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Doing domestic cleaning is not something most of us enjoy. In fact, we dread doing it. It feels so much easier to put it off rather than doing it right away. But like it or not, you have to get it done. It’s to keep you sane (mess up house can mess your head up) and you want to be prepared too especially if a guest come unannounced. Don’t fret though, below are some handy tips for efficient domestic cleaning.

Let’s begin with the easiest one to do. Clean one part at a time. Let’s take a fridge as an example. Pick one area to clean, remove all the items from that part then wipe the interior. After you are done, put back all the items. Now you are done with one part. Do this every week and rotate with other parts of the refrigerator. You’ll be amazed that when you see the whole refrigerator is clean after a few weeks doing it. You can try this trick with your bathroom too. Remember, do one part at a time.

If you live in a house with many people, divide the tasks to everyone. The load will be much lighter when the job is divided and it can be rotated too. Or everyone can do the cleaning together, focusing on one area at a time. Plan to make cleaning as part of the weekly or bi-weekly schedule. Thinking that cleaning can be done all at once will only make you to procrastinate. Plan ahead when you should do the cleaning. Cleaning regularly is much better than doing it all at once in who knows how many months; when the mess is too much to handle that is.

One more way to go about domestic cleaning is clear up the clutter in your house. That means either you throw away or sell any unused or unwanted items in your house. How can you decide if you still need the items or not? For things that you never use in one year and you think you won’t need it in coming months, then you can throw it away. For items that still works but you can live without it, then you can sell it. The rest are keepers. Just remember this, if you really need the item, you don’t really need to contemplate whether you need it or not; because you use it regularly. Clearing up the clutter will bring peace of mind as well. Can’t believe it? Try clear up your desk today and feel the difference.

Next tip is keeping all the cleaning tools in one place. This may seem trivial but it will save you time compared to just randomly place them. It may even affect your mood to do cleaning. Just imagine that you are thinking of doing the cleaning but after spending so much time looking for cleaning tools, you lose the will and go lazing around instead.

There you have a few tips on how to do house cleaning the right way. Focusing on one part at a time, setting a schedule for cleaning, dividing the chores as well as keeping all the tools at one place and you are on your way to cleaner and tidier house.

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Help More People Beat Cancer!

Girls from our Anyclean team have signed up to take place in the Race For Life – Hampstead charity event, organised by Cancer Research UK and taking place on 09/06/2012 in Hampstead Heath.

Everybody is welcome to join us and take part in the biggest fight against cancer. You can walk, jog or run to help beat this mean desease. Put on something pink and be there on Saturday, 9th of June 2012 at 11:00.

Event location:

Hampstead Heath, Off East Heath Road,
Hampstead,
London
NW3 1BP

Please email samantha@anyclean.co.uk for more details.

We are aiming to raise at least £1,000 for Cancer Research UK. You can sponsor our girls by donating money on our Race For Life page here: raceforlifesponsorme.org/anyclean.
Everybody’s help would be deeply appreciated! 

As a long term supporter of Cancer Research UK, Anyclean will be donating £1.00 from every cleaning job and will add it to the final amount raised.

Thank you for taking the time to read this. Please share with friends!

TweetIt is this time of year again – bunnies, chocolate eggs, flowers – Easter! I love it. Everybody does. In the light of our holiday mood we have decided to celebrate this beautiful Christian holiday with a modest carpet cleaning offer to all new and existing customers.

If you book carpet cleaning worth £80.00+VAT or more on the 5th of April you will get 30% off straight away. This is a minimum saving of £24.00+VAT that can be used to buy:

• 7 pints of beer
• 5 portions of fish and chips
• 6 Big Mac meals
• 3 cinema tickets
• 5 tubs of Häagen Dazs ice cream

…and lots of other useful and important items.

Hurry up and schedule your carpet cleaning service on Thursday 05/04/2012, because once the offer is gone – it’s gone. Call 020 8593 1317 or click here.

Please note that each booking is subject to a minimum spend of £50.00+VAT.

Happy Easter!

TweetWhile we all know what the butler did in the clichéd old mystery novels, it’s more interesting to know what the butler did in traditional old-fashioned homes that had a small army of domestic servants.

