Why would anyone want to make their own bath products when there are so many lovely products with delicious scents available on the market today? Well, it could be because you have sensitive skin and commercial products always make your skin itchy and uncomfortable, and you want to know exactly what is going on your skin. Or you could just like making things as a hobby – home-made bath products make great gifts and they could earn you a little if you sell them at a stall or something of that kind.
For best results, use proper essential oils rather than cheap fragrant oils. The “el cheapo” fragrances are artificial and don’t have the aromatherapeutic properties of real essential oils. When choosing essential oils to use for making bath products, let your nose be your best guide and choose what you like best. Having said that, remember to follow all precautions if you are pregnant or if the products will be used by small children. Experiment a little to find a blend of oils that works for you.
Bath oil: This is one of the simplest bath products to make. Simply mix about ten or so drops of the essential oil(s) of your choice in a bottle with some light oil such as almond oil, sunflower oil or even the sort of light oil you’d use for cooking such as soya oil or canola oil. Shake the oil together with the essential oil and leave it to “sit” for a little before using. You can tint the oil lightly with food colouring, but don’t use too much, as it can stain the bath.
Bath salts: Another easy one. Use either plain table salt or Epsom salts. Again, mix ten or so drops of essential oil(s) with about a cup or so of the salt. Stir together thoroughly. Once again, you can add a drop or two of food colouring to tint the bath salts. This mixture can be decanted into a pretty bottle or container (you can soak off the label from a jam jar or another suitable bottle with a paper label and re-use it for this).
Bath bombs are a bit trickier. To make a bath bomb, mix 3 T of baking soda (sodium bicarbonate) with 1½ T of citric acid. Add about 10 drops of essential oil(s). Mix together well, then add a tiny bit of water to make a stiff paste you can mould and shape. You can also add a tiny touch of food colouring, powdered petals or even some salt for a bit of extra. Stir well then shape it and leave it to dry. Store in an airtight container until use. In a similar way you can also make your own domestic cleaning London products.
Bath bags need two things to be made up. Firstly, you will need the bag itself. For your own use, you can just tie the contents of the bag inside an ordinary face flannel. But if you want to give them as gifts or sell them, you will need something a little fancier. Cut up a hand towel and sew it into a bag, remembering to hem the top opening. Cut a few little holes near to the top of the bag going around the circumference and thread a ribbon through, leaving enough ribbon to pull it tight. Next, mix up the ingredients and put them into the bath bag before tying it shut. Milk powder and oatmeal make excellent soap-free cleansers, and you can also add minerals salts, the essential oils (of course), ground almonds or some dried herbs. To use a bath bag, simply drop it in the bath as it is filling. This will release some of the scent and cleaners in the bag into the water. Use the bath bag as you would soap – the flannel has excellent exfoliating properties. You will only get two (at most) uses out of the bath bag contents. Shake the old contents out, preferably into a compost heap, then wash the bag thoroughly after turning it inside out. Then refill for another use.
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It’s funny, but have you noticed that when people give household related presents (e.g. as wedding gifts or at a bridal shower), they hardly ever give what are traditionally called tools (of course, any manufactured item used to do a certain job is technically a tool. In this article, the word “tool” will be used to refer to the sort of thing that was traditionally used by men in the “bad old days” before men got into the kitchen and women got underneath the bonnet of the car). You will find people giving appliances such as coffee makers, toasters and knives, but you hardly ever see people giving saws, jacks and wrenches.
But even if you’re not a do-it-yourself person, you should always have certain tools in your house. There are some things it is just plain silly to call out a handyman (handyperson!) to do, as they are easy to do yourself, as long as you have the right tools.
Here is a basic list of tools that no household should be without. I certainly wouldn’t!
A screwdriver. This will be used to replace and/or tighten a huge amount of things around your home, from door handles to saucepan lids. Straight screwdrivers also make good levers for opening stubborn tins. Have both types handy – Philips and flat. Magnetised screwdrivers are good, as they hold the screw in place so it doesn’t drop down somewhere awkward. Some very handy screwdrivers have a shaft that has a Phillips head at one end and a flat head at the other. If you have to deal with small screws (e.g. fixing printers into ports in computers), have a miniature set of screwdrivers on hand as well as larger ones.
A spanner or adjustable wrench. Once again, you will use this to tighten and loosen all sorts of things – I have used mine mostly for putting legs on beds and tables when moving house. The adjustable sort is better in some ways than a full socket or wrench set, as you don’t have to poke around finding exactly the right one for the nut you’re tightening.
