TweetCleaning’s just a chore that you have to do again and again, right? No wonder so many people want to hand the whole lot over to a professional house cleaner and only the bare minimum of scrubbing and polishing. After all, who cares if….
Stop that right there. Cleaning is important, and it goes well beyond just the basics of hygiene. This isn’t to say that hygiene isn’t important. Cleaning kitchen surfaces, refrigerators and eating utensils is vital for preventing a nasty bout of food poisoning. Regular vacuuming and carpet cleaning help to prevent fleas, while chores such as sweeping and dusting also remove the food that various vermin such as asthma-causing dust mites, and disease bearing mice and flies love to eat. So cleaning is vital for your health.
But there’s more to cleaning that. Clean is good for the body and the soul.
Firstly, the body. Cleaning gives you a light workout that is easy on the joints. Let’s face it: what is a workout apart from a series of repetitive movements? You’ll get good repetitive movements if you’re scrubbing a floor, dusting a shelf (a nice, long stretch there) or even cleaning the loo. This writer once read a delightful book where the writers – who were professional dancers – turned their housecleaning chores into dance moves, doing things like buffing floors after applying the polish wearing thick socks on their feet and shimmying around the floor. Presumably, they had special socks kept for the purpose of polishing, as polish can be hard to get out of socks.
Instead of groaning about all the effort the next time you are faced with a tough cleaning job, how about changing your thinking and looking on the hard work as a chance to exercise – and at a fraction of the cost of going to the gym.
Now for the soul. First, cleaning can be quite soothing, as you can bring order out of chaos and reveal the beauty hidden under layers of dirt, grime and neglect. Many people have spoken about the cleansing effect of decluttering or cleaning out storage spaces. Often, the physical act of throwing out old garbage can help us “throw out” a lot of mental or emotional garbage at the same time. The order and beauty won’t last long – after all, entropy and descent into chaos and decay are part of this universe we live in – but they are very satisfying, all the same.
Secondly, a clean home is very aesthetically pleasing, and having beautiful surroundings is a sure-fire way to beat stress and calm down. Don’t forget that aesthetics should be about all the senses. Yes, your home should be clean from grime and dirt, and obvious mess should be tidied away. However, don’t forget your other senses. Cleaning should leave your home smelling nice and feeling nice. This is where making your own natural cleaning products is very important, as these give you nice smells (in the form of essential oils) as opposed to the awful fake scents in commercial cleaning products that are quite bad for your body.
So – no more excuses. Get out your soapy water, scrubbing brushes, vacuum cleaner and cleaning rags; switch on the music and enjoy the job of cleaning!
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Tweet1. Making scones, cakes and other bits of baking rise. This is how baking soda got the name of baking soda instead of sodium hydrogen carbonate or bicarbonate of soda. It needs to come in contact with an acidic substance, usually cream of tartar, to react and give off the carbon dioxide gas that makes the baked item rise. For an easy-to-make sweet, mix 5 T sugar and 2 T golden syrup and heat together until frothy. Simmer gently for 5 minutes. Then add 1 t baking soda and pour the mixture into a greased pan once the reaction starts. Allow this to cool, then break it up into bits.
2. As a general all-purpose house cleaner. It scrubs off stubborn dirt but doesn’t scratch. It’s perfect for whiteware (fridges, microwaves, ovens) and ceramic surfaces, such as bathroom sinks. Mix it with water for best results. Unlike the barrage of commercial cleaners, it doesn’t leave your hands feeling dry and itchy.
3. Absorbing bad smells. Sprinkle some at the bottom of the rubbish bin, put a bowl of it inside the fridge, shake some inside smelly sports shoes, or scatter some over a stale-smelling carpet and leave it to sit before vacuuming. This by itself freshens things up, but if you want to add a pleasant smell instead of a neutral odour, mix the baking soda with a little essential oil. This is much healthier than the powerful (and carcinogenic) artificial fragrances on the market.
4. Extending the life of cut flowers. Put a pinch of baking soda in the water in a vase of fresh flowers. Alternatively, you could try an aspirin, or a mixture of sugar and white vinegar in the water.
5. Removing gunk off hairbrushes and combs. No matter how clean your hair is, debris from your hair will build up on hair brushes. Dissolve about a teaspoon of baking soda in a pint of warm water, then soak your hairbrush or comb in it for an hour (you will need to pull out as much excess hair and fluff stuck in the bristles first). Rinse off with fresh warm water. This method is safe to use on natural bristle brushes – the best kind.
