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Simple Green Domestic Cleaning Ideas To Keep Your London Home Nice and Tidy

Sustainability and environmental awareness is something on everybody’s radar these days. As a matter of fact, it’s been on the radar for at least the last 30 years, if not longer. However, we’re all learning more and more about the spate of problems that the environment’s facing – and we’re part of that environment, so what it faces, we face as well.

Domestic Cleaning Within London Congestion Charge Zone

If everybody did just one or two things to be greener and more sustainable on a regular basis, this would add up to a huge difference over time (London’s Congestion Charge and ULEZ zones are a great example) – just like steps in the wrong direction do. And what better place to be green than in your home when you clean it? After all, if you’re thinking about your immediate environment, caring for it and making it clean, why not do a few things to look after the wider environment at the same time?

To get you started, here’s a few ideas that you might like to try when you clean your home.

Use Rags, Not Paper Towels

Paper towels are handy, they’re super-absorbent, they clean up just about anything… and they’re a nightmare from the waste perspective. You can’t recycle them, even though they’re paper because they’re covered in whatever muck you just wiped up. You definitely shouldn’t flush them down the toilet because they’re much sturdier than toilet paper and they don’t break down in the sewer system as well, resulting in some very nasty blockages that some poor person has to fix. You could possibly compost them, as they are biodegradable, which is probably the best option. Or if you’ve got a fireplace, you could burn the old paper towels in your very own waste-to-energy programme.

Use cloths when cleaning your house

However, you could skip the whole disposal problem – and save yourself a bit of money at the same time – by using rags for wiping up bits around your home. This is what professional London domestic cleaners do – it helps keep the costs down, which is a bonus for everybody. Not that you have to do out and spend money on buying cleaning cloths. Any old cotton or cotton blend fabric will do the job – old T-shirts, old towels, frayed sheets and the like. As an added bonus, you’ll be keeping tatty old fabrics out of the waste stream. Cleaning rags last for ages and they can be tossed into the washing machine and reused for years (I think I’ve got some in my cleaning cupboard that have been used for over five years and they’re still going strong).

It can be a good idea to have one set of rags for foul and mucky jobs, and another set for things like dusting or wiping down countertops. Find a system that works for you – old towels for toilets, for example, and sheets for the kitchen, for example. Or use colour or size as a guideline.

Rags can also be used for cleaning windows and glass, as they don’t shed scraps of paper on the surface like paper towels do. Just make sure that they’re free from lint!

Don’t Wash Clothes As Often

A lot of our clothes have synthetic blends in them. However, little scraps of synthetic fibre – which is a type of plastic – work their way out of the fabric and into the water system, where they don’t break down. They do this every time you wash them. The answer is to only wash things when you actually have to, which helps reduce the amount of plastic buzzing around in the water. You can wear shirts, jumpers, skirts and trousers at least two days in a row and you won’t smell (socks and undies are a different story!).

Compost The Dirt

It can be tempting to just throw the dust you’ve swept from the floor into the dustbin. The same goes for the lint from the washing machine and the contents of the vacuum cleaner. However, if you’ve got a compost heap or compost bin (or have access to a community one – we need more community compost facilities!) then this is where those big balls of fluff and hair ought to go. Most of the dust in our homes is skin particles and shed hairs, and this is great for your garden, as it’s rich in nitrogen for leafy growth.

Switch To Natural Cleaning Products

You can ditch a lot of those commercial cleaning products they wave in front of us on the supermarket shelves. The truth is that you can do a perfectly good job of cleaning your home using natural and renewable products. Don’t forget water in the list of natural cleaners alongside things like baking soda, salt and vinegar. Water is the closest thing we have to a universal solvent and all that a lot of those commercial cleaning products to is to increase the wetting power of water by breaking its surface tension. In fact, professional window cleaners use just water (well, pure de-ionised water and a good amount of elbow grease!) when they wash windows with those big old telescopic reach and wash window cleaning machines. Water doesn’t leave a residue and it’s readily available. In London this is of a particular advantage due to the large number of high-rise buildings. And (I think) London leads the green wave in the UK. But don’t quote me on that last fact 😉

Green Cleaning with Vinegar

The other bonus about using natural cleaners is that they’re a lot safer not just for you but also for your children and pets. Vinegar and baking soda are safe to eat, though not very nice to taste on their own. This means that you can let even small children use them safely and start them off on a lifetime of good home cleaning habits!

