A lot of different ingredients turn up in recipes for natural cleaning products. And you’ve got to wonder whether some of them are all that natural or not. “Natural” is a bit of an ambiguous term that isn’t really clarified. It certainly doesn’t mean “organic” or “of vegetable origin”. Not all “natural” cleaners are organic (e.g. baking soda, which is mined) or of vegetable origin (e.g. soap, which often contains animal fats (tallow)). Some writers have a very loose definition of “natural” when writing recipes for home-made cleaning products and tend to mean something like “any raw ingredient that you can buy cheaply in your local shop and use to make your own products.” By “natural”, this writer tends to mean “has the minimal possible effect on the user and the environment throughout the life of the product from extraction/manufacture to breakdown’’.
Ingredients that are used for making home-made cleaning products can be divided into Organic and Inorganic, and into Nice (meaning that the product has a low impact on the environment and does not expose you to a barrage of toxins and/or horrible smells when you use it) and Nasty (meaning that the substance is poisonous, noxious or repulsive). And it’s not the case that everything organic is Nice while everything not organic is Nasty. No – you find things in all four possible categories. All the ingredients listed below have been used in home cleaning products at some stage or another. Use the lists to help you select what’s right for you.
Organic and Nice:
* vinegar
* essential oils
* glycerine
* alcohol (either ethyl alcohol or some strong spirit from your local liquor store)
* cornstarch
* sugar
* lemons
* beeswax
* olive oil (and any other sort of vegetable oil)
* soap (which also contains some inorganic ingredients)
* potash – make your own by taking the ashes from your fireplace (if you burn wood) and making sure they’re ground finely.
Inorganic and Nice:
* baking soda
* sand
* salt
* petroleum jelly (aka Vaseline). It’s a petrochemical by-product so is bordering on Nasty, but it is fairly low in toxins when you use it.
* fuller’s earth
* borax
* water
Organic and Nasty. Few recipes for cleaning products use these nowadays, but they did in the past. Just have a look at the original Mrs Beeton if you don’t believe me.
* ox gall
* human urine (used as a bleach)
* (possibly) saliva – where did you think the phrase “spit and polish” came from?
Inorganic and Nasty. These ingredients really did turn up in a book on how to make “natural” home cleaning products. If you are switching to natural cleaners in order to reduce the toxins you are exposed to, forget it. If you are making your own cleaners to save money, you may consider these. Your choice. But remember the golden rule for products in this category: NEVER MIX MORE THAN ONE OF THESE TOGETHER.
* Chlorine bleach
* Ammonia
* Petrol (yes, really)
* Kerosene (I have to admit it’s first-class for removing tar)
* Detergents
Winter and colder weather always brings on a new barrage of coughs, colds, sniffles and cases of flu. Your best line of defence against all of these infections –which, incidentally, are all viral infections – is to have a good, strong immune system. While some folk like to get a jab to help protect themselves against winter ailments, you still can’t get a vaccine against the common cold. The reason for this is because this little virus is always mutating and, according to one doctor, you would need more than 100 injections a year to give you immunity to every cold virus out there. Most people would rather stick with just having a few sniffles in preference to this many injections.
A good strong immune system is the best thing you can do to keep you fighting fit – ready to fight off these viruses. So what can you do to give your killer T cells and all the other good guys in your system the best shot they have?
1. Eat your fresh fruit and vegetables. Eating fresh fruit and vegetables is such an important part of staying in good health for a host of reasons, ranging from giving you cancer-fighting antioxidants to stopping you putting on that little extra round your tummy. If you can only take one step to help your immune system, this is it.
2. Sleep well. Your body does a lot of its replenishing and repairing while you sleep, which is why you naturally feel tired when you are unwell. Get plenty.
3. Laugh. Yes, as the Good Book says, a merry heart doeth good like a medicine. Laughter also helps you de-stress and feel good. All the more excuse to stay home in bed watching Mr Bean and/or reading Terry Pratchett novels when you’re off colour.
