Any wise housekeeping tips - put them in here!

[pgwithnumber3]

Mine is:

Soak all your baking trays and grill/oven components in Biological Washing Powder and boiling hot water for a couple of hours. It lifts all the grease off with no effort at all. Then use a scourer to lift the last stubborn bits off.

Don't bother buying loads of chemical cleaners, just use stardrops and invest in an E-cloth.

Please feel free to add...

E- cloth is fantastic; cleaned all my grubby kitchen walls by just wiping down, no chemicals.

Would be interested to know what others think about steam cleaners for carpets, tiles etc as I'm thinking of buying one.

Try and finish a job as soon as you have started it, otherwise your house will look like mine with hundreds of half completed jobs which take twice the time to do, and stuff everywhere...

Pgwithnumber3: what are stardrops? I have been considering the E-cloth for quite a while now....

Frockhorror: i decided to sort out my LO's toys today. I am a childminder so there are tons of the stuff. Fortunately OH and LO have gone out for a few hours so it will make sorting and tidying easier, but you are 100% correct. All too often I start a huge job and then run out of time or impetus. Or interest!

Lemons

Half fill a microwave safe dish/bowl with water and float half a lemon in it. (don't cover)
Place in the microwave and turn on full power for 2 mins.
Brilliant way to get stuck on baked beans and the likes from inside the microwave.
Plus it smells lovely! (bring half a lemon to the boil on your hob for a nice lemony air freshner too)

You can also put half a lemon in your dishwasher (just stick it on a prongy bit where the plates go)
Makes the dishes sparkle.

ludaloo are you a lemon importer???

Keep your soaps in your clothes drawers not in the bathroom - they will scent the drawer nicely and harden up - thus lasting longer when you do use them!!

Keep a shower cleaner spray (Method if you are eco friendly) in your shower cubicle/by the side of the bath.

Everytime you have a shower, spray the screen, and leave it.

I guarantee you will never have to scrub your shower screen clean again.

Break up jobs into easily digestable chunks, don't try to tackle everything in one go.

Distilled vinegar makes a great cleaner, and it's cheap (50p 1/2 l)

Cleaning the windows with newspaper really does work.

NumberFour this is Stardrops! It is around 75p in all the supermarkets, I use it wash floors, bathrooms, tiles, worktops. I only buy that and window cleaner now. So much cheaper.

Train others in your house to do the housework.

racingsnake, I have a steam cleaner and an expensive one as well, they are okay, wouldn't truly recommend one. You would be better hiring a rug doctor or similar carpet cleaner. Steamers don't really shift stains, just seems to revitalise the carpet/rugs.

thanks, pgwithnumber3. i will look out for it. never heard of it or seen it before.

By Heck...Stardrops! my mum used to get that when I was a kid. It used to come in a glass bottle if I remember rightly

That and Zoflora disinfectant

Don't do bits and bobs. This means one parto f house is clean and tidy while rst isn't.
Set aside 1 day a month when you do whole house top to bottom.

do things regularly

weekly cleaning takes half the time of fortnightly and so on

If you've got a glass shower door get a little squeegee glass cleaner thingy and leave it by the shower,then scrape off the water drops when you've had a shower, no water marks. lakeland do one

HeadFairy, I do that, my shower is always sparkling. Even if one of us doesn't do it once, the shower looks horrible. Hard work remember to do it though, I am usually found dripping wet and naked squeeging up and down my shower cubicle. The sight must be terrific.

I do the same, I don't even get out of the shower, just do it dripping wet and naked as the day I was born We've got such hard water if I didn't do it daily we'd have a layer of white crust a metre thick in a week!

Do not use the washing basket as a set of drawers. It drives you nuts - just PUT THE WASHING AWAYYYYY. At this point i should be leaving mumsnet to attend to the TWO basket loads migrating all over my floor. But nooo, i'm still here, reading about vinegar. Does that put your clothes away too?

Keep an old bank card with your cleaning stuff. They are great for scraping off

Candlewax
Playdough
PVA glue
Plastercine

Any other stuff that welds itself to hard surfaces

and stick a couple of the DCs old toothbrushes in there for cleaning difficult to reach bits

Use lemon to take limescale off your taps.

Baby wipes for dusting.

Perfect amoint of moisture.

-- just try and find one that is scent-free or your whole house will smell like a baby's arse.

amoint amount !!