Many people who are interested in living more naturally and sustainably – and those who want to save a penny or two where they can in the current economic climate – have heard about the new so-called eco-bulbs. These lightbulbs are supposed to be a “bright idea” that will reduce your energy bills and reduce your carbon footprint. Many environmental lobbyists have pushed for them to be made more widespread or even compulsory. (On the other side of the world in New Zealand, the government seriously discussed making these bulbs compulsory and outlawing your regular incandescent bulbs. The resulting debate was nearly as incandescent as the old type of bulb.)
But are these bulbs such good news? Are they really a simple answer to our energy problems? Or do these lights have a dark side?
First of all, let’s take a look at what these eco-bulbs are and why they are supposed to be such a great idea. Eco-bulbs are also known as CFLs or compact fluorescent bulbs. They look like a cross between a DNA double helix (in some designs) and a neon light stuck into a standard light fitting. They use less electricity than other bulbs, and they have a longer life. The reasoning is simple: if you use less electricity to get the same amount of light, you’ll save on power, so if your power comes from a carbon-emitting source such as a coal-fired power plant, using these bulbs will reduce your carbon footprint (and save you quite a few bob. These bulbs may be pricier than regular bulbs but they last longer, so cost you less in the long run). What’s more, because you’re not replacing bulbs every two or three months, you aren’t putting as much unrecyclable glass and metal – both of which are non-renewable resources – into the waste system.
So far, so good. On the surface of things, eco-bulbs have a lot going for them. OK, the light they put out is a colder tone, very much like those large fluorescent lights beloved of offices, shops and schools, but you can get used to this.
However, these CFL eco-bulbs have a couple of problems that make them not quite so good after all. The first problem is this: if you are really serious about saving energy and have been for quite a while, you have probably trained yourself to turn the lights out when you leave the room. This is a good habit, but it dramatically shortens the life of one of these CFLs – up to 85% shorter, according to some sources. This means that if you only have the light on for a short time (e.g. in the toilet), you may as well have an ordinary incandescent bulb: they’ll last the same amount of time, and the incandescent bulb costs less.
Another problem that some people have noticed with these CFLs in comparison to the ordinary incandescent bulb relates to the incandescent bulb’s so-called inefficiency. The proponents of CFLs state, completely accurately, that not all of the energy going into an incandescent bulb is turned into light; some of it goes into heat energy. CFLs put out much less heat. And this is the problem. That heat energy from the incandescent bulb wasn’t being wasted – it went to heat the room the light was in, and was sometimes all you needed to take the chilly edge off the air – or to quote the Goon Show’s Henry Crun “Come in, come in and warm yourself by this roaring candle.” With this heat source removed, people have to switch on heaters or raise the central heating a few degrees to compensate – so the CFLs aren’t really energy savers at all.
But the real problem with CFLs is in disposal. CFLs contain mercury, which is a very toxic heavy metal that is difficult to dispose of safely. These CFLs are very hard to dispose off and, unlike the old incandescent, you can’t just chuck them in the bin. You are supposed to carefully take them into your nearest waste disposal site and hand them over for an expert to dispose of properly. However, your local tip supervisor may not be such an expert – tales have been told of people carefully handing old CFLs over only to have the “expert” casually toss the bulb into the waste heap. Smash. Mercury everywhere where it can leach into the atmosphere and water.
What’s more is that you can break CFLs before their life is over, depositing mercury into your carpet at ground level where small children can crawl and get into it – as if the glass wasn’t enough of a hazard if someone drops a lightbulb, clips one with a ladder while painting the ceiling or smashes one with a pillow during an over-enthusiastic pillow-fight. You can’t even vacuum the mercury up, even professional carpet cleaning London will not help, as it will turn to minute particles and be exhaled from the vacuum cleaner and still be around.
Call me cynical, but is it a coincidence that the Roman god Mercury – after whom this poison is named – was the god of merchants, trade and commerce?
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If you ask people to give a list of ten fruits, there’s a very high chance that they’ll list bananas – if you ask for a list in alphabetical order, bananas nearly always are used for B (rather than blueberries, breadfruit or blackberries). Most of us love the smell of bananas – some list the scent of banana as a favourite smell – and they’ve been the subject of numerous slapstick jokes involving the slipperiness of the peels.
Bananas are the fruit from trees of the Musa genus, with several species being used for food. “Cavendish” is the variety used most widely used as a dessert or sweet banana, with its Latin name being Musa acuminate.
