It’s been a long night and you’ve been the perfect host. All your guests enjoyed themselves and you have lived up to your reputation of being the perfect party giver. After the last guest leaves, you are left, as usual, surveying the scene of the party that now looks like a hurricane had swept through the room. You have a few choices in your course of action:
* Pretend there is no mess and go off to sleep – you can think about cleaning up in the morning
* Gird your loins and get started on cleaning up right away so that even if you manage only an hour’s sleep you wake up to a clean house.
* Relax and have a nightcap knowing that you have already booked professional house cleaners company to do your post party clean up.
The first option is what most of us go in for and when we wake in the morning and see the mess that has to be cleaned up, we curse ourselves and promise never to have another party again – until the next time!
The second option requires both enormous amounts of energy and will power, most often beyond the abilities of most of us.
The last option is, of course the best one and London has many house cleaners that offer domestic cleaning services and can undertake all your post party clean up work. Next time you plan on having a party, arrange for professional house cleaners to come in the next morning and do the post party clean up. Book the agency as soon as you decide on the party date – the best cleaning services are often booked well in advance. And don’t forget to add the post party clean up costs to your party budget.
While you can leave most of the cleanup to the house cleaners, there are a few things you need to do to prevent any serious damage to your furnishings happening before the house cleaners arrive.
* Check for smoldering cigarette stubs that could scorch your furniture
* Mop up any spilled drinks – the alcohol can act as a thinner and remove the polish from wooden surfaces
* Mop up any vomit that may be on the carpet. The house cleaners will do this, but the longer you leave it on the fabric, the more chance there is of the acidity in the vomit damaging the carpet material or affecting the colouring.
Most of us spend a lot of time making sure that our home looks beautiful – surfaces dust- and grime-free, stainless steel sparkling, whiteware and bathroom surfaces gleaming and pristine white. And so we should. But we should not neglect pleasing our senses other than sight when cleaning and tidying up our house.
Modern households are full of a range of unpleasant smells. While the average household no longer reeks of animal manure and the like, as was the case in days gone by, our noses can be assaulted by a range of modern stenches. While there isn’t much we can do about the neighbour’s coal smoke or the fumes from a busy road nearby, we can do something about the other smells in the house.
Common sources of unpleasant smells in the house include cigarette fumes, coal smoke, cooking smells, dogs and chemical smells (and, as you all have guessed, smells from the toilet). The first step in making your home attractive to the nose as well as to the eye is eliminating these olfactory offenders. Quit smoking – you know it’s horrifically bad for you. Change from burning coal to a using wood as fuel for the fire – wood smoke is a less unpleasant smell (some people even like it in small amounts) and the ash absorbs unpleasant smells, besides the fact that burning wood encourages the growing of managed woodlots, which is better in the larger scale of things regarding carbon emissions and greenhouse gases.
As far as possible, try to eliminate strong-smelling chemicals. The worst offenders here are home cleaners, especially those based on chlorine or ammonia, which emit toxic fumes (the fumes are especially toxic if chlorine and ammonia are combined – never do this). Old fashioned cleaning products such as baking soda, vinegar, soap and basic detergent give off fewer fumes. What’s more, baking soda is something of an odour-eater and absorbs strong smells, especially inside the refrigerator. Disinfectant is a mid-range offender. While it doesn’t smell unpleasant, too much around the house is reminiscent of hospitals and other medical establishments and doesn’t make for a nice homely atmosphere, so use disinfectant only where necessary.
You probably don’t want to eliminate your beloved dog, and it is impossible to give up cooking or using the toilet if you want to stay alive and healthy. Also, even if you don’t smoke, you may own a house or furniture that was previously owned by a smoker and still contains traces of the smoke (this writer owns a second hand sofa once owned by a smoker. Three years on, you can still detect tobacco in it if it gets warm). In this case, you have to take positive action to prevent unpleasant smells.