Although it’s debateable because of palm oil, I’d include soap in the list of natural cleaners because some use tallow (an animal by-product) and others use vegetable oil. It’s detergent that uses mineral oil – a fossil fuel by-product. Palm oil does have some environmental problems but at least it comes from a plant source and sustainably managed plantations are possible; it’s the least of two evils, if you ask me. Other natural cleaners you can use around your home include salt, alcoholic spirits (e.g. vodka) and lemon juice – although you’ll need your own tree and a surplus of lemons if you want to use lemons for cleaning.

Dry Naturally

One of the big consumers of electricity (which has to be generated somehow!) in many homes is the clothes dryer. You can save a ton of electricity, which frees some up for use in electric vehicles, as well as saving yourself a fair bit on your power bill by drying clothes naturally. If you have the space in the garden, then a good old-fashioned washing line can do the job beautifully. If the weather’s unpredictable as London weather goesand/or you don’t have much space, then one of those folding clotheshorses does the trick. As an added bonus, you don’t have problems with excess heat shrinking woollens, and you don’t get that annoying static cling either. Bonus hack: hang shirts up on hangers and they’ll naturally fall mostly wrinkle-free and be a breeze to put away!

Ditch The Air Fresheners

The synthetic perfumes in air fresheners of the sort that get used in toilets are pretty vile for the environment and for you. Kick them to the kerb and don’t buy any more of them!

However, you may want to do something about the pong in the smallest room of the house. The simplest method is just to open the window and let in some fresh air! However, you can also make your own sprays from water, a little vinegar and a few drops of essential oil.

To get nice smells in the rest of the house, instead of relying on those sprayed room scents or those ones that plug in and put out a puff of synthetic scent every few minutes, use diffusers, fresh flowers, essential oil burners, scented candles or just enjoy the smell of cooking.

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Happy Home Cleaning – How To Boost Our Motivation?

Home Cleaning Tasks

For some people, everyday tasks are tedious, stressful and exhausting, for the others-a possibility for experiments and creativity.

Change The Viewpoint For The Routine Tasks

People who can transform the current situation and manage their lives with happiness possess different sight. It is a blessing to take care of your home. Enjoy the fact you have your own special zone. Everybody who improves a house must be thankful and glad because the place where we live and sleep is much more from just dwellings and building. Yes, I know, in most cases, home care is not the most relaxing thing in the world, but I have good news-everything is in our mind. Brain centres can govern the desired reality and the way we feel when working hard on something.

Getting kids to help with the house cleaning

Introduce The Best Of Yourself Through Pretty Environment

Beautiful pictures, old photos, sentimental presents, souvenirs and decor choices are a part of you and your inner world. So when cleaning and maintaining our possessions, we manage the innermost potential to be in harmony with everything around us. Home is a marvellous way to represent ”the colours” of our personality, to share it with the rest and mostly with favourite people. Our house is a native reflection of past, memories, future and dreams, the united alloy of human nature.

Be Grateful For The Home You Have

When I must complete an everyday activity concern with washing, brushing, stain removal, vacuuming, window cleaning, carpet care, disinfecting and so on, I prefer to be grateful for that chance. If I have a million tasks linked with children, husband, and healthy, tidy environment, my inner voice whispers to me that I am a happy individual who gets the mission to create, design and improve the indoor atmosphere. All that means devotion and sharing.

How To Be More Organised?

Make a plan in mind but then write down the tasks; in which days you prefer to complete them. When you have a list and schedule, believe – everything would be different.