A hammer. Use this for putting in nails to hang pictures on the wall. You can also crush rose stems before putting them in water to make them last longer, and the side of the hammer can be used as a meat tenderiser (it’s very easy to wash up and is probably dishwasher safe).
A plunger or plumber’s mate. Baths, sinks and toilets all get blocked at some time or another. Sinks and baths seem to be the worst offenders, as hair and soap go down quite regularly. A plunger will get things going again in most cases.
Pliers, especially the sort with a wire-cutter included. All sorts of things can be held together with a bit of wire as a stop-gap measure. Depending on the type you get, you can also take the outer casing off an electrical wire (if you’re rewiring a plug – don’t do other electrical stuff yourself, apart from changing fuses) or cut off the head of a fishhook that some idiot has got through their finger.
A craft knife/Stanley knife. Often, you need more precision than a kitchen knife can give, but need something tougher than a pair of scissors.
A vice or clamp. If you have to repair anything that needs pressure put on it, you will need a vice or clamp to hold it steady for a long time while the glue sets.
This list, of course, is just a basic one and is not designed for a handyman London. Other things like saws, soldering irons, Allan keys, drills, sharpeners, grinders and sanders can also be added. A handyman should have even more than that.
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Type 1 diabetes (also known as juvenile onset diabetes or insulin-diabetes) seems to strike out of the blue. Unlike the other, more common form of diabetes (Type 2 or adult onset), being diagnosed with this condition isn’t dependent on what you have eaten in the past.
This article is not supposed to take the place of the advice you get from your doctor and specialists, but it is written from the perspective of someone who has an insulin-diabetic child. And yes – this medical condition does have something to do with the domestic cleaning and keeping the house organised!
Firstly, regarding cooking and reducing sugar in your meals. Your dietician (chances are you will have a session with a dietician shortly after you or your child is diagnosed) will give you the best advice on what to eat. But, personally speaking, I have found that it’s not that hard to keep cooking the same things as normal – just reduce the sugar. You can still cook cakes and muffins quite easily. I’ve found that you can halve the amount of sugar in most recipes and still have the result taste good in the end. Here are a few low-sugar treat foods that are good for children’s parties:
Instead of regular icing on birthday cakes(the sort that uses icing sugar and water or icing sugar and egg white), use cream cheese icing. This is only 50% sugar instead of nearly 100% sugar. The slightly acidic flavour goes with most basic cakes, including chocolate, and you can colour it as usual. Yes, it’s higher in fat than regular icing, but it is lower in sugar.
Make your own ice-cream by mixing whipped cream and a little sugar with fruit puree. Blackcurrants work brilliantly, as do other berry fruits. You could also try freezing yoghurt.
Never add sugar to meat, even as a marinade. You don’t need it at all.
If you have an insulin dependent person, you will find very quickly that the process of testing blood sugar levels and injections creates a lot of debris. You will have to deal with the little test strips, the foil packets (and other packaging) that the test strips came in, syringes, the caps off the syringes and all other packaging for the syringes. While the testing strips and the packaging may be able to be disposed of in the regular rubbish system, the syringes can be a health hazard. Where I live, the local council provides proper “sharps” bins for people on the needle exchange or the methadone programme for drug rehabilitation, but doesn’t provide them for diabetics (unfair, really, as diabetics can’t help having to use insulin, but drugs are a deliberate choice). We have the choice of paying for proper bins or supplying our own. The best substitute sharps bins are old containers for dishwasher powder or bleach (bottles made from Number 2 plastic – look inside the recycling symbol to check). However, you may be luckier about being provided with sharps bins – find out what applies locally.
The little bits from doing blood tests seem to go everywhere. Corral them in their own mini bin (a one-litre yoghurt container works well). Keep this mini bin near where you keep your insulin gear.
Speaking of the gear, it’s best to dedicate a special cupboard or box to the equipment to keep it all together. Insulin vials that aren’t in everyday use will need to be kept in the fridge, as will the hypo/glucagon kits, but everything else should be easily obtainable.
When you go out and about, it’s important to take your blood glucose monitor and some “quick fix” form of sugar with you for every trip (usually jelly beans). For longer trips when you’re likely to go out for a meal, you may need to take your insulin as well. Have a series of containers – a small one with the testing kit and the jelly beans that goes in a slightly larger one that contains the insulin and syringes (or a pen).
