Urban75 Home About Offline BrixtonBuzz Contact

The Cleaning Thread

I only dust when it looks horrible. I never clean the windows. And skirting boards, light switches, light pulls, shelves and the tops of high things get ignored completely. Oh and the dust bunnies under the sofa are colossal. And I hoover my bedroom about once a year. I'm a very relaxed person as a consequence.
 
Stig said:
Naah, turmeric isl ovely to the small intestine, it just doesn't like formica or MDF. :D

It's supposed to be a medical miracle according to some, too, look:

http://youqa.cn/html/Alternative_Medicine/medicine/332.html
http://www.psa-rising.com/eatingwell/turmeric.htm
http://autoimmunedisease.suite101.com/article.cfm/turmeric
http://www.raysahelian.com/turmeric.html
http://www.boloji.com/health/articles/01051.htm
http://www.naturalbloom.com/articles/ayurveda-110/

yours, the yellow goodness fan club :D
Click to expand...
I quite liked the thought of a glowy tummy! never mind, have excuse to eat lots more curry now-for my health...Cheers:cool:
 
pootle said:
hee hee! I'm glad it's not just me. I quite often put my tiara on when I've got a pile of ironing or washing up to do!
Click to expand...

Innit - not enough occasions where tiaras can be worn, and if you've got one you should make the most of it!
 
I use mostly natural homemade cleaning products and they're fab. I label the top of my spray bottles with a chinagraph pencil so I can rub it out when I change the contents. I have one of those containers with a handle in the middle for carting all me bits and pieces about. Despite sounding like I know about cleaning, I don't actually do a lot of it. :o Oh and I have a giant ostrich feather duster which the dust clings to so I don't usually damp dust. :D
 
Thank you missfran! My bathroom practically sparkles now. I didn't even have to scrub. :D
 
ecover limecale remover is great, iuse it for lots of thigs. i dont use bleach anymore, if i have a stain on a worktop i use a lemon and the one thing i didnt know i couldnt live without?
microfibre cloths
they are the future

i have good clean, including floors 2/3 times a week and the rest of the time its enough to keep it tidy. life is too short to clean your skirting boards :( i remember being a child and being told i had to clean them because being short, i was closest.
 
ShiftyBagLady said:
and the one thing i didnt know i couldnt live without?
microfibre cloths
they are the future
Click to expand...
Indeed they are. I have several including a pink for the sink and blue for the loo :D Poundland is a good place to pick them up as is Aldi and Wilkos have packs of 3 but they're quite a fine weave.
 
My problem is that once I've cleaned the loo with a cloth, I have to throw the cloth away. It's got loo germs. I can't leave it to sit there with loo germs on until the next time I clean the loo.
 
Yeah but a Glasto loo has less germs than an average office desk so I'm not so bothered myself. Soak it boiling water with some Milton if you're fussed.
 
OK, a dilemma which needs a collective resolution:

Problem: my dark-blue metal venetian blinds in the bathroom. They're not just dusty (or I'd simply dust 'em with a damp cloth) - they're actually covered in dust which has somehow caked on to the slats.

I've regularly dusted 'em with a dry or moist cloth but the surfaces still stay all matt and slightly greasy to the touch (as well as dusty.)I've tried one of those sort of 'bear claw' cleaners (fuzzified material over 'fingers' which go between the slats) and that didn't work either.
I am NOT a cleaning obsessive, not even close, but there's something depressing about their grimy state and it also means I get me arms dusty whenever I reach through them to open the window.

The blind is about 4' wide by 5' high so it's a lot of bloody slats to clean if they've got to done one by one.

so should I:
a) take down the whole blind, and put it in the bathtub full of water + (what? vinegar? washing up liquid? cillit bang? hydrochloric acid?)
b) grit my teeth and devote an hour to cleaning it while it's still hung up?
c) throw it away and ruin the environment/my bank balance by buying a replacement 'cos I'm too thick or too lazy to clean the old one?
 
Take the blinds and immerse in a bathfull of warm water, to which you've added a couple of cups of washing powder. Leave to soak for 2 hours, and they'll come up lovely.

This also works with pans with caked on muck.

Another tip: Instead of forever washing your dusty cupboard tops, line them with tin foil. When it gets all mucky, you just rip it up and replace it, and this saves you great armfuls of time.

A small bowl of vinegar and water put on full power in the microwave will soak up nasty kitchen smells. I've tried this after cooking fish and it really works.:cool:
 
Vintage Paw said:
How do people keep things like skirting boards and cupboards and curtain poles and behind things and air vents and windows and lights and corners of floors and hidden places and behind things and everything in the kitchen clean? Surely other people must have a small army of cleaning fairies that come in at night, because I swear my house gets dirtier than theirs in the same amount of time.
Click to expand...

I don't know, I never bother with all those things. :o

And my house is cleaner than most people I know, so that just goes to show how dirty most people are (or how skanky my friends are! :D )

The only things I keep really clean is my kitchen (sink, worktops, cooker, fridge etc) bathroom and floors.
 
missfran said:
My problem is that once I've cleaned the loo with a cloth, I have to throw the cloth away. It's got loo germs. I can't leave it to sit there with loo germs on until the next time I clean the loo.
Click to expand...
Why not use kitchen paper?

