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Bad Cleaning Habits you Need to Break

by Cleaning Tips

Let’s be honest most of us don’t enjoy cleaning and if we can speed it up and make it easier, we sure will. But cutting corners is not always the best, and can end up making your cleaning and tidying even harder and, in-turn, you will develop some bad habits that will be hard to shake off.

If you have developed a few bad habits now is the time to start breaking them so you can develop a faster easier cleaning routine. Start breaking these habits one at a time and you will soon have a clean clutter-free home.

Stop Letting Paperwork Build-up

Post, bills, school letters, magazines, and newspapers have a habit of building up and if you don’t sort them out as soon as they come in you will have a mountain of paperwork before you know it. Stick to online banking and billing where you can and stop that mountain from building up.

Don’t Overuse Cleaning Products

A Little Goes a Long Way

Using too much cleaning product or laundry detergent is not always wise as it can cause much more harm than good. If the product is not rinsed away properly the residue that is left over can become a dirt magnet trapping in dust and leaving streaks.

Remember a little always goes a long way and by using too much you are wasting time and money.

Wet Towels and Shower Curtain

Get into the habit of not leaving wet shower curtains bunched up and towels in a heap. By pulling the shower curtain across the bath after each use it will dry more quickly and stop mould and mildew build up. Hang your wet towels to fully dry before folding them this way you will get a few more uses and you will lighten your laundry load. During the summer months you can always hang up outside for an hour let the summer wind dry and the sunshine disinfect.

Don’t Forget to Clean the Things that Clean for You

You aren’t going to get good results if you and using a dirty vacuum full of dust or a mop head that is filthy. A dirty mop is just going to push dirt around your home. If your washing machine has a bad odour from bacteria build-up and your clothes are not going to come out nice and fresh. Schedule into your cleaning plan, once a month to focus on your washing machine, dishwasher, vacuum, and dryer plus clean your mop head after every use.

Don’t Leave Dirty Dishes in the Sink

Instead put mugs after a cup of tea straight into the dishwasher instead of leaving them in, or around, your sink area. Leaving dirty plates and cups in the sink is a breeding ground for bacteria and will make your kitchen look untidy. Encourage everyone in your household to get into this simple habit.

Stop Wearing Shoes in the House

Most of us do take our shoes off, but sometimes we do get into that situation where we have forgotten an item and just need to dash in and pick it up or we are too embarrassed to ask guests to remove their shoes.

The few seconds it takes to remove your shoes will save you vacuuming time, not to mention all the bacteria and germs that can be found on the bottom of your shoes. For ease use good quality door mats that soak up mud in the wintertime and keep a shoe rack close to your entrance.

Make Your Bed

If the rest of your bedroom is clean and tidy but the bed is not made your room will look messy. After airing your bed in the morning, get into the habit of making it and encourage everyone in your home to do the same, even younger children can make their beds. If you are short of time in the mornings lighten your load by having fewer fancy cushions on your bed, keep it simple.

Always Dust Last

Dust falls like snow, so when you are cleaning a room always start at the highest point of the room and work your way down, start with the cobwebs and lightly dust walls and surfaces before you bring out your vacuum cleaner.

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How To Tackle The 5 Hardest Cleaning Jobs In The House

by Cleaning Tips

When you’re cleaning your home, there are always those areas that you absolutely dread doing. The bits that are hard to reach or stubborn to clean and you can spend hours trying to clean them properly. But the good news is, there is usually a way around it. These are some of the trickiest areas to clean and how you can make it easier for yourself.

Hard To Reach Dust

Trying to keep on top of the dust around the home is a bit of a pain. It’s not a problem in most places because you can easily polish the tables and other surfaces, but there are always those tough to reach spots or even the areas that you forget about entirely. For example, around the edges of picture frames or on the top of kitchen cupboards tend to get missed out when you’re cleaning. Anything that is hanging on the wall should be taken down and dusted every once in a while and you should invest in a duster with an extendable handle so you can get to those hard to reach spots. Cutting down on the amount of dust in the first place is the easiest way to keep on top of those tricky areas so make sure that you’re vacuuming as much as possible and dusting other areas regularly. The less dust there is in the house, the less will settle in those frustrating spots.

