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General Cleaning |
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There are all sorts of jobs around the house that do better for a little forward planning. Hopefully you will find some useful ideas on how to tackle those household jobs. |
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DUSTING Always start at the highest point in a room and work down so you don't dirty surfaces you have already cleaned! A feather duster or soft brush on a long handle is ideal for those hard to reach cobwebs, light shades, curtain rails and cupboard tops. A soft, slightly fluffy cloth is great for gentle dusting and can be used with spray polishes. One tip is to spray the polish onto the cloth and not the furniture as this helps stop smearing. The old fashioned "damp dust" is quite effective to remove dust and not just re-arranging where the dust is. This is achieved by using a clean soft cloth or old rag slightly moistened with water and well wrung out. The damp cloth then picks up more dust and keeps it on the cloth. Using some of these spray cleaners also does a similar job but unless a particular shine is required a damp cloth is just as effective. POLISHING When polishing furniture always try to put the polish onto the cloth and work into the wood surface in a small circular motion. A clean cloth can then be used to buff the finish to a lovely lustre. Beware with polishing metals that you use exactly the right polish for your type of metal finish. Remember that most metal polishes take of a fine layer of the surface to restore the shine. I once made a serious error by polishing a little Silver Gilt box, which has a very thin layer of gold on top of a silver base, with a gold polish and took the gold layer off in places! VACUUM CLEANERS Regular use of a vacuum cleaner is usually the best way to clean carpets collecting up dirt, grit and dust which accumulates within the carpet pile. There are now some extremely powerful machines on the market some claiming "cyclone" technology and constant suction power, others are of a more traditional stlye but these too can be very effective. Personally I have found the cyclone type (Dyson) brand machines are extremely good at maintaining suction and removing dirt, but the construction is plastic and prone to breakages fairly easily. This might be worth thinking about when choosing the most suitable machine for you. One careful owner may prefer the powerful plastic cyclone type; but if the machine has to withstand multiple users or a lot of being moved or carried around to different areas a different make might prove more durable. |
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