Bananas are a rich source of complex carbohydrates –they have triple the amount of complex carbs compared to most (if not all) other fruits. This is why they make a great snack and a good supply of long-lasting energy.
A banana provides enough energy for the average person to walk two kilometres.
Bananas are usually picked green and the ripening process is hurried up by washing ethylene gas over them. The flavour is improved, however, if the bananas are “ungassed” and allowed to ripen by themselves. However, the ethylene gas is not harmful – apples give off this gas naturally. For this reason, if you want bananas to last longer without over-ripening, don’t store them with apples. You can buy special fruit bowls that have a special hook for bananas above the main part of the bowl so they don’t spoil quickly. Conversely, if you have bought bananas a little green and want to hurry them along a bit, pop them in an airtight container with some apples and let the natural ethylene from the apples ripen them.
Bananas are rich in vitamins and minerals. Unlike many other fruits, they contain all six major vitamin groups, being particularly rich in vitamin B6 (one banana can provide roughly one third of an adult’s recommended daily intake). They are also a rich source of potassium, which is essential for healthy muscle tissue.
Bananas contain serotonin, which promotes sleep and is also a natural anti-depressant.
Bananas can be frozen. The skin will turn black, but the flesh will be fine. A delicious (and reasonably healthy) snack for children and adults involved skewering bananas (halved or whole) and dipping them in melted chocolate before freezing.
Because of their high vitamin, carbohydrate and mineral content, mashed bananas are excellent “first foods” for infants just starting on solids. They’re easy to digest, too. Only very few people are allergic to bananas so it is usually a safe food to give babies.
Banana stains are difficult to remove – unlike other fruit spills and splashes, they don’t just wash off in the regular wash. Suggestions to remove banana stains from clothing include dabbing it with tea tree oil before washing, rubbing it with a natural domestic cleaner London like lemon juice (which is a mild bleach) or rubbing with a mixture of glycerine and water. Washing with a biological washing powder in warm water can work. With white clothing and an old stain (baby clothes spring to mind), chlorine bleach can be used.
Banana peels can be used as an emergency shoe polish as it contains a natural lubricant – yes, the same lubricant that makes the banana peels so slippery. Banana peels are also supposed to be good for buffing leather upholstery and even for cleaning silverware. Do a patch test on an inconspicuous spot first.
Banana peels are also rich in nutrients. Roses, in particular, like banana peels, so instead of throwing out your banana peels into the rubbish, tuck the peels around the roots of your rose bushes. At the very least, compost those banana peels – they’re so full of goodies for your garden it’s a shame to waste them on a landfill.
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The standard first reaction from most people when confronted with a sink full of dirty grey water that just won’t go down the plughole is either to (a) phone the plumber or (b) run down to the nearest hardware store for a bottle of Drano™ or some other ferocious chemical to tip down the hole and obliterate the gunk doing the blocking. However, neither of these methods is really necessary for the majority of blockages, and it is quite possible to get things going again without reaching for the chemicals.
Drano™ and the like are strong chemicals that dissolve the substances (usually organic substances) that are causing the blockage. However, the Drano™ will keep working and dissolving organic substances after the water is gurgling freely down the sink. Just stop and think for a moment what this is likely to do to the aquatic ecosystem. Yes, your drain commercial cleaning chemical of choice is probably biodegradable (these days, anyway) and will break down and be less noxious after a while, but it won’t do this straight away and it will have some effect. These fierce chemicals should definitely not be used if you have a septic tank system – they will kill the anaerobic bacteria that break down the waste solids.
The most common cause of blockages down sinks is a gunky mixture of soap scum and hair, often caused by people washing their hair in the sink or wet shaving. While letting beards, armpit hair and leg hair grow wild and leaving it unwashed is probably going a bit too far in the quest for an unblocked sink, it is possible to minimize the amount of hair that goes down. Most plugs have a trap at the top of them to prevent large objects going down and a good amount of hair gets stuck here, especially long hair. Clean hair off the trap regularly. Sometimes, if the water is a little sluggish to go out, pulling out any hairs from the trap can work wonders. The hairs will come up covered with thick black or grey goo that smells vile – chuck this down the lavatory or in the compost heap (toilets have wider pipes for obvious reasons and can handle this sort of muck). Waxing and dry shaving with electric shavers can also minimize the amount of hair going down, but this is a matter of personal preference.
