Life’s Messy – Clean It in 3 Simple Steps

Life’s Messy – Clean It in 3 Simple Steps

Life’s messy. From spills and splatters in the kitchen and stains on clothing, through to mud splatters across the car and grubby bathrooms. But there’s no reason why life needs to remain messy. Below are 3 of the most common messes you’re likely to face on a day-to-day basis along with some simple yet effective cleaning tips.

Clean The Floors:

Roughly 80% of dirt on our floors can be removed simply by giving the area a quick vacuum, and once the floors have been vacuumed, the room can instantly look cleaner. Unfortunately, many of us fall into the trap of vacuuming around furniture rather than moving it out of the way, meaning the dirt is never completely removed.

To give your floors a thorough clean when vacuuming, not only should you move any furniture out of the way as you run your vacuum around your home, but by slowly vacuuming through your home you’ll get a better clean, as you’ll be able to pick up more dirt.

It’s also important to make sure you take advantage of the various floor tools available, such as the crevice tool, and that you regularly provide your vacuum with the correct maintenance – including emptying / replacing vacuum bags, checking the brush bar for obstructions and hoses for holes.

For an even deeper clean combine the vacuuming with steam cleaning. By using the right cleaning solution and cleaning in overlapping straight lines, you can thoroughly clean your flooring. And as an added benefit, the steam cleaner isn’t just useful for cleaning your floors. It can also be used on a multitude of surfaces around the home, including the oven, windows and taps.

Stain Removal:

As a result of everyday wear and tear, our homes and clothing can become stained. But these stains don’t need to be permanent blemishes, especially as they can be removed with relative ease and without the need for vast amounts of cleaning products.

The key to stain removal, whether you’re facing a stain on upholstery, carpets or clothing is to act quickly. It’s also worth remembering that many natural stains (those caused by milk, berries and similar products) can be removed by tackling them with warm water and some washing detergent.

Other common stains, such as tea, coffee and juice or oily stains can also be removed using everyday household products. For example to remove an oil-based stain from your carpet, place an old cloth over the stain and then run the iron on a medium heat over it. The heat should transfer the oil-based stain to the cloth.

To remove juice, tea and coffee stains from clothing, soak the stained garment in a solution of one part vinegar to two parts water for roughly half an hour, and then hang the clothing out to dry in the sun.

Car Cleaning:

Whether you’ve got a new car or you’ve had your car for a number of years, there is no reason come rain or shine why it should not shine or smell like it has just been driven off the showroom forecourt.

Achieving such a look on your driveway, needn’t be expensive – although for the perfect clean, it is likely to be time consuming. But we’re sure you’ll agree the final results are worth spending a couple of hours outside with your car, and when cleaning it there are a few do’s and don’ts, including:

I) Do work from top to bottom. By starting at the top of your car you’ll be preventing dirty water from running over areas of the car you’ve just cleaned. It’s also recommended as you work your way around your car, to keep a clean cloth in your free hand, this will prevent you from putting fingerprints over the areas you’ve just cleaned.

II) Don’t wash your car in direct sunlight or when it is hot outside. Washing your car in such conditions increases the risk of smears and streaks occurring, due to the car drying naturally before you get the chance to buff it dry.

III) Do use two buckets as you wash the car, this will prevent grit and dirt from being pushed around the bodywork. One of the buckets should have the water and car cleaning solution in, whilst the second bucket should have just clean water in. Each time you go to dip your sponge in the cleaning solution bucket, rinse it in the bucket of clean water first.

In addition to cleaning the outside of your car, to achieve the perfect showroom finish at home you need to spend as much time cleaning the interior as you do the exterior. And as part of cleaning the exterior it is recommended to regularly vacuum the seats, floor mats and interior of the boot to remove any dirt, debris or dog hair.

For the dashboards and internal door panels, a microfibre cloth is the ideal cleaning companion, due to the tiny fibres digging into the surface and lifting out the dirt.

Donna J. Seymour