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Spider season

Autumn tends to mark the start of spider mating season, which means you are likely to spot these creepy crawlies popping up all over your home.

Getting rid of spiders in your home for good can be challenging, but it is possible with a combination of prevention and control methods.

Like all species, spiders need water and moisture to survive so you are more likely to find them in the kitchen and bathroom.

And be warned they can easily get in our home coming up through our plug holes so regularly flush with boiling water and keep them covered or keep the plug in.

My tips how you can naturally deter spiders below…

Keep Your Home Clean – Check for spider webs and pay special attention to corners. Regularly clean and vacuum your home to remove dust and debris. Focus on hidden areas where spiders may hide such as under furniture and in hidden areas.

Keep clutter to a minimum – Spiders like cluttered areas where they can hide, so declutter your home to make it less appealing to them, giving them less places to hide away.

Seal Entry Points – Inspect your home for cracks, gaps, and holes in walls, doors, and windows. Seal these entry points to prevent spiders from getting in.

Peppermint Oil – Spiders hate the strong smell of peppermint, so it’s the perfect weapon to naturally ward them off, use the oil in a diffuser, light a peppermint candle or add peppermint essential oil, 20 drops into a spray bottle and spray in spider prone areas. s in a diffuser or mix them with water and spray them in spider-prone areas.

Cinnamon – Use cinnamon sticks in areas where you’ve noticed spider activity, such as corners or entry points. You can also try placing them in cabinets, closets, or other areas where spiders tend to hide, use cinnamon candles or Sprinkle cinnamon powder around the perimeter of your home, especially near doors and windows.

Catch and Release – If you’re not comfortable picking spiders up , you can capture them using a glass and a piece of paper and release them outdoors or use a spider catcher.

fashionpostfeaturedimageaugust1

What I’m Wearing this Summer

Fashion

Whenever I am sharing tips on my socials or presenting on TV, I always get so many questions about what I am wearing, my next biggest passion other than cleaning is fashion, I love following fashion accounts, getting outfit inspo, and love swapping style tips with my friends and family. In this section, I am sharing my current favourites.

From pretty dresses to classic denim, here you will find the latest trends I am wearing this summer. x

Tap the image to get yours!

Red Dress

Black Long Sleeve Dress

Piper Sandals

Orange Gingham Dress

Hot Pink Floral Leopard

Red with Pink Stars Dress

Pale Blue Zebra Dress

Blue with Pink Stars Dress

Pink T-Shirt

Strapless Beach Maxi Dress

Blue Tie Front Midi Dress

Blue Floral Dress

Basket Bag

Poplin Shirt

Pink Skirt

Black Button Dress

Wide Leg Trousers

Barrel Jeans

Navy Mom Jeans

High Waist Lounge Jeans

Cozy autumn at home, a woman with tea and a book resting. A cozy way of life . Body parts in the composition.

Get autumn ready with my 5 simple steps.

Use my easy autumn steps to get your home ready for autumn and prepared for the winter months.

Autumn is such a beautiful colourful season, with its orange and yellow leaves and bright red berries. It’s the perfect time to wrap up for a beautiful walk – and then come back to an inviting cosy home with a tasty hot chocolate.

Prepare your entrance

Cheer yourself up on colder days by creating a warm welcome to your home. Autumn is the perfect time to spruce up your front door, add in an autumnal door wreath and some seasonal decorations.

The rest of the front garden might need a tidy up, too. After all, you’ll probably see more of the front than the back garden during the winter. Remove any summer hanging basket and plant some evergreen shrubs that will provide an attractive structure throughout the cold months, you could also add a couple of winter-flowering plants to boost interest.

Inside as you enter add in a good quality door mat to trap dirt and soak up wet muddy shoes.

Time to get cosy

As the days and evenings become colder, you’ll need to think about keeping warm and cosy. Candles are perfect this time of year, choose autumnal scents like pumpkin, apple, cinnamon and nutmeg, as these scents will bring that extra dose of ambiance your home needs. Incorporate autumnal colours, switch those summer themed cushions for autumnal ones and get yourself some lovely soft throws and blankets. Then attend to the bigger stuff, like making sure your radiators are all bled, clean from built up dust and in good working order and book in for a boiler service to ensure that it’s fit and healthy enough for the rest of the year you don’t want to run the risk of no hot water at 7 am on a Monday morning in January (brrr).

Check light bulbs too, make sure they are all working and knock off that layer of dust using a recycled make up brush.

Little things and small changes to your environment can make a major difference to your wellbeing and mood, so they are well worth your time and effort.

If you’re lucky enough to have a working fireplace or wood-burning stove, now’s the time to prepare and clean it ready for use.

Stock up on firewood and kindling, and invest in a couple of baskets to store the firewood next to the fire.

Finally check to make sure your smoke alarms are all working.

Make way for wellies

The hallway will need a seasonal overhaul, too. Put away sandals and sun hats till the spring and organise space for heavy coats, boots and wellies. Ensure there are enough hooks for all your coats, as well as a space for umbrellas. It’s also a good idea to use a hallway storage bench if you have the room or put baskets next to the door for gloves, hats and scarves.

Get organised

Put away your summer wardrobe and have a declutter at the same time, get rid of things you didn’t wear. I love to use vacuum storage pack bags as you can store so much neatly away.

Don’t forget about the linen closet, either. Switch out those lighter linens with your heavier bedding, linens, and blankets.