The other common cause of blocked drains is the stupid habit of tipping hot fat in its liquid state down the kitchen sink. A plumber of this writer’s acquaintance says that this is the most frequent reason he is called out to a job. Don’t do it. Instead, give that liquid fat to the dog, pour it into the compost heap, use it to make a bird feeder or save it for making soap (the soap produced won’t be perfect, but it will be good enough soap).
OK, that’s how to prevent a sink getting blocked, or at least reduce the likelihood of it getting blocked. But what if you’re sitting there with a sullen grey puddle that won’t go down?
First of all, try the force of air pressure. For this, use a plunger or plumber’s mate – one of those sticks with a big rubber cup on the end. A big one works better than the small ones – the idea of these things is to force air up and down the pipe, which will dislodge and/or break up the blockage, so the more air pushed, the better. Place the cup over the plug hole and get pumping up and down. You will hear a swirling, swooshing gurgling sound, and (all going well) the drain will be clear.
Still no luck? Now its time to try chemical action, but you can use natural products for this. Boiling water will melt fat so it can get down, so this can be your first line of defence if you suspect that fat is blocking the drains. But better still is the baking soda and hot vinegar method. First of all, pour about a cup full of baking soda down the plughole. Make sure it all goes down – use a bit of boiling water to help it on its way. Follow this with a cup of vinegar, preferably heated or even boiling, as heat speeds the reaction between the acid and the base. The resulting reaction will force the blockage apart, and the acid in the vinegar will also have some effect on the alkaline soap. Wait a few minutes and repeat.
If you still don’t have any luck, you may need to physically remove the blockage. This is a nasty job and you can only do it if you can see the S-bend (or U-bend) in the pipe – try the cupboard under the sink or basin. Remove anything in this cupboard and put a bucket underneath where the pipe comes down from the top. Now unscrew the bottom of the U-bend – you may need some help from a pipe wrench. Then unscrew the top and stand clear as the water from above comes splashing into the bucket. Tip any excess water from the bend into the bucket as well. Now comes the really nasty bit: you will have to poke around and find what’s blocking the pipe. If some idiot has poked cotton buds down the sink (it happens!) or if there’s a very thick plug of fat/hair/soap/gunge, you will have to remove this. Wear rubber gloves. When you’re done, screw the pipe back on nice and securely, and go and throw the bucket of dirty water onto some unobtrusive place in the garden.
And don’t ever tip fat down the sink again.
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American child psychologist James Dobson once described a typical scenario that many parents have encountered: you come into the bedroom and find a lipstick-covered toddler smelling of Chanel No. 5 smiling beatifically at you surrounded by a chaos of smeared foundation, mascara, talcum powder and moisturizer all over the place. What he didn’t describe was what to do next, especially when it comes to cleaning up the mess.
Cleaning up the meddling little monkey is the easy bit. Cream cleanser will get the lipstick off him/her, even if the child in question didn’t slather on moisturizer first. Deep reds or long-lasting lipsticks may leave a slight stain, but this will wear away in a day or so.
Worst things first for the clean-up job. In many ways, it may be better to leave cleaning up the child until last. This is especially true if nail polish has been involved in the chaos. Deal with this one first, especially if it’s on the carpet.
According to one household expert, you should use a metal comb (the sort used for dealing with headlice), tissues cotton wool and acetone (nail polish remover). Wrap the tissue around the comb so that the teeth poke through it. Use the comb to lift the pile of the carpet up slightly – slide it right into the carpet so it forms a barrier between the top of the carpet and the bottom. The tissue will soak up any excess. Then dab on a little acetone – not too much, as it can melt plastic and plastic derivatives in artificial fibres – and use the cotton wool to blot, rub and wipe the nail polish off. Don’t try do the whole stain at once; work through it bit by bit, moving the comb along as you go and changing the tissue when it gets wet. This method is also supposed to work with superglue.
If the nail polish is on cotton cloth, the job is much easier. Simply dab it in acetone. Artificial fibres are more difficult, as acetone will melt plastic-based substances. This is a job for a professional, so take whatever-it-is down to the dry-cleaning agency. However, if the nail polish hasn’t quite set, you can remove the excess by scraping as much as you can off, but make sure that what you use to scrape it off can stand a little nail polish on it, as the polish will now stick to it.
To remove lipstick from carpet, dab on a little dry-cleaning fluid with cotton wool. This will fade the intensity of the colour a bit. Then shake bicarbonate of soda (baking soda) over the stain. Then all you do is vacuum.
