The TV has, for along time, been one of the centre points of a home. And now there are few homes with only one TV most have at least 2 or more. But the main TV, the one which the family sits in front of as a unit, is usually the large LCD TV. Watching any TV through a film of dust and grime is no fun, especially so if it is an LCD TV with great high definition picture quality. Luckily cleaning the screen of an LCD TV is a simple job that you can do yourself as and when you need to without having to wait for your home cleaner to come and do it for you.
Before you begin make sure your TV is switched off and, as an added precaution, unplugged. Not only is this safer for you and the TV, its easier to see the dust and fingerprints on the screen if it is dark. Also check your owner’s manual for cleaning instructions and if anything there is contrary to what follows, go with the manufacturer’s recommendations.
Start by using a clean chamois cloth to wipe the dust from the screen. Remember never press too hard on the LCD screen or you may damage it. Next mix two cups of room temperature distilled water with two cups of ordinary vinegar. Use only distilled water as it will have no mineral deposits to stain the screen. Stir until the solution is completely mixed.
Dip a clean soft cloth in a general domestic cleaning solution and wring it out till it is just damp. Wipe the screen gently with the cloth making sure that you do not touch any part of the screen with your hands. Again remember not to press too hard. Wipe the screen first in a left to right movement and then in a top to down one. Let the screen air dry and look for any spots or stains that may remain. Wet the cloth again, wring it out and gently rub the stained areas to clean them. Once again let the screen air dry before turning the TV on.
Be careful that the cloth you use is only damp and no more. If any liquid should get on the screen and flow down, if may enter the electronics and damage the TV.
To clean the rest of the TV, use a gentle spray of cleaning product making sure that the spray does not enter any of the ventilation openings on the sides or rear of the TV.
There are many age-old and homemade methods to clean the mildew from various fabrics. Lemon juice and salt is probably the most common and oldest method of cleaning the mildew from fabric. As soon as you discover there is mildew on your clothes, first step would be to brush off the surface immediately. Mildew is actually a living organism, a mold that thrives in places that are warm and lives longer in humid environment.
Here are some instructions you can follow to clean the mildew from your clothes.
Take the piece of clothe/s away from rest of the clothing and take it to area where you can brush off the mold growth from the cloth. You can use a soft bristle brush to do this or you can just do it with your gloved hand. If you delay in brushing off the mold, there are high chances that the mold will eat your clothes away and soon you will find small holes in the place of the mold. Take enough care not to scatter the mildew spores in your house or anywhere on the clothes you are wearing. Sometimes when the mildew hasn’t grown much just cleaning it with a brush and washing it in a detergent and drying in the sun would be sufficient. But even after dusting the mold from your cloth if you still find the mildew spores on the cloth then you can use any of the following remedies listed here.
Mixture of natural cleaning products like lemon juice and salt as mentioned before is the safest and easiest method to clean the mold from your clothes. Make a thin paste of lemon juice and salt in a bowl and slowly spread it on the area where you see the mildew spots. Allow the clothes to dry in the sun and once it is dry, rinse it under the running tap water and sun-dry it again. The mixture of lemon juice and salt works as a natural bleach to remove the mildew and the mold stains from the fabric.
If the mildew stains are stubborn and are spread wider on the fabric then try using Peroxygen bleach to clean it. Take a pint of water and make a mixture using about one to two tablespoons of sodium perborate or powdered bleach that has sodium perborate also in it. If you do not have powdered bleach with sodium perborate then alternatively you can use same amount of potassium monopersulfate. If your fabric can be washed with hot water, use hot water to soak the cloth with the mildew stains and apply this mixture of powdered chemicals. You can also soak the cloth directly into the solution for at least 30 minutes and then rinse it off thoroughly with cold water and allow it to dry in sun. If the stains are old and are not gone after the first wash then you might have to soak the fabric in the solution for one night and then follow the same procedure. Only risk you have with this method of natural cleaning is that you might end up harming the fabric texture and color. Hence ensure that you check your clothes for colorfastness before trying this method.
