Product: Antibacterials
Used for: Disinfecting everything you can think of, ranging from kids’ toys to toilets.
Nasty inside: Tricoslan, an endocrine (hormone) disrupter that doesn’t break down easily (it kills bacteria and bacteria are often the agents of biodegrading). Excessive use of potent chemical disinfectants to sterilise everything in the home is probably associated with asthma and other autoimmune problems, as an over-clean home leads to a bored, restless immune system that starts reacting to non-threats.
Natural cleaning alternative: Soap and water will do most of the cleaning and kill most of the germs you need to worry about. Vinegar, salt, ultraviolet light (sunshine), boiling water and strong alcohol are other natural disinfectants.
Product: Detergents
Used for: Nearly every sort of cleaner imaginable, mostly because it can work up a grease and grime busting lather in all sorts of water – even hard water – without getting gunky white scum all over everything.
Nasty inside: Phosphate. This is more of a nuisance in the water system, as it breaks down very slowly and allows too much algae to grow in the waterways, leading to environmental problems. Also, detergent in general is harsher on the skin and hair, leading to dry hair (the least of your problems) and cracking, flaking itchy skin.
Natural cleaning alternative: Soap won’t form that ghastly scum if it is used alongside a water softener such as washing soda. Alternatively, look out for reduced phosphate or phosphate-free cleaning products such as laundry powder.
Product: Synthetic fragrances
Used for: Air fresheners. Also used in a range of other cleaning products such as those spray on kitchen cleaners and bathroom cleaners because the active ingredients in these products pong. Baby products. Cheap perfumes and cosmetics.
Nasty inside: Toluene, which is a probable asthma and allergy trigger. Synthetic musk, which does all sorts of peculiar things to the hormones if you are exposed to too much of it.
Natural cleaning alternative: Make your own natural cleaners and add essential oils. Open windows to remove pongs. Use essential oils, pot pourri and fresh flowers to scent the air delicately. Don’t overuse perfume – just a few dabs on the pulse points will be adequate.
Product: Solvents
Used for: Dry cleaning fluid, spot cleaning treatments. Found in all sorts of common household products.
Nasty inside: This really depends on the solvent in question. There are half a dozen different types (or more) and each has its problems. The chlorinated ones are the worst – one of these can cause permanent brain damage if too much is inhaled.
Natural cleaning alternative: Oddly, mineral turpentine – which isn’t exactly natural – is one of the least harmful solvent. Strong alcohol also makes a decent solvent for everyday household cleaning. Don’t dry clean clothes or toys unless it is absolutely essential. Eucalyptus oil makes a good spot treatment.
Product: Ammonium compounds
Used for: Floor cleaners, glass cleaners and bathroom cleaners.
Nasty inside: Ammonia gas in itself is pretty awful if inhaled. It is positively lethal if mixed with chlorine. Avoid if you have chlorinated water and never mix ammonia-based cleaners with chlorine based cleaners. However, ammonia breaks down easily and doesn’t last long in the environment.
Natural cleaning alternative: For window cleaning, use dilute vinegar. For cleaning floors, use warm soapy water. For cleaning the bathroom, either use baking soda or use vinegar. If you have to use ammonia based products, make sure that the area you are cleaning is well ventilated.
Satin has always been an elegant and formal fabric. This is due to not only to the soft and almost sensuous feel that if gives but also to the shine and aura of sophistication of gives off. The trouble with satin is that it is not only delicate, it tends to trap dust and if it gets stained, these are difficult to remove. In fact, if satin gets stained, do not try and experiment with stain removal at home. There is little that can be done without proper equipment which even your domestic cleaning agency is unlikely to have. Your only option is to take it to a dry cleaner as quickly as possible. However, until you can get to the dry cleaner, try spreading talcum powder over the stain. This may reduce the amount of stain that the fabric absorbs.
Here is how to go about normal washing of satin. Please always check if the item has any specific care and washing instructions. If so, follow those only. In the absence of any specific washing advice, hereÕs what you should do.
1. Satin should preferably be hand washed. If for any reason this is not possible, then machine washing should be done but only on the delicate setting.
2. Do not use hot water if washing by hand and ensure that the hot water is switched off if machine washing.
3. Wash in cold water using only a mild detergent.
4. Mix the water and detergent well and let the cloth soak in this solution for about five minutes.
5. Now gently squeeze the cloth in the water so the suds run through the fabric. Be careful not to squeeze too hard or for too long.