4. Exercise. Exercise isn’t just a way of trimming off excess body fat and keeping your heart safer. Like fruit and vegetables, this is another absolute must that has so many health benefits that you have no excuses not to. If you can’t get a solid half hour a day, you should be able to get three slots of ten minutes here and there.
5. Soup. Soups made by boiling up old bones have some nutritional goodies that do the immune system a world of good. They’re also comforting and soothing when you have a sore throat. For a real cold-fighter, boil up some bits of chicken into soup, then add lemon juice and raw garlic just before eating it.
6. Relax. Stress lowers your immune system because it depletes your body’s energy stores. Take some time every day to chill out and do something just for you. Yes, Mum, that includes you, in spite of holding down a job and looking after the family.
7. Sunshine. Vitamin D is easiest to obtain from sunlight than from anything else (except cod liver oil – so take this as well). Try to get as much as you possibly can.
Carbon footprints are widely talked about when discussions of sustainability, emissions and climate change come up. The general idea seems to be that the atmosphere (or at least the proportion of the atmosphere that relates to carbon dioxide) is sort of like a clean kitchen floor that you can leave footprints on. The idea is to keep the kitchen floor clean, so to speak, by tiptoeing over it in soft ballet slippers or barefoot, rather than tapdancing all over it in filthy rugby boots that are all spikes and mud. What your footprint is like is determined by how many emissions you, personally, generate by your lifestyle choices.
Online carbon footprint calculators are handy ways of finding what sort of atmospheric shoes you’re wearing (http://www.carbonfootprint.com/ is one of the most popular, but you can find plenty of others). These calculators also tell you various ways that you can “offset” your carbon footprint. In kitchen floor terms, this is the equivalent of a mop, broom, scrubbing brush or floor polisher. You may live a lifestyle that is the equivalent of tramping around in Wellington boots, but if you know how to clean up after yourself, the overall effect will be the same as if you were going barefoot – or at least wearing clean sneakers.
Online carbon calculators consider a number of factors. These range from how many people live in your home, what sort of home you have, how you heat your home, what work you do, how you travel from A to B and how often, whether you fly overseas, food choices, recreation choices, and even how much of a shopaholic you are.
You also learn ways that you can scrub your footprints off the floor. These include insulating your home (so you use less energy), using sustainable zero-carbon means of generating power or heating your home (e.g. solar panels, solar water heaters, wind turbines), recycling and becoming involved in schemes to plant trees (trees absorb carbon and clean up your emissions – they even look like mops).
Let’s consider Dracula as an example of how a carbon footprint can be worked out. On the negative side, Dracula lives alone in a very big castle, which is poorly insulated. He eats hardly any vegetables – if any – and meat creates more carbon emissions to produce than vegetables. He also habitually dresses in very fashionable clothes to maintain his aristocratic image. On the positive side, Dracula chooses to heat his home with a roaring log fire (in spite of the smoke, wood fires are fairly carbon neutral – you need to grow trees to get the firewood, and not all the carbon that the trees absorbed is released into the atmosphere when the wood is burned – ash, charcoal and soot are usually left behind and get added into the soil, and some carbon will also be absorbed by the leaves that the tree once grew before it became firewood). And Dracula also uses a zero-emissions form of transport (flight in the form of a bit – the normal human equivalent is walking or biking) and doesn’t take long overseas trips by aeroplane – it could be a bit tricky getting that coffin containing his native soil into the plane so he can sleep in it, even flying first class.
Dracula could offset the carbon emissions of his food and fashion choices by planting a large forest around his castle, and could consider upgrading his heating and lighting system by installing solar panels and a solar water heater – if this doesn’t make him disintegrate – and could try getting some insulation put in all those attics and towers. He could also get more people in to live at that castle.
