Spring clean your bedroom

Round & About

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Top Tips

The Great British Spring Clean has been postponed until September but while you can’t do your bit for the outside it doesn’t mean you can’t focus on the inside so how about giving your home a spring clean instead?

Be realistic about it, don’t try tackling it all at once – especially if you’ve got other things that need your attention – do it room by room, perhaps even enlist the help of other family members at home with you and make it fun for the children to help out, after all many hands make light work!

Over the next week, we’ll share advice on all those essential tasks that can help give your house a new lease of life.

Today how about giving the bedroom a spruce up!

 

Bedroom

Duvet & Mattress

Wash and whiten your pillows and duvet in the washing machine, and air your mattress – you’ll be guaranteed a better night’s sleep when you do it in a truly clean bed.

 

Try the hanger trick in your wardrobe

We’ve all got clothes in our wardrobes we haven’t worn for years, but are you just hoarding them? The hanger trick was made for you. Hang all your clothes so the hangers are backwards in the wardrobe, then, when you use them, put the hangers on the rack the right way. Do this for about a month and you’ll soon appreciate what you wear and what you don’t. So if you have a dress you love and can’t bear to part with it, then wear it!

 

Fold and stack clothes vertically

Organise your clothes drawers by folding and stacking clothes vertically and not horizontally. This makes it really easy to see all your t-shirts/jumpers in one go and will even minimise creasing.

 

Vacuum seal non-seasonal clothes

Don’t cram heavy coats into the wardrobe during the middle of summer or have to dig through flimsy dresses in January. Use vacuum seal bags to store clothes you want to keep but know won’t get any wear for a few months.

 

Store sheet sets in pillowcases

Don’t lose a pillow case, keep sets & their matching sheets in one of the pillow cases – it will keep it all together and be much neater in your cupboard.

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Spring clean your bathroom

Round & About

Posted on

Top Tips

The Great British Spring Clean has been postponed until September but while you can’t do your bit for the outside it doesn’t mean you can’t focus on the inside so how about giving your home a spring clean instead?

Be realistic about it, don’t try tackling it all at once – especially if you’ve got other things that need your attention – do it room by room, perhaps even enlist the help of other family members at home with you and make it fun for the children to help out, after all many hands make light work!

Over the next week, we’ll share advice on all those essential tasks that can help give your house a new lease of life.

Let’s start with one of the most used rooms in the house:

Bathroom

Fresher smell

Make your bathroom smell fresh by simply adding a few drops of essential oil to the inside of your toilet roll.

 

Remove tile mould

One of the best ways to revamp your bathroom is to get rid of the mould and discolouration on tiles, try a mixture of baking soda, distilled white vinegar, salt and essential oils. Mix them up, spritz on to your tiles, wait 10 minutes and wipe off.

Clean the toilet

Baking soda and vinegar are also essential ingredients if you’d rather not use toilet bleach to clean the loo effectively. The soda and vinegar combination are effective at removing hard-water marks, and rust stains. More unusually, you can pour cola down the toilet – it’s thought to work well at removing rust rings.

 

Clean the shower head

Keep the baking soda and vinegar handy for this, fill a sandwich bag with the mix and tie it around the shower head with an elastic band, leave it overnight to soak. In the morning, use an old toothbrush to remove the scale and debris and you should find your next shower will be a much better, more refreshing one.

 

Wash shower curtains and bathroom mats

Shower curtains can get pretty nasty and are prone to mould. Put your shower curtain in the washing machine (along with the bath mat), then hang it back in the shower to dry – simple as that!

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Warmer winter

Round & About

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Top Tips

Adam Chapman and Patrick Wheeler of VitoEnergy Ltd in Aldershot offer their tips on how to keep your home warm & safe in the colder months

As the really cold weather approaches, our thoughts turn to dark nights and layers of clothes. On the home front, none of us want to wake up or come home to no heating or hot water – things we take for granted but when not working become an immediate emergency! Prevention is better than cure – here are some top tips to ensure your home functions well throughout the cold months.