Fresh air is the first way to eliminate all these smells. Opening windows and using an extractor fan in the kitchen or in the bathroom eliminates the majority of stale or damp odours, besides helping damp areas dry out. Most cooking smells are quite pleasant when fresh (think how delicious roast mutton smells) but if they linger, the smell turns stale. Keep fresh air flowing through the house while cooking and afterwards to let the vapours disperse. Fresh air also works wonders in toilets.
Most people use an air freshener in the toilet. If, for some reason, you do not use one (for example, if you’re sensitive to the chemicals in air freshener), then lighting and burning a single match after using the toilet covers and absorbs any stink.
To eliminate doggy smells in the house, wash your dog regularly. If possible, make sure your dog does not sleep on the furniture and, if possible, sleeps outside. Regular vacuuming will help eliminate most of the doggy odour that comes with shed hairs and skin particles.
But you also want to make sure your house has a positively pleasant smell to it rather than bland, scentless neutrality. You can choose from many ways of putting a positively pleasant smell into the house. Traditional methods such as potpourri and fresh flowers are lovely, as are using incense sticks, scented candles and aromatic oil burners. Aromatic oils can be used in other ways than just in a burner. Putting a few drops of aromatic oil on the filter or dust bag of a vacuum cleaner means that as you vacuum, the fragrance is released through the house. A little aromatic oil can also be used to make your own scented drawer liners from plain kitchen towels or even photocopier paper. Dab a little on a cold light bulb: when the light is switched on, the glass will heat up and release the scent. However, when it comes to aromatic oils, the rule “you get what you pay for” applies. Natural aromatherapy oils are best of all, but very good quality synthetics are also an attractive choice. Cheap oils are usually cloying and rather nasty.
When scenting your home, don’t overdo it. Too much scent in the air is overbearing and can cause headaches. Keep house scents light for the best effect.
A group of women were once discussing the household chore they hated the most. Two chores stood out as the clear unfavourites: cleaning the inside of the oven and cleaning glass shower doors (cleaning the toilet came in third place).
Cleaning glass is a bit of a headache for many people – you have to try so hard not to leave streaks (or, what’s worse, scratches) and the dirt you can see is always on the other side (cue old joke about the similarity between window cleaning and political campaigns).
Natural glass cleaners won’t make the deeply hated chore of cleaning glass shower doors into a pleasure that you’ll look forward to doing. But they will be easier on your hands and less toxic. Natural cleaners will save you from the experience (as happened to this writer) of spraying on some commercial cleaner onto glass you had to get up close and personal with in order to clean it and promptly gagging on the ghastly fumes, and having a headache and itchy eyes for the rest of the day. And those commercial cleaners always stink – that’s the ammonia in them.
No matter what method you use for cleaning glass, these tips apply to everyone and every method:
* If you use a cloth, make sure that it’s lint free, or you’ll spread fluff all over the glass. The cloth should also be clean – if you have a lot of windows or glass to clean and the cloth starts getting greyish, get a fresh one straight away or you will start spreading dirt from window to window. And use a second cloth that’s also lint free to dry the window off afterwards and buff it up. Once this starts getting damp, you don’t need to change it: it becomes your new cleaning cloth to apply your natural cleaning product of choice with.
* Have a wiper blade on hand – the sort used by those annoying hit-and-run car window cleaners at traffic lights or that the petrol filling station has handy for motorists to clean windows with while they’re refilling the tank. This does get a lot of excess water off so you don’t get the problem of watermarks drying on and staining the window. Some people suggest keeping one in the shower and encouraging everyone to wipe down the door and surrounds after using the shower to make the cleanup job less hellish (if a family member is short sighted, do bear in mind that they won’t do a brilliant job of this, as nobody wears glasses or contact lenses in the shower and they won’t be able to see the mess).
* Fly spots need either friction, time or water to remove.
* Some people recommend using vertical strokes to clean one side of the glass and horizontal strokes to clean the other so you know which side the dirt or smears are on. However, using a circular motion can keep streaking to a minimum.