For foundation or other liquids containing oil on carpet, first tackle the oils by scrubbing it with a toothbrush using a mixture of cold water and dish detergent. Blot dry. If the stain still remains, use a proprietary carpet cleaning solution. If the stain still lingers, get the carpet out into bright sunshine if you can, as the UV light will fade the stain. If you can’t get the carpet outside into the light, then apply a little lemon juice to the stain as a bleach, or hire a UV light and focus it on the stain for a few hours.
Methylated spirits will remove most makeup off things like sheets or clothing. Dab a moderate amount (enough to soak through the cloth) onto the stain, then leave it to soak before washing in the machine. It’s best to use a cold water wash in case the hot water sets any stains.
Talcum powder goes everywhere, but it easy to clean up. Just dust it up with a duster as you would for any other type of dust, or else vacuum. Scented talcum powder in the vacuum cleaner will mean that the vacuum cleaner will give off that scent until you change the bag or empty the container – a nice bonus.
Better still, avoid the problems and keep your cosmetics out of child-reach. Or shut the bedroom door when you’re not there!
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Type 1 diabetes (also known as juvenile onset diabetes or insulin-diabetes) seems to strike out of the blue. Unlike the other, more common form of diabetes (Type 2 or adult onset), being diagnosed with this condition isn’t dependent on what you have eaten in the past.
This article is not supposed to take the place of the advice you get from your doctor and specialists, but it is written from the perspective of someone who has an insulin-diabetic child. And yes – this medical condition does have something to do with the domestic cleaning and keeping the house organised!
Firstly, regarding cooking and reducing sugar in your meals. Your dietician (chances are you will have a session with a dietician shortly after you or your child is diagnosed) will give you the best advice on what to eat. But, personally speaking, I have found that it’s not that hard to keep cooking the same things as normal – just reduce the sugar. You can still cook cakes and muffins quite easily. I’ve found that you can halve the amount of sugar in most recipes and still have the result taste good in the end. Here are a few low-sugar treat foods that are good for children’s parties:
Instead of regular icing on birthday cakes(the sort that uses icing sugar and water or icing sugar and egg white), use cream cheese icing. This is only 50% sugar instead of nearly 100% sugar. The slightly acidic flavour goes with most basic cakes, including chocolate, and you can colour it as usual. Yes, it’s higher in fat than regular icing, but it is lower in sugar.
Make your own ice-cream by mixing whipped cream and a little sugar with fruit puree. Blackcurrants work brilliantly, as do other berry fruits. You could also try freezing yoghurt.
Never add sugar to meat, even as a marinade. You don’t need it at all.
If you have an insulin dependent person, you will find very quickly that the process of testing blood sugar levels and injections creates a lot of debris. You will have to deal with the little test strips, the foil packets (and other packaging) that the test strips came in, syringes, the caps off the syringes and all other packaging for the syringes. While the testing strips and the packaging may be able to be disposed of in the regular rubbish system, the syringes can be a health hazard. Where I live, the local council provides proper “sharps” bins for people on the needle exchange or the methadone programme for drug rehabilitation, but doesn’t provide them for diabetics (unfair, really, as diabetics can’t help having to use insulin, but drugs are a deliberate choice). We have the choice of paying for proper bins or supplying our own. The best substitute sharps bins are old containers for dishwasher powder or bleach (bottles made from Number 2 plastic – look inside the recycling symbol to check). However, you may be luckier about being provided with sharps bins – find out what applies locally.
The little bits from doing blood tests seem to go everywhere. Corral them in their own mini bin (a one-litre yoghurt container works well). Keep this mini bin near where you keep your insulin gear.
Speaking of the gear, it’s best to dedicate a special cupboard or box to the equipment to keep it all together. Insulin vials that aren’t in everyday use will need to be kept in the fridge, as will the hypo/glucagon kits, but everything else should be easily obtainable.
When you go out and about, it’s important to take your blood glucose monitor and some “quick fix” form of sugar with you for every trip (usually jelly beans). For longer trips when you’re likely to go out for a meal, you may need to take your insulin as well. Have a series of containers – a small one with the testing kit and the jelly beans that goes in a slightly larger one that contains the insulin and syringes (or a pen).
Don’t carry loose jelly beans in your pockets. The sugar goes everywhere and the jelly beans get covered in fluff. They are also a nuisance if they go through the washing machine.