I recently was invited to one of those sales parties. Originally, I was only planning to go along just to socialise with the girls and was feeling a bit sceptical about this cleaning product that was being sold at the party. However, by the end of the evening, I was impressed and actually ordered something.
The products in question were from a line of microfibre cloth products manufactured in Austria Because of the special design of the fabric used for these cleaning cloths, they do not need to use any special cleaning products (apart from a marble powder for extremely filthy jobs). The rationale for this is as follows: most surfaces, even though they look smooth are actually microscopically pitted. These tiny holes are just the right size for bacteria to lodge in. Normal cloths just wipe over the top these and leave the bacteria behind, so to get the surface germ-free, you need to pour on the chemicals – and face all the risks associated with chemical fumes, not to mention the damage they do to your skin and when they go into the wastewater system. What’s more, the house cleaning products you use (even benign ones like baking soda or plain soap) leave a residue behind, making a surface look dull after a few years. Microfibres, on the other hand, get right down into the pitted surfaces and trap the bacteria and grime within the minute hairs. The microfibre cloths can even clean off the old cleaning product residue, making some surfaces look as shiny as new.
Microfibre cleaning products only require water to get a surface perfectly clean, and cold water at that. Water is a perfect solvent as it is – all the commercial cleaning products do is add bits of this and that to enhance the wetting power of water, plus other bits and pieces to hide the smell of the first batch of this and that. With microfibres, the combination of a little water plus the friction and (possibly) static of the individual hairs, there is no need to add chemicals – the water gets into minute places and is all that’s needed. And the microfibre cloth only needs to be damp to work – a factor that has made this type of cleaning product popular in drought-prone areas such as Australia where water usage needs to be kept to a minimum.
Bacteria need moisture to grow in, so it is important to dry off the surface afterwards. This particular line of microfibre products did stock a microfibre towel that was super-absorbent to go along with the cleaning cloths. However, our hostess informed us that standard towels and facecloths do the job well, as well as using a blade on glass surfaces.
One researcher at an Australian university has tested this particular microfibre product intensively and found that it removed 90+% of the bacteria on all surfaces, including the toilet.
We got to see the microfibre products at work at this sales party. Hosting one of these parties must be easy – you’re specifically told not to clean the kitchen for several weeks beforehand so the demonstrator can do her (usually her, but I dare say that male demonstrators can be found somewhere). The demonstrator smeared lipstick all over a mirror, then cleaned it off with only a little water, and then proceeded to clean the basin and taps with the same cloth with no rinsing in between. We all expected to see the lipstick go everywhere else and to find a bit of greasy residue on the mirror. We didn’t, and we all started going “Oooh! Amazing!” like actors in a bad TV commercial. The process was repeated in the kitchen with butter on the stainless steel bench, then on the glass range hood which hadn’t been cleaned for three weeks. All the grease came off quickly and easily with no chemicals or greasy residue.
The best moment at this particular sales party happened shortly after the hostess had been demonstrating the window cleaner on a French window. One of the guests nearly walked through it, as it was perfectly clean with no streaking.
The products can simply be washed in the washing machine on a regular cycle on warm, but really, really greasy rags (e.g. after cleaning up a barbecue spitroast) may need soaking in warm soapy water. They should not be washed along with fluffy things and ideally should be washed in a laundry bag, although this is not totally essential.
The maker of the products in question was Enjo (pronounced en-yo). This company opened its UK office in 2004. The products are sold on the party plan basis only, so if you are interested but don’t know if there’s an Enjo consultant in your area, then contact www.enjo.co.uk to find out more.
Enjo is not endorsed by or associated in any way with Anyclean. This article is the personal experience and opinion of the writer and may or may not reflect the opinion of Anyclean.co.uk.