6. Cleaning silver. Mix baking soda to a paste with a little water and spread it over the item to be cleaned. Then wrap the item, paste and all, in aluminium foil. Dip the wrapped item into warm water and leave it for ten minutes or so. Then unwrap the item and rinse the baking soda past off the silver. Dry the item well. Hint for silver hairbrushes: clean the metal and the bristles at once by dissolving the baking soda in the warm water and loosely wrapping just the back and handle with the foil, allowing the water to get in.
7. Deodorising and removing stains from mattresses. Put a paste of baking soda and water on the stain (blood, urine or semen). Leave the paste to dry, then brush it off. This will get the worst of the stain off, and will neutralise any smells.
8. Cleaning the oven. Instead of using those horrible harsh sprays that should be avoided during pregnancy, and require the user to wear mask and gloves, mix up a paste of baking soda and water and spread it liberally around the inside of the oven. Leave it to sit for a while. You can speed things up a little by putting the oven on low heat and putting a little bowl (oven-proof, of course) of water inside to steam gently. Then get scrubbing inside the oven. This method does require a lot of elbow grease, granted, but is much less toxic. Put the radio on to occupy your mind while your doing the job.
9. Unblocking drains. Pour a cup of baking soda down the blocked drain. Follow this with a cup of hot vinegar. Fizz. The resulting reaction will explode the blockage out of the way.
10. Teaching children some basic chemical principles. Once they’ve tried changing purple cabbage water different colours litmus paper fashion and made a baking soda and vinegar volcano, try a simple experiment to test the strength of various household acids. Mix baking soda and dishwashing liquid to a paste (this gets seriously foamy!). Add a teaspoon of acid (dissolved cream of tartar, lemon juice, flat lemonade, vinegar of various types, yoghurt) to a teaspoon of the baking soda/detergent mix. Measure the height of the resulting foam – the acid that produces the tallest foam is the strongest.
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TweetMirrors aren’t just for looking into to check that you don’t have spinach on your teeth and that your hair is nicely combed. They are the best thing you can use if you have a small poky place with not much natural lightning. The primary purpose of a mirror is to reflect light in all its different frequencies, conveying information about depth, colour and shape. Sometimes this depth, colour and shape will be your face, but don’t forget that a mirror placed and tilted at the right angle can reflect sunlight into a dark room or catch a nice view and act in place of a painting.
However, a mirror can only do its job of reflecting if it is clean. Too many bathroom mirrors are smeared with toothpaste splatters, hairspray and even worse mess. And mirrors in other places get covered in dust, even though it doesn’t seem logically possible that a smooth vertical surface could hold dust. And then there’s fly spots to deal with.
Mirrors are made out of glass, so they should be cleaned like glass. You can use a proprietary glass cleaner, or you can use ordinary white vinegar to clean it. Whichever house cleaning substance you prefer to use, it is best to apply it with a spray bottle (don’t use too much at once) and to buff it with a lint-free cloth or a scrunched up newspaper. Don’t use a paper tissue, because these have a tendency to disintegrate when wet, leaving scraps of paper all over your mirror, although a good quality paper towel might work well enough. void using soapy water, as this leaves a film all over the mirror that streaks.
Bathroom mirrors fog up easily. A range of remedies are suggested for preventing this happening, with ordinary shaving foam being the most popular method. Simply spray the foam on and polish the mirror with it. However, it does have the disadvantage of running after a few weeks or so, and it can be hard to clean off. Dishwashing liquid removes the shaving foam, but this does leave streaks. Possibly the stuff that streaks the mirror also prevents if from fogging, so you may have to choose between the two. Alternatively, install a dehumidifier or an extractor fan which takes the moisture out of the air so it doesn’t settle (cheapskates can open the bathroom window as an alternative). This method also works on car rear vision mirrors.
Mirrors get some of their reflective power from the silver used to back the mirrors behind the glass. This silver can be prone to tarnishing, especially in older mirrors. Tarnishing is often triggered by acids and by sulphur, so if you have a coal fire, it’s best not to hang a mirror above it, as even the best fire lighter will get a bit of smoke into the room and coal smoke contains sulphur. Moisture also aids tarnishing. A frame will help prevent these culprits getting into the backing of your mirror. All mirrors should have at least a wooden or plastic backing board to help prevent tarnishing – check before you buy.