To be able to keep a proper record of blood glucose levels during the day, keep a pen or pencil in the container that holds your insulin, preferably tied to your record book.
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Natural cleaning and natural products aren’t just limited to your home and to your own grooming. You can also use natural recipes and products to look after your pet. Because if an animal such as a cat or dog isn’t part of nature and the natural world, what is? And your pet is just as affected by toxins in the home environment as you are, if not more so (what some of our domestic cleaning products and “air fresheners” smell like to the highly sensitive nose of a dog doesn’t bear thinking about).
Flea control is the one aspect of pet care that involves the most toxins. The average flea control treatment contains a high amount of toxins – it poisons the fleas after all. This is why the sort of flea powder or liquid you can buy over the counter at the supermarket – or even at the pet shop – often has warnings not to use it on puppies or kittens under a certain age. A much better solution is to use herbal remedies. The best flea remedy by far is pennyroyal, either as an essential oil or by using the dried (or fresh) herb. Pennyroyal’s scientific name is Mentha pulgefugium, which means “mint that makes fleas flee” and it is very easy to grow in damp, shady parts of the garden, so there’s no excuse for any pet owner not to have and use this handy herb. Simply pick a sprig or two and rub it over your pet’s coat to deter fleas, and tuck a few sprigs (maybe the ones you’ve already used to rub on the pet’s coat) into your pet’s bedding. Regular vacuuming is another way to keep fleas to a minimum, if not totally under control, as the powerful air currents and turbulence created by a vacuum cleaner kill fleas. If you use essential oil of pennyroyal, dab a bit on some cotton wool and/or onto the bristles of a grooming brush, and groom your pet as normal. This will transfer the oil into the animal’s fur and thus get rid of the fleas.
Your pet should live as normal a life as possible. Cats should never be de-clawed. This is a cruel and unnatural practice, even if the declawing is done under anaesthetic. Cats need claws to defend themselves and to climb, and their climbing instincts will still be there even if their claws aren’t, and he/she will suffer falls and a lot of frustration. If you want to keep your sofa and curtains safe, provide a scratching post if your cat can’t get outside to sharpen his/her claws. The scratching post should be covered with a fabric or material that they can get their claws decently into – this writer’s cats find the dense foam used for exercise mats irresistible for scratching. Encourage your cat to use it by judicious addition of pennyroyal.
Another feline instinct – natural behaviour for a cat – is hunting. To prevent birds and lizards being butchered and left around your house, put a collar on your cat with a bell. Make sure the collar is elasticated so if it gets hooked while the cat is climbing or jumping, it will not strangle the cat. The bell does mean that the cat won’t be able to act as a rodent control agent, however.
You can make your own pet food that avoids the additives and preservatives that are found in many commercial pet foods. All you need is a quick trip down to the supermarket, the greengrocer and/or the butcher’s shop. Cats need more protein in their diet, so don’t attempt to feed a cat on the same home-made pet food as you do a dog. The easiest home-made cat food is plain mince, but to give the cat a bit more variety, add some chopped organ meat and maybe some chicken meat – cooked is OK but raw is also good for cats and has a higher level of nutrients. And don’t forget raw fish… cat heaven!
Dogs can have a wider variety of items in their diet, including some starch and vegetables along with meat. Raw bones and raw meat are delicious for a dog and close to the diet of its wild-living relatives, but organ meat should be cooked before feeding to a dog. Large cooked bones may splinter when chewed, but raw ones are splendid – and they are also good for the dog’s teeth – they almost act as a toothbrush. Good vegetables and starch to add to a dog’s diet are rice, potatoes, pumpkin and peas, but avoid onions, too much wheat flour (a bit is OK) or anything containing chocolate. Dairy food is OK to give to dogs (cats should only have it in moderation – water is the best drink for cats), but don’t overdo it. You can also mix table scraps into a dog’s regular food – they will love this!
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The house described in this article is fictional – I hope. This is the Hygiene House of Horror where the folk who live in it have some foul habits that seem to suggest that they want to catch a case of Delhi-belly or show off how strong their immune systems. Don your rubber gloves and a mask, and let’s go and have a look.
Kitchen first, as this is where most hygiene horrors happen.
For a start off, this kitchen isn’t just where people eat: the cat is fed in this room, and the kitty litter tray is sitting underneath the kitchen bench. That’s what you can smell. How anyone can bear to have cat faeces with their risk of toxoplasmosis (especially nasty for pregnant women) in the kitchen beats me. And leftover catfood always attracts flies.