Don’t carry loose jelly beans in your pockets. The sugar goes everywhere and the jelly beans get covered in fluff. They are also a nuisance if they go through the washing machine.
To be able to keep a proper record of blood glucose levels during the day, keep a pen or pencil in the container that holds your insulin, preferably tied to your record book.
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Natural cleaning and natural products aren’t just limited to your home and to your own grooming. You can also use natural recipes and products to look after your pet. Because if an animal such as a cat or dog isn’t part of nature and the natural world, what is? And your pet is just as affected by toxins in the home environment as you are, if not more so (what some of our domestic cleaning products and “air fresheners” smell like to the highly sensitive nose of a dog doesn’t bear thinking about).
Flea control is the one aspect of pet care that involves the most toxins. The average flea control treatment contains a high amount of toxins – it poisons the fleas after all. This is why the sort of flea powder or liquid you can buy over the counter at the supermarket – or even at the pet shop – often has warnings not to use it on puppies or kittens under a certain age. A much better solution is to use herbal remedies. The best flea remedy by far is pennyroyal, either as an essential oil or by using the dried (or fresh) herb. Pennyroyal’s scientific name is Mentha pulgefugium, which means “mint that makes fleas flee” and it is very easy to grow in damp, shady parts of the garden, so there’s no excuse for any pet owner not to have and use this handy herb. Simply pick a sprig or two and rub it over your pet’s coat to deter fleas, and tuck a few sprigs (maybe the ones you’ve already used to rub on the pet’s coat) into your pet’s bedding. Regular vacuuming is another way to keep fleas to a minimum, if not totally under control, as the powerful air currents and turbulence created by a vacuum cleaner kill fleas. If you use essential oil of pennyroyal, dab a bit on some cotton wool and/or onto the bristles of a grooming brush, and groom your pet as normal. This will transfer the oil into the animal’s fur and thus get rid of the fleas.
Your pet should live as normal a life as possible. Cats should never be de-clawed. This is a cruel and unnatural practice, even if the declawing is done under anaesthetic. Cats need claws to defend themselves and to climb, and their climbing instincts will still be there even if their claws aren’t, and he/she will suffer falls and a lot of frustration. If you want to keep your sofa and curtains safe, provide a scratching post if your cat can’t get outside to sharpen his/her claws. The scratching post should be covered with a fabric or material that they can get their claws decently into – this writer’s cats find the dense foam used for exercise mats irresistible for scratching. Encourage your cat to use it by judicious addition of pennyroyal.
Another feline instinct – natural behaviour for a cat – is hunting. To prevent birds and lizards being butchered and left around your house, put a collar on your cat with a bell. Make sure the collar is elasticated so if it gets hooked while the cat is climbing or jumping, it will not strangle the cat. The bell does mean that the cat won’t be able to act as a rodent control agent, however.
You can make your own pet food that avoids the additives and preservatives that are found in many commercial pet foods. All you need is a quick trip down to the supermarket, the greengrocer and/or the butcher’s shop. Cats need more protein in their diet, so don’t attempt to feed a cat on the same home-made pet food as you do a dog. The easiest home-made cat food is plain mince, but to give the cat a bit more variety, add some chopped organ meat and maybe some chicken meat – cooked is OK but raw is also good for cats and has a higher level of nutrients. And don’t forget raw fish… cat heaven!
Dogs can have a wider variety of items in their diet, including some starch and vegetables along with meat. Raw bones and raw meat are delicious for a dog and close to the diet of its wild-living relatives, but organ meat should be cooked before feeding to a dog. Large cooked bones may splinter when chewed, but raw ones are splendid – and they are also good for the dog’s teeth – they almost act as a toothbrush. Good vegetables and starch to add to a dog’s diet are rice, potatoes, pumpkin and peas, but avoid onions, too much wheat flour (a bit is OK) or anything containing chocolate. Dairy food is OK to give to dogs (cats should only have it in moderation – water is the best drink for cats), but don’t overdo it. You can also mix table scraps into a dog’s regular food – they will love this!
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The house described in this article is fictional – I hope. This is the Hygiene House of Horror where the folk who live in it have some foul habits that seem to suggest that they want to catch a case of Delhi-belly or show off how strong their immune systems. Don your rubber gloves and a mask, and let’s go and have a look.
Kitchen first, as this is where most hygiene horrors happen.
