A Good Housewife Cleaning Tips – Part One

Being a good housewife is a full-time job and has a lot of duties – from taking care of the children, to cooking and cleaning. While I will not talk about how to bring up your offspring, I would like to give you some cleaning advices that have been proven effective over the years. In a series of posts I will talk about cleaning techniques from the past, witty tricks and innovations in the field of hygiene. I hope I can help you reduce the usage of chemical-based cleaning products that are potentially harmful for you and your family. Also, my goal will be to save you time off cleaning by guiding you through the path of being a good, but not exhausted housewife. Last, but not least, my advices will save you a lot of money from expensive, yet not so efficient cleaning products. Hopefully you will start feeling more confident about your skills as a housewife and you will start looking and the cleaning duties as more of an excitement, rather than a burden.

There is nothing more comfortable then the warmth of the wool blanket in the cold winter nights. But it does not have to be a high quality, expensive wool blanket in order to last long. What it needs is taking proper care of it. Try to follow these instructions and your blankets will be colorful and fluffy for a long time.

Clean your blankets thoroughly every year. Wash them by hand at home. If you are taking them to have the cleaned, make sure it is dry cleaning. If you decide to wash them in the washing machine, you have to set it to the wool fabrics program. If you are washing them by hand, you have to be gentle. Do not scrub them hard. The proper way to do it is to gently press them with your palms. Never squeeze the wool blankets to drain the water out of then to dry them faster. Hang them somewhere and let them dry by themselves.

Synthetic blankets have to be hanged out right after the last rinsing cycle of the washing machine. Make sure there are not soap stains on them.

The temperature of the water used has to be no higher than 30 degrees Celsius and the detergent or soap has to be for wool clothes or delicate fabrics.

It is good to vacuum your blankets once a week and air them regularly. If you do not have the time to clean them properly, take them to a professional company.

Do not make the bed right after getting up in the morning. Use the time in the morning to air the blankets and sheets.

Cleaning Pet Urine Smells

Last week I shared with you my experience about cleaning after pet birds; this week I will focus my advices and tips on the issue about cleaning after dogs and cats. I would not involve in explaining how to remove hairs from your coach and similar, but will pay special attention to the problem of urine smell that leaves after the pet. Many people agree with the statement that cat urine provokes the worst smell ever. And after all the members of my employers’ numerous family left, I found out why.

First of all, don’t leave the puddles soak through your carpet because it may only worsen the situation. The problem is the same as with food remains near the kitchen sink – if you leave it there, all the microbes and bacteria multiply and spread out. Thus the odour is distributed all over as well.

I would want to tell you what NOT to do when you face the pet urine problem because there are many wide-known methods which are actually wrong and do not work but rather make the situation worse. Do not invest in purchasing bleach! It is full of aggressive chemical ingredients which would damage everything they are applied to, and might harm your pet as well. Bleach is used to disinfect and would certainly not remove the awful smell. The simple function of disinfector may play another preparation. Avoid treating with ammonium, peroxide, vinegar and baking soda products as well – ammonia attracts pets and would not prevent them from peeing on the same place. Be very cautions not to mix it with bleach because the chemical reaction that runs is extremely dangerous for your health and your pet’s health.

The best solution I have learned from my experience  – which I am offering to you – is to replace the material permeated with the smell of your pet’s urine from the room the animal has used to do its job to an area where the smell could be easily removed – think about yards, porches, balconies, etc. If you live in a flat, choose the most ventilated storage. It is a little tiresome process to make the pet go and pee there but it is totally worth it.

Another method includes purchasing a urine smell removal product from the specialized pet stores. These products are enzyme-oriented and remove the odour. Be sure to buy some more of it because it usually should be applied more than one time. Steep the spots soaked with urine with the preparation. Leave it to react for a while and dry. This process you should repeat once again, especially if the carpet is heavily damaged. It is even better to remove it and wash it to clean the urine stains on the flooring more carefully thus saving yourself a lot of further efforts.