Don’t feed the cats in the kitchen and keep litter trays outdoors. And what is that cat doing sitting on the table or roaming along the kitchen bench? Licking the plates clean?
Don’t let animals onto your food preparing/eating surfaces or to eat from your plates (exceptions are made in fairy tales for talking frogs). Sometimes cats will jump up and try, but this should be discouraged with shouting and water pistols.
This kitchen doesn’t stop with animal horrors. The rubbish bin is overflowing, again attracting flies and vermin. And an open rubbish bin reeks, especially with organic rubbish inside. Organic rubbish should be composted, and given its own special bin. Neither the compost bin nor the rubbish bin should be allowed to overflow, and compost bins should be scrubbed out regularly to prevent mould.
Now, I know the kitchen sink is just the right size and height for a baby bath, and has a nice wide space beside it that’s safe to put a baby on for changing and dressing before and after, but think what’s on that baby’s skin… and what’s in the nappy. And you’re going to wash your dishes and the cutlery that you put in your mouth in that sink, or at the very least, you’ll wash vegetables in it. Need I say more?
Hold your nose and open the fridge. Try not to be sick. In spite of the low temperatures, some of the items in this fridge are getting slimy with orangey-grey mould. Some things that are well past their expiry date have been pushed to the back. And the meat is right up the top of the fridge. Every package is open – cat food, pate, butter… Raw meat should go down the bottom in case it drips on food to be eaten raw, items should be kept in airtight containers so they don’t spread smells and so they don’t dry out. And you are not being thrifty keeping old food that has gone off. Throw those leftovers or half-eaten bananas out and do not wait for your domestic cleaning lady to come and clean the fridge for you. Start with this tisk right away.
Now for the bathroom… Not so bad if the toilet isn’t located in the same room as the toothbrushes. But if you have it all in one room, then keep the toothbrushes under cover, and the toothpaste too. Every time you flush the loo, a fine spray of what’s in the toilet bowl flies out. Anything that is going to go near your face should be as far away from the toilet as possible and preferably in a container. These toothbrushes are sitting in a cup filled with nameless grey sludge that has gradually accumulated, and this cup is on the vanity unit right beside where the spare toilet paper rolls are stored within arm’s reach of the loo itself. People put these in their mouths? If you use a toothbrush holder, clean it out. Yes, you rinse your toothbrush, but little bits of saliva always manage to escape, and saliva contains a lot of bacteria.
Remove that fuzzy cloth mat from around the toilet. Yes, it’s nice for feet on cold mornings, but for some reason, males in particular can’t seem to help getting urine somewhere other than the toilet (some in larger amounts than others, especially younger ones) and some females aren’t completely tidy, either. Besides, remember that fine spray coming out of the toilet when it flushes. Get rid of that mat, as it just gets filthy. The same goes for that knitted toilet seat cover, even if your grandmother made it for you.
One quick peek into the bedroom before we bolt for a breath of fresh, clean air. Is that a dog sleeping on the bed? Pets should not be encouraged to sleep on the bed. You have probably seen what your dog rolls in and where it puts its paws and nose. Do you really want that on your pillow? Cats should also be deterred, but cats, being stubborn and independent, are harder to deter from somewhere soft and warm like a bed.
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While it may not feel like it at the moment, spring will come again. But when it comes, will you be ready to take advantage of the sunnier weather? Is your picnic hamper clean and ready for action. Will you have a nice surprise come springtime or will you find something not fit to put food in.
Of course, if you don’t clean a picnic hamper properly before you put it away, what may greet you come the first picnic-worthy day of spring may be a horrible mess. This especially applies if you have one of those plastic insulated hampers that keep food chilled (the sort the Australians call Eskies) and also, to some extent, to the old-fashioned wicker hamper lined with cloth.
The horrible mess is likely to be mould and mildew, and there is nothing for it but to swab it out with neat vinegar and expose it to strong sunshine, or even to get a new wicker picnic hamper if it’s gone too far and the mildew has got into the wood. Bad luck – remember to clean the new one out before you put it away.