For a start off, this kitchen isn’t just where people eat: the cat is fed in this room, and the kitty litter tray is sitting underneath the kitchen bench. That’s what you can smell. How anyone can bear to have cat faeces with their risk of toxoplasmosis (especially nasty for pregnant women) in the kitchen beats me. And leftover catfood always attracts flies.
Don’t feed the cats in the kitchen and keep litter trays outdoors. And what is that cat doing sitting on the table or roaming along the kitchen bench? Licking the plates clean?
Don’t let animals onto your food preparing/eating surfaces or to eat from your plates (exceptions are made in fairy tales for talking frogs). Sometimes cats will jump up and try, but this should be discouraged with shouting and water pistols.
This kitchen doesn’t stop with animal horrors. The rubbish bin is overflowing, again attracting flies and vermin. And an open rubbish bin reeks, especially with organic rubbish inside. Organic rubbish should be composted, and given its own special bin. Neither the compost bin nor the rubbish bin should be allowed to overflow, and compost bins should be scrubbed out regularly to prevent mould.
Now, I know the kitchen sink is just the right size and height for a baby bath, and has a nice wide space beside it that’s safe to put a baby on for changing and dressing before and after, but think what’s on that baby’s skin… and what’s in the nappy. And you’re going to wash your dishes and the cutlery that you put in your mouth in that sink, or at the very least, you’ll wash vegetables in it. Need I say more?
Hold your nose and open the fridge. Try not to be sick. In spite of the low temperatures, some of the items in this fridge are getting slimy with orangey-grey mould. Some things that are well past their expiry date have been pushed to the back. And the meat is right up the top of the fridge. Every package is open – cat food, pate, butter… Raw meat should go down the bottom in case it drips on food to be eaten raw, items should be kept in airtight containers so they don’t spread smells and so they don’t dry out. And you are not being thrifty keeping old food that has gone off. Throw those leftovers or half-eaten bananas out and do not wait for your domestic cleaning lady to come and clean the fridge for you. Start with this tisk right away.
Now for the bathroom… Not so bad if the toilet isn’t located in the same room as the toothbrushes. But if you have it all in one room, then keep the toothbrushes under cover, and the toothpaste too. Every time you flush the loo, a fine spray of what’s in the toilet bowl flies out. Anything that is going to go near your face should be as far away from the toilet as possible and preferably in a container. These toothbrushes are sitting in a cup filled with nameless grey sludge that has gradually accumulated, and this cup is on the vanity unit right beside where the spare toilet paper rolls are stored within arm’s reach of the loo itself. People put these in their mouths? If you use a toothbrush holder, clean it out. Yes, you rinse your toothbrush, but little bits of saliva always manage to escape, and saliva contains a lot of bacteria.
Remove that fuzzy cloth mat from around the toilet. Yes, it’s nice for feet on cold mornings, but for some reason, males in particular can’t seem to help getting urine somewhere other than the toilet (some in larger amounts than others, especially younger ones) and some females aren’t completely tidy, either. Besides, remember that fine spray coming out of the toilet when it flushes. Get rid of that mat, as it just gets filthy. The same goes for that knitted toilet seat cover, even if your grandmother made it for you.
One quick peek into the bedroom before we bolt for a breath of fresh, clean air. Is that a dog sleeping on the bed? Pets should not be encouraged to sleep on the bed. You have probably seen what your dog rolls in and where it puts its paws and nose. Do you really want that on your pillow? Cats should also be deterred, but cats, being stubborn and independent, are harder to deter from somewhere soft and warm like a bed.
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While it may not feel like it at the moment, spring will come again. But when it comes, will you be ready to take advantage of the sunnier weather? Is your picnic hamper clean and ready for action. Will you have a nice surprise come springtime or will you find something not fit to put food in.
Of course, if you don’t clean a picnic hamper properly before you put it away, what may greet you come the first picnic-worthy day of spring may be a horrible mess. This especially applies if you have one of those plastic insulated hampers that keep food chilled (the sort the Australians call Eskies) and also, to some extent, to the old-fashioned wicker hamper lined with cloth.
The horrible mess is likely to be mould and mildew, and there is nothing for it but to swab it out with neat vinegar and expose it to strong sunshine, or even to get a new wicker picnic hamper if it’s gone too far and the mildew has got into the wood. Bad luck – remember to clean the new one out before you put it away.