Disposable nappies are very convenient for a busy mother (or father) but they are an environmental nightmare! They aren’t reusable or recyclable, so the only thing you can do with them is to throw them into the landfill – where they create nasty leachates and take centuries to break down again. Cloth nappies are by far the greener option – and, ultimately, the cheaper option.
However, cloth nappies do have their own problems, mostly to do with washing. In some centres, you can find nappy washing services, where someone will take away the dirty nappies and give you back clean ones. If you don’t live near a nappy cleaning service or if you can’t afford their services (or don’t’ want to pay for them), you will have to wash them yourself.
To wash cloth nappies, you will need a disinfecting/bleaching solution or powder, and a very large bucket with a lid. Nappies should be soaked in a bleaching solution for an hour or more before washing so excess bacteria can be killed, and any stains can be dealt with. Change the solution daily – one handy hint is to wash one load with nappies every day and to change the solution after putting the nappies in the machine. The lid is to prevent things falling into the solution – particularly alarming if the thing is a toddler or an over-curious kitten.
Dirty (as opposed to just wet) nappies will have to have the solids removed before going into the solution. This waste can, of course, be flushed down the toilet like any other solid body waste. Use a flushable liner to catch waste – you peel this off the main part of the nappy and flush it down. Alternatively, scrape the mess off with a spatula reserved for the purpose. Keep this in a container of dilute disinfectant in between uses.
Washing the nappies after they have been in the solution is easy – just put them in the machine and wash as normal. Nappies can stand a hot wash without any difficulties, if you want to do this, but a cold wash is also good. You can use fabric softener, but this is optional. According to some people, adding natural cleaning product like vinegar to the final rinse helps to prevent nappy rash.
Drying the nappies is also straightforward. Line drying in the sunshine is a cheap method, as is drying on a rack or in front of a radiator. Line drying especially is good for freshening and softening the nappies and the sunlight acts as a final germ-killer and bleach. But most of us will resort to the dryer at some time while our children are in nappies.
After the nappies have dried, you will need to fold them ready for re-use. Don’t bother ironing nappies – ever! It’s a waste of time, effort and electricity. A few creases and crinkles on a nappy won’t matter at all. If the idea of ironing nappies makes you laugh, I have heard of one person who did…honest! A number of different methods can be used for folding nappies and everyone has their own favourite. It’s quite like doing origami, but don’t panic if you’re new to it. If you can fold a paper plane, you can fold a nappy without any problems!
Some new styles of cloth nappies have been shaped so they don’t need folding. Good for you if you can get hold of these!
Despite the drive towards paperless offices, the fact remains that most are still full of paper files and books. While the files usually have a defined life after which they may be thrown away, books are things that are kept. But they are also susceptible to decay and damage and need to be looked after. You never know when you will need some information that is only in a book and not on your hard drive. While your domestic cleaning company will clean the bookshelves as part of their cleaning service, cleaning old and valuable books is something you should do yourself.
There are two steps to cleaning books.
Cleaning the Outside
Wipe the surface with clean paper or a soft dry cloth to remove any dust. Do not allow any dampness or chemicals to touch the paper as it may damage it irreparably. If the book has a glossy cover you can use a little window cleaning spray that is applied to a soft cloth that is then used to wipe the cover. Never spray the cleaner directly on to the cover. If the cover or the pages get damp, place the book in the sun to dry do not place it near a fire or use a hair dryer – these could damage the paper.
For leather bound books, place a little petroleum jelly to a soft cloth and apply it to the leather. Then use a dry soft cloth to rub it to a shine. Do not use any cleaning sprays or polishes on leather bound books not only could they damage this delicate leather, the spray or polish, if it gets on the pages, can damage the paper.
Cleaning the Inside
Use a piece of dry white bread to clean the edges of the pages. Keep the book closed and wipe around the sides of the pages with the bread which will absorb the dirt. You can also use a vacuum cleaner to suck the dirt out of the books. Be careful when doing this with old and fragile books as the suction force could tear the old paper or damage brittle covers. Do not use any sprays of liquids on the paper. If there are marks or stains on the pages, you can try either:
* Using a white vinyl eraser to rub at the stains Ð always rub from the inside to the out, being careful not to tear the paper.