6. Never wring or squeeze the water out of the garment. This could cause it to lose its shape and be ruined. Also never machine dry the garment. This could also ruin it.
7. The best way to dry satin is to lay it flat in a clean towel and then roll up the towel. Once the towel looks like a jelly roll, press down on it to get the excess water out of the satin. Then unroll and remove the garment.
8. Now once again lay it flat on another clean dry towel and allow it to air dry away from sunlight or any bright artificial lights.
9. Once it is dry, the garment can be ironed. Always iron it inside out and use a light setting without any steam.
During my university student days, I flatted with a microbiology student. As one assignment, she had to grow mould cultures taken from various parts of the house, including the refrigerator.
Petri dishes with revolting grey, white, orange and black substances kept cropping up all over the house. This is one of the few situations in which someone would actually want to have mould around. Most of us want to eliminate mould from the house – especially if you’ve seen a Petri dish with a particularly repulsive culture in it.
As my flatmate informed us, mould needs several things to grow. Mould needs water, food, the right temperature and time. Eliminate these things and mould will not be able to grow.
Keeping things at the right temperature to prevent mould is not practical for most parts of the house. Refrigerators are kept at about 4°C but mould still can grow inside the fridge, given enough time. After all, my flatmate got an orange-coloured culture from inside the fridge and we’ve all found something covered in blue mould at some point in our lives. And don’t forget that the beneficial bacteria in live yoghurt survive quite happily inside your fridge. Freezing and boiling are the only temperatures that mould can’t survive in – but neither can we.
Eliminating food for mould to grow on can also be difficult. Minute particles of skin, dirt or dust can provide sufficient food for mould to grow in, even in the most unlikely places.
Windows, for example, don’t appear to have anything smeared on them, but mould can still grow there. However, any smears of a biological nature (e.g. handprints, food splatters) should be cleaned off as soon as possible before they have time to grow moulds.
Eliminating moisture is a big factor in preventing mould and is much easier to acheive. Window condensation is particularly prone to growing mould if it is allowed to settle or pool.
Mould (mildew) can also grow in places with poor ventilation and rising damp combined. Some older houses (especially those with wooden flooring) can have particular problems with rising damp, but fortunately, they also have good ventilation. Problems with mould and rising damp occur when air is not allowed to circulate in or around items – mildew can often occur on stored items that get damp but can’t breathe (e.g. if wrapped in plastic or packed tightly into a container – my grandmother accidentally ruined some vintage clothing and books this way). Bathrooms are also prone to moulding. An extractor fan – or an open window – to allow steam and damp to escape is vital.
But what if it’s too late to prevent mould and you already have greenish-black dots on your windows or walls? The first step is to attack any surface mould and kill it off. Household bleach (chlorine bleach) in a 10% solution with wateris an effective mould-killer, although you should not use this on areas that will be damaged by the bleaching effect (e.g. curtains or soft furnishings). Mould can also be removed by using natural home cleaners as neat (undiluted) white vinegar, as the strong acid kills the bacteria forming the mould. Do not merely wipe mould away with soapy water, as the mould spores will need to be killed. And always remember to dry the area as best you can after using the bleach or vinegar treatment.
If the mould is more than surface deep or if it comes back after treatment, stronger measures will have to be taken. The affected item will have to be thrown out before the rot spreads further.
In summary, here’s a quick checklist of how to deal with mould.
1. Check: is it surface mould or deeper? Throw out anything with deep mould.
2. Wash off any surface mould.
3. Check again after a week or so for any reoccurrence. If mould has reoccurred, then it is deeper mould and the affected item needs to be thrown out.
Incidentally, this is the advice given in some of the more obscure passages of law given in the Old Testament – old advice and it works!
Many of the products we buy for use around our home release toxins into our environment. If we use a lot of them, we can be continually exposing ourselves to a barrage of chemical toxins with all sorts of nasty effects on our airways (respiratory system) and the rest of our bodies – some household cleaners and the like can even contain carcinogens.
Yes, some disinfectants and home cleaners kill germs; they kill all cells, good and bad alike – even yours…
Some products are worse than others for releasing toxins into your home. Avoid them if you can!