Lavender essential oil is one of the most popular essential oils for using in natural cleaning products and in general. This is because lavender smells delicious and “clean”, and because it has aromatherapeutic and disinfectant properties. Just think of all those commercial cleaners loaded with artificial lavender scent (which smell nothing like the real thing) and tinted shades of purple which are, admittedly, quite pretty. This is because lavender has a very, very long history of being used very extensively in the household for cleaning and freshening things.
Even the name of lavender hints at these origins. The name is derived from the Latin word lavare, which means “to wash” and also is the word from which “laundry” and “lavatory” are derived.
Lavender is also famous for being the essential oil that triggered off the whole science of aromatherapy. The classic story tells us that in 1927, the French chemist René-Maurice Gatefossé was working in his laboratory when something exploded, burning him. He plunged his burnt hand into the nearest liquid available, which happened to be lavender oil. The burn healed remarkably quickly without scarring, and Gatefossé then went on to explore the healing properties of other essential oils.
A classic case of serendipity? Perhaps. But notice one often-overlooked fact: the chemist already had lavender essential oil on hand in his laboratory. This indicates that it was already in use, both as a fragrance and for other reasons.
Basic lavender facts:
Two varieties of lavender are used for extracting essential oil. Their scientific names are Lavandula latifolia and Lavandula angustifolia. Plenty of other varieties of lavender exist and are grown in most gardens. Of course, even within these two species, you will find a host of sub-species and varieties.
The strongest-scented lavenders are known as “English lavender”, and they have straighter leaves and flower heads that are vaguely reminiscent of grains. French lavender is more decorative, and its flowers look a bit like a pineapple with a purple (or pink or white) crown. If you’re growing lavender for scent and for use around the home, choose English lavender.
The essential oil of lavender is extracted from the flower by steam distillation.
Lavender has a rather unfair reputation for being a bit old-ladyish and not the sort of thing a “real man” would be associated with. However, the sharp, clean smell of lavender makes it an ingredient in many men’s toiletries and aftershaves.
Lavender essential oil is considered to be one of the safest to use and is one of the few that can be used to scent products for use on infants.
One of the benefits most widely touted for lavender is its soothing and calming properties that are supposed to be a remedy for stress.
According to one grower and distiller, it takes five bushes of lavender to produce 10ml of essential oil.
As lavender contains a natural pest-repellent and insecticide, it is easier to grow lavender organically (however, some lavender growers spray to control weeds around the lavender plants, so not all lavender essential oil is able to carry the “organic” label).
Designers, turn green! In this writer’s opinion, few things are as sensual as the organic curves seen in natural woodgrain, and when I build my dream home, it’s going to be filled with lots and lots of natural wood furniture. I’m starting my collection now.
And before that dream home arrives, I’m going to have to clean my wood furniture. So how can I do this so when that dream comes true, the furniture will be in good condition?
First of all, everyday care of wood. Basically, this involves being very careful as to what gets put down on the tops of things like dressers and chests of drawers. Hot cups (and saucepans, etc), obviously, should not be put down on top of polished wooden things, as they will burn the polish. Coasters are an obvious choice for protecting wood finish from hot cups, but nearly anything will do. The morning cup of coffee, for instance, often ends up resting on the book(s) beside my bed. You also need to take care that you do not scratch the finish on the wood by scraping or bumping it with heavy items. Solid wood furniture is more forgiving than veneer – if the worst comes to the worst, you can sand chips, dings, scratches and nicks in solid wood out, but you can never do this with veneers. Another nasty that should not go on wood is anything that will damage the polish on it. Acetone – commonly found in nail polish remover – is the most likely culprit. Avoid this by (a) putting on and removing your nail polish somewhere other than over a wooden dresser or table, such as the bathroom, (b) switching to a non-acetone nail polish remover (although these still might hurt the finish of your wood furniture – they will be kinder to your skin and to your home environment, however), (c) not using nail polish at all but going for the natural look with the help of a buffer.