They say if you break a mirror, you get seven years of bad luck.
While this superstition may or may not go back to the idea that the reflection somehow was your soul, so if you broke the mirror, you damaged your soul, other people have commented that a broken mirror is a nuisance to clean up, as the glass splinters have a chameleon-like ability to hide in their surroundings. To clean up bits of a broken mirror, wear rubber gloves to protect your hands and start by picking up the largest pieces first. Unfortunately, not many (or not any) places take broken mirror glass for recycling. Wrap the large pieces up in old newspaper or thick cardboard to keep the folk handling the rubbish safe. Then get a hand broom and sweep around the area where the smash happened, working inwards. Splinters always fly wider than you think, so begin your sweeping at a greater radius than the “ground zero” site. Put the splinters into another wrapper for disposing, or wrap them with the larger pieces. Finish by vacuuming the whole room just to make sure. You may need to repeat this process on shelves and the like. If a mirror falls into the bath and smashes, you can flush the little pieces down the plughole instead of vacuuming and sweeping. But make sure you do it thoroughly. The glass splinters that go down the plughole will soon be battered to bits and returned to the sand from which the glass came, so don’t worry about the fish getting hurt.
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TweetMany commercial cleaners contain chemicals that give off very noxious fumes – and they cost a lot too. Here are a few ideas for making your own cleaning products that work well, and are gentler on your hands (and the rest of your system), your wallet and your environment.
These natural home-made cleaning products go beyond the basics of just baking soda and/or vinegar. This isn’t to write off baking soda (bicarbonate of soda) and vinegar – they’re a good start for most surfaces and cleaning jobs. But sometimes, you need more than these two.
All purpose cleaning paste (scratch free): thoroughly mix ½ cup soap flakes (ground to powder or whirled in a blender), 1 cup of powdered chalk or diatomaceous earth and ½ cup of baking soda. Add a little glycerine (no more than 3 T) to make a thick paste. Keep in an air-tight jar when not in use. Good for bathrooms, kitchen benches and whiteware.
Very easy furniture polish: Shake 100 ml liquid paraffin, 50 ml turpentine or methylated spirits together, along with 1 ½ teaspoons of essential oil. Lemon is the traditional essential oil to use, but you can experiment to find your own favourite. Decant the mixture into a spray bottle or mister (or shake them up in this in the first place). To use on any woodwork, spray on sparingly and buff immediately with a soft cloth. This one isn’t so kind to your hands and lungs, so be careful not to breathe it in.
Tile floor cleaner powder: Crush ½ cup soap flakes to powder, then stir in 1 cup of powdered chalk or diatomaceous earth and 1 cup bicarbonate of soda. Make sure that it isn’t lumpy. Add essential oil (one teaspoon) of your choice to the mixture for scent and antiseptic properties. Store the mixture in a tin or jar that has holes punched in the lid (this is a good way of reusing old talcum powder containers – they’re perfect). Shake on and use like any commercial tile cleaner (e.g. Ajax).
Floor cleaner: Mix ¼ cup washing soda, ½ cup soap flakes, 1 cup salt and 2 cups of water together, adding essential oil (2 teaspoons) if desired. Heat these together and stir until everything’s dissolved to a nice, smooth liquid. Let it cool and store it in a screw-top container. Use 2–3 tablespoons in half a bucket of hot water to wash the floor. If you wish to rinse the floor afterwards, use fresh warm water with a cup of vinegar added.
Dishwashing liquid: This is not for dishwashers and doesn’t create unnecessary suds. Mix half a cup of soap flakes in 4 cups of hot water and let them dissolve. When the mixture is cool, add half a cup of glycerine and a teaspoon of any essential oil of your choice. Stir together well into a gel, then decant into a squeezy bottle (old shampoo bottles or commercial dishwashing liquid bottles work well). Use 2-3 teaspoons in one load of dishes.
Disinfectant: Mix 200 ml of methylated spirits with 1 litre white vinegar. Add 100 ml of an antiseptic essential oil such as pine, thyme, oregano or lavender. Shake together and keep in a spray-top jar. Kills most germs. To freshen a toilet, put ½ a cup of this in the toilet bowl overnight, then flush first thing in the morning.