The old-fashioned butler was always a man, and he was the head of the male servants in a household. While the popular image of the butler in fiction and movies portrays him as a single man, butlers could be married – often to the housekeeper or to some other female member of the domestic staff.

The word “butler” derives from the same original root word as “bottle”, which gives you an indication of the traditional role of the butler. The butler was the man who was in charge of the bottles, i.e. the wine cellar. The Oxford English Dictionary defines a butler as a “man-servant in charge of wine-cellar and plate, head-servant.” In a nutshell, the butler took charge of caring for and selecting the wine, and took care of the silverware. The butler usually oversaw the other male domestic staff, and you could describe his role as more managerial.

Both these roles indicate the position of trust that the butler was originally held in. In the Renaissance and earlier days, you had to really be able to trust the person who poured your drinks, as this person would have ample opportunity to slip poison into the wine, and a less-than-loyal person could be bribed to do exactly this. While the risk of being poisoned by the local equivalent of the Borgias faded away over time, the responsibility of the butler remained the same, as did the trust and loyalty. The role of caring for the silver also indicated the position of trust and responsibility the butler was given: the family silver was often the most valuable asset in the household.

As part of caring for the wine and the wine cellar, the butler would have to know everything about storing, selecting and serving wine and other alcoholic drinks. The butler would often pour drinks from a cask or large bottle to an attractive decanter for serving (e.g. whisky) – and the butler often had a number of tricks for cleaning glass decanters to keep them fresh and sparkling.

The butler would not just keep an eye on the family silver; he would also polish it, and old-fashioned guides that gave instructions to the butler would often include recipes for polishing silver. Many old-fashioned methods are still in use today – regular buffing does wonders for keeping tarnish at bay – but others (the ones that contained alarming ingredients) have fallen into disuse.

In many novels set in the 1930s, readers often encounter man-servants who are classified as butlers but whose roles extend beyond the traditional role of the butler. This servant should really be classified as the “gentleman’s gentleman”, and while he was often called a butler, he also played the role of valet, chauffeur and footman, and sometimes the role of housekeeper and “maid”. Jeeves, the gentleman’s gentleman created by P.G. Wodehouse to wait on Bertie Wooster and to haul the young idiot out of whatever problem he had got into, is the best fictional example of a butler of this type and is probably the one who springs to mind first when butlers are mentioned. Another notable fictional butler is Bunter, who is the super-competent sidekick to the aristocratic detective Lord Peter Wimsey in Dorothy Sayers’ novels.
Butlers today can be attached to a single well-off household or can be hired for a special occasion or location. Modern butlers still wait on tables and serve wine, but like the “gentleman’s gentleman”, they also take care of managing households and valeting work.

TweetI am a big fan of coffee. I love thick, creamy espresso, smooth aromatic cappuccino and refreshing frappuccino during hot days. In other words I am a hard core caffeiniac. Simply love it.

What I did not suspect at all was that this has become some form of proper art. Real art, by real artists. Well, not really, but if one can create such a beautiful thing in a cup of coffee then he is an artist to me.

Here are 30 fine examples of Latte Art: http://webdesignledger.com/inspiration/30-examples-of-latte-art-too-beautiful-to-drink.

TweetDo you have household rubbish or any kind of stuff that needs waste disposal? Read on.

When you have been clearing out your house and garage and getting rid of rubbish, before you take the lot to the tip, perhaps you need to look through everything and see if you have any potential zots among the rubbish.

What is a zot? The origin of this word goes back to one of our family word games. We used to take a single-syllable word ending (e.g. –ick) and add some consonants and consonant clusters (e.g. str-) and come up with a new word – and a definition for the word (a great game if you’re stuck in traffic with school-age children and teenagers, by the way). Mum defined a “zot” as “an old household item used to grow flowers in”. As far as I’m aware, there isn’t a proper dictionary word for this sort of thing, so “zot” became the word we used.
When you’re clearing out rubbish and junk from your home, garage or office, what sorts of things can you keep an eye out for so that the thing can be used as a zot? Basically, anything that can hold dirt and allow for some drainage out the bottom. Here’s a few examples:

* teapots and kettles (assuming that they have a hole in the bottom) – suitable for spring bulbs and herbs

* old car tyres (stack them one on top of the other) – great for potatoes, strawberries and tomatoes, especially as the black rubber absorbs heat and warms the soil

* toilets – big enough to take small rosebushes, azaleas and camellias

* buckets (if you’ve got a hole in your bucket, dear Liza, dear Liza) – good for herbs or one potato plant

* a bathtub – lucky you: you’ve got a whole raised garden bed ready made that should be able to take quite a few lettuces and zucchinis, plus a few other odds and ends as well.