When it comes to regular everyday cleaning for wood – say the weekly going-over in the bedroom – it isn’t necessary to polish wood every time. Often, just dusting with a damp rag (not wet) will be enough to keep the wood looking at its best. Realistically, you only really need to polish wood furniture once or twice a year – as part of a spring cleaning session, maybe. However, if you have to polish wood furniture that has been getting a bit dry and neglected (you’ve just inherited it from your grandmother, maybe) then you can dab your cleaning cloth/duster with a tiny bit of linseed oil – just enough to moisten the rag – before going over it.
If somebody has neglected the wood furniture or got it grimy somehow, you can make your own wood cleaner by mixing about ½ a cup of lemon juice or vinegar with about a teaspoon of soap gel and a few drops of essential oil. Shake together in a bottle, then spray directly onto the wood. Give it one good buff-up with a clean damp cloth, then rinse off the gunge and residue with another.
When the time comes to polish wood, you can make your own natural wood polish by just using plain linseed oil, like a cricketer oiling his/her bat. Add some essential oil if you like. But the real old-fashioned wood polish is made as described below. It’s sort of natural, but not quite, thanks to the turpentine, unless you can get hold of vegetable turps rather than the mineral sort. You can also use an organic substitute made from citrus peel – hunt around to find this.
Wood polish:
100 g grated beeswax (save candle-ends if you’re feeling thrifty)
2 ½ cups turpentine
2 cups water
½ cup lemon juice or vinegar (if you plan on polishing dark wood, you can use malt vinegar instead of the usual white vinegar used as a natural cleaning products)
60 g grated soap
15–20 drops essential oil – cedar, lemon and lavender are popular choices for wood polish
Melt the beeswax in a double boiler or in a microwave on Low power. While the beeswax is melting, melt the soap in the vinegar and water. When the wax is runny, remove from the heat and very carefully add the turpentine. If you’re not using natural vegetable turps, then make sure you don’t breathe the fumes in. Then carefully add the vinegar/water/soap mix. Stir like crazy, then add in the essential oils. Store in an airtight screw-top jar. Let it cool before putting the lid on.
If you’re at all interested in natural cleaning methods and sustainable living in general, you probably know lots of the usual uses of vinegar. You know – mixing it with salt to clean copper and brass, using vinegar to remove limescale from taps and kettles, unblocking drains and adding a bit of flavour to your fish and chips. But vinegar has some more unusual uses. Some of these you might never need to use, but you never know.
* Vinegar can work as a final rinse for animal’s coats after washing prior to shows. It is supposed to put a high gloss on the coat. Use a dilute solution (1 cup of vinegar to 1 litre of water). This is supposed to work with all mammals, although you’d have to use a massive amount to rinse down a show horse (especially one of the massive Shires).
* Urine in a mattress can be deodorised and have the germs removed by sponging the mattress with a 50/50 solution of vinegar and water. After this, either sprinkle on some baking soda to neutralise everything, followed by vacuuming off the residue, or else put the mattress in the sunshine to dry out properly. To prevent having to do this too often if you have a family member with a bedwetting problem, remember to use a rubber sheet topped with a thick towel underneath the bottom sheet.
* Put a small saucepan of neat vinegar on to simmer as a way of deterring flies from the kitchen. Apparently, flies hate the smell of vinegar fumes. Malt vinegar works the best, but it has the unfortunate side effect of also deterring certain members of my family who hate the smell of malt vinegar.
* You won’t need to use this one unless you go on holiday to the forest areas of Canada or the USA, but a 50/50 solution of vinegar and water removes the pong from skunk spray. Follow by a rinse in plain water. This is supposed to work for clothing and also for incautious dogs.
* You can make your own wood stain by mixing coloured water-based ink (try your local art store) with full-strength white vinegar. Make a careful note of the proportions of colour you use when you mix it up in case you want to make another batch (e.g. 2 T red, 1 T yellow, 1 T black in 2 litres of white vinegar).
* Cats hate vinegar, so splash it around where you don’t want them to go, such as children’s sandpits and your newly planted vegetable garden.
* Vinegar can be used to replace rinse aid in your dishwasher. Brilliant for putting a sparkle on your china, cutlery and glassware.