Cleaning Cigarette Smoke from a Car

Hello, my dear readers. It is Charis. How nice, isn’t it? Today I would love to share with you one of my intimate secrets – I had an affair with the driver! I am talking about the driver who serves to my employers, the old couple who live in the small mansion on Turkey Shore Rd., Ipswich. We had a short relationship which I am not going to tell you about in details (it was a great short romance) but I would like to express my hatred about his bad habit to smoke cigarettes! Oh, do I remember every time when I enter the car the disgusting smell of overripe smoke hitting my nose! That stink I could neither forget nor overcome! My hatred considerably gathered strength when I found out that he was responsible to clean the car outside, and I was the one to take of the dirt inside of it! Removing the cigarette stink was literally pissing me off every time I had to do this task. Don’t get me wrong – I love my job but this smoke… I don’t know if you have experienced sitting in such a smelly car but I am sure that in case you have, you will feel sorry for me. I am also sure that will read this article – either to laugh at my misfortune or to learn from it.

As a first step, establish the practice of maintaining good hygiene in your car. Remove all the garbage from inside as you have to make sure that trash could easily fall between cracks and small openings. You should also read the cleaning instructions for your car in case you haven’t lost them as my ex-companion. First of all, wipe the surfaces inside the car as you should be consistent with the material they are made of when it comes to their cleaning. After dusting, you should wash them or polish them in dependence with the material again – purchase a window cleaner, a leather polisher, an antistatic preparation, etc. Yes, it is pricey. When you are done with all those activities, use the vacuum cleaner to remove the dirt. Target the seats and the cushions as well. Then use a steam cleaner as you add some deodorizer in the water. Every scent is valuable in this case.

For precise removing of the smell, soak a few towels with a homemade preparation of warm water and the good old white vinegar. Put them in open plastic bags and leave them in your car as you make sure to close all the windows and doors.  Sprinkling baking soda is an additional method but it requires repeated use with the vacuum cleaner.

As a final step, spread some nice aromatic freshener. And stop smoking in your car. It is not a reason to leave your partner but makes a bad impression. Ha!

How To Cope With Problems In The Bathroom

How to stop the appearance of mildew? When we talk about healthy bathroom environment, the presence of mildew is one of the main issues. The good circulation of the air and the low humidity level are good ways of preventing the development of mildew. However, when we have to deal with already existing one, we need to use special detergents for the purpose. The fugues between the bathroom tiles absorb grease from cosmetic products and soap which leads to appearance of mildew – you can clean up mildew with a solution of ten parts of water and one part of bleach or with a solution of special detergents against mildew (in the described by producer proportion). In order to remove the remaining solution, wipe the tiles with detergent with neutral Ph and don’t forget to wear protecting gloves through the whole time.

How to fight humidity in the bathroom? Whatever we do, the bathroom remains the most humid place in our homes. In order to cope with the humidity in your bathroom, the space should have a window or good ventilation, or both. It is advisable to use them after every shower you take so that your bathroom won’t remain wet or worse – enter the other room of your home. This will also prevent the appearance of mould.

How to clean the bathroom fugues? Before the actual cleaning, pour hot water on the tiles. Leave the lodgment on the tiles and mostly the fugues like this for about five minutes and you are ready to go. If you don’t want to resort to strong detergents you can try the classical methods with vinegar and water and soda with water.

How to cope with scaling with the help of domestic products? The most terrible thing we have to deal with in our bathrooms is scale which piles up on the sink, the toilet and the bathtub easily and quickly. Use paper towel and vinegar for smaller areas. Soak the paper with vinegar and put it on the tap of the sink or the shower. Leave it for an hour, after which rub it gently with a dry towel. You can soak the shower handset in a bucket with vinegar. Leave it there overnight and wash it after that. For larger areas, you can fill a bottle with sprayer and spray, leave it for a while, rub and wash. White vinegar does a great job.