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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One of the many ways to save energy and to reduce your carbon footprint is to look at the way that your home is heated. From a natural living perspective and from a sustainability point of view, wood fires have a lot going for them and may possibly be one of the most eco-friendly and natural ways of keeping warm when it’s a bit chilly. Wood fires certainly get the tick of approval from Friends of the Earth.
Advantages of wood fires:
* Buying firewood to burn as fuel encourages people to plant more trees and grow them in managed woodlots. This in turn reduces the atmospheric carbon dioxide held responsible for global warming/climate change. Many of these trees planted for firewood are coppiced, a practice that involves felling the tree but leaving enough of the stump in the ground and allowing it to re-sprout and grow new trunks, albeit thinner ones.
* When wood is burned, not all the carbon that has been stored in the wood is released back into the atmosphere to contribute to your carbon footprint. Some of the carbon will become soot inside the chimney, some will become charcoal and some will become ash. These can all be returned to the soil rather than being released to the atmosphere.
* The carbon that wood fires release to the atmosphere isn’t new carbon – it was in the atmosphere a few years ago before the tree absorbed it and turned it into wood. This is in complete contrast to coal, gas and anything that relies on petrol (including electric heaters that are powered by petrol-fired power stations) – these all take underground sumps of carbon and release it into the air.
* Wood ash is not particularly toxic, if at all. Unlike coal ash, which is bad news for disposal, wood ash is very beneficial for the garden, as it can be used to treat overly acidic soils. Potatoes love it. You can also sprinkle wood ash around young plants to protect them from the depredations of snails and slugs – these pests hate crawling over ash.
* If you’re concerned about EMFs (electromagnetic frequencies) being released in quantity, wood fires have none of these, in contrast to electric heaters.
* Wood fires give off a warm, natural source of light. However, attempting to read or the like by firelight alone is not good for your eyes.
* If the power goes off, you’ll still be able to cook and keep warm if you have a wood fire.
* As the old saying goes, firewood warms you three times: once when you chop it, once when you stack it and once when you burn it. This is a good form of exercise.
* Wood fires can make use of free wood. Things such as dead, broken branches take on a whole new perspective: they’re not rubbish to be got rid of; they’re a valuable resource. Driftwood on the beach is another free source of wood.
However, wood fires do have some disadvantages:
* Some areas do not permit fires as a form of heating because the smoke (which is less noxious than coal smoke or car exhausts) lowers air quality.
* Wood fires may not be the most efficient form of heating, especially open fires. A lot of the heat can be lost up the chimney and wasted. However, some designs of log burners are more efficient (and, if you’re lucky, in older homes, you might have a wetback design that heats your water as well). These don’t give off much light, though.
* Fires can be more of a hazard, especially with an open fire. Some types of wood are more hazardous than others, as they crack and pop, spitting out embers. However, common sense around fires and regular chimney sweeping will keep the fire where you want it, burning only the wood you want it to. Very often when you have your chimney swept, stains may occur on your carpet, so bear in mind you may need a professional carpet cleaning straight after that. A fire guard should be used for any heating source to protect young children, and an open fire will need a spark guard as well.
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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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Cold, wet evenings are perfect for getting out old-fashioned storybooks and reading aloud to children – or to older family members. And if you read older children’s books, it’s amazing the little tips that you can pick up about house cleaning using old-fashioned methods. And that applies to stories about old-fashioned households that did have a maid to clean for them, etc. (e.g. Little Women and the rest of that series) and to stories about households that had to rough it a bit more (Little House on the Prairie).
So what can you learn from these books about keeping everything tidy and shipshape?
* A clean, dry attic is perfectly OK for storing vegetables such as pumpkins, red peppers, onions and marrows – good news for those of us today who like to grow vegetables but don’t have masses of space in the refrigerator. Make sure that the area you plan to store these veggies in is dry and free from mould. Any mould spores lingering on the skin of the plants should be killed by a quick wipe-down with neat white vinegar before thorough drying.
* You don’t have to use mineral oil for greasing machinery –animal fat (the sort you shouldn’t eat for the good of your heart) will do. After all, Pa in Little House in the Big Woods used to use bear grease to lubricate his traps. Save clean fat from meat and use it for greasing bike chains and the like. It will go rancid and smell peculiar, so you have been warned. But those looking for a natural alternative to mineral oil should take note. If you want to clean off oil and fat from fabric, animal fats can be removed by a jolly good scrubbing with soap and a soak in water as hot as the fabric can handle, followed by washing as normal. Mineral oil can be removed in the same way, but if the oil stain is particularly tough, using eucalyptus oil or glycerine will help.