1. Plug-in air fresheners that release a constant amount of artificial fragrance into a room to create a pleasant ambience. The fragrances in all air fresheners are very strong, very artificial and very bad for you – you’ve probably read the warnings on the cans about concentrating and inhaling the fragrance. While ordinary air fresheners used in the toilet are bad enough for you, we don’t usually breath much of these in – you spray once (and usually only once or twice a day), then you leave the toilet. But these room scenters constantly release toxic chemicals into a main living area. It much better to stick to fresh air or to use real essential oils to scent your living area. Removing them will also lower your power bill, at least slightly – another bonus.
2. Toilet bowl cleaners. The best part about these is that they come in bottles with the “duck” head that makes it easy to get under the rim. But they contain some ferocious cleaning chemicals you are likely to encounter – and they’re going to linger in a small room which is sometimes not that well ventilated. Some of the ingredients in a typical toilet bowl cleaner include oxalic acid, hydrochloric acid, lye (caustic soda) and naphthalene. The irony is that the toilet bowl is usually fairly fresh – it gets flushed with clean water regularly (the downpipe, the seat and under the rim are another story, however). A good hard scrub with regular detergent or baking soda or even a soak in cola drink can do the job just as well.
3. Shake-on carpet deodorants. Like the plug-in air fresheners, they release a large barrage of artificial fragrances which are often toxic. The kind you vacuum over to release the fragrance are the worst – you end up breathing in all the particles. These carpet deodorants are particularly hazardous for small children who are often on the floor. If you have a very smelly carpet or if you want to scent your room while vacuuming, mix baking soda with essential oil to be shaken on, or put a few drops of essential oil on the outside of your vacuum cleaner bag.
4. The cleaning product used in a mechanical dishwasher. These are often extremely caustic and contain very strong alkali. While you can’t really use a substitute, powder form is better, as you can regulate the dose (unlike tablets) and contain fewer harmful ingredients than the liquid sort. Make sure your kitchen (or wherever you keep your dishwasher) is well ventilated and try to avoid inhaling the steam when you open the door after a cycle has gone through – the steam is pretty strong. Alternatively, leave the dishwasher to cool before you open it up to put the dishes away. You can also get away with using less powder than is called for and still get clean dishes.
5. Glass cleaners. These are a mixture of ammonia and water, and you inevitably manage to inhale some when you’re trying to see what you’re doing while cleaning a mirror. Use a vinegar solution instead, and buff with paper towels or a lint-free cloth – or even scrunched up newspaper.
6. Oven cleaners: These are probably the most toxic chemicals you will encounter (drain cleaners are the others). In this writer’s opinion, a dirty oven is less of a hazard than using these chemicals. However, a good scrub out with baking soda works just as well, although it takes more elbow grease (which burns calories and gives you a bit of exercise, so it’ll do you good). Using a baking sheet down the bottom of the oven to catch burnt bits, and replacing it regularly is another good tip for cleaning an oven.
The air filter is one of the dirtiest parts of the house. Its where all the dust, dirt, bacteria and fungus from the air gets trapped. Over time the deposits in the air filter can become so thick that the air flow through it is blocked which will not only lower the efficiency of the heating or cooling system, but the reduces air flow to the heating /cooling unit can damage it or cause it to overheat which is a serious fire hazard.
The air filter is usually found behind a vent that takes the air out of the room. It’s called a return. You may have more than one filter in your home so the first time its worthwhile identifying all the returns and checking each one for a filter so in future you know what you have to do. Also keep in mind that some types of filters are disposable and you should not attempt to clean and reuse these.
To clean the filter:
* Access the return vent, using a ladder if it is placed high on a wall or ceiling
* Open the vent there is usually a screw or a latch holding it in place
* Once the vent is open, reach inside and remove the filter. Different makes have different ways of mounting the filter, but they are all designed for easy removal. If you have problems, check the manufacturerÕs website for removal instructions.
* Take the air filter outside
* Use a brush to remove all the caked dirt and debris sticking to the filter
* Next use a vacuum to suck the remaining loose dirt from the filter
* Now set your vacuum to the blower mode and blow out any remaining dirt from the filter
* Use a garden hose to wash the filter letting water run through it in the reverse direction of the air flow (from the back to the front).
* Shake out any excess water and leave the filter in a dry well ventilated area or in the sunlight to dry.
* Once it is completely dry it can be put back in place.