A Greasy Hob

When you’re cooking, there’s always bits of grease and food that splash out of the pan and end up on the stove top. If you’re a particularly messy cook, you’ll know this problem all too well. When that stuff gets burnt on, it’s a real pain to get off and you’ll spend ages scrubbing at it to try to get it clean. But it doesn’t have to be that hard if you don’t want it to be. Often, it’s so hard to get off because you’ve left it until it’s dried on and you have to go at it with a scourer to get it up. But if you give it a quick wipe to get the excess off and then spray some kitchen cleaner on there as soon as you’ve cooked, you can let it sit for a while until you’ve eaten. Then, when you come to do the washing up afterwards, all of that grime and grease should wipe off easily. If the grease is particularly stubborn, you might need a stronger degreaser to get it off. You should also use a microfiber cloth because it’s the best for soaking up the grease. Rinse it out between each wipe to get any excess grease out and it’ll pick up more with each wipe.

Behind The Toilet

This is definitely one of the worst places to clean in the entire house because it’s so hard to get into. It’s the area that gets neglected the most but that’s dangerous because the bathroom is one of the most dangerous areas for germs. If you’re going to keep your home germ free, you’re going to need to find a way to tackle it. The easiest way to get around it is to install a floating toilet bowl and eliminate the space altogether so next time you’re redoing your bathroom, you should definitely consider one. In the meantime, you might just have to suck it up and get down there. You can get a mop with an adjustable head that makes it easier to get behind there but the best way to clean it is to get on your hands and knees and give it a good scrub. As long as you do it regularly and don’t leave the dirt to build up, it should only take a few minutes. It only gets bad when you avoid doing it until it gets really bad.

Behind The Radiator

The space behind the radiator is another tricky area because it collects a lot of dust and it’s hard to get in there and clear it out. The inside of the radiator can get clogged up with dust as well which is bad news for you because they won’t work as well and you’ll be paying more money for your heating. Cleaning the radiators is a bit of a tricky job but if you do it regularly enough, it will get easier with time. First off, you need to switch the heating off because it’s easier to clean a cold radiator and they suck up dust while they’re switched on. Then you need to get the vacuum out and get rid of any dust around the radiator. Now comes the hard part, getting inside and behind it. If you’ve got the right attachments on the vacuum, you might be able to get inside but that won’t clear all of the dust further down. You can get specific radiator cleaning brushes which are the easiest way to get right down inside it, just remember to put a towel or something underneath to catch all of the dirt and dust that falls out. If you can’t get hold of a radiator cleaning brush, you can just tape a cloth to the end of a stick and use that instead. Using a hairdryer is another great tip, just put it over the gaps in the radiator and turn it up to the highest setting, this should push out all of the excess dust down there.

A Moldy Shower Curtain

When your shower curtain starts to get wet and damp, it’ll grow black mold spots on it and start to give off a musty smell. It’s pretty unpleasant and you might think that you just need to throw it away and get a new one, but if you start doing that every time you’ll be changing it every couple of months. Luckily, it’s actually easier than you think to get rid of that mold. First off, you need to stop it from happening in the first place. The best way to do that is to dry it out properly after you shower. Always pull the curtain across so it’s not bunched up and if you’ve got an extractor fan in the bathroom, leave it on for a while after you shower. But even then, you’re going to get some mold growing on there sometimes but you can get rid of it. Most shower curtains are machine washable but normal detergent won’t cut through the mold properly. Put the curtain in the machine with a bit of baking soda and vinegar as well as normal detergent and let it soak for a couple of hours, then put it on a normal cycle. If the mold is quite bad, you’ll probably need to do it a couple of times. If you’ve tried it a couple of times and the mold is still persistent, then you might need to get a new curtain.