Air freshener: Mix 400 ml water with 100 ml alcohol (vodka or rubbing alcohol). Add in a blend of essential oils – up to 80 drops or so. Leave for a few days to combine and mature, then spray lightly in a room. Experiment to find your favourite combination of fragrances.
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TweetIt is a general observation that the life of a phone ranges from one year to a few years. However following proper maintenance routine and cleaning techniques is sure to give your phones a longer lease of life. Most of the recent generation phones can be separated and then again assembled into a single piece. It is often seen that one often tends to clean their phone by simply wiping them off on their shirt sleeves. Cleaning a phone has always been a simple task that you do yourself rather than asking your domestic cleaner to do it for you and given below are a few steps on how to clean your phone and give it a longer life than usual.
First of all you must remove the battery and then slowly remove the faceplate and keypad. Following that take a whole bottle of rubbing alcohol and a Q-tip and make sure that you wet the Q-tip enough with the alcohol and then proceed with the application of the same on the various parts of your phone to cleanse it thoroughly. After that make use of a fresh cotton cloth to wipe the phone and then slowly assemble the parts together. Not only will your phone look great after this but will also be free from that of bacteria.
You must always clean your phone part by part. First of all proceed towards removing the external parts and then take care of cleaning the buttons and following that clean the screen of your phone and the last but not the least parts which need thorough cleansing is the speaker zone and the connectors. The connectors which are found at the bottom of your cell phone are to be cleaned wholeheartedly. For cleaning your phone you can also make use of a used toothbrush if you are unable to find a rag. You must always make sure that you remove all the dust particles from the phone. After cleaning the phone you must wash your hands thoroughly to get rid of the rubbing alcohol.
You must also take care of some tips while cleaning your phone and those include the trial of a lightweight and clean cloth. You must never make use of a rag which is prone to frequent exposure to chemical agents such as bleach. You must not also use a rag which will leave behind fuzz. You must also be aware of the fact that you should never apply alcohol on the charging ports of your cell phone or any of its interior parts as well. You must bear the fact that you must never spray the cleanser directly over the phone.
It is always believed that proper cleaning of the phone ensures its long life and makes its appearance get the new shine everyday. Making it look new all the while would also ensure that you get a good resale value when you decide to purchase a new set after disposing off the old one. So get set to clean your phone and by doing so, your giving it a new lease of life.
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TweetWe are exposed to a huge range of toxins in our daily lives. These toxins can be natural ones, such as those produced by bacteria and parasites living in your system, or they can be artificial ones. The list of artificial toxins that we are exposed to daily is lengthy (exhausts from transport, fumes from commercial cleaning products, things in our cosmetics and toiletries, things on our fruit and vegetables – even if they’re grown using organic pest control methods, etc., etc.).
We can do all we can to minimise the toxins in our immediate environment, but periodically, it pays to give your system a good clean out – this is what is known as detoxification.
Some people like to fast as part of a detoxification programme. This is all very well and can often be helpful, but fasting should only be done properly. Never fast from liquids – you should always keep up your water intake during a total fast. Fasting should not be done if you are pregnant or if you are diabetic – it could be very risky. If you have a naturally high or fast metabolism, a total fast can be very difficult.
You will sometimes read some detoxification advice that states that the headaches you experience when fasting are caused by your body adjusting to the lack of toxins – withdrawal symptoms, almost. This is probably not the case. Speaking from the experience of a high metabolism, this writer can state that the headaches come from a lack of blood sugar and a heavy drain being put on the fuel reserves in the liver – I get these headaches if I skip eating, but I don’t get them when doing without “naughty” foods that are usually on the list of what not to take when detoxifying, such as coffee. If total fasting is too tough, try a partial fast (a juice fast, or one that cuts out rich food, alcohol and caffeine).
Use a detoxification session as a chance to overhaul your diet totally. Most of us don’t get enough fresh vegetables and fruits in our diet – and I mean fresh, not canned (frozen veggies are fine- freezing traps in the freshness). And remember to leave the peels on if possible – don’t peel potatoes, apples or the like – but you can and should peel oranges and kiwifruit! Another easy change is to cut out highly processed foods (white flour and white rice) and change to less processed ones (wholegrain bread, brown rice) – the extra fibre in the whole varieties helps you clean your system right out, including in the colon, where some nasties can get stuck if you don’t have enough fibre in your diet. For a special detox day, have extra fibre in your meal and eat plenty of antioxidant-rich foods like oranges, blackcurrants and avocado.