While cleaning the air filter is normally part of a domestic cleaning services duties, there may be times when you need to do it yourself (when guests are coming and the air filter smells), so it is a good idea to be prepared to undertake this yourself if you have to.
Even when the world seems to be in meltdown around you, life goes on. And life is messy – not that I need to tell you that. But even though s*** happens, there’s no need to put up with it underfoot and all over your house. You can end up making things worse for yourself if you don’t clean your house – assuming you still have one.
* Hire a professional house cleaner on a temporary, casual or one-off basis if the crisis isn’t a financial one (e.g. if you have a family member in hospital). Also accept all offers of help from friends with gratitude.
* Focus on the basics. A piece of advice from a 1950s women’s magazine said that as long as you have clean clothes on your back and decent food on clean plates, the rest doesn’t matter. And, incidentally, that piece of advice was originally given to reassure a 1950s housewife who had three small children and who had been comparing her home to a childless woman… so much for the stereotype of the standards held up by magazines of this era!
o Clean clothes on your back: try to keep up with the laundry. If you manage to put a load in the washing machine, you’ve done well. If you get it hung up on the line, you’ve done even better. If the worst comes to the worst, you can leave washing on the line overnight – it won’t make any difference to your life three weeks down the track. You can also leave clean, dry washing in the basket and let the people who want it help themselves out of it. Don’t bother washing things that don’t really need it – socks and underpants get first priority, followed by everyday clothes. And you don’t need to change your T-shirt daily (unless it’s grubby).
o Clean plates: A dishwasher is everybody’s best friend. For those who do not have a dishwasher, once you have washed the dishes, leave them to drip-dry in the dish-rack with a teatowel over the top. Then take what you need out of the rack. The same applies to the things that won’t go into the dishwasher.
o Good food. Even in a crisis, you don’t have to live on junk food. Salad can be prepared in a flash (or can even be bought pre-prepared), and eggs and baked beans are easy, quick and healthy to prepare. So is tinned fish.
* If the crisis is financial (e.g. you have lost your job), then you will be able to save a few pennies by doing your own domestic cleaning using home-made natural cleaning products – baking soda and vinegar cost a fraction of what you’ll fork out for some commercial cleaning spray-on stuff. If you get really good at cleaning, you may be able to get yourself a new job by hiring out as a housemaid.
* If the crisis is an emotional one (divorce or death), people often find that doing some more intensive cleaning is somewhat therapeutic. It’s as if cleaning out physical dirt helps clean the emotional dirt.
* DO NOT clean if the crisis involves a crime being committed in your house. The police use all the shed skin and stray bits of fluff (and even bloodstains) as evidence.
For the last few years or so, we’ve heard the “sun smart” message and been told that for the sake of our health and our appearance, we should not be exposed to sunshine or step outdoors – even in winter – without sunscreen on any bare skin. However, scientists are now discovering another side to sunshine, skin cancer, ultraviolet light and sunscreens.
The study in question that the ideas and findings in this article were derived from was done by J. Moan and A. Dahlback from the Norwegian Cancer Institute and published in the British Journal of Cancer Vol 26 No. 6 June 1992: 916–921. Other researchers into Vitamin D and sunshine have also made some interesting new findings in this area.
Popular knowledge and many health campaigns say that you should avoid the sun completely, as more ultraviolet light is getting in through the hole in the ozone layer and your chances of contracting melanoma are much higher. Classic examples used are Australia and New Zealand where a significant chunk of the population is pale skinned, they spend a lot of time outdoors and there’s a hole in the ozone layer that breaks up and disperses over these countries during springtime. QED? It may be not quite so cut and dried. Moan & Dahlback found that in Norway (which also has a significant pale population and spends time in the sun when it’s about) the incidence of melanoma was also increasing… with no corresponding decrease in ozone. What’s more, the folk from Down Under who did get melanomas were more likely to survive it than the Norwegians.
The most likely solution to this enigma? Vitamin D. You can get Vitamin D into your skin in two main ways. The most important one of these is the interaction of ultraviolet light on bare skin, with no sunscreen in between. The other source is from certain coldwater fish, notably cod and salmon (salmon is also the richest source of Omega-3 fatty acids). Whoever’s in charge of arranging these things seems to have done a good job to make sure that the human race as a whole gets enough Vitamin D. In more northern (or southern, at the other end of the world) latitudes, people tend to have paler skin so they can absorb more UV and thus produce more Vitamin D even when the long winter days are upon them, and in the really cold places where everyone bundles up against the cold rather than exposing skin to the elements, the necessary fish are swimming around in shoals near the waters.