* If you have a very large amount of glass to clean (e.g. a conservatory or a glasshouse), go for efficiency rather than streak-free perfection and just use hot water and detergent. This also applies to high external windows that can only be reached with a long-handled window cleaning brush.
Some natural methods of cleaning glass:
* Microfibre cloths: These require just a little water to get the glass sparkling and crystal clear. You need one cloth to dampen and do the actual cleaning and another to dry the glass off afterwards. At a demonstration of these cleaning cloths, the demonstrator cleaned a French door – which someone later tried to walk through while it was still closed because it was so clean.
* Scrunched newspaper. Roll newspaper into a ball and get it damp (not wet) and buff the window, the mirror or the glass-fronted computer/TV screen. The ink seems to act as a cleaner. Get a fresh piece of paper when the original starts to crumble.
* Vodka or some other strong alcoholic spirit: Either spray it on the glass or apply it with a cloth. It has the advantage of evaporating quickly and leaving very few streaks, and killing germs. Alcoholic substances do give off strong fumes, but they are not all that unpleasant to inhale. Quite the reverse, in fact.
* Vinegar: Again, this can be sprayed on or dabbed on with a cloth. While it doesn’t evaporate quite as readily as alcohol, it still evaporates easily without leaving streaks. White vinegar is best to use. Vinegar also kills mould spores, so it’s great to use in bathrooms.
Fires in offices are more common than most people realize, especially in London’s high density business area. Most of these fires are small and easily put out by the office staff. They are usually caused by one of the many pieces of electrical and electronic equipment modern offices are so full of. While the damage is usually limited to the equipment itself, collateral damage in the form of smoke marks on the walls is very common.
While this can be cleaned up by your office cleaning agency, you can usually do it yourself without waiting for their next scheduled visit.
Begin by properly ventilating the area to get rid of soot particles that may still be suspended in the air and also the burn smell. Before beginning, wear safety goggles and rubber gloves. This is important since you will be working with paint thinner.
Lay plastic sheeting (or a thick cloth if plastic is not readily available) to prevent drips during the cleaning process from staining the floor or carpet. Start working from the top of the burn mark – use a step ladder if necessary – and going from side to side, work your way down. If more than one wall is affected, finish one completely before going on to the next.
Start by using a Chemical Dry Cleaning Sponge to wipe the soot off the wall. These sponges are easily available and a hardware store will have them or will be able to direct you to where you can buy one. Do not wet the sponge – it is designed to work when dry. Simply wipe the soot away with the sponge. Once the sponge gets saturated with soot, rinse it out, allow it to dry completely and continue using it until all the soot is off the walls.
Once the sponge has removed as much as it can, wet a regular sponge or soft cloth with paint thinner or pure alcohol and gently rub the stain until it is gone. Do not use water based home cleaners for this as they will only spread the stain and make removing it even more difficult. Be careful when rubbing as the more you rub, the more paint or polish will be removed from the wall. This is inevitable but the less the paint is affected, the less painting you will have to do. Once the stain is gone, pat the area dry with paper towels or a dry cloth.
Some jobs can be left until the big “end of tenancy cleaning” or “moving house cleaning” (jobs such as dusting the tops of door frames and scrubbing the floor underneath the washing machine). Other jobs can’t be left semi-indefinitely, and cleaning the fridge is one of them. Here’s how:
1 Start by turning the power off at the wall or you will waste oodles of electricity and power as the fridge tries to keep cool with the door wide open for quarter of an hour.
2 Remove all the food and other bits from inside the fridge. Check all of them to make sure that they’re still in the land of the living. Items that are not can have a quick one-way trip into the compost heap.
3 Remove any trays, drawers or racks that can come out. Run a basin full of hot water and dishwashing detergent or soap and put them in to soak as best you can.