* Vinegar is an absolute must for making stock from beef, chicken or bacon bones (or any bones, for that matter), as the vinegar helps break the calcium in the bones down so it gets incorporated into the stock – and can get into your bones.
The most peculiar uses for vinegar this writer has ever come across relate to family planning. Absolutely no guarantees here, but one piece of folk wisdom suggests that a dilute vinegar douche before intercourse improves your chances of conceiving a girl. Of course, a woman trying this method also has to know she’s ovulating and capable of conceiving at all.
Baking soda was recommended for increasing the chance of a boy, and probably also the chance of a yeast infection as this would disrupt the naturally acidic balance of bacteria in the vagina. However, when you consider that the ancient Romans used a sponge soaked in neat vinegar as a contraceptive (with, supposedly, some success), whether this sex-selection method using vinegar actually works.
1. The multi-purpose spray. This is made from water and white vinegar in about 50:50 proportions, plus about 10 or more drops of tea tree essential oil. This spray gets used all the time for all sorts of cleaning jobs. I use it for cleaning kitchen surfaces, cleaning glass and mirrors, cleaning the front of the refrigerator and the microwave and even for cleaning the toilet – that tea tree oil and the vinegar makes the spray a germ-killer. And when it’s not cleaning day, the multi-purpose spray can also be used as a toilet air freshener that is free from VOC and artificial (and potential carcinogenic) fragrances.
2. Soft cloths. Soft cloths are the best ally for any cleaner, professional or not. Often, a good rub with a soft cloth is all the cleaning that some items need (this tends to be the shower head). Soft cloths can be dipped in water and used as dusters, and they can also be used for buffing and polishing. Soft cloths also cut down on waste compared to paper towels, as they can be washed and reused after a cleaning job, with the exception of polishing boots and shoes, which requires a dedicated rag or three. The other great thing about soft cloths for cleaning is that they cut down on waste another way: you can make them from old towels, old sheets and other tattered items rather than throwing these away. Soft cloths can be used any way that you use tissues or paper towels, but are much longer lasting.
3. An Enjo microfibre mitt. This is the only “brand name” cleaning product I use, but you can’t beat it for cleaning up greasy surfaces. The green Enjo mitt – the one designed for greasy work – is great for cleaning oil spills and spatters off the top of the stove after a beginner cook has been frying things without putting a lid over it, and is also great for cleaning off the barbecue.
4. Old toothbrushes. You can’t beat old toothbrushes for getting into odd nooks and crannies. Even professional cleaners tend to have an old toothbrush or three in their cleaning toolkit, especially if their work involves cleaning toilets.
5. Soap gel. Soap gel is great for cleaning floors, cleaning cars, cleaning carpets and cleaning the inside of toilets, as well as for handwashing woollens and other delicate items. Soap gel is very simple to make: all you have to do is to save up those useless little slivers of soap left over at the end of the bar or else chop up a bar of cheap soap. Pour boiling water over the bits, then leave the mix to melt and cool to a gel. Soap gel can also be used as shampoo and as an aphid deterrent. I have also tried using it for washing dishes, but this doesn’t work too well in a hard water area, and the items have to be rinsed thoroughly, preferably in water with a splash of vinegar in, before drying, or they get soap spots. Soap gel works best in warm water rather than cold.
Natural fibres and natural cleaning methods. It sounds like the perfect cleaning combination. But as each natural fibre needs a slightly different cleaning method when it comes to washing day, what needs to be done for what?
Cotton: The most common natural fibre and one of the easiest to wash – assuming that it’s pre-shrunk. Cotton can stand very hot or boiling water – assuming that it has no elastic – and can handle most cleaning methods – machine wash or hand wash. Cotton is the easiest fabric to dye and is thus the easiest to stain. However, it responds well to all natural stain removal methods without melting like some artificial fibres do. Cotton sheets and towels can become a little harsh and scratchy if not rinsed properly. Get the final bit of soap residue out of your sheets and towels by adding about half a cup of vinegar to the final rinse instead of artificial fabric softener.