These areas of the house are always a pain to keep clean but most of the time, people struggle with them because they try to avoid cleaning them until it’s too late. It’ll save you some time and trouble now, but you’re just adding to your problems further down the line. It’s best to suck it up and clean those areas regularly when you do the rest of the house. They’ll still be tough to clean but it’ll be a lot easier than it would if you left it until it was too dirty. Then you’ll really struggle to keep on top of your house.

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Keeping on top of the cleaning when you own a dog

by Cleaning TipsFamily Organising

As you can imagine, bringing an indoor pet into my family has not been the easiest of tasks for me. You have probably already read my blog post Can a clean freak like me cope with a dog?

I have been documenting my journey across my social media channels and I have really appreciated all the help and advice I have been offered whilst I was going back and forth about getting a pet.

I am a person who loves routine, with a pristine home, so this really wasn’t an easy decision for me.

Friends had told me about the constant battle with pet hairs all over their sofas and dog saliva on doors.

Some vacuums don’t have strong enough suction to deal with pet hairs or they get clogged up in the filters and cause all kinds of problems.

But I was determined to do this for my family, they were desperate for a puppy and I knew how much joy it would bring to our home.

One of my daughters is an asthma sufferer, so we had to choose our puppy very carefully. We couldn’t risk having a house full of dog hair. After a lot of research, we knew that we needed to find a hypoallergenic dog. These dogs shed very little because they have hair shafts with longer life spans.

We felt the breed Cockapoo would suit us the most as they come highly-recommended to live with children and, by chance, a local lady had five puppies for sale and Hetty just melted our hearts.

I honestly do believe that things happen for a reason.

I didn’t really want to increase my cleaning massively by owning a dog because I think we can safely say, I do enough already. So, before she came home I had to plan ideas that would make my life easier.

Hetty doesn’t moult, so pet hair really isn’t a huge problem for us but as humans we produce dead skin and hair so it’s only normal that a puppy would do too.

To prevent dog hair ending up on my furniture and floor, I brush Hetty daily and then I instantly vacuum the space we have been brushing using my amazing Vorwerk Kobold VK200 Ultimate Homecare System. I really couldn’t cope without this amazing vacuum cleaner as I’m sure you’ve seen on my social media!

With Hetty now here, I use the PB440 Electric Upholstery Brush attachment so much because it gets into hard-to-reach areas with a deep-clean across my sofas, carpets, rugs and upholstery to pull out dead skin and hairs.

The PB440 is an amazing attachment because it has a function switch for vacuuming surfaces or vacuuming crevices with a safety guard to protect your furnishings.

It also loosens allergic particles, such as mite excrement and fine dust, and reduces the risk of asthma and sneezing attacks so it’s a really handy piece with a new furry friend running around the house!

The PB440 is perfect for pet owners, it’s part of the VK200 system that’s built to get rid of 99.99% allergens and it really does clear every last bit of hair.

Whilst the PB440 is not suitable for leather, vinyl, duvets and quilts, it’s perfect for sofas, stairs and curtains so you get a great clean across a range of services and delicate fabrics.

Even if you do have a hypoallergenic dog like us, I would still recommend getting a VK200 because it’s built to tackle pet hairs, dirt particles and reduce allergens.

To also help my cleaning regime, when Hetty goes out into the garden, I give her a good clean when she comes back in to get rid of any muck that can potentially come into my home.

Dogs can pick up so much muck when they are out and about, it’s inevitable that the dirt will come into your home.

I’ve also covered all of my sofas with throws to keep Hetty’s smell and hair off my nice, new furniture. Her bed is washed regularly too.

My life with Hetty really has been made so much easier to keep my home clean with Vorwerk’s Kobold system, I can’t stress that enough. And Hetty is an amazing part of our family now too.

I’d recommend you to arrange a FREE DEMONSTRATION of the Kobold system, especially if you’re pet owners, so you can see the difference it can make – it’s well worth it.

As always thank you for reading and there is more about my journey with Hetty Can a clean freak like me cope with a dog?

Lynsey Queen of Clean xoxo

This is a sponsored post for Vorwerk