* Contrary to popular belief, you can save the job of washing the dishes for once a day in one big hit if you have to wash them by hand. Do this job when the children are home from school and all adults are home from work (if possible) so you have as many hands as possible to do the drying. Doing the dishes together can be a great opportunity for talking and “quality time” as a family.
* Children are never too young to learn the basics about domestic cleaning. Even preschoolers can dry dishes and put them away, help to make beds and pick up dirty clothes for washing. The earlier they start, the better.
* Grate a carrot and steep it in water or milk to make a natural food colouring – unlike the dubious artificial ones, this natural colouring has some additional nutrients.
* Unvarnished wood surfaces can be cleaned with ordinary soap and water – and a whole lot of elbow grease! This was standard for kitchen tables and it is easy to do with wooden chopping boards. Use boiling water to sterilize chopping boards.
* Hair does not need a lot of “product” to get it shiny and glossy. For straight hair, brushing with a natural boar’s bristle brush is all that’s needed. To clean a bristle brush, pull as much hair and fluff out as possible. Then soak the bristles in a solution of warm water and baking soda before carefully drying it. If the brush has been used by someone with head lice, kill these by pouring boiling water over the bristles.
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Protein-based items have a bit of a bad reputation when it comes to stains and laundry. Who hasn’t wrestled, scrubbed and wrung (their hands or the garment that has been stained) trying to deal with this sort of stain. Sometimes, it seems as if even if you grab out the big guns, the stain sets and won’t come out ever again. What’s to be done about it?
Older stains that have set in the fabric are practically impossible to deal with, and I won’t cover them in this article. All spills and stains should be treated as soon as possible. All protein stains should be washed out using cold water (not hot). A bit of soap can help with most (but not all) protein stains, and you can also use a stain removal stick to help protein stains on their way. Which reminds me about the quip by a comedian about the ads for stain removal products that involve someone getting a massive bloodstain off a white shirt – “forget removing the stains – how have you managed to dispose of the body?” Joking aside, a potato cut in half makes a reasonable protein stain removal stick.
To wash out all basic protein stains, soak the item in cold to blood-heat water (i.e. it should feel the same temperature as you skin – test it by dipping your wrists in the water). Rub with a little soap and launder as usual but using cold water. Soaking overnight works wonders, and using an enzyme based (biological) washing powder also works wonders. You do not need to use any other type of house cleaning product as you may damage the fabric.
Well, what is a protein stain? Here is a list of the most common protein stains:
* Avocado: This relates more to the pulp rather than the stone – the sap from the stone acts like a dye and is used this way by poorer people in South American countries to brighten up dull clothing. Make sure all the pulp and stain is washed away by soaping and soaking before getting it anywhere near hot water.
* Bloodstains: Every woman will have to deal with bloodstains at some time in her life for obvious monthly reasons. Other people handling bloodstains include anyone with active children who bash themselves falling off bikes, butchers, rugby players and doctors(and murderers: one killer gave himself away by asking a checkout assistant how to remove bloodstains –the checkout assistant got suspicious and called the cops). If it’s not your blood you’re dealing with, make sure that you protect yourself from blood-transmitted infections and wear rubber gloves. Salty water can also help draw the blood out of the item – soaking in salty water is sometimes used by kosher butchers to make sure that every trace of blood is removed from the meat.
* Milk (including baby formula, breast milk, yoghurt, cream and cheese sauce). Act quickly, as sour milk smells awful.
* Red cabbage juice. As an aside, red cabbage juice can be used like litmus paper to indicate acid and alkaline substances – a good kids’ science at home project.
* Egg. Scrape off as much as you can before soaking.
* Poop (animal or human). Scrape off as much as you can using loo paper and wearing rubber gloves. You probably also want to put some disinfectant into the water for soaking to kill germs.
* Mucus on handkerchiefs (not on sleeves, I hope – please!).
* Mud. Scrape off excess before soaking. Soak first – mudstains are often mixed with grass stains, which need special treatment.
* Pee (animal and human). Baking soda will help reduce the characteristic ammonia smell – a must if an animal was the culprit, as lingering smells (which you won’t be able to pick up) will bring the animal back to the scene of the crime to reoffend. Avoid using ammonia on the stain, as this will enhance the smell rather than removing it.
* Semen (on sheets, underwear and one notorious blue evening dress). Take note, Ms Monica Lewinsky!
Vomit. Once again, scrape up as much excess as possible before washing. Use rubber gloves and add disinfectant to the soaking water.