Cotton often needs ironing. Drying cotton clothes on a washing line or drying rack (clothes horse) and hanging them up on hangers as soon as possible minimizes creases. If you need to iron cotton items, you can do it with the iron on high.
Cotton can be prone to mildew if left lying around damp for too long. For white cotton, dabbing lemon juice on the spot and putting the item in strong sunshine should remove the mildew. To remove mildew from coloured cotton, dab the site with vinegar and allow to dry. Then wash as normal. You may need to scrub the mildew spots slightly with a soft toothbrush.
Wool: This needs a bit more delicate treatment and should not be stretched, wrung or exposed to high temperatures. Your best bet is to wash it by hand in warm water using soap gel, but you can get away with using the wool setting on your machine. Adding vinegar to the final rinse (plus some essential oil, if desired) will get rid of the last traces of soap and will help the wool stay soft and fluffy.
Dry woollen items flat or else they will stretch out of shape.
Woollen clothes can get attacked by moths. However, moths hate lavender essential oil, so tuck sprigs of dried lavender in stored woollens, or else spray the items with a blend of distilled water and lavender essential oil (about 15 drops of oil to about 500 ml water) shaken together and stored in a plant mister (you can buy ready-made lavender room spray or linen spray from a good chemist).
Silk: Silk looks delicate, but it’s not as delicate as you might think, and it does not need dry cleaning. Dry cleaning should be avoided as much as possible, especially for items worn close to the face or other sensitive areas (i.e. silk underwear). It is best to handwash silk using warm to cool water and soap gel, preferably soap gel made from castile soap. Rinse in cool water. Silk should be dried flat, if possible, or draped over a washing line or clothes horse – do not peg them, as the pegs will damage the silk.
If you have to iron silk items, set the iron on low. However, the slightly wrinkled, crushed look of silk can be part of its charm and “look”.
Multicoloured silks that are not colourfast should be spot-cleaned by rubbing soap very gently over the dirty spots, followed by rinsing the spot. This will stop the colours bleeding into each other.
Leather and suede: Leather and suede can be handwashed in cool water, followed by rinsing twice in fresh water. Dry leather and suede items flat, preferably away from direct sunlight and definitely not in front of a radiator or heater. After the item is dried, it will need to be softened again. For suede, this can be done by squeezing, rolling and twisting the item in your hand until it becomes supple again. For leather, as well as the twist-and-roll method, the leather can be softened by wiping it sparingly with a little olive oil – this also restores the gloss of leather.
Salt water is death on leather. If you get salt water on leather, soak the item overnight in a mixture of milk and water before rinsing. Then allow do dry as described above.
I’ve told you a hundred times not to do that (or to do that, depending on exactly what we’re talking about). Why? Why? Because I said so, that’s why! Oh, all right. Here’s the reason why. So don’t go asking me why again! Do you hear me?
For those of you who aren’t parents yet, here is a brief list of some of the things you will have to tell your children a hundred times. Or a thousand times. And nearly all of them are to do with keeping the house clean, ordered and running smoothly, and keeping you all healthy.
* “Don’t put it down; put it away.” Clutter builds up remarkably quickly, and if you don’t get in the habit of putting things away as soon as possible, chaos results. If things are not where they’re supposed to be, you can end up spending a long time searching for whatever it is. You figure out which takes longer: half a minute of putting your book, cellphone or socks in the right place versus five minutes of searching for that missing item.
* “Close the door; it’s freezing.” Closing doors and windows (and curtains when the day’s over) is a good way of trapping the heat indoors, which contributes to making your home more energy efficient.
* “Wash your hands after going to the toilet/before you come to the table/after playing with the cat.” This is one of the simplest ways of preventing most diseases. Soap is a pretty good disinfectant for everyday use. If you follow this rule, you will not need to throw around as much disinfectant as the advertisers tell you that you should (which is far too much, anyway).