4 Arm yourself with your cleaning tools. It’s important to use natural cleaning products that have low toxicity as harsh chemicals can and will contaminate your food. For this reason, it’s also best to avoid using essential oils to clean the fridge, lovely and natural as they are. Few people like lavender-flavoured cheese (although fresh lavender could go quite nicely as a marinade or in a cheese sandwich, but that’s another story…). Baking soda is your best bet, as it doesn’t scratch and absorbs those smells. Use dilute white vinegar as a back-up if you need it. Also provide yourself with a small array of soft cloths, some dipped in fresh water and some left dry. An old toothbrush (not the one that you keep for cleaning the lavatory) will also come in handy.
5 Shake baking soda liberally around the fridge and don’t forget the door. Use one of your wet or damp cloths to scoop up some more baking soda – it will form a paste when wet – and start applying it to the sides and roof.
6 Rub vigorously at all surfaces, starting from the top and working downwards. If one of your cleaning rags starts looking an interesting colour, change it, or else have a handy basin of warm water nearby to rinse it out in.
7 Use a clean damp rag to remove the baking soda paste once you have scrubbed everything.
8 Have a good look around. If any food or other smears still remain, use the dilute vinegar and the old toothbrush to get them off.
9 Use a dry rag to dry everything off.
10 If you have one of those fridges with a drip pan underneath the cooling element, make sure that this is cleared out and that it can drain freely. Pour a little vinegar (full strength, not diluted) into this to deal with any mould. Yes, mould can grow inside a fridge, albeit more slowly than in a warmer spot.
11 Tackle the trays, drawers and racks. Wash these the way that you would wash the dishes, either in the sink or in the dishwasher (in the sink is probably quicker and easier, as the trays are a beast to fit in the dishwasher). Use vodka or some other strong alcohol to wipe down meat drawers or meat trays to kill any bacteria. Rinse and dry everything as normal.
12 Put everything back into the fridge. Start with the racks, etc. first, of course!
13 Keep the milk out and have a cup of tea as a reward for a job well done.
Was one of your New Year resolutions to cut down on waste and to live more sustainably? These quick tips should help.
1. Make your own household cleaners using natural ingredients. Not only does this mean that you will be less exposed to some of the most common sources of household pollutants and toxins, you will also cut down on the amount of waste your household produces (you won’t have to buy and dispose of one product for cleaning windows, one for cleaning floors, one for cleaning the bathroom, one for cleaning kitchens, etc, etc. ad nauseam) and you will also be easier on the environment, as producing cleaners like vinegar, baking soda and soap is less polluting and often uses by-products of other industries.
2. Dry your clothes naturally using the sun and the air. A good washing line or clothes horse gets clothes beautifully dry, whether you dry clothes outside or just stand the clothes horse near a home heating source. This not only means that you’re using less electricity to power a dryer, but you will also cut down on the need for anti-static products and you may even be able to get away with doing less ironing.
3. Learn how to mend and make do. It’s silly to throw away a shirt or pair of jeans just because it’s got a falling hem or a split seam – or even a hole worn in the knees. These are easy mending jobs, and sewing by hand is a soothing task that’s good to do while watching TV or sitting down to talk – and it can help keep your hands busy so you don’t go reaching for a snack or a cigarette.
4. Consider switching to more environmentally friendly brands, such as Ecover, for home cleaning products that you can’t or don’t want to make yourself. For me, this would be laundry and dishwashing detergent.
5. Start a recycling system. It’s good to have a portable container for putting recyclables because then you can go around your house as you clean up and put things straight where they’re supposed to go.
6. Switch to reusable shopping bags as much as you can. This means that you won’t have half a million cluttering your drawers up. However, you may still need a few, as you will need to make sure meat doesn’t drip all over everything else – and old shopping bags are great for corralling rubbish and recyclable paper (and many shopping bags are themselves recyclable).
7. Find an alternative to retail therapy. Not only will you save money, you will also save on packaging and then filling your house with things that you have to clean and care for. Take up another soothing hobby instead.