One more helpful suggestion that keeps my energy and protects me from disorganised movements and excess waste of time-the magic station for all of the necessary supplies such as a bucket, basket or caddy. That is useful and simple, so try to make it a habit, especially to larger spaces and extensive homes.

Home cleaning ideas

One of the essential rules before cleaning is to remove everything unnecessary. Pick up and put away. Use baskets to place the items. Do not lose your inner energy and concentration in tidying now. According to the experts, what makes home maintaining so hard, unpleasant and time-wasting is that maybe we have too much lying around us. Decluttering process before the essential part of the purifying job will hold you calm and productive. That certainly makes the chores more comfortable and faster.

Is It possible To Boost Our Motivation For Cleaning?

I know very well that when we manage to organise thoughts and purposes, focusing on specific tasks and their details, our personality becomes more committed and motivated, effective and happy – your home merit to such an inner power. The festive mood is the secret of each well-done job. Find the mechanisms to boost your energy; start and finish washing, maintaining, decluttering or what else with the philosophy you are the leaders of your life. You can create personal space and mind power while struggling for the dreams and favourite people. Your family would be glad to see you smiled and engaged with the united atmosphere and purposes.

Open windows and switch on music; make an enjoyable cleaning time for yourself. That is not crazy. It is merely the ability to fulfil life with pleasure and to see in the difficulties only chances to be a better version of yourself, indeed. Besides that, I can’t endure routine. I am striving to escape its matrix: transform the ordinary tasks, experiment with homemade cleaning solutions, hire professionals for support, etc. There are plenty of creative and extraordinary ways to avoid routine, even when feeling like you are under an enormous pile of tedious obligations. Everybody has rights, especially when it comes for a recipe for wellbeing and our inspiration to seek it.

Why not divide cleaning tasks into urgent and not urgent, or into daily, weekly, monthly? We may plan our spare time. Think about which weekend it would be better to wash the entire home or complete small maintaining tasks. Consider how to travel more often and to be a part of outside family activities, for example.

Instead Of Conclusion

Do you want to be perfect? Me too but it is almost impossible. Otherwise, I need to keep my home space pleasant and purified, so prefer to disinfect the frequently touched areas on a daily base, refresh the bedding twice a week, and mop or steam clean the high-traffic zones every evening. When that is a regular habit, it is easy to be calm and form your inner comfort. Another trick is to rely from time to time on a reliable and time-tested professional company.

Clean Home = Happy Home

Voila, everything can be perfect when we are flexible, open-minded and optimistic. 🙂

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How To Remove Mould – The Art Of The Responsible And Well Organised Housekeeping

No matter what type of climate we live in, mould spores are in the air, in the dwellings, over the surfaces, in the cupboards, among the tiles. Their dangerous power is hinging over daily routine and requires everyday care and responsible cleaning habits.

The truth is that some of the mould microorganisms are wholesome for the human being, but the rest could be extremely harmful to the respiratory system. In most of the cases, mildew is the type of mould which very successfully usually find suitable soil to grow and spread at home. It is a surface structure, loves warm, humidity an lack of light. Bathroom and storage spaces are the paradise of that typical domestic bacteria.

Damp attics or basements, hiring among the fabrics and books, they are an invisible enemy and make the indoor air stuffy, muggy, heavy and causes not only respiratory complains, but also stress, negative attitude, depressive tendencies in human behaviour.

Mildew cells begin as a powdery colony, which is with white or grey colour and also are extremely volatile. They can be removed for seconds in case the home, appliances and items around are regularly maintained. If the household is neglected, there is an obvious risk for the mildew to become brown and difficult for cleaning.

Photo by © Andrew Ratto

When you notice such a soil nearby the prompt reaction would be the best you can do. Mildew growth is an extremely rapid process and can cause you only stress and hours hard scrubbing to get rid of their colony and colouration they may leave over the items. You can treat the spots with a cotton swab dipped in chlorine bleach.

Be sure that musty odours are intrusive and certainly you have to find their source. A high concentration of mould can be found somewhere you piled textile items and often forget to air the space. Always be aware that water can turn into mildew very easy. Dry everything you wash and remember to throw away damp towels, dirty rags or to clean them as soon as possible.