To clean out a wicker picnic hamper, you have two main jobs. The first is to clean out any smears, while the second is to clean out any crumbs. Wicker hampers don’t have quite as many problems with mould and mildew, as the wicker provides preventative ventilation, but it can happen if you give bacteria and mould spores something to grow on. The first step is to turn the hamper upside-down and give it a good shake to get the worst of the crumbs out. If you have a cloth lining inside the hamper, see if it comes out. If it does, you’re in luck. Just give it a quick spin in the washing machine on the gentle cycle or else handwash it. If it doesn’t, your first step is to use the vacuum cleaner to suck out the loose crumbs that linger in the seams. You can do this task when doing your weekly domestic cleaning.
Next, deal with the smears. Use a sponge dipped in warm soapy water to get rid of jam, etc. However, if some idiot spilled sardines on the inside, you may need to use a scrubbing brush and more soap. Sprinkle baking soda inside the hamper to absorb smells, then brush or vacuum this out when it’s dried. Use the sponge and scrubbing brush method for cleaning smears out of a wicker picnic basket with no lining (crumbs won’t be much of a problem).
To clean the plastic insulated type of picnic basket, the easiest way is to half fill it with warm water and a little of whatever you use to wash the dishes with. Then just wash the inside out with a dishbrush, then rinse as normal. It’s after this part that the real fun begins. It’s a nice, airtight, insulated container, and if you shut the lid and tuck it away with the slightest bit of moisture in, you will be faced with hideous orange slime next time you open it. Or brown slime. Or grey slime. So it’s vital to dry it out thoroughly before storing it.
Storing this type of plastic picnic hamper also has to be done properly. It’s best not to store it with the lid fully closed just in case you haven’t got all of the moisture out. Wedge a bit of newspaper under the lid to raise it slightly. This will prevent dust and dirt falling in but will provide ventilation. Alternatively, store it upside-down with the lid off. If you store it right way up with the lid off, then you may have to dust it out before the next picnic – but a damp rag will fix that without any trouble.
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Nobody starts out by meaning to create a cluttered home. Whether we’re starting afresh after the end of tenancy cleaning and a carpet cleaning, a New Year’s resolution or a move, we all have visions of clear spaces, tidy shelves and floors and order. But we all know what happens before long if we’re not careful: chaos, clutter, mess and all sorts of oddments piled in the most peculiar places (example from this writer’s house: jelly beans collecting in the laundry).
How does this happen? According to British decluttering expert Sue Kay, ten bad habits prevent us from reaching our mental goals of order. Break these bad habits and you will see a dramatic reduction – or even elimination – of clutter in your home.
Habit 1: Procrastination. You know how this goes. “I’ll just pop this on the kitchen bench for now and deal with it later.” “I’ll find a home for that eventually, but in the meantime, I’ll put it on the bedside cabinet.” “You can give that a temporary home behind the sofa until we find a better place for it.” “Put it in the spare room to be fixed when I get around to it”. In a perfect world, we would always be able to put things away straight away and fix things as soon as they break. In the world that we do have, assigning some time to mending, sorting and dealing with temporary arrangements is a better way to stop the “just for now” piles building up.
Habit 2: Neck or Nothing. One of the big obstacles that often gets in the way of people having a decluttering session (or even calling in an expert) is a fear that minimalism is the goal and that the expert will leave you with a set of possessions that would make a monk’s lifestyle look lavish. This is not the case.
You do not have to reduce your worldly goods to subsistence level. While you may have to get rid of the out-of-focus photos, you don’t have to get rid of the old daguerreotype of your great-great-grandparents. While you may have to offload ancient magazines and the books your children grew out of years ago and hate the sight of, you don’t have to get rid of your favourite copy of Lord of the Rings. It’s not all or nothing. It’s about getting rid of inessentials.
Habit 3: Everything is equally valuable. While this principle is true of people in society, it isn’t true of the things cramming your storage space. While one person’s trash is another person’s treasure (and I therefore won’t presume to tell you what items of yours are to be treasured), sometimes trash is just trash. Prioritise your possessions. Keep what’s valuable, but get rid of the things that you honestly are never going to do anything with.
Habit 4: Getting distracted. You’re sorting the books, the junk mail or the old magazines. Something catches your eye. Next thing you know, you’ve spent half an hour reading that ancient magazine and have made no progress. Or you’re going through your clothes and you stop to try on half a dozen outfits and spend ages seeing how all your accessories go with it. In The Screwtape Letters, C.S. Lewis had the senior devil Screwtape recommending this sort of behaviour as an excellent form of tempting humans into wasting their time and energy so they do neither what they ought to do nor what they want to do. To fight this temptation, set yourself a time limit to achieve a reasonable goal, and/or enlist a friend to help you or to whom you can be accountable.
