Absolute must haves?

[honeysucklejasmine]

Although I've been a homeowner for many years i am still a bit rubbish at housework. Please help!

What are your must have products, and what do you use them for?

Baby wipes ... useful for everything

Anti bac wipes- bit better than baby wipes ????

Duster and polish-lavender scent, a quick spritz and freshens the piano and window sills up.

Bleach, real thick bleach to scrub the loo.

Micro fibre clothes are the best and stick them in the wash with tea towels on a hot wash once a week.

Thank you for your advice ladies.

Really good vacuum cleaner with cob web attachments.

Roomba and scooba for floors. Kärcher window vacuum cleaner thing. Lots of microfiber cloths. Hand held Dyson for awkward corners and stairs etc.

Watching!!!

J cloths. Wipes are terrible for the environment! Use J cloths, stick em in the washing machine, use them again.

YY to microfibre cloths.
A steam cleaner is a real plus if you have room to store it, good for all surfaces, tiles, sanitary ware and glass.
Vim - very old fashioned but has power to its elbow and is cheap to boot.
Also cheap, white vinegar and bicarbonate of soda - descale and refresh err things - google, lots of uses.
Soda Crystals - put in the washing machine or dishwasher on a maintenance wash.

I also highly recommend those strange white sponges that you can only use with cold water, they really do come in for all kinds of jobs
Link that's the kind I mean but you can get them from lots of different suppliers

Empty the kitchen bin each evening. Saves waking up to it.

When you absolutely can't be bothered always put ten more things away.

When the washing is dry fold and put away as much as you can immediately. Then put the pile of ironing to one side until you have about half an hour of it needing done.

As soon as the mail comes in the door file it or bin it.

Floor wipes, floor wipes, floor wipes...

Meal plan, and stick to it as much as possible, saves such a lot of faffing around time.

Great, keep them coming! Will be going to shops on Saturday to purchase!

No to wipes, they leave residue, don't clean a very big area before you have to use another one and are generally wasteful.

Yes to microfibre cloths, magic eraser block (the strange white block referred to above, I get the JML one from Homebase), handheld Dyson, Vileda squirty mop, steam cleaner.

Is the hand held dyson good then , I'd love one for the stairs but it's £££ just for that .

I have 2 discreet hooks in my kitchen. One has all of the clean face washers hanging, each morning I wet one, wipe down breakfast mess, wipe hands and faces and put it on the second hook. It continues to be used until I deem it dirty, put in the wash pile and start a "new" washer.
The dcs use these to clean up everything and know that after spills on the floor they go straight in the wash.

Ooh and enrique I bought a huge box of those magic sponges on eBay for cheap!

I got those sponges from Amazon. They are fab but disintegrate easily. (The cheap ones. The branded ones probably last ages)

If you have space left in your dishwasher then use it up with cans or jars for the recycling (my bin thanks me) or do your utensil holders, knife block, hon stands etc. I do this and never have to set a chunk of time aside to do those jobs.

Yes to magic erasers and the hand held dyson. It's £££ but so worth it.

Method cleaning spray is fantastic used with microfibre cloths.

kitchen towel and dettol spray.
For instant de-icking of the loo after small boys have been and gone

Yes to Method products as well, lovely fragrances and do a good job.

Oh yes you can get the magic erasers in loads of places, branded and non branded.
To prolong their life you're supposed to only use them with cold water and not to put them in water with any washing up liquid etc. in it, only plain water.

Hand held Dyson is brilliant. Yes it's £££££, but so handy to quickly get rid of spills/crumbs and take 5 mins (if that) to do the stairs with its special stair attachment.

Zoflora disinfectant - there are other threads on this stuff alone. Sorry can't link as on phone. Marvellous stuff!

Spray bottle with water and squirt of washing up liquid - dishcloth and a microfibre cloth to dry. Brings up shiny work tops, tiles, stainless steel back splashes lovely with no streaks. Plus it's more environmentally friendly than chemicals - and cheaper too!

I bought me muscle eraser cloths. They really don't last long but they do erase marks.

Mr. Not me!

Swiffers. I get my parents to bring them over from the US but you can get them from amazon.co.uk at a heavy markup. Also I love my Flash Power mop with sea minerals spray.

If you have a cat get one of those roll and clean litter trays.

Our shower gets mouldy so I spray it with bathroom cleaner after I've showered. Leave it a few minutes then rinse off with the shower attachment. Then it only needs a real scrubbing every few weeks.