Sweat helps pump out the toxins and stops them getting clogged in the pores. Exercise to work up a good sweat regularly (easier to do in warmer weather, admittedly!). On a special detox day, have a sauna, if possible – even a mini-sauna where you duck under a towel with a bowl of steaming hot water can help get you sweating so you can purge out toxins.
Stress causes your body to generate its own toxins. Taking regular time to unwind and relax is an important part of reducing toxic stress in your system. On your special detox day, plan a few fun activities that will help you unwind – handcrafts are often beneficial, as are dancing, walking and swimming in the sea (not in the local swimming pool – all that chlorine!).
Massage stimulates the blood flow and allows the blood to take the toxins to the kidneys and liver to be filtered out. Have a massage on your detox day – it’s relaxing, too. A “real” massage by a professional is lovely, but if your time or budget can’t stretch to that, swap favours with a friend or with your partner. If you have small children and are really busy, try lying down on your front and telling them to drive toy cars along your back – a massage (of sorts) for you and fun for them.
Bathing is a good way of soaking and purifying the body that is as old as the hills – just ask the Romans. Hot water releases sweat and the soaking allows dead skin and debris to be removed. Add salts to the water, and use a good scrubbing brush or loofah mitt to get the gunk off. The Romans used to use olive oil and a metal scraper called a strigil (something like the sort of blade you use to clean down windscreens – it looked a bit like a blunt sickle. Unfortunately, you can’t buy these in the shops today, so you’ll have to experiment to find a good substitute) to get the mix of sweat, oil, dirt and dead skin off afterwards, but this can leave a lot of mess in the bath – the Romans had slaves to clean up afterwards!
Sleep is a great detoxifier. Plan to go to bed earlier than usual on your special detox day – you’ll feel better for it!
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TweetOK, when was the last time you cleaned up your bathroom cabinet? I can’t remember the last time I cleaned mine, but I moved house last year, so I have some excuse. Somebody had done a proper end of tenancy cleaning and left it all sparkling and ready for me to move my bits and pieces into. So I’ve got some excuse. How about you?
OK, so no more excuses. Time to get to work. Arm yourself with plenty of rags, a very large box or some other place to corral bits and pieces and a few natural cleaning products – warm soapy water and a spray made from dilute vinegar and an essential oil will be your most likely weapons, but you may need others. Also have some rubbish/recycling bins or bags on hand, because you’re going to have a clear-out.
Start by taking everything out of the cabinet. Put them in the big box so they don’t get knocked or spilt as you work. If anything is obviously broken or useless, put it in the appropriate recycling or rubbish box.
Now it’s time to get cleaning. Bathroom cupboards are usually coated with something like vinyl and are fairly easy to wipe out. Spray on your vinegar stuff and give the gunk a good wipe. This should get the worst off. It doesn’t clean off much grime? Try the soapy water and scrub again. Still no joy? If that grey gunk is oil-based, then a paste of baking soda and water should shift it. If, after all these efforts, the gunk remains, then your best bet is to soak the spot in neat vinegar and leave it to soak for a bit. Another good natural solvent is vodka or some other strong alcohol.
However, if the stain in question is nail polish, then use nail polish remover to get rid of it. It doesn’t just work for removing polish from nails!
Rinse off whatever cleaning product you have used with a cloth dipped in fresh water – the tap is handy, after all. Dry out your bathroom cabinet after rinsing – mildew and mould can be a real bugbear in the bathroom, so making sure that everything is as dry as possible is a real must. If you already have problems in this area and are trying to clean mould and mildew off the bathroom cabinet, then this should be fixed by using neat vinegar – this kills mould spores, which is why vinegar is used as a natural preservative and germ-killer.
Now it’s time to put everything back in. But don’t just chuck everything back in willy-nilly. Check things over to make sure that nothing has passed its use-by date. If they have, out they go. Wipe the bottoms and sides of any bottles with a cloth dipped in warm soapy water to get any trickles off – you don’t want to get everything dirty just after you’ve cleaned the shelf.