Habit 5: Self-sabotage. If someone has been pressuring you to declutter, you’re in a bad mood or you don’t really want to get rid of things (possibly because of Habit 2), some people sabotage the efforts they do make. They throw out something that really is valuable which they later regret – and use this experience as a reason for never touching the clutter again. Or they set themselves impossibly hard goals. They call themselves names. All this will create a bad association with decluttering. Instead, set yourself reasonable goals, be honest and give yourself little rewards (but not by buying more unnecessary stuff) for achieving these goals. Suitable rewards can include temporary things such as a nice bunch of flowers, dancing in the space you’ve managed to clear, having a moment of nostalgia reading old love letters or just sitting back for five minutes listening to music and contemplating the view out of the window once you’ve cleared all the junk off the windowsill.
Habit 6: Multi-tasking. This is an asset in all other aspects of life, but don’t try to declutter and talk on the phone/deal with kid’s homework/vacuum the lounge. It is better to do a little bit of concentrated decluttering lasting ten minutes than an hour of trying to declutter and other things simultaneously. Rather than testing and chucking out dead biros and stationery while talking on the phone, do this while you’re waiting for an anti-virus program to finish running (the operative word there was “talking” on the phone. If you’re on hold, however, this might be an excellent time to delete old emails or test biros while you doodle).
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Reading through the advice that Mrs Beeton gives in her classic Book of Household Management to the housemaid makes you very, very grateful for modern conveniences such as vacuum cleaners and electricity. Thank goodness we no longer have to do carpet cleaning by strewing them with dry tea-leaves then sweeping with a soft broom, or have to go through the process of lugging carpets outside and shaking them.
However, Mrs B’s method of washing carpets would come in handy. The carpet will have to be taken up and got somewhere it can drip-dry, but a mixture of washing soda, yellow soap and boiling water can should be sponged over the carpet, then rinsed with hot water. Treat the carpet bit by bit rather than all at once, then leave to dry. But most people nowadays will want to skip the last step suggested by Mrs B to “improve” the colours of the carpet afterwards by rubbing it with a mixture of ox-gall and water (didn’t this smell ghastly?). Ox-gall was also used to clean carpet that were nailed down, at a concentration of one pint of gall to three gallons of warm water – but we can skip this one!
The recipe for furniture polish, however, looks promising. This is made up of equal amounts of linseed oil, turpentine (presumably the natural type), vinegary and “spirits of wine” (ethanol – but you could probably substitute vodka). Or else you could just use a mixture of vinegar and oil – how easy and eco-friendly is that?
Other useful tips for “housemaids” include:
* To get marks out of mahogany (and, presumably, other fine woods) that have been made by putting something hot on the polish “may be removed by rubbing in oils and afterwards pouring a little spirits of wine on the spot and rubbing it dry with a soft cloth.”
* To clean very dirty wallpaper, wipe it lightly with very stale bread. This assumes that you have very stale bread handy – which might not be the case with modern bread with all the this-and-that added to make it keep fresher longer.
* To clean marble, “take two parts of [washing] soda, one of pumice stone and one of finely-powdered chalk”. This should be mixed into a paste using water then rubbed over the dirty marble. If you dreamed you dwelt in marble halls, you’d better dream of a housemaid who knows how to do this one.
The list of a housemaid’s duties is an exhausting one. In winter, the first thing the poor girl had to do was to open the shutters downstairs, pick up the hearthrugs, sweep “the breakfast room”, remove the ashes from the fire, blacken and polish the grate, light the fires downstairs, dust and polish everything in that “breakfast room” then go upstairs with hot water for My Lady and light the fire in her bedroom. Then she had to lay the table for breakfast – the master and mistress’s breakfast, of course. Mrs Beeton does not specify when the maid gets to eat*. In summer, the housemaid merely had to open the windows, sweep and dust everything in that “breakfast room” (including the picture frames), rearrange all the knick-knacks. While My Lady is getting ready, the maid had to then sweep and dust the drawing room and even the hall, doorstep and corridors.
And that was just before breakfast. Three more pages of instructions regarding daily and weekly duties follow that lot. No wonder they all left to be Rosy the Riveters or land girls when they had the chance!
*At least not in this section. In the introduction, we find out that the maid and other servants get to eat an hour before “the family”.
