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Category: Home Interior Tips

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Grey Laundry

Had a question recently submitted asking about grey or dull clothes after washing.

Besides just having old or worn out items of clothes that you just can’™t bear to part with here are some ideas to address grey or yellowing in your laundry:

  • Try increasing the amount of detergent, depending on the hardness of your water you would need more or less detergent.
  • Increase the temperature or use bleach for whites.
  • Use a color safe bleach for colors.
  • Try using a bluing agent to brighten up laundry too.  Some popular bluing agents are Mrs. Stewart, Bluette, and Reckitts blue.

Natural Laundry Whitening Tips

Baking Soda

To whiten clothing with baking soda, add about ½ cup into the wash plus your regular detergent. Clothes will come out whiter and brighter without chemicals.

Vinegar

Vinegar is another wonder ingredient you can use to whiten clothes naturally without bleach. If the smell scares you, don’t worry, your clothes won’t smell like vinegar. The smell may linger in your washing machine for a bit but your clothes won’t smell.

Simply add about ¾ cup of vinegar to your wash along with your regular detergent to whiten clothes naturally without bleach.

Hydrogen Peroxide

Hydrogen Peroxide is an excellent alternative to bleach and can be used successfully to whiten clothes naturally without bleach.

Add about ½ cup to your wash with regular detergent and your clothes will come out as whiter than ever.

Borax

Borax is often advertised as a laundry brightener and can be found in your grocery store’s laundry aisle. It’s a naturally occurring mineral that has long been valued for its whitening properties. Borax is used in all sorts of natural cleaning products. I use it to clean anything from toilets to dishes. But most of all, it will whiten clothes naturally without bleach.

Add about ½ cup of Borax to a regular load of laundry, along with your regular detergent for whiter, brighter clothes instantly.

Sunlight

That’s right!  Sunlight is one of the best tools we have available to whiten clothes naturally without bleach. If you have a clothes line, simply hang your clothing out to dry in the warm sun. The sun will whiten and  refresh your clothes like nothing else.

For the best whitening results, wash your clothes with regular detergent plus one of the above mentioned natural laundry whiteners. Then, hang the clothes out to dry in the sun. You’ll be amazed at how much whiter they are and it was all done without bleach or harsh chemicals.

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Carpet cleaning general tips

Really the number one best remedy is to act very quickly.  This is the best way to treat any stain. In fact this weekend I was painting my daughters room when I carelessly rolled the paint roller onto the carpet, not just a little drop of paint either.  I left at least a 3 by 2 inch blotch of paint on the carpet.  So immediately I grab several terry towels and cleaning cloths and a cup of water (thankfully the paint was water based).  I blot up with the dry terry cleaning towel, and then apply water to the stain and blot using a dry towel until the stain was completely removed.  This took several applications of a little water and blotting action with the dry towels.  Leaving this stain for any amount of time would have left the carpet with a permanent purple stain.  However the quick action left no evidence of my carelessness.

Here are some other general carpet cleaning tips:

Blot or scrape up if the spill is thicker than a regular liquid (cat vomit etc.), remove as much as you can this first.

Never scrub or rub a spill, you will end up spreading and pushing the stain deeper.

Apply water or stain remover from the outside in on the stain and blot up…

If you use a stain remover test a small spot first in an unseen area to be sure its safe on your carpet.  However if you act right away most stains can be cleaning with water and a small amount of dish detergent mixed in, then rinse with plain water.

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Soapstone Countertops

Immediately wipe the spill using fresh cleaning cloths and a neutral cleaner. Soapstone stains easily.  Avoid abrasive cleaners, bleach, oil,  vinegar or acidic cleaners, ammonia. Always rinse with clean water to avoid residue.

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Light Switchplates

Light switch plates are an excellent place for germs to spread from family member to family member.  Take the time to wipe these down with the regular cleaning chores.  Spray a general purpose cleaner on a cleaning cloth and wipe.  Don’t ever spray the switch plate directly or use too much water since you are close to a power source.  For heavy restorative cleaning, I have taken switch plates off the wall, washed them in the dishwasher and then put them back.  Door jams are also often over looked for cleaning and they are often touched by people, mostly children going in and out of rooms.