Organise home admin and invest in any new storage you think you might need. Now might be a good time to organise your kitchen cupboards, too. Throw away out-of-date food, donate tins that you know you won’t eat and store similar things together. Decant pasta, rice and pulses into attractive jars, and find some useful storage for your spices.

Empty the contents of your freezer and fridge to see what’s fresh and what isn’t. Give these storage areas a good cleaning before refilling them.

Outside

Wash off your patio furniture before putting it away until the spring. Store it in a shed or an out-of-the-way spot in the garage. If it’s staying outside, cover everything with properly fitting covers to prevent rust.

Pick up any garden toys, sports equipment, and gardening tools sitting outside and out them away.

Clear out the gutters.

On a dark evening, arriving home or visiting the shed or dustbins will be difficult if you can’t see where you’re going. So it’s important to ensure any outside lighting is in good working order.

It’s also nice to have some lighting in the back garden to illuminate winter plants and look pretty.

Parent,And,Pupil,Of,Preschool.,Woman,And,Girl,With,Backpack

And Back to School we go

As the school summer holidays draw to a close its back to school we go.  Over the summer many of us have lost our regular routines and now its time to kick-start them again.

Back to making those dreaded pack lunches and being super organised with the kids.

Mine go back today and I am really hoping they come back with a list of dates for throughout the year.  I don’t know about you but we have numerous mufti days, dressing up days, school discos and bring something into school days plus not forgetting the dreaded school photograph days and if I don’t write all these down I will forget. On top of this there is the school trips and payment plans that also need to be added in you don’t want to be that parent that the school have to chase for money on a regular basis.

I use a wall planner and have a colour code for each of mine and then also repeat this information into my phone calendar with numerous alerts.

Then don’t forget the endless bits of paper they will come home with to make all the paperwork easier I have created a system of plastic folders that I keep in a box folder in my office.

One for each of them which allows me to keep any special achievement awards and certificates as well as important letter and grade cards. Then I scan into the computer any of their artwork that I would like to keep but I don’t want hanging off my fridge.

Getting younger children organised in the morning

If you have younger children leave a get ready for school chart in their bedrooms so you don’t have to keep asking them to do things in the morning rush. I used to find that this really helped me when my were younger as they used to be proud that they had finished their list of morning jobs to do:

  • Come down for breakfast
  • Brush teeth and have a wash
  • Get dressed
  • PJ’s away tidy
  • Pack school bag
  • Don’t forget your lunch Box
  • Shoes and coat by 8.20am

Small lists/charts like this can really help take the strain off so its definitely something I recommend you try.

Uniform

By now I bet this is all labelled and ready to go. A nice fresh clean PE kit all ready, bright white polo shirts and non scuffed shoes. Photos of this perfection will be displayed all over our social media this week but how long does this last.

If you’re a busy working mum makes sure you have 5 sets of school uniform so if you don’t get time to do washing in the week you know that your child will always be going into school looking neat and smart

Invest in some Ace for whites to keep those white shirts and polo t-shirt looking good.

Have your Scuff polish to hand

Pack Lunch ideas

Love it or hate it we have to feed our kids when they are at school. Schools dinners aren’t everyone’s idea of a good meal although saying that they have come on a long way over the years.  Mine actually like a pack lunch.  The girls sort themselves out these days I give them the options and they make a healthy sensible snack but I still like to do Jake’s. His more than capable but it’s me having the need to a spotless kitchen all the time.

A few simple ideas I have for mixing the lunches up a bit. I like to keep my colourful to keep them interested too. 

Sandwich swap

Tuna pasta. Sweetcorn, mayo, wholemeal pasta and tuna served cold. Fried rice with spring onions, soya sauce and bacon serve cold. Cheese and Apple. – Grate hard cheese with grated apple add a drop of lemon and mayo for a cracker topping.

Snack ideas

You can use snack pots here, prepare and label one for each day of the week)

  • Carrot and cumber sticks and hummous
  • Fruit salad
  • Fruit kebab
  • Popcorn
  • Olives
  • Crackers
  • Sultanas
  • pumpkins seeds
  • Yogurt drops
  • Home made flap jacks

I also find when they back to school planning ahead your weekly meals really does help too. I have created a FREE printable to download CLICK HERE plus you can also follow my 4 week simple meal plan by clicking  HERE

Homework

Give it a week or two and this will start flooding in. I like to know what homework mine have and try to be involved as much as I can. Plan some time in your routine for homework support even if it’s just 30 minutes a week and dedicate this time to your child without any distractions. I have always encouraged mine to do their homework downstairs and not in their rooms and I created a little homework station where they can find everything they need from stationary to a clear work space. I have always believed that doing homework in a messy and congested bedroom can’t be good for their learning.

Encourage your child to have a few educational apps on their tablet too

Try to keep your school routine so that everyone in the house follows it too. A few days of knowing when to leave and when to do homework is all it takes for it to start be the normal. If it helps make pack lunches the night before and hang school uniform out ready in bedrooms with polished shoes by the door.

Your 5 Minute Challenge is easily doable in the morning before the school run. You don’t need to do every room but set yourself a goal to at least do one room. Set your timer and go go.  You may also find that my daily Cleaning Calendar will keep you on top to.

Enjoy the first week back and thank you for reading

Lynsey Queen of Clean xoxox