My cleaning tip: get a housemate with OCD. It's working wonders here! :cool:
 
After cleaning in the bathroom, buff the bath/basin/toilet with a dry cloth....shiny dry surfaces take longer to pick up dust etc !

White vinegar is brill for all sorts of cleaning, put some in with your whites wash......brings 'em up lovely !

Spray your cleaning products onto the cloth not the srface to be cleaned and you really don't need to use very much !

If you do any mopping, a damp mop is good for going round skirtings !

When cleaning the loo put your hand/loo brush vigorously in the water first, it drops the water level and thats where the lime can build up !

Hot water and a dash of washing up liquid is plenty good enough for most household cleaning !
 
Wookey said:
Take the blinds and immerse in a bathfull of warm water, to which you've added a couple of cups of washing powder. Leave to soak for 2 hours, and they'll come up lovely.

This also works with pans with caked on muck.

Another tip: Instead of forever washing your dusty cupboard tops, line them with tin foil. When it gets all mucky, you just rip it up and replace it, and this saves you great armfuls of time.

A small bowl of vinegar and water put on full power in the microwave will soak up nasty kitchen smells. I've tried this after cooking fish and it really works.:cool:
Click to expand...


Should be biological washing powder iirc. :)
 
Really Difficult Question:

I have windows which are not accessible from the outside. No ladder could ever reach them; it's kinda hard to explain, but there's what I call a dry moat around most of my ground-floor flat. Nobody, including the caretaker, can get into the moat area.

My windows are the Victorian type where they're all in squares and you can either pull the bottom bit up or the top bit down (does this kind of window have a name? I've always wondered). I can't access any but the lowest squares from inside the flat.

The panes are so filthy that some of them are difficult to see out of. I believe that they have not been cleaned since the original Victorian installation.

Can any of you HowCleanIsYourHouse-Geniuses figure out a way for me to clean my windows?
 
scifisam said:
Really Difficult Question:

I have windows which are not accessible from the outside. No ladder could ever reach them; it's kinda hard to explain, but there's what I call a dry moat around most of my ground-floor flat. Nobody, including the caretaker, can get into the moat area.

My windows are the Victorian type where they're all in squares and you can either pull the bottom bit up or the top bit down (does this kind of window have a name? I've always wondered). I can't access any but the lowest squares from inside the flat.

The panes are so filthy that some of them are difficult to see out of. I believe that they have not been cleaned since the original Victorian installation.

Can any of you HowCleanIsYourHouse-Geniuses figure out a way for me to clean my windows?
Click to expand...

Sash windows, and you need a steam cleaner with an extendable head. You can hire them for the weekend, and steam everything you can (carpets, walls, skirting, windows, pathways).

It's actually much more fun than it by rights should be - and the results are quite frankly sparkling, Trisha. My mum's is at my house at the mo, so I might do my windows tomorrow, it's the easiest way to clean.

A jet-wash would also work, but you can't use that indoors on soft-furnishings like you can a steam cleaner.

You're landlord should pay the hire charge, btw.;)
 
One word re cleaning products; Stardrops! It's cheap, ecologically sound, fantastically effective and can clean: dishes, clothes, floors, cars, furniture - anything really, it smells old-fashioned and lovely and makes everything sparkle!:)
 
It's a cleaning product - not as available in the south I understand as here in the north, but I think Asda stock it. My friend from London was staying a couple of weeks ago and helped me decorate my living room, he sneered when I came in with Stardrops but after he'd cleaned his brushes with it he loved it and took some back to London with him!! Said he has managed to find it in Asda. It's absolutely brilliant, try to get hold of some, you'll love it:)
 
I guessed it was a cleaning product :p What kind of cleaning product? Liquid? Cloths? Small nobbly balls of soap?
 
sorry yes obviously its a cleaning product - it's a golden coloured liquid in a bottle, used to be in glass but now plastic. It was developed during the war and is a soapless cleaner, and is also listed on one of the green websites (don't know which one) as ecologically sound. It's anything between 58p-75p a bottle. Check it out on the net, there are lots of testimonials to its wonders.
 
susie12 said:
sorry yes obviously its a cleaning product - it's a golden coloured liquid in a bottle, used to be in glass but now plastic. It was developed during the war and is a soapless cleaner, and is also listed on one of the green websites (don't know which one) as ecologically sound. It's anything between 58p-75p a bottle. Check it out on the net, there are lots of testimonials to its wonders.
Click to expand...

My Mum is right! Stardrops is truly teh sparkliest and you can use it for lots of different cleaning tasks including hand washing. Manufacturer's website with more info here.

Happy sparkly cleaning peeps! :)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

Bus Honeygun
Window Cleaning Kit
Replies
21
Views
480
rubbershoes
rubbershoes
N
The Autumn thread
2 3 4 5
Replies
127
Views
3K
nottsgirl
N
N
What are you snacking? The new thread
2 3
Replies
68
Views
2K
gentlegreen
gentlegreen
N
How to clean a pizza stone?
Replies
29
Views
607
Throbbing Angel
Throbbing Angel
Numbers
How to catch a squirrel in the house?
2 3 4 5
Replies
139
Views
2K
AverageJoe
AverageJoe
Back
Top Bottom