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Pet hair driving you crazy?

I recently received an email asking how to control out of control pet hair…

Here are some ideas to help reduce the amount of hair in the house.  Unfortunately they all involve extra work.  I love my pets but hate all the extra hair in the house.  The first step is to groom or brush the pet outdoors, a simple but effective way yo reduce pet hair.  Cover pillows and mattresses with dustmite covers, which are also resistant to hairs getting stuck to them.  Use a HEPA filter in your living areas (family room etc) and use a vacuum with HEPA or a high level of filtration, cheap vacuums don’t pick up the finer particles of dust and or hair as well.

When dusting use a slightly damp cloth to more effectively remove the hairs. Also a big help is the removal of carpets and installation of hard floors.  Its far easier to see the hair, although you will end up vacuuming more (seems like I have to vacuum almost everyday or every other day).  But you will have a cleaner and more dust and hair free home.

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Glass cooktops

Here is a excellent tip submitted by Lisa, I have never seen the name brand of cooktop cleaner in my area but I will definitely look for it based on Lisa recommendation.

I clean houses for a living, and the best way to clean a glass cooktop is to purchase a bottle of Weiman Glass Cooktop Cleaner. Squirt a generous amount onto the cooktop and spread around with a wet paper towel then wipe off with a dry paper towel until the cooktop shines. For cooked on stains, VERY CAREFULLY use a paring knife or other knife with a sharp, straight edge held almost parallel to the surface to scrape the residue from the surface before removing the cleaner with the dry paper towel. You may have to use more cleaner or wipe it away and reapply it to get everything. This works extremely well, and I have had clients ask me how I get their cooktop so clean.

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Cleaning Ceramic or Glass Cooktops

I find glass cooktops & ceramic cooktops especially difficult.  They look so nice before you use them but I have never seen one that looks that way after even a small amount of use.  Even 6 months of mild use leaves them looking less than perfect. The best recommendation is to never let food overcook or spill on the hot cooktop.  Maybe having a super thick terry towel that you wet down so you can wipe a hot cooktop when you spill something but I am not sure that is realistic. When its cool super easy to remove spills but hot cooktop translates to more difficulty removing stains.  Use the manufacture recommended cleaning solution for glass cooktops and ceramic cooktops cleaning. Otherwise use a non abrasive cleaner and nonabrasive scrubber.  I have seen very badly stained glass cooktops where you have to use a more aggressive approach like oven cleaner and a plastic scrubber and you can restore those to some degree.  My opinion as someone who has seen many many glass cooktops, is not to buy one unless you don’t cook much.

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Coffee Stains on Clothes

Remove coffee stains from clothes : If you spill coffee on  clothes or fabric rule number one is to rinse with cool water.  For just plain black coffee blot with cool water and or rinse.  If you don’t have a chance to get to the stain quickly you may have some additional steps. Try blotting with mild detergent and rinsing with cool water.  For coffee with milk or cream blot or pre-treat with enzyme based pre-spotter and launder.  Always inspect the fabric before drying, drying in dryer will often set the coffee stain.  Even if you don’t have time to try a second attempt at removing the stain allowing the fabric to air dry will give you another chance at removing the coffee stain stain later.

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Cleaning Kids Toys :Kids toys smelling worse than the kids….

Cleaning Kids Toys

Lets face it kids are not really clean or neat.  They put their hands in all kinds of creative places and then play with their toys and or put their hands all over your face to share the love (and or germs).  Here are some ideas for cleaning kids toys. Bath toys or wash plastic toys with warm soap and water, or even the top rack of the dishwasher if they don’t have movable parts.

I usually wash soft toys in the washing machine (double check instruction label) on the delicate cycle.  You can place them in a pillowcase and tie off the top for extra protection.  For toys with electronics or ones that cant be washed use a cloth with worm water and soap and wipe the surface.  For the parts with harder surfaces I use a magic eraser and rinse or wipe off residue with a cloth and plain water.

To be fair there should be some kind of warning system before you have kids saying you will be scrubbing and cleaning endlessly after them until the day they move out (and sometimes after), at least with prior knowledge maybe it would be slightly more bearable.  Instead we have to wait until the kids have children before they appreciate the extent of the labour required to raise them.

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