We have a spiritual teacher from Trinidad coming to stay overnight in the house. So we‘ve been giving the house a really good clean for his visit. I’m always amazed that he often wears white and yet manages to stay clean all day! We thought to keep his clothes that way we would have to get the tomato sauce and butter of the back of the chairs and take away the sweet wrappers that have been left on the settee by the kids.
Here are a few of the preparations we’ve been making in anticipation of his visit.
MICROWAVE
I’ve been meaning to clean out the microwave for weeks. It’s a second hand one, the one prior to this exploded in a cloud of smoke and flames a couple of weeks ago. My lads and I tried to melt candle wax in the old microwave. Now, microwaves work by agitating water molecules in food and wax doesn’t have any water content. Put those two fact together and you have a microwave that thinks it’s empty, when they are empty and switched on they tend to blow up very dramatically, as ours did! Here is a good tip for cleaning the inside of microwaves that worked very well on ours.
Put a small bowl of water in the microwave and add a slice of lemon. Turn on and boil the water so the steam wets the sides, the lemon will give it a fresh smell. After a minute or two carefully discard the water and lemon. Any dried on gunge will come off really easily with a damp cloth.
UPVC WINDOWS
We found that using bicarbonate of soda and hot water worked brilliantly on the frames of upvc windows. The cloth was wetted and rung out then dabbed into the powder; the small areas where the cloth wouldn’t fit were subjected to a toothbrush also dabbed into the powder. The glass was cleaned with just warm water and vinegar mixed applied with a newspaper. We didn’t bother putting any soap in the water at all and the glass still came up shining after a rub with dry scrunched up newspaper. (the old newspapers went on the compost heap).
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WOODWORK
We have a few pieces of woodwork that needed a good clean. Firstly there is a table that has had a few too many cups of tea placed on them. Add to that the felt tip and scratches and there’s probably not much we can do to bring it back to its former glory other than sanding it down. The table was waxed a few years ago with a mixture of 2 tablespoons of beeswax, 3 tablespoons of olive oil and 1 tablespoon of vinegar. This worked really well before so we might try that again. Another tip for getting out scratches is to use a tiny bit of walnut. Just rub into the scratch and sweep up the left-over crumbs.
The other piece of furniture that needed a good clean was an old chair left to me by my grandmother. It looks like a throne with lion’s heads at the end of the arms. The whole thing folds up for storage too. This wood is varnished so we used the following mixture as a furniture polish: Fill a small bottle (about two thirds) with oil. Either olive oil or walnut oil, it doesn’t really matter. Top up the bottle with white vinegar, (this will be the cleaning agent) and then add 20 or so drops of essential oil. We used lemon and bergamot in ours. Shake the mixture together and use sparingly with a soft cloth and use a clean one to buff up afterwards. We have just finished the chair that hasn’t been cleaned properly for years and it has come up beautifully. (Again we used a toothbrush in the intricate carving).
Even though wood in furniture was once a living thing, it doesn’t really need feeding as such, it is just a matter of stopping the wood from drying out. If spray polish is used on wood too often then it builds up and leaves your furniture looking cloudy. Once or twice a year with the mixtures we just mentioned is fine for most furniture, the rest of the time a light dusting will be enough, leaving you enough time to put your feet up. Who says housework is hard work!
Here are a few of the preparations we’ve been making in anticipation of his visit.
MICROWAVE
I’ve been meaning to clean out the microwave for weeks. It’s a second hand one, the one prior to this exploded in a cloud of smoke and flames a couple of weeks ago. My lads and I tried to melt candle wax in the old microwave. Now, microwaves work by agitating water molecules in food and wax doesn’t have any water content. Put those two fact together and you have a microwave that thinks it’s empty, when they are empty and switched on they tend to blow up very dramatically, as ours did! Here is a good tip for cleaning the inside of microwaves that worked very well on ours.
Put a small bowl of water in the microwave and add a slice of lemon. Turn on and boil the water so the steam wets the sides, the lemon will give it a fresh smell. After a minute or two carefully discard the water and lemon. Any dried on gunge will come off really easily with a damp cloth.
UPVC WINDOWS
We found that using bicarbonate of soda and hot water worked brilliantly on the frames of upvc windows. The cloth was wetted and rung out then dabbed into the powder; the small areas where the cloth wouldn’t fit were subjected to a toothbrush also dabbed into the powder. The glass was cleaned with just warm water and vinegar mixed applied with a newspaper. We didn’t bother putting any soap in the water at all and the glass still came up shining after a rub with dry scrunched up newspaper. (the old newspapers went on the compost heap).
In a hurry to clean? Check out the new E-Book
WOODWORK
We have a few pieces of woodwork that needed a good clean. Firstly there is a table that has had a few too many cups of tea placed on them. Add to that the felt tip and scratches and there’s probably not much we can do to bring it back to its former glory other than sanding it down. The table was waxed a few years ago with a mixture of 2 tablespoons of beeswax, 3 tablespoons of olive oil and 1 tablespoon of vinegar. This worked really well before so we might try that again. Another tip for getting out scratches is to use a tiny bit of walnut. Just rub into the scratch and sweep up the left-over crumbs.
The other piece of furniture that needed a good clean was an old chair left to me by my grandmother. It looks like a throne with lion’s heads at the end of the arms. The whole thing folds up for storage too. This wood is varnished so we used the following mixture as a furniture polish: Fill a small bottle (about two thirds) with oil. Either olive oil or walnut oil, it doesn’t really matter. Top up the bottle with white vinegar, (this will be the cleaning agent) and then add 20 or so drops of essential oil. We used lemon and bergamot in ours. Shake the mixture together and use sparingly with a soft cloth and use a clean one to buff up afterwards. We have just finished the chair that hasn’t been cleaned properly for years and it has come up beautifully. (Again we used a toothbrush in the intricate carving).
Even though wood in furniture was once a living thing, it doesn’t really need feeding as such, it is just a matter of stopping the wood from drying out. If spray polish is used on wood too often then it builds up and leaves your furniture looking cloudy. Once or twice a year with the mixtures we just mentioned is fine for most furniture, the rest of the time a light dusting will be enough, leaving you enough time to put your feet up. Who says housework is hard work!
Household.
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