To clean out a wicker picnic hamper, you have two main jobs. The first is to clean out any smears, while the second is to clean out any crumbs. Wicker hampers don’t have quite as many problems with mould and mildew, as the wicker provides preventative ventilation, but it can happen if you give bacteria and mould spores something to grow on. The first step is to turn the hamper upside-down and give it a good shake to get the worst of the crumbs out. If you have a cloth lining inside the hamper, see if it comes out. If it does, you’re in luck. Just give it a quick spin in the washing machine on the gentle cycle or else handwash it. If it doesn’t, your first step is to use the vacuum cleaner to suck out the loose crumbs that linger in the seams. You can do this task when doing your weekly domestic cleaning.
Next, deal with the smears. Use a sponge dipped in warm soapy water to get rid of jam, etc. However, if some idiot spilled sardines on the inside, you may need to use a scrubbing brush and more soap. Sprinkle baking soda inside the hamper to absorb smells, then brush or vacuum this out when it’s dried. Use the sponge and scrubbing brush method for cleaning smears out of a wicker picnic basket with no lining (crumbs won’t be much of a problem).
To clean the plastic insulated type of picnic basket, the easiest way is to half fill it with warm water and a little of whatever you use to wash the dishes with. Then just wash the inside out with a dishbrush, then rinse as normal. It’s after this part that the real fun begins. It’s a nice, airtight, insulated container, and if you shut the lid and tuck it away with the slightest bit of moisture in, you will be faced with hideous orange slime next time you open it. Or brown slime. Or grey slime. So it’s vital to dry it out thoroughly before storing it.
Storing this type of plastic picnic hamper also has to be done properly. It’s best not to store it with the lid fully closed just in case you haven’t got all of the moisture out. Wedge a bit of newspaper under the lid to raise it slightly. This will prevent dust and dirt falling in but will provide ventilation. Alternatively, store it upside-down with the lid off. If you store it right way up with the lid off, then you may have to dust it out before the next picnic – but a damp rag will fix that without any trouble.
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Nobody starts out by meaning to create a cluttered home. Whether we’re starting afresh after the end of tenancy cleaning and a carpet cleaning, a New Year’s resolution or a move, we all have visions of clear spaces, tidy shelves and floors and order. But we all know what happens before long if we’re not careful: chaos, clutter, mess and all sorts of oddments piled in the most peculiar places (example from this writer’s house: jelly beans collecting in the laundry).
How does this happen? According to British decluttering expert Sue Kay, ten bad habits prevent us from reaching our mental goals of order. Break these bad habits and you will see a dramatic reduction – or even elimination – of clutter in your home.
Habit 1: Procrastination. You know how this goes. “I’ll just pop this on the kitchen bench for now and deal with it later.” “I’ll find a home for that eventually, but in the meantime, I’ll put it on the bedside cabinet.” “You can give that a temporary home behind the sofa until we find a better place for it.” “Put it in the spare room to be fixed when I get around to it”. In a perfect world, we would always be able to put things away straight away and fix things as soon as they break. In the world that we do have, assigning some time to mending, sorting and dealing with temporary arrangements is a better way to stop the “just for now” piles building up.
Habit 2: Neck or Nothing. One of the big obstacles that often gets in the way of people having a decluttering session (or even calling in an expert) is a fear that minimalism is the goal and that the expert will leave you with a set of possessions that would make a monk’s lifestyle look lavish. This is not the case.
You do not have to reduce your worldly goods to subsistence level. While you may have to get rid of the out-of-focus photos, you don’t have to get rid of the old daguerreotype of your great-great-grandparents. While you may have to offload ancient magazines and the books your children grew out of years ago and hate the sight of, you don’t have to get rid of your favourite copy of Lord of the Rings. It’s not all or nothing. It’s about getting rid of inessentials.
Habit 3: Everything is equally valuable. While this principle is true of people in society, it isn’t true of the things cramming your storage space. While one person’s trash is another person’s treasure (and I therefore won’t presume to tell you what items of yours are to be treasured), sometimes trash is just trash. Prioritise your possessions. Keep what’s valuable, but get rid of the things that you honestly are never going to do anything with.
Habit 4: Getting distracted. You’re sorting the books, the junk mail or the old magazines. Something catches your eye. Next thing you know, you’ve spent half an hour reading that ancient magazine and have made no progress. Or you’re going through your clothes and you stop to try on half a dozen outfits and spend ages seeing how all your accessories go with it. In The Screwtape Letters, C.S. Lewis had the senior devil Screwtape recommending this sort of behaviour as an excellent form of tempting humans into wasting their time and energy so they do neither what they ought to do nor what they want to do. To fight this temptation, set yourself a time limit to achieve a reasonable goal, and/or enlist a friend to help you or to whom you can be accountable.
