Save clothes from pollen

If you get pollen on your clothes, especially lily pollen, whatever you do, don't try to brush it off! Take a small piece of sticky tape, press the sticky side on to the pollen mark and roll off. Repeat with clean tape as required until all the pollen has gone

Lipstick remover

If you have lipstick on a machine-washable fabric, saturate the spot with hairspray, leave for ten minutes, dab the area with a damp cloth and wash as usual. It works!

Bobble banisher 
Wipe fine-grain sandpaper over a jumper in one direction - veeeery gently! - to lift off those horrid bobbles on your favourite knitwear

Colour-run catastrophes

You'll never have to worry about an accidental red sock sneaking in with your white laundry if you use a specialist ‘colour collector’ product, normally a single sheet similar to a tumble dryer softener sheet.  Add this to the washing machine with your stained clothes, use your usual washing detergent and any loose colour and dirt will be collected and locked in the sheet.

Now on to the housework proper J

Washing windows

When cleaning, finish off with a squeegee, wiping the interior horizontally and the exterior vertically so you know if any streaks are inside or outside.  Vinegar in your water cuts through everything making your windows sparkle.

Cleaning skylights

These are often hard to get to, so let’s cheat and enlist Mother Nature’s help!  Wait for the summer showers and tilt the window inside and wash the outside with soapy water before shutting it to let the rain rinse the soap away.  So simple!

Cleaning blinds

To clean blinds, just lower and close them completely, then use a damp paintbrush to lift the dust off.  Change the water regularly and clean your brush between strokes

Remove scuff marks on paintwork

Rub them with a clean pencil eraser, then dampen a cloth with rubbing alcohol and dab the mark until it disappears.

Clean your lamp shades

Rid your fabric lamp shades of dust by simply running a lint roller around the outside. Smaller shades can be done with sticky tape

Clean chandeliers with a miracle product

If your chandeliers and crystal lights are gathering dust and you dread taking them down to clean because it’s such a fiddly job, cheer, as you no longer have to! Lakeland make a  crystal and chandelier cleaner (£9.99) that you just spray it on and let the dirt drip off on to a towel or bucket below. Miraculous results!

Remove pet hair 

A quick way to remove pet hair from upholstery is to put on a rubber glove - ideally with a raised grip - run it under the tap, then shake off any excess moisture. Run your fingers over the pet hair in short scraping strokes for easy removal. This is also useful on stair risers – obviously starting at the top and working down!

Spruce up your wood

Remove grease marks from wooden table tops using neat vinegar to dissolve the grease then wiping immediately with a cloth wrung out with a solution of equal parts vinegar and warm water

Bathrooms…….

Stop steamy mirrors
Rub a dry bar of soap over the surface of bathroom windows and then rub with a clean cloth to keep the fog away.  Alternatively to prevent mirrors from steaming up, put a small amount of washing-up liquid on a dry cloth and rub it thoroughly into the surface of the mirror.

Limescale in the loo

Limescale is calcium and can be dissolved by distilled vinegar dissolves calcium. Using a spray bottle, apply the vinegar to the loo and rinse clean 30 minutes later.  For more stubborn limescale, soak a few pieces of kitchen towel in vinegar and place them on the affected parts for a few hours before removing and rinsing.

Keep your shower clean

Good old vinegar again! Mix equal parts of vinegar and water and scrub on with a soft toothbrush to remove limescale on the shower door. As above, for heavy deposits, soak paper towels in vinegar, and leave on overnight.  Lemon juice and water applied with an old newspaper then rinsed with water works well too.

Grout cleaner 
Fold a piece of medium-grit sandpaper in half, rough-side out and use the creased edge to scrub out the stains in the bathroom tile grout.

Kitchens……

Olive Oil

Many cleaning standbys, such as ammonia, can dull and even corrode chrome and stainless steel. Olive oil, however, is a safe and effective shining agent.  As well as cleaning - cooking of course! – olive oil can be sued to lubricate hinges with a small dab of oil to a cloth and wipe the top of the hinges so that the oil runs down the sides. This wonder oil can also be used to stop wax sticking to candle holders, if you rub a thin coat of oil on the base of the holder before inserting a candle. Any dripped wax should peel away easily.

Fresher smelling fridge

If your fridge smells of onions or pongy cheese, place a saucer containing a few tablespoons of ground coffee inside. Keep the fridge door closed for as long as you can - 24 hours if possible. Throw away the coffee and keep an open pack of cheap coffee in the fridge to serve as a deodoriser.

Super sparkling silver

Polishing tarnished silver cutlery takes ages, so try this tip and boil it for ten minutes in a saucepan of water, lined with aluminium foil.

All of these are really useful tips to help your home feel fresh and rejuvenated.

Tools for the Job

Tool  Number 1: The Iron

A quality iron may be identified by its well-built sole plate – you should look for something that is solid, smooth, and clean if buying used.  Usually they’re  made from solid steel, titanium coated or cast iron with alumina.

