Author: Samantha

What do we mean by the phrase basic cleaning?  One woman’s basic is another woman’s uphill struggle.  I have pals & family members who are obsessively tidy.  I, always busy with volunteering activities and thus out of the house rather a lot, have managed to get to a reasonably great age with just a tidy home and no one dying of any unfortunate diseases along the way.  The cleaning part of needs a certain set of activities.  When I first get up, I shower, do teeth, get face & body lotioned,  every carton & tube is put away in the cabinets after use and then I can give everywhere a quick but effective wash down and dry/polish with clean e-cloth.   I start with the shower tray, cubicle, basin and loo.   Then I tidy up the pile of flannels and the towels and before exiting the ensuite, I make sure everything is clean & tidy.  I then make the bed and dress myself before tackling my essential exercise routines.   I need that ‘me’ time to function and a tidy ensuite before the day starts in earnest is calming for me.

Cleaning the average family home does not have to be that daunting never-ending task we so often imagine it to be.  It does not need to be classed as just another time-consuming chore either.  The main thrust to managing these household duties is to design an easy to follow routine that includes all the most important tasks.  Following a quick and easy to remember routine or schedule will ease the operator and they may even get to enjoy the regularity of certain tasks.   The first task is to set up a cleaning routine that notes what must happen in every area of the house to achieve the result you seek.  So walking round each room, clipboard in hand is essential.  List each room in a sensible sequence and list the tasks that must be dealt with.  Note also, every visit, or once a week for this and twice a week for that.    Remembering things like light fixtures and curtain rails, the out of reach items are so often also out of mind ones.   The best way to look at a room is to stand in the doorway with view of the entire room, going slowly from left to right and on the way back include the up and down view.

I have always worked full time, which here means at least 37 hours a week.   Then with the commuting time of over an hour each way per day, that takes quite a chunk out of my day which I could use to keep myself on top of the endless amount of housework needed.  There are sites offering advice on cleaning rotas and programmes to ensure the house is kept in good order, or visitor ready.  Of course, we all differ here.  I found the best thing to keep my sanity and feel I am on top of the situation is to keep my ensuite, family bathroom and kitchen sink areas as clean, shiny and spotless as possible.  So after my ablutions, I swab around the basin, using the best limescale removing cleaner spray known to mankind.  A little light spray on all areas followed by a swill around with cloth rinsed in hot water, will take off the spray and grime deposits.  I then rinse again with the cloth and finally dry it off with an e cloth – it is incredible how one spray can make even twenty year old chromeware buff up to a brand new shine, and the porcelain basins too.

We lived with my Nan when we couldn’t join our parents on overseas postings.   Nan used to keep the house spotless – no mean task with three small grandchildren racing about creating mayhem.  I particularly recall following her about and watching each task be carried out in an invariable routine.   The rugs were hung over the washing line to air and be pummelled ;  rubbish bins were emptied first with used ashtrays and these were then rinsed out and left to dry.  In her own bed sitting room, she had a real fire with a huge grate.  The routine was always to clean out the ashes into a special long handled dust pan – these were still hot and had to be handled carefully so as not to drop any on the lino or carpet.   The empty grate was then swept thoroughly and washed with hot suds – rinsed and all surfaces, metal and ceramic, dried vigorously to a very bright shine.  All that before the beating of the rugs to get out the rest of the dust.  So much easier today with central heating,  vacuum cleaners and spray floor mops!

When I was on a specialist project a few years ago, it required my team to stay over in hotels in a varieyof large towns.  Because of the size of he towns, it pretty much guaranteed the hotels would be of a good brand and so we had excellen services.  In those halcyon days we used to be able to bribe the housekeeping staff to let us have extra biscuits with the tea supplies and even more importantly, additional towels and toiletries in the bathrooms.  It was always fab to return to our rooms after a fraught day in whichever office we’d been allotted to.  The beds would be immaculately remade, the room tidied.  The bathrooms were always sparkling clean and rhar was a comfort.    I watched my room steward one day, it was great seeing him in action, the speed and accuracy of the cleaning method was awe inspiring.  I still carry out the same modus aoperandi now that I’m away from hotels and have to do all my own cleaning.