Organise things as they go in. For example, keep all hair-related products together, all shaving products together, make-up, medicine, etc. etc. If you’ve got any double-ups of something you don’t use very often or that isn’t consumable (e.g. hair straighteners), consider donating the excess item to charity. Also note any gaps – have you run out of sticking plasters or are the aspirins running low? Add these to your shopping list.
This may also be a good time to change your old toothbrush for a new one. But don’t throw the old one out, as old toothbrushes are very, very handy for all sorts of house cleaning jobs. Including cleaning the bathroom cabinet.
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TweetWe all know we should set a budget, not go into debt (at least as much as possible) and live within our means. But in these days of easy credit and lending companies that seem to race and push past each other to offer you the latest loan offer with lots of credit, borrowing money and making the most of your credit is oh-so easy and tempting, especially if it seems to be the way to get something you’ve always dreamed of. But while those schemes are “buy now” they are also “pay later” and paying later can be quite hard.
And even if you manage to avoid debt, expenses for everything are going up. Food prices are rising as more countries become affluent and demand more and better food, and as more land is turned into growing crops for biodiesel rather than food, and as fertilizer prices and other costs to farmers go up and up and up. And that’s just food… Let’s not even get started on petrol.
Here are just a few tips, big and small, to make the pennies go further.
Read that first paragraph again and remember that lending companies and credit card companies are not giving you money but lending you money, and you will have to pay it back or it will start collecting interest. Avoid credit cards as much as possible. While they are very handy for making online purchases and doing without them totally may not be the best advice (this writer uses a credit card to pay for printer toner online to save having to hunt around town and spend time). Change your thinking about credit cards – don’t use them for a purchase unless you have the money to cover the payment in your actual bank account (not in your credit limit).
Collect coins. Loose change hoarded in a jar may be old-fashioned, but it does work. They add up.
If you have a bit extra in your bank account, use it to make a one-off repayment towards your mortgage, your car loan or any other debt you are carrying it. You will save yourself some interest.
If you really have to watch it, use the jam jar system.
Withdraw the money you are going to live on for the week(or month) in cash and divvy it up between a range of jar, which are labelled Food, Electricity, Phone, Medical, Clothing, Pets, Rent (etc.). Only use the money in a certain jar for that purpose – no raiding the Pets jar to buy clothes, and so forth.
If you have a spare room or an extra large garage, consider taking in a boarder (in the room) or renting out storage space (in the garage) for a bit of extra cash. If you take in a boarder, remember to allow for extra food (if this is part of the deal) and electricity when setting your price.
Grow your own vegetables. They taste better, they’re fresher and if you’re really doing it on the cheap, they’re spray-free or even organic. So you really are getting a bargain.
Fix leaky taps promptly, especially if they’re from the hot water tap. They are literally money down the drain. If you don’t know how to fix a leak, then find a neighbour who can and offer them something in exchange, whether it’s homemade scones or a six-pack of beer.
Swap services with neighbours and friends who know how to do things. Not sure what you can offer? How about babysitting or domestic cleaning?
If you have the space, grow Christmas trees and sell them for a burst of cash just before Christmas. If you have a wood fire, offer to collect the dead trees in January and dry it for firewood. You win every step of the way.
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TweetIs there anything that shouldn’t be cleaned? We spend so much time scrubbing, polishing, dusting and vacuuming, so it would be good to know a few things that we don’t have to put our hands to. Well, here’s half a dozen:
1. Pearls. While other jewellery needs cleaning, pearls don’t need much, if any. If pearls are worn frequently, the constant contact with your skin will buff them nicely, using body oils as a polish. However, if your pearls start looking a little dingy, then the most they need is a gentle wipe with a damp cloth and very little else – followed by patting dry. The string does get gungy. This is not a DIY job – take your string of pearls into the jewellers to be re-strung.
2. Chimneys. If you try to clean your own chimneys, you need your head examining, or else you’re hungry for a lot of heavy duty cleaning. You need specialist equipment to clean chimneys – self-sufficiency books giving descriptions involving live geese and holly bushes aside – and you won’t find this equipment at your local hardware store. If you try doing anything more than putting a dustpan and brush over the ledge at the back of the typical open fireplace, you will fill your living room with soot. Call in a professional chimney cleaner.