No matter what, avoid the super cheap irons (i.e. less than £15) as these often have really low quality sole plates to keep costs down.  A cheap sole plate isn’t easy to clean and won’t heat up evenly  so is a false economy as it will end up damaging your clothes

Look for high heat capability.  Most consumer irons range in power consumption from 420 watt, such as small travel irons, to 1800 watts, which are the higher end domestic models.  Generally speaking, the higher the wattage, the hotter the iron can get and the faster it will heat too, although the size of the sole plate must also be taken into account too

It’s important for your iron to be able to get hot as fabrics such as cotton and linen require high heat to reform their shape and a hotter iron can really reduce your ironing time as you don’t have to spend too long on each part of the garment. A hot iron is also needed to create steam and higher temperatures produce steadier steam

Steam is vital too, as it breathes life into fabrics and the hot moisture enables the toughest wrinkles to smooth out with minimal work by more evenly distributing the heat through the garment’s fibres.  Back to the gold old cheap iron (think student starter kit!) and its often pathetic steam component that functions as if it was an afterthought, sputtering and spitting – that’s no good.  Spend a bit more and you can get up to 300+ holes in the sole plate delivering clean, uniform steam.

Try to buy the best steam delivery system you can afford as a good steam iron can be used indirectly on wools and other more delicate fabrics and save £££s a year in pressing and dry cleaning costs

Be warned though, price doesn’t always mean quality.  Some irons are expensive because they are  made of lightweight space age materials, designed for those with arthritis or similar and cannot cope with a heavy iron. They are not necessarily better because they cost more,  they simply are being made for a different customer

 A special mention to the travel iron for those of us who travel for business or even those of us take an iron on our hols, a travel iron can be a wise investment.  Although hotels often have an iron and board available for guest use, this isn’t always the case, especially at hotels that are either budget or are trying to encourage use of their expensive in-house cleaning services.  Having your own iron enables you to use a device you’re familiar with and prepare your clothing on your schedule as you see fit.  No ironing board?  Grab a towel and throw it on a flat surface, that’ll work just as well. Look for something small, lightweight, with good heat capability and with a decent steam setting.

Tool Number 2: The Ironing Board

Basically, you need something that’s sturdy and can be adjusted to a height that’s comfortable for you.  To save money, it doesn’t even have to be new as all the work is done by the cover and the pad.  Look for a good, thick underlay, a non-slip surface and a heat reflective surface which will help speed up ironing time, as you effectively iron both sides of a garment at once.  You can also put a piece of tinfoil under the ironing board cover to do this too but do take extra care if you do this, as it will increase the speed in which you can burn the clothing.

Tool Number 3: Spray Bottle

If you are being thrifty and re-using a bottle that once contained a household cleaner you must be certain that it has been thoroughly cleaned as you don’t want to be spraying chemicals on your clothes.   Use the spray bottle to disperse water evenly over your garments before ironing if it’s too dry.  It’s also handy for when you’re ironing a stubborn crease – just give the crease a squirt and then iron it out seconds later.

Tool Number 4: Water

You want to use clean water without high concentrations of calcium and magnesium, both of which are common in hard water.  Long term use can lead to iron damage and leave marks on dress shirt fabrics that are hard to remove and for this reason many manufacturers recommend using distilled water. However, keep your iron clean and you do not need to use distilled water as some mineral presence is good as it acts as a wetting agent and helps water better vaporize when it contacts the sole plate.  In reality, drinking water is perfect for most irons.

Tool Number 5: Light-Coloured Cotton Towel

A towel can be used as an ironing board pad, rolled and used inside sleeves as a makeshift sleeve-board, or simply to clean up excess water sprayed on the shirt. It may also be sued to protect delicate fabrics that may need a burst of heat but would be damaged by direct contact with a hot iron.  Place the towel over the garment to be ironing and iron the garment through the towel to protect it.  A cotton handkerchief does this job on smaller, fiddlier items.

Tool Number 6: Spray Starch (Optional)

It’s easy to get this wrong in an attempt to get a perfect “crisp” shirt – too much starch and too high a heat and you can end up with flakes of starch everywhere.  It is best used in moderation and not on the iron’s highest heat setting.  Use in moderation or you can turn a normally breathable cotton shirt into something that feels like a synthetic plastic bag which creases the moment it’s worn.  It’s possible to make your own spray starch by dissolving one tablespoon of corn starch in two cups water. Using a spray bottle (preferably not the water one – clearly mark it “spray starch” – and LIGHTLY mist the fabric a minute before ironing.

Ask any workman (or woman), it’s really important to have the right tools for the job and I hope you’ll find this useful advice when it comes to tackling the UK’s most hated chore.  Anything to make it simpler………failing that, just give us a call!  We've got all the best tools for this particular job!