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Most people do take the trouble of sweeping down their driveways every couple of days and perhaps even having the driveway cleaning added to the contract of their domestic cleaning agency. The problem is that the brick and concrete that driveways are usually made of tend to absorb stains, especially the oil and radiator fluid stain that drip from cars. If these stains are not cleaned up immediately, they can get ingrained and become very difficult if not impossible to remove. Here are some steps you can take to deal with driveway stains as soon as you notice them.
If the oil stain is fresh and it has not yet begun to seep into the brick or concrete, quickly put some kitty litter or saw /cement dust on top of the stain. If possible put a heavy wooden board on top to press down. If it’s windy, place a cover on top. After two days sweep away the powder and hopefully, the stain will be gone. However, if it is an old stain that has become ingrained, there are still some things you can try to remove the stain. Use whichever of the following is most convenient for you.
* Apply liquid laundry detergent straight from the bottle to the stain and allow it to remain there for 20 to 30 minutes. Now scrub it off with a hard wet brush or broom. Rinse the area with a garden hose and let it dry. If the stain has only partially gone, repeat the process.
* Make a thick paste of 1 part sodium citrate, 6 parts glycerin and 6 parts water and add a small quantity of fuller’s earth to it. Spread it on the stained area and let it stand for a week, adding a new layer of paste each day. Cover the area if the weather is damp or rainy. After 7 days hose it down and brush away any residue.
* Scrub the stain with a solvent like benzene. Have a fire extinguisher nearby and be careful of sparks as the solver is highly inflammable.
* Make a thick paste of dry dishwasher detergent and water and use this to cover the stain. Allow it to stand for about an hour and then rinse it off with boiling water while scrubbing the surface.
* If none of these home made solutions work, try a commercial grease stain remover available from most auto supply stores.
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Vinegar is almost as versatile as baking soda when it comes to cleaning. White vinegar is the cheapest vinegar to find at your local supermarket, but most sorts of vinegar will do the job. Having said that, I would probably not use top-quality cider vinegar just to clean the bathroom taps (what a waste!) and I don’t recommend using balsamic vinegar for any cleaning purpose at all – the balsam in it makes the vinegar rather sticky. Save the fancy vinegars for marinades and cooking.
If you, like my other half, find the smell of vinegar a bit overpowering and unpleasant, you can add essential oil to it. Any essential oil you like will do, but lavender, tea tree and pine oils are antiseptic, which is an added bonus. (My other half, I might add, objects to the smell of vinegar but doesn’t mind the over-scented chemical muck that leaves me with streaming eyes, a sore throat and cracked hands for the next few days… but he doesn’t do the majority of the house cleaning, does he?)
The bathroom is a great place to splash the vinegar around, as vinegar kills mould – and the bathroom is the place where mould is most likely to show up, even if the rest of the house is nice and dry. So wipe vinegar around any areas where the dreaded grey-blue (or orange or brown, or pink…) scunge turns up.
Keep cleaning vinegar separate from your cooking vinegar by decanting some vinegar into a pump-spray bottle (or a low powered water pistol – may help encourage the kids to help with the cleaning). Add the essential oils and shake well.
You can use vinegar neat or dilute. The more concentrated it is, the more effective it will be.
Other bathroom vinegar ideas:
* Vinegar is acidic, so it will get rid of the limescale on taps. It may take a while to work, so you may have to leave the vinegar to work for a wee while (make use of a zip-lock bag partly full of vinegar fastened around as much of the tap as possible) or else get scrubbing.
* Vinegar also shifts soap scum off taps, porcelain and glass (Who managed to get all that soap onto the mirror? And how?)
* Vinegar can also help to get rid of that dreaded bath ring. Spray the bath down with neat vinegar after use to help melt away the bath ring.
* Wipe the loo seat with scented neat vinegar, both the top and the bottom. While you’re at it, wipe the rim down as well. This will kill quite a few germs. Don’t bother wiping it off – it will evaporate and release some of the scent. And, unlike commercial cleaning products, it won’t hurt the skin of whoever sits on the toilet next.
* That spray bottle with the dilute vinegar and essential oil can also do double-duty as a toilet air freshener.
* To unblock the bath or sink, clear any hairs, etc. from the plug trap and carefully tip a cup of baking soda down the drain (use a funnel). Heat up another cup of vinegar and while it is still hot (preferably boiling), tip it down the drain after the baking soda. The resulting fizzy reaction will blast out the blockage. If it doesn’t, then either call the plumber (in the case of the bath) or get under the sink and unscrew the pipes to see if some stupid nong has stuffed cotton buds down the sink and remove these cotton buds (better still – make stupid nong remove the scummy, stinky greenish-black cotton buds so they know not to do it again).
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