8. Get some pot plants for your home. Not only will these help clean the air in your home (especially if you buy plants that absorb and eliminate toxins such as spider plants and peace lilies) but you will also help –albeit a little bit – reduce the overall CO2 in the atmosphere. Every little bit counts!
9. Start a garden. It’s good exercise for you, it makes you more aware of the environment, it encourages you to compost food and other organic waste (which includes the bits from your vacuum cleaner bag – beans love these!) and you can eat the results. Composting makes your house smell nicer, as you don’t have food waste sitting around in the bin stinking.
10. Cut down on waste by finding new uses for old items. Old towels, shirts and sheets can be used as cleaning rags. Old toothbrushes can be used for all sorts of cleaning jobs. Old containers can be used to store home-made cleaning products. Thin little soap scraps can be melted down to make soap gel (used for all sorts of cleaning jobs).
Contrary to popular belief by many guys (or at least, that’s what seems to be popular belief if the guys in my family are anything to go by), laundry and cleaning are not done by little fairies. The entity that has to make sure that your dirty clothes (and things like towels, sheets and tablecloths) are taken from the bedroom (and the bathroom floor, the back doorstep and out of your sports bag) to the laundry, into the machine, onto the line then back again is you. We won’t even go there when it comes to ironing.
The first thing to do is to round up the dirty little suckers and get them ready for the laundry. Ideally, you have a basket, bag or box for collecting dirty washing rather than the method practiced by most guys of my acquaintance: dropping it on the floor. But we’ll ignore that part of it. What you have to do now is sort things out. While it’s tempting to just throw everything into a normal wash all together, sorting will avoid disasters like your red rugby shirt turning your white work shirts pink or your flannelette sheets leaving fluff all over your black polar fleece.
Sort things into several piles. Really, really grubby stuff (rugby gear, work overalls, things covered in mud) can go in their own pile. They’ll need a heavy-duty wash and possibly a bit of soaking, too. Then you’ll need two piles of normal gear – light coloured stuff like white shirts, grey singlets and pale fawn trousers in one pile; dark stuff like blacks, navy blue, greens, reds and so forth. Lastly, you’ll need a pile of things needing TLC – this includes satin boxers, woollen jerseys and silk shirts. Each pile need to go into the washing machine as a separate load, but the good news is you can procrastinate and wait until you’ve got a full load of one type – it saves power and washing powder. You may also like to have a separate pile for polar fleece so they don’t pick up fluff from cotton things.
Before you bung the clothes in, check the pockets for things like loose change and tissues – and you might find that missing phone number while you’re at it. Load the things in the washing machine and put in the right amount of powder. Program the machine to wash according to the water level, the temperature and any special instructions, such as soaking or delicate wash (that’s the one you use for the satiny boxers – and remember to wash woollen things in cold on a wool cycle). Cold washes are cheaper to do and work OK, but you need the right sort of powder. Most powders are OK in cold these days, except for biological (enzyme) washing powder.
Once the machine has done its thing, hang the clothes out or dry them in the machine. If you leave them in the machine for more than a day (overnight is OK), they’ll start to smell of tofu or old cheese. Line drying on a rack or outside on a line makes less wrinkles, so you can get away without ironing things much. If you’re using pegs, try to put the pegs on a part of the clothes that won’t show the marks, and try not to let the bit you’re pegging get too folded over, as this will make the things hard to dry. Hang towels from the corner, but you can fold sheets over. It’s a good idea to hang socks up in pairs so you don’t mismatch them – and you can see if you’ve got odd socks straight away.
Try to get in the washing on the same day as you put it out, although it’s not the end of the world if things sit on a drying rack for a day or so – or even on an outdoor washing line. If it gets caught in the rain, don’t panic – just think of this as an extra rinse cycle. But if you want to wear them and don’t fancy hopping out to the line in the nick looking for a clean pair of underpants, get them in and put them away a.s.a.p.