* mugs and cups – you might be able to fit one spring bulb or one chives plant in here

Of course, not every zot suits every person’s taste. Usually, you need the right sense of humour to carry off a toilet used as a zot. A matched set of old kettles and the like can make quite an attractive feature, especially if presented in a row and have identical flowers (e.g. pansies or petunias) in them. Old bathtubs, buckets and tyres used to grow vegetables are best kept in the back garden, as although they’re handy and useful, they aren’t always super-attractive.

How do you turn a piece of old junk into a zot? It’s all very simple. Take your item and make sure that there’s a hole in the bottom. Drill one if necessary. Then fill your zot with potting mix (try your local garden centre) and a bit of fertiliser. Then plant either seedlings or seeds of anything that’s the right size to fit in it. Water and observe.

With potatoes, it gets even easier. Put in a small layer of compost and potting mix and put in your seed potato. Cover with compost. Water. As the spud grows, cover the green tops with more compost, kitchen waste, etc. After the plant gets as big as it can and starts to wither, dig all the spuds up and enjoy them. Simple!

If you’re saving items to use as zots inside the house, keep an eye out as you’re sorting through the rubbish and clutter for items to use as dishes underneath to stop water going everywhere – old saucers and bowls are obvious choices, but watch out for other possibilities, such as ashtrays, plastic containers and cat litter trays.

TweetIn days gone by, larger houses usually had a “stillroom” and some households even employed a dedicated “stillroom maid”. The stillroom was the place that was used for storing, drying, distilling and generally preparing herbs to make into all the everyday remedies, lotions and unguents. While most houses these days aren’t built with a special room for this activity, most of us can certainly get busy in the kitchen to take advantage of the medicinal properties of many common herbs.

Aloe Vera: The gel from this succulent plant is perfect for treating burns. It also makes a good moisturiser for chapped hands.

Allheal: Not such a common herb (try a garden centre – its Latin name is Prunella vulgaris), but as the name suggests, it was used for all sorts of medical reasons, the most common being to dress cuts and wounds, and to soothe sore throats.

Basil: Crushing the leaves on your skin helps repel insects… if you can bear to use basil for any reason other than cooking.  When eaten, basil aids digestion.

Chamomile: Traditionally used as a soothing tea, chamomile can also relieve the symptoms of pregnancy-related nausea, haemorrhoids and hay fever.

Cloves: This acts as a painkiller and as an antiseptic. It is ideal for all mouth related infections, including gumboil and toothache. It also helps with sore throats and for teething babies. Clove oil was in every dentist’s toolkit until Novocaine became widespread.

Comfrey: A compress or a tea of comfrey helps in healing wounds and in reducing bruising. Comfrey stimulates tissue growth thanks to the allantoin in its leaves, and the old country name for comfrey was knitbone.

Dandelion: An excellent diuretic for relieving fluid retention.  The white sap can be dabbed on warts to help treat them. The leaves are full of vitamins A and C, and taste good in a salad.  The roots can also be used as a mild laxative.

Fennel: Make a tea from this herb to help soothe indigestion and treat colic in babies. Some users also report that fennel tea quells hunger pangs and can be used as a slimming aid.

Feverfew: Research has proven that a tea of feverfew helps relieve the symptoms of migranes.

Garlic: It would be easier to list what garlic isn’t good for.  It reduces cholesterol, it is packed with antioxidants, it has antiseptic properties when applied topically and it is considered one of the top Super Foods. Eating it raw is the best way to get the full benefit of garlic, as some of the principles are destroyed by heating.

Lavender: Soothing and antibacterial. The leaves and flowers can be used to make tea or “lavender water” for soothing cuts and stings. Crushing the leaves on the skin helps repel annoying insects. Lavender is one of the most popular essential oils because of its stress-relieving and antiseptic properties.