Vitamin D is important for protecting the human body against a whole range of ills. It seems to be right up there alongside Vitamin C for the title of Supervitamin Champion. A quick list of things that Vitamin D is supposed to play a role in preventing:
* Rickets. This is the classic deficiency disease caused by a lack of Vitamin D. Rickets were nearly eliminated once the role of Vitamin D was discovered, and children were turned out of doors to play and given dollops of cod liver oil at night. Doctors have now started noticing cases of rickets turning up in children again, particularly where the parents and schools are scrupulous about enforcing the wearing of hats, sunscreen and long, loose clothing.
* Osteoporosis: Vitamin D is vital for good strong bone formation, so without a good amount of it, osteoporosis is more likely in old age. Women have some protection against it prior to the menopause, and then afterwards depending on the amount of oestrogen they have stored in their fatty tissues (yes, all that cellulite has its uses!). Thin women who spend a lot of time indoors (and many women do not get enough Vitamin D, especially if they not only work in an office or indoors but also do the indoor chores the rest of the time) are particularly at risk. One survey in supposedly sun-happy New Zealand found that 87% of the pregnant women surveyed were Vitamin D deficient. Another study done in Britain found that 70% of teenage girls are Vitamin D deficient.
* Cardiovascular disease: Low levels of Vitamin D increase the risk of heart attack or stroke by 80%.
* Breast cancer: Getting 15 minutes of sunshine a day, plus supplements (cod liver oil) in winter reduces your breast cancer risk by 50%. If you do contract breast cancer, getting enough Vitamin D increases your chances of survival by 30%.
Another alarming finding by researchers at the Harvard Medical School and a paper published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Jan 7th 2008 found that some of the key ingredients in sunscreens – benzophenone and psoralen – turn into significant free radical generators (i.e. carcinogens) when exposed to UV light… which is exactly what happens when you slather yourself with sunscreen and head outdoors.
The moral? Put on a tank top and shorts and go outside when the sun’s shining, then just put on long sleeves and a hat if you’re getting close to your limit and are about to burn. And eat lots of salmon in the winter.
Silk plants are a wonderful way to add colour to your home, especially if you don’t have the time to look after a garden and keep bringing fresh flowers into the house. But even silk flowers can start looking dusty and dull after a time. Cleaning them is easy and not something that you have to wait for the home cleaning service to come around to do it especially if you are having guests over. Dull flowers can affect the whole impact of your otherwise perfect decor.
Fortunately cleaning silk flowers is easy. There are two ways of going about it.
The Dry Method:
All you need for this is a brown paper bag and some ordinary kitchen salt. Pour about half a cup of the salt into the paper bag. Take one silk flower at a time and gently shake off excess dust (you can blow on it if you want, but make sure no spit touches the flowers Ð they must be completely dry). Place the flower in the bag and roll the top closed. Shake the bag vigorously but be careful not to damage the flower. The salt will remove the dust and polish the surface of the flower. Take out the flower and repeat the process for the next flower. The bag and salt can be kept away and reused until the salt becomes dirty. Just be careful to store the salt in a place where it cannot absorb moisture.
The Wet Method:
Fill two large bowls with cool water and add a small amount of gentle detergent to one of them and stir until the detergent begins to foam this is your cleaning bowl. Leave the other one with just plain water this is your rinsing bowl. Never use hot water; it could affect the glue which holds the flower together. Take one flower at a time and shake or blow off as much dust as you can. Now swish the flower around in the bowl with the mild detergent mix. If there are stubborn dirt spots on the flower, use soft gloves or a soft cloth to gently rub them off. Be careful too much pressure can fray the flowers or cause them to fall apart. Now rinse the flower in the other bowl and lay it aside to dry on a soft towel or paper. Once they are dry, you can replace them to the vases or arrangements you took them from.
1. Most wooden furniture can be cleaned with a bit of warm soapy water and a damp cloth. The only exception is wood that has been finished with something other than polyurethane or hasn’t been finished at all. Use a mild soap of the sort you use for washing hands rather than a harder laundry soap.