* If it is a grease or oil stain, place a paper towel on the stain and close the book. Lay it flat with a weight on top of it. Leave it for a few days and then remove the paper towel which should have absorbed the grease.
Bikes are a great way to get around – they’re fun, they’re cheap to fuel (they burn only calories) and they’re a great way to get fit. After a day spent tearing up and down the hills – or even over a dirt track – bikes can end up very dirty very quickly.
You do have to clean your mountain bike same as doing the house cleaning, even though you are going to take it out again next weekend and get it completely covered with mud all over again. Leaving your bike all muddy can cause parts to wear out more quickly, and dirt and grit do your chain and gears no good at all. Besides, mud can even cake up your brakes, meaning that they don’t work as well as they should to ensure your safety.
It’s best to clean off your bike as soon as you can after returning from your outing – after you’ve seen to any bumps and bruises that you’ve collected and had a bit to eat to top up your energy levels. This is one advantage that bikes have over horses: they’re not going to stand there hungry, whinnying and cold waiting for you to have a shower once you get back; nor do you have to see to their needs while you’re hungry, tired and cold – or bleeding. You can even leave it until the next morning, if you like.
First of all, use a hose to get rid of the worst bits of dirt and mud. This is where acting quickly really helps – if the mud is still wet and fresh, it comes off with the hose and no scrubbing is needed. If the dirt has dried on, a soft scrubbing brush may be needed to take stubborn cakes of dirt off. If you really want to make your bike gleam, then use warm soapy water or any other cleaning product, as you would do with a car.
Pay particular attention to the chain, the brakes and gears. Check that no dirt and/or stones have managed to get in to the mechanisms.
Once you have made sure that all the dirt is washed away, check over the paintwork of your bike very thoroughly and check that no chips or cracks have been made in the paint. If the metal tubing below the paint has become exposed, then touch this up with a dab of enamel paint, using a very fine brush. You should be able to find the shade of paint you need for your bike at a model shop. It’s wise to buy some before you need it Apply the paint to dry metal and let the bike sit for a day or so after touching up the paint to allow it to cure properly.
After checking the paintwork, you may need to re-lubricate the chain and the gears to make sure that they can run smoothly. Also check the brakes and tighten them if this is needed.
You may also want to clean the tyres, especially if you have been riding over terrain that may cause punctures, such as sharp stones, spines – or even broken glass. Deep tread picks up a lot of dirt, but you won’t be able to make the most of the added traction of deep tread if it’s clogged up with muck. Use a scrubbing brush or even the tip of something smooth and hard (like a hoof pick, a nail file or even an old blunt knife) to scrape out stones, mud, grass, etc. from the tread. This step will make you much more popular if you have to park your bike somewhere indoors, as you won’t bring as much muck inside.
You could, of course, black the tyres and polish the chrome if you want to. But for the mountain bike enthusiast, this is unnecessary. Bikes are for riding and having fun on, not showing off the paintwork!
There are a number of companies that offer several products that are eco-friendly. Earth friendly products offer an exceptional variety of plant based products that are required for any type of cleaning. They are clean and do not contain harmful chemicals. These products are not hazardous to health and are safe to use.
The products vary from fruit wash to drain cleaner products. The earth friendly natural fruit and vegetable wash helps to remove pesticides, various chemicals heavy metals, dirt wax and all kinds of bacteria. The earth enzyme drain opener and natural enzyme drain cleaner is a high tech method for maintaining free flowing drains and cleaning of clogged septic tanks and cesspools. They are pretty cheap and range from a price of $4-7 dollars.
The 21st century now introduces one to a clean house and a clean planet. All these organic cleaning products are non-toxic and keep your home sparkling. It is no longer necessary to use commercial cleaners since there are effective and a safer alternative. Now instead of laundry detergent, aqua balls can be used. Even household cleaners and stain removers like Citra Solv range can serve the purpose. These products have the advantage of saving money and time. They are gentle on the clothes, furniture and the house as well as help to save the environment.