Liquorice: Even in the form of the popular sweet, liquorice is a first-class laxative (never give children too many liquorice sweets). Liquorice tea also helps soothe sore throats, and it can be mixed with bitter herbal remedies, as it has a strong taste that covers the bitterness.

Marigold: This refers to the English marigold of the genus Calendula rather than the French marigold of the Tagetes genus (which is great for keeping pests out of your garden but isn’t so good for medicinal purposes). Make a tea from the flowers to use as an eyewash for conjunctivitis (when it’s cooled and strained, of course). A handcream made from the tea is very good for chapped skin and soothing grazes.

Raspberry leaves: A tea from raspberry leaves can help ease menstrual cramps. It is also said to assist in the birthing process, and women who drink a lot of raspberry tea in the last few weeks of pregnancy can have a slightly easier labour. For everyone else, raspberry tea helps with diarrhoea.

St John’s Wort: This herb is well known as a herbal alternative to anti-depressant medications.

Yarrow: Used as an antiseptic wash for wounds and as a tea for treating fever. This was supposed to be the wonder herb used by the Greek hero Achilles to treat war wounds on him and his companions during the Trojan War.

Need carpet cleaning Becontree. Call 020 8593 1317 for the best quote on your list. Fully guaranteed carpet cleaners.

TweetYour home is your castle, your safe haven and your port in a storm. Well, it should be. There have been only too many cases of homes being broken into, for burglaries at best and assault, etc. at worst. Home security systems are a must for everyone. But what works?

Dogs: an age-old method of defending your home from intruders.  Some breeds of dog are “watch dogs”, which means that they give the alert that an intruder (or a visitor) is approaching the property. Others are “guard dogs” which means that not only will they give the alarm, but they are capable of defending you if needs be. If you choose a guard dog type, you do not have to take any special steps to make sure that the dog is “tough” enough to defend you – you don’t want it attacking the meter reader or your neighbour. Dogs defend what they love, so treat a dog well.  Dogs, of course, aren’t suitable for every household – some people are allergic and other homes are not permitted pets.

House and garden design: A burglar is not likely to attempt a break-in in full view of the street and will want to tackle the back or something well-covered. It’s best if you keep front fences low so they don’t screen the view of the house from the street. At the back of the house, smaller windows are better and make sure that you keep bushes, etc. that can provide access to windows small and well trimmed – or prickly. A rose-covered trellis looks lovely but also poses a thorny problem to would-be burglars.

Locks, etc.: Deadbolts are best and are less easy to pick or force. Some people seem to think the more locks, the better, but this is not necessarily the case – having five locks on your front door is a real pain when you’re trying to open up so you can get in while holding half a dozen shopping bags and a grumpy toddler (and are downright risky during a fire). And don’t be so silly as to have three or four locks on the front door but only one small Yale-style lock on the back door. Guess where the burglar will go…

Peepholes and chains: These are simple and cheap to install yourself and are a great security measure. You can see who’s at the door before you open it.

Cat flaps: If you have one of these in your door, either make sure that someone can’t reach the door handle from the inside via the cat flap, or that you have more than just the sort of push-button lock that allows the handle to be turned and unlocked from the inside.

Sensible precautions: don’t advertise the fact that your home is empty or that you have things worth stealing inside. Arrange for a neighbour to clear your letterbox when you’re on holiday (or arrange with the postal service to stop your mail, and get a “No Junk Mail” sign). If you have just bought new expensive appliances, don’t make this obvious, e.g. by leaving the old carton out on the street to be collected. Don’t leave keys in the locks. If you have a spare emergency key for if (when!) you accidentally lock yourself out, don’t put it in traditional places like under the doormat or in a pot plant – be more creative. If you’re going away for a holiday, don’t make the place look too neat and tidy – leave it looking lived in.

Other security measures: common ways of deterring burglars, especially for people living alone, include turning lights and/or radios on, and putting a pair of men’s shoes by the door so it looks as if a big, tough bloke lives there. However, having just the hall light on plus a radio simply screams “empty house!” and a very neat, very clean pair of carefully lined up men’s shoes is a bit of a giveaway. It’s better to have a light on in the living room or in a bedroom (with the curtains pulled), along with the radio or TV. And if you’re trying the shoe trick, make sure the shoes look worn and possibly a bit messy as though someone has just dropped them by the door.