2. Never use the method described above for French polished wooden furniture – this has not been treated with polyurethane! Dust frequently to keep it shining and keep water well away. If you really need to, use straight beeswax to polish it. Dust before you polish. Just rub the beeswax straight onto the wood, then buff with a soft cloth. You can use the same method for putting a gentle shine on your fingernails, if you want to.
3. Untreated wood can be cleaned with a home-made polish of blended oil (use olive oil or some other vegetable oil – the cricketer’s favourite, linseed oil, is a winner) and a little white vinegar. Add essential oil if you like. As usual, apply with a soft cloth and buff with another one.
4. When you dust, make sure the cloth is slightly damp. This will trap the dust and take it away rather than merely pushing it along, which can possibly scratch the wood surface. Remember to rinse out the duster frequently. Feather dusters of the old-fashioned sort work well.
5. Very special wooden items should be kept out of direct sunlight, as UV rays will attack the finish on the wood. The UV will also bleach the wood. However, this may be an advantage for lighter coloured unfinished items.
6. Very special wooden items should not be allowed to become too dry. This can become a problem with items in modern homes with excellent ventilation, heating, dehumidification and all the rest of it. An old musician’s trick is to put a jar of water inside an upright piano to provide it with the moisture the wood needs. Special hydrators (try a good music shop) can also be used inside cases for guitars, violins and the like. Keeping up regular damp-dusting also works, to a certain extent. Also keep wooden furniture away from strong dry heat, or even in a special room that isn’t dried to desert-like conditions.
7. If dark wood gets scratched, hide the mark by dabbing on iodine, instant coffee mixed with vegetable oil or a brown wax crayon. Simple but very effective!
8. If you have an old-fashioned Scandinavian style raw pine kitchen table, don’t use boiling water to scrub it down unless you want the wood to turn slightly yellow. Scrub it with cold water and soap. However, boiling water is a very effective sterilizer and you may consider this factor worth a bit of yellowing. You can always counteract the yellowing effect, dry the table and sterilize the table even further by putting the table in strong sunshine for a bit and letting the UV rays do their thing.
9. You do use coasters on coffee tables and other tables to protect the finish, don’t you? One trick used by friends of this writer is to get a piece of glass cut to fit over the top of the wood. No problems with heat marks, everyone can see the wood and it’s a breeze to clean.
10. Linseed oil can be applied to any wooden furniture to nourish it and to help seal in moisture so it doesn’t dry out too much. Apply sparingly to clean, dry furniture. Sports shops are good places to find linseed oil.
Brick provides a lovely accent to any home or office. Like any interior surface, brick work needs to be cleaned regularly to look its best the rough finish of the brick and the cement grouting makes it easy for dust and dirt to adhere to the surface. While regular dusting is essential, sooner or later stains will develop which will need a little special attention to remove them. There are various ways of cleaning bricks and what follows are to of the least aggressive methods. If they do not work for you, rather than experiment with more extreme methods yourself and perhaps do more harm than good, it is preferable to get the help of a home cleaning agency.
Method 1:
Take a cake of dish soap (the grease and oil removing kind) and cut in half (the size will depend on the brick area to be cleaned). Place it in a bowl and add an equal quantity of ordinary table salt. Using just a little water mix the soap and salt into a thick paste. Using a clean rag spread the paste evenly over the brick surface. The thickness of the paste on the brick is not important as long as the entire surface is covered evenly.
Using a hard scrub brush, rub the paste into the brickwork and allow it to remain there for about 10 minutes before rinsing off with a clean cloth dipped in warm water. You should see a noticeable difference in the finish of the bricks.
But if this does not yield the results you want, you can try-
Method 2:
In a clean bucket mix warm (not hot) water and boric acid in the proportion of one tablespoon of the acid to one gallon of water. Put on rubber gloves and goggles you are going to be scrubbing and some of the mixture could spray back into your eyes. Take a hard scrub brush, dip it in the solution and vigorously scrub the brick surface. Allow the solution to rest on the bricks for a minute or two and then rinse it away with a rag dipped in warm water.
If this still does not give you the results you want, contact a professional office cleaning agency to do the job. Using strong chemicals on your own can be dangerous not only to you but may damage floors, walls and furniture. Do not try more aggressive cleaning methods unless you are sure of what you are doing.