Organic products include vinegar, salt, baking soda and borax. It does have its own disadvantage; that is it cannot be bought in bulk. However there are numerous stores that sell these organic products. For instance organic soap is said to very good. Not only is it chemical free, but it also improves the texture of your skin. It might seem that these products are incapable of cleaning properly but the fact is that they may even give better results than that of regular cleaning products. While using organic products a healthy environment is created. As a result of this the demand for chemicals would decrease thus causing less pollution.
There are companies where all the products are 100% organic. These produce all natural cleaning products as well as body care products. All the products contain essential oils and other plant materials. These companies aim at providing health benefits as well as fresh wonderful fragrances which are natural and safe to use.
They keep continuously researching and expanding their products. They intend to be as environmentally friendly as possible not only with the products that they offer but also with the ingredients that are used and even the packing. Most of them are packed with recycled materials without compromising with health and hygiene. Although most of the oils are obtained from different parts of the world but the medicinal herbs and plants used are grown locally. These products are known for their medicinal purposes and are pocket friendly too.
The uses of these organic household cleaning products are far better as they posses lesser amount of toxic chemicals and thus help in maintaining a clean and healthy environment.
A bachelor is supposed to live a life of clutter and untidiness unless of course, there is a Jeeves in the offing to do the cleaning up. This is an image that is long since out of date and bachelor or not, there is no longer any excuse for living in messy surroundings.
With the cost of eating out going up everyday and health concerns driving more and more people towards a healthier home cooked diet, keeping a kitchen clean and tidy is becoming an increasingly important aspect of home cleaning. While it’s always a good idea to use a house cleaning service on a regular basis, it’s easy to keep a flat and especially the kitchen from getting too dirty between the cleaner’s visits.
* Don’t just stand there waiting for your water to boil. Use the minute or two it takes to put things back in place or just tidy up in general.
* Is the thought of cleaning up afterwards one of the main reasons why you don’t cook at home? Designate a fixed counter space where you will do your work and discipline yourself to work only there. This will reduce the amount of space you need to clean.
* Wash pots and pans immediately after use. It’s easier to do it before the oil and food particles congeal and become hard to remove. Do the cleaning while other things are being cooked on the stove. Keep doing this and when the cooking is over, you won’t have more than one or two pots to clean.
* Once you finish eating, wash up immediately. A few plates won’t take much time and once its done, you’re free!
* The basic thing to keep in mind is to learn to multitask in the kitchen. Say you have something on the stove that will take 20 minutes to cook. You could go and watch TV during this time (and each time you cook) and get to the stage of dreading entering a kitchen in dire need of cleaning. Or you could use the twenty minute to get all the cleaning done and then relax.
You have a busy life and can’t be expected to devote time to home cleaning. But you can’t have the cleaners in every day and you can’t live in dirty surroundings. If you learn to clean up in the kitchen when waiting for something else to be completed, you’ll find it becomes a habit and as time passes you will be able to do the cleaning much faster. The kitchen cleaning is only a matter of minutes a day, not hours.
Keeping your ceiling fans clean is not just a matter of keeping your home looking good. It’s also a matter of health and of protecting your fans from damage. One of the reasons why domestic cleaning agencies make sure that ceiling fans are cleaned is because they know this. Since fans are rarely used, many people reduce expenses by keeping their cleaning out of the purview of the domestic cleaning agencies. This makes sense, but even if rarely used they need to be cleaned once in a while.
Dirty fans means dust with germs and pollen waiting to be blown all over the room when the fan is turned on. Also, the dust on the blades could affect the balance of the fan making it noisy, putting more strain on the motor and damaging the ball bearings. Cleaning fans is not complicated and requires no special materials or skills.