Alarm systems: these are a deterrent, but don’t let them lull you into a false sense of security. An alarm by itself won’t do anything – it needs to be backed up by a security firm to really be effective.

Need carpet cleaning Becontree Heath. Call 020 8593 1317 for the best quote on your list. Fully guaranteed carpet cleaners.

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And the list of natural ingredients used in cosmetics continues.  It’s kind of encouraging to know that many of these are used commercially. It’s a great improvement on the whale oil, bear fat, musk and arsenic concoctions of the Victorian age… if Victorian ladies owned up to using them.

Milk: Cleopatra’s favourite cosmetic, and it makes a wonderful skin softener. Unsurprisingly, powdered milk makes a first-class addition to the bath. The lactic acid is a mild chemical exfoliant, so milk powder and other dairy products go well in face masks. Milk products go off quickly, so don’t be tempted to add them to lotions that you want to last for a while. Use a vegetable oil instead.

Neem oil:  If you have discovered this first class organic pest control and can spare a little from the garden, you can use it cosmetically, like they do in India. You can use it as an insect repellent, as  a hair oil, and as an acne remedy. Why don’t they sell this almost miraculous oil by the litre like they do petrol?

Nut oils (all sorts): While each different type of nut oil (hazelnut, walnut, macadamia nut, etc) has its own benefits, they’re all excellent for use in moisturisers and bath oils.  They can be substituted for each other and blended at random.

Oatmeal: In powdered form, it’s soothing. It also makes a good scrub that’s excellent for sensitive skin, as it gets all slippery like soap but is soap-free. Now you know what to do with leftover porridge – make it into a face mask or tie it into a flannel and use it in the bath. Damp oatmeal has a tendency to ferment if left, and it may need a bit of help getting down the plughole after the bath.

Olive oil: Very rich and with a distinctive scent. It can even be a bit too rich for use on the face (this writer has dry skin and tried making an olive-oil only moisturiser; galloping acne was the result) but can be blended with other oils. Great for the rest of the body and for the hair. If you want to use it in a face cream, blend it with other oils.

Papaya: Papaya contains an enzyme that eats protein, so it is a first-class chemical exfoliant. Don’t overdo it, though, or it will start on the good skin under the tired, old dead skin.  Pineapple and kiwifruit have similar properties.

Peaches (and apricots): A mildly acidic skin toner when used as a pulp in masks. Smells exquisite. Some natural cosmetic recipes recommend blending succulent summer fruits with cream and using this as a face mask, but this seems like a real waste of a good peach (or strawberry or apricot) – I’d rather put this mixture in my face rather than on my face.

Rosemary: A tea made from these leaves makes a great hair rinse, especially with a dash of vinegar in the mix. It’s supposed to darken hair slightly, making it best for brunettes and raven-tressed beauties, but blondes and redheads can use it, too.

Sea salt: A deep cleansing scrub that helps clear up scratches, grazes and acne. Add it to bathwater or use it directly as a scrub, but be careful if you have broken skin as it will sting.  But stinging is all it will do – it will also help heal and disinfect the wound.

Shea butter: Very thick and very rich. Might be a bit hard for DIY cosmetic people to source, but is widely used in commercial moisturisers and body lotions. You can substitute cocoa butter.

Sugar: Use as a skin scrub, as it sloughs off dead skin with the granules and with the natural acids in the sugars. An old acne treatment involves washing the face with a mixture of soap lather and sugar. If someone gives you white sugar, this may be the best use for it.

Vinegar: All vinegars can be used for face masks, in the bath or as a hair rinse. Neutralises the alkalinity of soap. Vinegar can be used as a deodorant.

Vodka: This alcohol acts as a disinfectant and can be used as a base for homemade perfumes and aftershave. It also can be used to spot-treat acne and as a deodorant.

Need carpet cleaning Beckton Call 020 8593 1317 for the best quote on your list. Fully guaranteed carpet cleaners.

TweetConstantly adding new things to Health & Safety but do they work?

See below: