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.

One of the most important cleaning tasks at home is also one that has to be done most often. I am talking about dusting. Many housewives are maniacs about cleaning and sanitizing their homes. They worship the vacuum, the mop and the broom. However, it seems like the more you clean the more dust you can see in your home. And this is not a thing to turn a blind eye to. We are talking about billions of small particles that can cause allergic reactions and rashes. There is no place at your home where dust cannot settle – curtains, carpets, tables, mattresses, etc. all have the perfect conditions of the growth of flora and fauna. That’s why the home dust is a nemesis for every good housewife. The carpets used nowadays are too good for the dust to pass and they are a potential habitat for germs and bacteria. What you have to do is quite simple – air the rooms as often as you can; vacuum every day; wash your sheets once a week on a 60 degree Celsius program; cover the furniture. There are sprays you can buy that affect the bacteria and can prevent it from coming to your home.

Here is some “dusty” statistics.

42 million tons of dust is piled on in the USA alone. 30 million of which is with natural origins, and 12 million comes from people. Every day you lose between 0.5 and 1 gram of dead skin. 7 % of the dust in the world comes from forest fires. Every year 10 thousand tons of space dust comes to Earth. In a house with six rooms every year 15 kg of dust is formed.

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.

In this part of the good housewife cleaning tips I will talk about cleaning furniture.

Furniture of bright wood is cleaned in the following way. First, dust them good. Then, use warm water and soap to clean them.

Carved furniture is dusted with a special brush, wool or silk cloth or leather. This is the most effective cleaning method.

Varnished furniture also is dusted using a soft brush or leather. Any scratches or cracks can be covered by using varnish of the same colour. This furniture cannot be washed with water.

Mat furniture can only be cleaned using a dry rag, leather or a soft brush.

Polished furniture has to be cleaned every day with a soft cloth. Every now and then you can freshen them up by spreading them with polish and wiped off with a dry cloth. Polished furniture should also not be washed with soap and water. This type of furniture should be kept away from hot items, alcohol, vinegar and wine as these can permanently damage the polish.

Wooden furniture can be preserved not only by using polish. If you do not like the smell of it or you just do not have any, you can use olive oil instead. Pour a little bit of it on a dry cotton cloth and polish the piece of furniture with it. When it dries off the colour might get a little bit darker but it will look more natural and you will have a shiny new-looking table or whatever it is you polished.

I sincerely hope these advices were helpful. Keep looking for more cleaning advices.

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.

I will start with a few helpful cleaning advices from the past that could be used nowadays.

1. How to clean a glass bottle. Glass bottles with narrow necks can be cleaned by putting egg shells in them and then fill them with water. Wait for a couple of hours, shake the bottles and rinse them off.

2. How to get rid of the bad smell from the thermos. Before you put the thermos away, put a sugar cube in it.

3. How to clean an umbrella. Rub the umbrella with a mixture of ammonia and water in a one-to-six ratio. Rinse it good and let it dry. You will notice that after the procedure your umbrella will seem brand new.

4. How to clean plush toys. A witty trick around cleaning a tough stain is stitching a patch of some other cloth over the stain. Chose a bright colour in order to attract children’s attention. This way, not only will you cover the stain but you will make the toy funnier.

5. How to clean a red wine stain on the carpet. The red wine stain is a nightmare for every housewife. If you happen to get one of these terrible stains, do not hesitate to put a good amount of baking soda on the spot right away. The baking soda will absorb the liquid and in the morning when it is dry just vacuum it and you will be amazed how clean your carpet looks.

6. How to clean glass lampshades. Instead of putting your life in danger by climbing on a chair and washing them as they are on the ceiling, why not just take them off and wash them like an ordinary dish in the sink?

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.

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!