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Hands can take a real battering throughout the day, and often, the sensitive skin on hands can end up chafed, chapped, itchy and dry. Let’s not even start with what happens to fingernails! What can you do to care for your hands and have them looking neat, tidy and well groomed naturally?
One ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. One real advantage of using natural domestic cleaning products is that they are much, much gentler on the skin. Many commercial cleaning products leave the skin weeping and cracking, even if you’re strict about rinsing off as soon as possible. Wearing rubber gloves is the first line of defence if you have to use a harsh chemical cleaning product. Better still, making your own natural cleaning products will go a long way towards clearing up dry skin. However, even soap, which is a natural product, can dry the skin, so rubber gloves are still a must when using soap-based products. They’re also a must if you have to deal with natural substances of the more unpleasant kind, such as vomit or faeces.
Hand care begins with removing dirt. Many jobs and hobbies, such as gardening, can leave the hands absolutely filthy, and just plain soap and warm water won’t do the job. Scrubbing brushes can work wonders for dirt under the fingernails, but these are often too harsh for the more delicate skin areas on your hands.
Instead, try one of these methods:
Pumice/sand soap: Grate a bar of plain white soap and melt it in a double boiler or in a microwave on Low. Add a little water if needed. Once the soap is liquid, add about half a cup of ground pumice stone or fine sand and stir in well. Pour the liquid into a mould – an old tin or pottle will work nicely – and put it in a cool, dark place to solidify and dry. The sand or pumice will gently abrade dirt out from the skin. More luxurious variants can be made by adding ground almonds, cornmeal or corn grits to the soap instead of the sand or pumice.
Lemon: Lemon juice is a mild skin bleach, so this method also helps fade spots on the hands, as well as cleaning them. Turn lemon rinds (once you have squeezed most of the juice out for another purpose) inside out and dip them into coarse sugar or salt. Use these to scrub problem areas.
Avocado skins: Once you have scooped out the pulp of an avocado for a salad or guacamole, save the skins. The inside of the skin is abrasive and contains many of the oils from the avocado. Use them to scrub at hands (and faces!) for a bit of moisturizing as well as scrubbing.
Drying hands properly after washing is also important for preventing chapping. However, if you still have a problem with dry skin, sue a rich hand cream or moisturizer to soothe the skin and replace some of the oils that have been removed by scrubbing. One old trick used by some farmers is to keep a pot of hand cream (pure lanolin is popular) alongside the pumice soap and scrubbing brush beside the basin where workers come in to clean their hands. If you can’t get pure lanolin – or even if you can – try making your own hand cream:
Rich hand cream:
* 200 ml boiling water
* herbal teabag – preferably chamomile
* 50 ml avocado or olive oil
* 50 ml almond, sunflower or grapeseed oil
* 10 ml jojoba oil
* 30 g beeswax
* 10 ml glycerine
* 20 drops essential oil of your choice (optional)
Use the boiling water and the teabag to make a strong cup of herbal tea – 15 minutes is about the right length of time to leave it to steep, but remember to cover the cup it’s steeping in so the steam is trapped in. Leave it to cool. While it’s cooling, combine the oils in a double boiler and add the beeswax in. Once the beeswax has melted, begin to stir in the herbal tea, bit by bit. You will need to stir hard so it emulsifies properly. Lastly, add in the glycerine and essential oil. Place the mixture in a wide mouthed screw-top jar and keep it where you wash your hands. Use liberally after washing hands or whenever you need it.
Beautiful nails also make hands look well groomed. However, nail polish and acetone-based nail polish remover are terrible on the skin and are far from natural. Nail polish on the fingers chips and needs redoing all too often. It’s much better to just have neat, well-filed nails that are trim and clean. This starts with having no dirt under the nail:
Before doing a dirty job, dig your fingernails into a bar of soap. Some soap will stick under the nails, and this will block the dirt from getting in but will wash away very easily. Deeply ingrained dirt can be removed with regular scrubbing and also with a little lemon juice – squish plenty of juicy lemon pith and pulp (the pulp that’s left on the outside/top of a lemon squeezer is perfect) and leave it to do its work for 10 or so minutes before rinsing out.
Don’t cut cuticles – they are there to protect the matrix of the nail from infection. Just push them back gently. Soften them first with a little olive oil or sunflower oil – dipping the tips of your fingers into warm (not hot) oil works wonders.
For something a little fancier, try a fake French polish that needs no varnish and is much easier than the “real” sort. Use a white dressmaking pencil to colour in the tip of the nail from underneath. This whitens the tips. Then stroke a bit of natural beeswax over the top of the nail all over and buff well with a chamois cloth or any other soft cloth to bring up a subtle sheen. The beauty of this is that it doesn’t chip or crack.