Habit 5: Self-sabotage. If someone has been pressuring you to declutter, you’re in a bad mood or you don’t really want to get rid of things (possibly because of Habit 2), some people sabotage the efforts they do make. They throw out something that really is valuable which they later regret – and use this experience as a reason for never touching the clutter again. Or they set themselves impossibly hard goals. They call themselves names. All this will create a bad association with decluttering. Instead, set yourself reasonable goals, be honest and give yourself little rewards (but not by buying more unnecessary stuff) for achieving these goals. Suitable rewards can include temporary things such as a nice bunch of flowers, dancing in the space you’ve managed to clear, having a moment of nostalgia reading old love letters or just sitting back for five minutes listening to music and contemplating the view out of the window once you’ve cleared all the junk off the windowsill.
Habit 6: Multi-tasking. This is an asset in all other aspects of life, but don’t try to declutter and talk on the phone/deal with kid’s homework/vacuum the lounge. It is better to do a little bit of concentrated decluttering lasting ten minutes than an hour of trying to declutter and other things simultaneously. Rather than testing and chucking out dead biros and stationery while talking on the phone, do this while you’re waiting for an anti-virus program to finish running (the operative word there was “talking” on the phone. If you’re on hold, however, this might be an excellent time to delete old emails or test biros while you doodle).
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Reading through the advice that Mrs Beeton gives in her classic Book of Household Management to the housemaid makes you very, very grateful for modern conveniences such as vacuum cleaners and electricity. Thank goodness we no longer have to do carpet cleaning by strewing them with dry tea-leaves then sweeping with a soft broom, or have to go through the process of lugging carpets outside and shaking them.
However, Mrs B’s method of washing carpets would come in handy. The carpet will have to be taken up and got somewhere it can drip-dry, but a mixture of washing soda, yellow soap and boiling water can should be sponged over the carpet, then rinsed with hot water. Treat the carpet bit by bit rather than all at once, then leave to dry. But most people nowadays will want to skip the last step suggested by Mrs B to “improve” the colours of the carpet afterwards by rubbing it with a mixture of ox-gall and water (didn’t this smell ghastly?). Ox-gall was also used to clean carpet that were nailed down, at a concentration of one pint of gall to three gallons of warm water – but we can skip this one!
The recipe for furniture polish, however, looks promising. This is made up of equal amounts of linseed oil, turpentine (presumably the natural type), vinegary and “spirits of wine” (ethanol – but you could probably substitute vodka). Or else you could just use a mixture of vinegar and oil – how easy and eco-friendly is that?
Other useful tips for “housemaids” include:
* To get marks out of mahogany (and, presumably, other fine woods) that have been made by putting something hot on the polish “may be removed by rubbing in oils and afterwards pouring a little spirits of wine on the spot and rubbing it dry with a soft cloth.”
* To clean very dirty wallpaper, wipe it lightly with very stale bread. This assumes that you have very stale bread handy – which might not be the case with modern bread with all the this-and-that added to make it keep fresher longer.
* To clean marble, “take two parts of [washing] soda, one of pumice stone and one of finely-powdered chalk”. This should be mixed into a paste using water then rubbed over the dirty marble. If you dreamed you dwelt in marble halls, you’d better dream of a housemaid who knows how to do this one.
The list of a housemaid’s duties is an exhausting one. In winter, the first thing the poor girl had to do was to open the shutters downstairs, pick up the hearthrugs, sweep “the breakfast room”, remove the ashes from the fire, blacken and polish the grate, light the fires downstairs, dust and polish everything in that “breakfast room” then go upstairs with hot water for My Lady and light the fire in her bedroom. Then she had to lay the table for breakfast – the master and mistress’s breakfast, of course. Mrs Beeton does not specify when the maid gets to eat*. In summer, the housemaid merely had to open the windows, sweep and dust everything in that “breakfast room” (including the picture frames), rearrange all the knick-knacks. While My Lady is getting ready, the maid had to then sweep and dust the drawing room and even the hall, doorstep and corridors.
And that was just before breakfast. Three more pages of instructions regarding daily and weekly duties follow that lot. No wonder they all left to be Rosy the Riveters or land girls when they had the chance!
*At least not in this section. In the introduction, we find out that the maid and other servants get to eat an hour before “the family”.
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