An indoor hot environment devoid of dynamic processes of life and motion, compressed between the walls, windows, shelves, cupboards is the perfect soil for humidity and mildew growth and development. Such microorganisms love the darkness, so the sunlight and air flows are the way you can protect all of the dwellings at home.

There are moulds which are very unpleasant, harmful for the surfaces and dangerous for human health. Besides that they damage the material structures, moulds also can cause irreversible processes of rotting. Be careful when you clean black or green mould. Wear a mask and gloves to protect the skin, eyes and respiratory system.

Photo by © Jason Rogers

If the mould covers 10 square feet or more, you need professional support. Consider hiring a cleaning company because the spores are toxic and can cause severe problems. A large number of mould colonies require a huge amount of heavy-duty chemicals.

Proper facility management includes knowledge for the state of the art know-how methods and technologies for cleaning and organising. The good home maintenance requires also an eco-friendly attitude towards the indoor environment if we want to keep it not only cosy and beautiful but healthy and well ventilated. So to ensure more space and air in the dwellings it would be necessary to reorganise our mind, to think more for the home improvements, to apply some green cleaning ideas and organizing tricks.

How to keep your house free of moisture, mildew and unpleasant odours? Here are some simple ideas:

Improve the way you store your clothes, blankets, beddings, carpets and other possessions.

Photo by © Magnus D

Increase the level of humidity control.

Maintain the fans and ventilation systems in their best condition to improve the air quality in the dwellings and to protect your home from dust.

Steam cleaner and vacuum should be your best supports to achieve the main housekeeping goals. Use them more than twice a week. Clean the entrances, halls and bedrooms with a huge responsibility.

Use natural washing products.

Rely on DIY cleaning projects.

Dry completely when you finish home maintaining processes.

Avoid strong scents.

Everyday garbage disposal is recommended.

Make your home cleaning schedule to avoid postponements.

Write a list of the often forgotten home zones which require special attention and more time for maintaining.

Stay the windows wide open as long as you can during the sunny part of the day.

Photo by © Preconscious Eye

Hire a professional cleaning company for the entire home or for those duties you haven’t enough time.

These first steps would help you to organise a new kind of daily routine and habits. Your personal and home comfort need to:

– control the moisture to prevent your health, furniture and items around

– to reduce the risk factors for mildew growth and bad odours

– to eliminate pest infestation

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A Small Inspiration For Big Decluttering Changes At Home

When I clean my home I always look around and think gently about beautiful options for better-organized pieces of stuff, pleasing redesigned dwellings and unique harmony in the home environment. I engage with the mission to avoid the kids’ clutter in every room and try to get the most out of my house ideas for paring down the creativity mess. I believe that the cleanliness, the special attitude towards space and the positive inner mood in the daily routine tasks help us to be open mind and thankful for the moments nowadays. The keys for pleasant home and happier life.

Maybe quite the opposite to the decluttered home style is the rustic decor style. Some people swear by it, other can’t stand it but hey, can’t blame people for what they like. See the nice rustic style bedroom below and let me know what do you think in the comments.

A very clear example of how decluttering can transform completely the look of any room is this picture of a wedding ceremony decor (below). If you notice the arrangement of everything is perfect and not cluttered at all. Still the place for setting the foundations of this future home of the young couple looks very attractive, beautiful and cosy.

I would like to share a simple trick for inspiration and creativity at your home and to convince you that the organizing ideas are not out of your reach. You don’t need a bag full of a big amount of cash to design and reorganize. The most important thing is the feeling, the emotion and your creativity will wake up. Consider your home like an exotic destination you have to explore. Imagine that when you reorganize the furniture and some interior details, you are a magic wizard who transforms the space and makes something different – with love, painstaking and fancy ideas.

All these efforts will make your children excited because they love everything new. Your organizing ideas should be the perfect base for home adventures for all of the family members.

A home full of smiles and space rich of ideas!