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Natural fibres have been with humankind for a long time. Unlike synthetic fibres, they “breathe” more, come from renewable resources and when they finally wear out, they are biodegradable. However, not all natural fibres are created equal. Different fibres/fabrics have different care requirements and have different uses.
Cotton: This comes from a plant source, and it is possible these days to find fabric made from organically grown cotton. Cotton can be tough (denim) or delicate (lace) oand has a huge range of uses. Cotton can handle hot washes and hot irons – it requires hot ironing to be wrinkle-free. Cotton is cool and light to wear, making it excellent for summer wear but unsuitable for winter warmth. It is very absorbent, which makes it good for towels. It is very easy to dye. The disadvantages of cotton are that it is prone to mildew if is damp, shrinks if untreated and can take up stains very easily. Thick cotton fabrics (e.g. denim and towelling) can take a long time to dry on a line or a clothes-horse in cooler weather. Cotton is flammable and is anything but flame resistant.
Linen: This also comes from a plant source. Linen tends to be quite crisp and has a very distinctive texture. It is strong, cool and absorbent. Traditionally, linen was used for undergarments and for sheets. It can handle a hot iron, but it will soften from the usual crispness if washed traditionally. Like cotton, linen is prone to mildew and has a tendency to shrink or stretch. Linen does not take dye well, which also means that it does not stain as readily.
Silk: This taken from the cocoons of the silk moth. Very delicate with a natural lustre to it, it requires gentle handling. Silk should be dry-cleaned or else handwashed in cool-warm water with hand soap. It should not be wrung or scrubbed. It can be ironed on cool. While it is fiddly to take care of, it has the advantage of being very light and easy to wear – it is traditionally used for underwear and good clothes, as well as handkerchiefs and scarves – although you can get very luxurious silk sheets if you want to be extravagant. Silk is moth-proof. Surprisingly, silk is quite strong for its weight and is also warm to wear.
Wool: Wool is spun from the hairs of various long-haired animals. Sheep of various breeds are used for wool, with merino being the finest of this type. Goat hair is also used; this is known as cashmere (Kashmir), angora; pashmina or mohair. Llama and alpaca wool is also used. More outlandish animals that are used for wool include rabbits (from angora rabbits), camels, yaks and even some breeds of dog. Wool is something of a “wonder fibre” as it has a huge range uses, ranging from tough carpets to fine scarves and wraps. Wool is very warm and absorbent, making it the fibre of choice for hikers and the like, as it “stays warm when it’s wet”. Wool is flame resistant. The downside of wool is that it needs a bit of care with washing – handwashing is best, as wool can stretch or shrink unpredictably if machine washed on a regular cycle or on hot (some garments handle the “gentle” or “wool” cycle in washing machines without any bother, though). For washing wool carpets professional carpet cleaning is the best solution. Wool does not like being ironed, but then, it is fairly wrinkle-resistant. Wool also needs a bit of protecting from moths, as moths love wool.
Fur: Real fur comes from all sorts of mammals. Opinion is divided as to the ethics of fur. Yes, some animals are farmed and killed for their fur, but they are usually killed humanely. Real fur is more environmentally friendly than synthetics as real fur comes from a renewable resource, does not use fossil fuels and is biodegradable. In some countries, the fur-bearing animals are noxious pests that harm the environment and the fur is a by-product of managing and controlling pests. Real fur is very warm and looks glamorous. It should be handwashed (use hand soap and dry flat; do not wring or spin) or drycleaned. It does not need ironing. Fur needs to be protected from moths.
Leather. This is the hairless skin of animals – cattle, pigs, ostriches, alligators, snakes, goats, sheep and more. If the hair is left on, it is usually called “hide”. It is very tough and hard-wearing, and can even be wind and slightly water proof (with the right treatment and finish) but still “breathes”. It is fire-resistant and fairly stain-resistant. It is usually too harsh for underwear (with the exception of special fetish-style items) of but is used for all sorts of outerwear, upholstery, protective gear and accessories. It can be hand-washed if necessary, but it is best to just spot-clean leather by sponging the dirt off. If leather does get wet, it should be dried flat, then wrung and crushed to restore the suppleness afterwards. Leather does not like seawater – soak it in milk to remove salt, then rinse well in fresh water. Leather should be polished regularly to keep it supple.
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