3. Old copper. Yes, that green stuff is corrosion. However, many people think the green patina on copper is rather attractive and give it the name “verdigris”. While many brown-coloured metals (e.g. bronze and brass) can be cleaned using natural methods with a mixture of salt and vinegar, copper should be left. If you try cleaning off the verdigris, you will only have to do it again very soon after. However, if you want to clean a copper vase, figurine or bracelet, use the salt and vinegar method – let the mixture sit for five minutes before scrubbing off and rinsing well.
4. Cats. Unless you have pedigree show cats, you do not need to wash a cat. Yes, you will need to groom a long-haired cat by brushing it regularly. But you don’t need to bathe a cat. Even if the cat gets fleas, don’t try to shampoo it. Instead, use a natural method that’s gentle on your cat’s skin to get rid of the fleas by putting a little essential oil of pennyroyal on a grooming brush or mitt and rubbing it all over your cat. Alternatively, pick fresh pennyroyal and rub this over your cat. Tuck a few sprigs into your cat’s favourite sleeping spot after washing it. If fleas have been a problem, consider professional carpet cleaning. At the very least, give it a good vacuuming.
5. The lens of a CD player or similar. At least, you shouldn’t clean this with a duster or cleaning cloth – even a microfibre cloth. However, cleaning it is important if you want to enjoy good music. Use a proper lens cleaning disk on all laser-powered disk readers, from your stereo to your DVD player to your computer.
6. Cricket bats. Getting these wet – let alone soapy – will ruin them, so don’t wash them. Those red marks are badges of honour! A little linseed oil on the face of the bat (never around the splice) when storing the bat at the end of the season is all you need to do. If the bat has got muddy (how did you manage that?), gently wipe the mud off with a damp cloth, followed by drying with another cloth.
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TweetWhen it all comes down, you can’t beat soap for most cleaning jobs around the home. Can you think of a commercial cleaning product (or, to be more correct, another commercial cleaner – soap is made commercially) that is able to clean clothes (including delicates like woollens and lace), clean floors, clean toilets, clean cars and also clean skin and hair? Author and advertising copywriter Dorothy Sawyers once mused that if the advertising machine stopped singing the praises of super-duper sainitisers that we would all fall back on good old soap and water for the heavy-duty cleaning jobs.
But how does soap work? What makes it such a good cleaner? It’s not magic, after all.
Soap is made by combining fat of some sort (vegetable oils make a softer, gentler soap suitable for cleaning faces and hands, or for washing wool; animal fats such as tallow make a harder soap for heavy-duty cleaning jobs) with caustic soda or lye. This makes soap qualify as a natural cleaning product par excellence, as tallow is a by-product of the meat industry while caustic soda or lye can be made from wood ash, another waste product derived from an organic source. The process is called saponification, which is the boffin’s way of saying that the ingredients of soap… make soap. Caustic soda is a strong alkaline while fat is slightly acidic, so the end product is a mild alkaline with a pH of about 8 (7 is neutral).
Soap’s chemistry makes it able to make water wetter. This sounds like gobbledegook until you remember about water’s surface tension. Surface tension is what makes it possible for a needle to float on water or for water to stand up a millimetre or two above the top of a glass. Soap’s chemical structure breaks the surface tension of water so water can’t form this “skin”.
Once the “skin” of the water is broken, the water can mix more readily with other substances. As water is pretty nearly a universal solvent, this means that it can begin to break down the grime and dirt molecules, floating them away from where you don’t want them (e.g. carpets).
Soap’s chemical structure also makes it an emulsifier – something that allows two liquids that don’t usually mix (for example, oil and water) to combine. This is why soap is prized as a grease-cutter and why it can work to remove oily marks and stains.
To get a bit more technical, soap molecules are made up of long hydrocarbon chains (like most organic substances). One end of the chain is hydrophilic (loves water) while the other is hydrophobic (hates water). It’s all about the minute electrical charge in the molecules. The water-hating end loves fats and oils, so this bit of the soap molecule binds to the oils. The water-loving end floats. The more soap is used, the more oil you can float out of the carpet or whatever it is.
Soap, however, doesn’t work so well in hard water with lots of calcium or magnesium in it, as the soap reacts with these molecules instead, forming a white scum that gets everywhere. Here, you need a water softener to deal to these molecules and allow the soap to work. Sodium is the answer, with the most common water softener being washing soda; baking soda comes in a close second. This is why washing soda should be added to homemade cleaning products containing soap or soap gel, and why baking soda is so good at cleaning baths.
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