* “Cover your mouth when you cough/sneeze.” It’s obvious that this is done to prevent the spread of bacteria and viruses. However, what isn’t so obvious is that you should cover your cough not with your hands (just think where your hands are going to go) but with the bend of your elbow. Nobody is going to shake your elbow, are they?
* “Put it in the washing box.” The sooner stains and other muck get washed out of clothing, the better. The longer dirty things sit on the floor, the harder the stain is to get out, as the stain sets.
* “Take your plate from the table, rinse it and wash it in the dishwasher when you get down.” Because if you don’t rinse it, it won’t get washed properly. And if you don’t put it in the dishwasher (presuming that the dishwasher is empty or ready to take the dirties) and the plate sits around on the bench, it will attract flies and other vermin.
* “Use a plate for that food.” Plates catch crumbs and stop them getting into the carpet where they will provide food for vermin and for germs. And some crumbs or spills can also stain carpets.
* “Get those grubby boots out of here.” “Here”, of course, is any room that isn’t the laundry, which is the normal room designated for handling mud. Dirty shoes are the primary wreckers of carpets. Dirty feet are also work-creating culprits, but they can be washed before coming inside. However, if it’s muddy outside, wear those boots or shoes because, (as I tell my children) you can’t take your feet off at the door, now, can you?
* “Tidy up your own mess.” This is because housework is everyone’s responsibility and children need to know as soon as possible just what’s involved. This prevents a child (hopefully) growing up with the attitude that other people are there to clean up after him/her, which makes for a much easier adult life in a home shared with others. The sooner they learn this, the better.
For cleaning marble surfaces (e.g. chopping boards or ornaments) DON’T use vinegar, as this will damage the material. However, DO use plain water, with the possible addition of baking soda, as this can clean marble without scratching the surface.
For cleaning a blocked drain, DON’T use ferocious chemicals based on caustic soda if you can possibly help it. Instead, you have a range of things you can DO: First, try unblocking the drain manually by using a plunger and the force of air pressure to clean the blockage. If you don’t have a plunger (and you can pick small ones up easily and cheaply enough at any good hardware store), you can improvise by cutting an old tennis ball in half and fitting this over the plughole. Push it up and down with the heel of your hand. After this, the next DO is to tip about a cup of baking soda down the plughole. Follow this with about a cup of vinegar (not diluted), preferably hot. The resulting reaction can shift the blockage. If things still aren’t flowing freely, you can get busy under the sink with a wrench and remove the S-bend (have a bucket underneath where you’re working to catch the gunk). Then you can physically remove the blockage. If you still don’t have any luck, or if the join for the pipe is only accessible under the house, then call in the professionals.
DO try making your own polish for cleaning wood. How do you think people managed to keep things clean and shiny in all the centuries (millennia, even) that people used wood in their homes before the invention of spray-on furniture polish. The easiest home-made furniture polish can be made by melting about one part of beeswax in two parts of olive oil (or some other good vegetable oil if you’re stingy), plus a bit of essential oil, if you want it. Melt these together and allow to cool before storing in an airtight jar. When cleaning furniture, apply the polish with one soft cloth, then allow it to dry and soak in a little before buffing up with another cloth.
DON’T pay any attention to the cleaning advice given by Quentin Crisp that dust doesn’t get any worse after seven years. It does. What’s more, dust left lying around also makes it more likely for you, a family member or a visitor to have an asthma attack. Frequent dusting is the key, and it’s a cleaning job that’s so easy that a child can do it. Dusting is best done with a damp rag (rinse it frequently if you have a large house or office to clean), but you can also get one of those feather dusters like an old-fashioned maid uses for cleaning. Feather dusters work by static electricity. Clean a feather duster by giving it a good shake outside.
DO use natural cleaning products as much as possible and DON’T fall for the advertisers’ line that you need a specialised product for each different cleaning job. Natural cleaning products are great multi-taskers as well as being easy on your pocket, your skin and your wallet.
