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How to Keep the House Clean in the Summer

With a flurry of kids coming in and out of the house all summer long, how do you keep the dirt, the mud, the sand, and yes, even the water out of your home? Sometimes I will settle for just getting the dirt cleaned up enough that it doesn’t permanently damage the carpets or flooring. Beside the damage from spills, carpets can become matted and hard floors can become scratched by dirt and grit. There has to be a balance between having a relaxed summer home and spending all of your time cleaning up. We want to reduce the clean … Continue reading →

Keeping Your Indoor Air Clean

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How can you keep your indoor air clean? Here are a few less conventional tips and a reminder of the dos and don’ts of indoor air quality . Air out your house. A house with good air flow will keep fewer chemicals inside. Airing out your house doesn’t need to mean that you open all of the doors and windows, although you can open a window or two to encourage the cross-flow of air. A house should be able to breathe. Make sure that your home is not sealed completely. One warning: if you’re allergic to pollen in the home, … Continue reading →

Spring Cleaning: Slate

Slate is all the rage with homeowners looking to update their kitchen, master bathrooms or entryways. The natural stone features a fine texture that comes from mixing small silt and clay particles under high heat and pressure. The bonding of these particles makes the material resilient and highly resistant to stains. These features make slate an ideal choice for flooring, especially in high traffic areas. Another reason slate has become a popular choice in flooring is that it looks as good as it is practical. Slate comes in a variety of textures and colors, including black, red, green, gray, and … Continue reading →

Cleaning Fancy Floors

Since the beginning of the year my 6-year-old has attended no less than 18 birthday parties. The majority of them were hosted by kids from her kindergarten class. Needless to say, I have seen the inside of many, many homes in the last 12 months. A few of them could easily be featured on MTV’s hit show “Cribs.” One in particular still stands out in my mind, and while it didn’t have a Gucci pool room or a helicopter landing pad in the backyard, it did feature amazing terrazzo floors. After drooling on them I asked the homeowner how she … Continue reading →

Pets Prevent Clean Floors

Hardwood floors and dogs don’t mix. At least that’s been my experience. Even the pups that pet shop owners swear don’t shed, shed. All dogs shed. People shed too, but not as much as dogs (at least most people), which is why I am always amazed by dog owners, who say they don’t have to clean up dog hair, now that they have hardwood floors. I have never been to a home with hardwood floors that didn’t attract at least a few tuffs of hair. Pet hair can add up quickly on a hardwood floor, though there are tricks that … Continue reading →

How Clean Is Your House – Kim Woodburn and Aggie MacKenzie

Guess what I found at the library? Those ladies from the How Clean Is Your House TV show have a book! The How Clean Is Your House? book is subtitled “Hundreds of handy tips to make your home sparkle”. And the book is just that. It first introduces Aggie MacKenzie and Kim Woodburn and explains how they ended up cleaning Brittan’s filthiest homes. There’s a quick quiz to see if you are a filth offender. Then “the girls” explain what is in their own essential cleaning kits. And like in the show, they use environmentally and people friendly products like … Continue reading →

Diary of a Cat Care B&B: Cleanliness

Cleaning, cleaning, and more cleaning. The bulk of my hours at the cat boarding facility are taken up with cleaning. The first thing I do in the morning is empty the litter pans. Each guest room has a separate, private area for the litter pan. Spray the nook down with a cleaning solution, wipe it clean, and put in a fresh pan and fresh litter. After all the litter pans have been emptied, I take the garbage out. A bag full of last night’s litter and waste can be pretty heavy! Then I sweep the whole room to gather up … Continue reading →

Cleaning Carpets and Floors

Cleaning carpets is one of those things that everyone wants to sweep under the rug! (Please forgive pun. I couldn’t resist.) Seriously though, carpet cleaning is a major task and one that is complicated because it involves surrounding furniture, friends, pets, children and other relatives. Surely there must be an easy way, don’t you think? Read on, if you dare. Before The Shampoo Treatment Before using any carpet cleaning product, it’s a good idea to test an inconspicuous area for color fastness. This will avoid a lot of heartache later if there should be a problem with the product. Before … Continue reading →

Gross, Dust Mites!

A little dust never hurt anyone. Have you heard someone say that or perhaps you have uttered those same words? The problem with this line of thinking is that we are forgetting something very important. Dust isn’t just an unpleasant part of a home, or a nuisance to take care of. It is a microscopic bug. Doesn’t that just crawl under your skin? Puts things in a new perspective, doesn’t it? Dust mites can be found throughout the home. And not just in the dusty corners of your room, but they can live in your mattress, carpet and furniture. What … Continue reading →

Healthy Home, Healthy Air: Natural Air Pollution

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While chemicals can impact the quality of your indoor air, nature can also be the culprit. Keeping clean indoor air means looking at the elements of air quality that make your life challenging and managing those, whether they are natural or chemical in origin. You might think of nature as a pure and wholesome thing, and it certainly is. However, when too much nature accumulates on your floors, on your bedcovers and under the furniture, it can cause allergies. Yes, you can be allergic to the very things that give you joy in nature: things like pets and trees. The … Continue reading →