I have difficulty concentrating on cleaning – it’s not an obsession of mine.  Unlike my two sisters who live for the hour they can justify getting out their vacuums and cleaning buckets.   I like to potter and clean a room at a time, not necessarily all on the same day.  I get distracted by magazines or books and it can take a while to complete the job.  But I do always have a sparkling clean kitchen, ensuite and main bathroom.  The other rooms get tidied and spruced up roughly weekly and if I’d used any room for more than just passing through, it get the cushions plumped up and bins emptied next day.  Whereas the kitchen and washrooms are very deear to me.  More money has been spent on their refurbishments than any other spot here!  I like all the sinks and basins to be really clean and sparkling.  The Taps have to really shine back at me & for this I have to use a well known brand of limescale remover to clean up – we live in an unbelievably grim area for hard water deposits.   It makes every area just look horrendously grubby.

You can be absolutely sure that if you need an example of very basic cleaing, you need to look no further than my neighbout.  Boy oh boy he has a unique view on the subject of clean and tidy.  I know that he had a weekly housekeeper for some years – an amazing woman who ‘bottomed’ out his house every Tuesday.  That’s to say she started upstairs by changing any beds used since her last visit.  All the bedding was laundered and whilst drying, she’d strip out the bathroom and bedroom with vacuum duster around every surface, then the floor.  After that was bucket of hot lightly bleached water;  Household gloves on, she’d wipe down every surface, aover the bed head, window sills, everywhere.  That was the morning done.  The afternoon was downstairs.  Bucket loads of hot water used in her valient efforts.  Whatever he paid her, she was worth ten times!  When he got a resue dog, it seemed to uset the balance and she suddenly rturned his housekey and left a strange note to say she could no longer copy’.  Poor man has never been the same since.  Nor has his house.

We have all got rather used to just reaching out for the latest in cleaning sprays.  As soon as something gets spilt, or we do any kind of food prep, out comes the sponge and a spray.  I do know someone who has worried about just how much spray cleaner she’s been using up.  Her solution – in mor ways than one, is to mix ordinary kitchen soda crystals with white vinegar.  Ironically she uses up an empty spray bottle, puts her mixture in and shakes it vigoriously.  I’ve stayed over at her very large house, and I have to say that it does seem to work just as effectively as any of the commercially boughr ones.  She did warn me not to spray it on a surface with wet bleach nearby because of the fumes mixing.  Not a good thought, but on the whole, her home made spray is a very good example of how to cut down on chemicals – or at least some shop bought ones.

When I was staying over with a much younger relative I happened to notice how very clean and sparkly her worktop and hob were.  I didn’t mean to express such surprise but she doesn’t normally spend an excessive amount of her time in the cleaning zone because she employed a cleaner who managed to make it look like that every Monday.   However this was now Friday and well . . .   However her cleaner has retired and she is now dealing with matters first hand starting by replacing several products with one spray of white vinegar and soda crystal mixed together.  Well shaken it makes a very good cleaner.  Warnings not to add any bleach were ushered mind you – mention of explosive mix!  I have to say that I found the spray did work very effectively and although it isn’t a pretty colour and doesn’t have an attractive aroma, the cheapness, ease of use and good finish makes it a good swap.  I couldn’t do without the product that gets the limescale off though.  We live in very hard water area!

For some people, cleaning up for hours at a time is totally therapeutic and they absolutely love it.   A life time ago, I used to live in a large house that had been turned into flats.  One of my ‘floor mates’ was a nurse and she revelled in her evening off.   From the yanking out of the furniture into the centre of the room to rolling up the rugs, she could be heard singing heartily as she worked.  We were all familiar with every stage of Operation Bottoming Out, from lugging all her rugs down to the landlady’s garden to be hung over the washing line ready for a beating – I think she used to take out her grievances with Matron just for twenty minutes or so.  After that excitement we had dusting of every surface she could reach.  Then the long handled duster for those she couldn’t. . .  The metal mop bucket was then lugged around with steaming hot water into which was poured enough floral wafting disinfectant to kill off a pandemic – ho ho, she could have killed off Covid19 in a heartbeat!  Her grotty little kitchenette used to sparkle all the time.  Shame her enthusiastic endeavours failed to make satisfactory impression on my cleaning skills!