To do a weekly house cleaning, all you need to do is first of all make sure the fan is off. Using a ceiling cleaning brush / duster with a long handle, clean all the blades thoroughly. Place a plastic sheet below the fan to keep falling dust and grime from falling on the carpet. Carefully gather up the sheet so that no dust falls out and your weekly cleaning is done.
Once in a while, say once to twice a year (perhaps more frequently Ð it depends on how much the fan is used) you will want to give the fan a more thorough cleaning. To do this you will need a ladder to get to the fan. Once again spread the plastic below the fan. If the fan has a light fixture attached, carefully remove the bulbs from the fixtures Ð be careful not to burn yourself on hot bulbs. Then, if possible, remove the light fixture. Wipe the blades clean with a dry cloth. Spray some domestic cleaner on a piece of clean cloth and wipe the blades again. Repeat this until the blades are clean. Be careful not to spray the cleaner directly on the fan. If any liquid should go into the motor housing, it could cause serious damage.
Next remove the motor casing and clean off all the dust from the surrounding areas. Clean the light fittings in warm soapy water, and after drying, polish them if needed. Make sure everything is dry before fitting the light back on the fan.
Waxing the blades with car wax will prevent dust from sticking to the fan blades and make future cleaning easier.
As the nights get colder in autumn, many of us feel like hitting the bottle – the hot water bottle. When it comes to keeping warm while conserving energy and living more sustainably, the good old hottie has a lot to recommend it.
First of all, a proper hottie is made from rubber – which is, ultimately, a natural material that’s harvested in the form of sap from sustainably managed plantations. OK, it’s got a bit of this and that mixed in with it, but at the end of its life, as a hottie came from organic materials (mostly), it will biodegrade. And its life will be pretty long. I don’t know how old my hot water bottle is, but I think it’s older than my children…
The hot water bottle is safer to use than the electric blanket to heat the bed. Hotties won’t electrocute you if they malfunction. This is not to say that hotties aren’t 100% foolproof. If the hottie is too old and you put boiling water into it and if it springs a hole (or the hottie is trodden on or sat on) you can get a nasty burn. Burns aren’t fatal, but they’re painful and scarring, and are best avoided. You avoid getting scalded by a leaky hottie by not using boiling water… or by putting a bit of cold water down the bottom of the hottie and then adding in the boiling water.
And speaking of boiling water, the hottie is pretty energy efficient, which is another advantage it has over the electric blanket. Using the kettle to heat the water is probably more efficient than running hot water out of the tap, and if you try the mixing method (cold water in first, then top up with boiling) you will be safe enough. And you can use some more of the boiling water in the kettle to make yourself a hot drink before bed – a good way to relax and to warm up ready for sleep. Just make sure the drink in question doesn’t contain caffeine. Chamomile tea is traditional, but cocoa, Horlicks, or just a spoonful of honey in a mix of hot water and milk are fine. Brush your teeth afterwards.
One of the other advantages of using a hottie is that you get to re-use the water afterwards. Don’t try to drink it, even if the water that went in was clean – it will have a bitter, rubbery taste from having sat in the hottie overnight (take my word for this – I’ve tried). But the water is fine for watering plants with or doing the house cleaning.
Hotties don’t just have to be used for heating at bedtime. A hottie may be your most energy-efficient option if you are working in a room that will warm up with the sunshine before long (so it’s not worth switching on the heater or lighting the fire) but is cold RIGHT NOW. It is more efficient to heat your body rather than the room. Unless there’s lots of people in the room.
How to fill a hottie:
1. Boil the kettle.
2. Put a bit of cold water (about a cup) into the hottie.
3. Add boiling water until the hottie starts to look nice and plump. Don’t over-fill it. You need a steady hand here and watch out for the “burp” of air escaping as you fill it.
4. Put in the stopper and tighten it about three-quarters.
5. Carefully squeeze the excess air out of the hottie (leaning the hottie against something vertical works best) and, while you’re still applying pressure, tighten the stopper fully.
6. Dry excess water out of the top of the hottie and from off the sides.