● Check the room thermostat: Test the temperature accuracy of the room thermostat
by having an aquarium or kitchen thermometer next to it for an hour then click the dial up (or down if it’s on) to look for the position at which the click happens. You can make sure the heating comes on and runs around the radiators.

● Check the program times: Set the morning heating a little earlier so the radiators can heat rooms for longer. Hot water is often prioritised over heating so when the cylinder is regenerating the heating will be either off or reduced. Setting the hot water earlier will allow the stored tank to warm up before the heating is needed.

● Test the smoke and carbon monoxide alarms: Check alarms are in date, placed correctly and have been tested. Make sure they all have batteries in.

● Radiator bleeding: Check them for air with a radiator key, feel around the front for cold spots to see if this is necessary. If the radiator has cold spots and doesn’t have air when you bleed it then you likely have some sludge build up and will need to call an expert to flush the system.

● Frozen condensate pipes: One of the most common winter call-out is due to poorly insulated pipes. When boilers are installed they (as of 2005) are required to be condensing, so flue gasses run at low temperature to reclaim latent heat. If the pipe outside has frozen thaw the ice plug with boiled water. There is no way of knowing if the condense is frozen other than the boiler showing a fault or not working, if you think your outside condense pipe is at risk of freezing then it is worth checking.

● Home insulation: Loft insulation is the cheapest way to reduce heating bills. For a relatively small initial cost you have years of savings, there are grants available for older and low-income homes.

● Boiler thermostat: If you have an older boiler and control, or a non-modulating controller, like Hive then this is a useful way to increase the heat output of the boiler or conversely save energy.

● Professional service and safety check: Although there are many things you can do yourself, you must use a Gas Safe registered installer to open and check the boiler or other gas appliances.

More info

For more advice, visit

Vito Energy

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Plots for Pollinators

Liz Nicholls

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Top Tips

Alan Titchmarsh is calling on all gardeners to unite to create a refuge for struggling butterflies, moths and other pollinators this summer. Join us in your garden – and online.

The future of our butterflies, moths and other pollinating insects is under threat,” warns Mr Titchmarsh, vice-president of Butterfly Conservation.

The cold start to spring may affect how some butterflies fare this year, as they could have less time to feed and breed. But you can help by creating some ‘plots for pollinators’.
“So many flowers are great nectar sources,” adds the local star, “such as catmint, cosmos or calendula. You could attract butterflies such as my favourite, the Red Admiral,” adds Mr Titchmarsh. “[Your square metre] doesn’t have to be on the lawn – you could create a vertical garden on an unused wall or fence.”

The project encourages you to set aside one square metre to plant a nectar-rich flowerbed or a colourful container garden over the summer.

Pollinating insects fertilise many crops, as well as other plants, trees and wild flowers. Gardens can act as vital refuges for pollinators, which are increasingly under threat from habitat loss, agricultural intensification and climate change. Previously widespread species, such as the Small Tortoiseshell and Garden Tiger Moth, have seen numbers plummet in recent years.

Titchmarsh’s Top Tips

Measure one square metre of outdoor space as a plot of pollinators and fill it with open-flowered, nectar-rich plants. Choose a sunny, sheltered position and group pots on a patio, grow up a fence or wall, or pick a flowerbed patch.

Water your plot regularly – ideally from a water butt which is more eco-friendly. Water soil not the plant; larger leaves can act as an umbrella shielding roots! Remove your watering can’s rose to get nearer the plant base if necessary.

Put a layer of mulch on the surface of the soil around the plants to help prevent water evaporation and suppress weed growth.

Always choose peat-free compost and cut down on plastic. Use recyclable and recycled containers or be creative and turn tins and tubs into pots, drilling drainage holes in the bottom.

Dead-head after flowering for more blooms.

Inspire your neighbours to plant a plot to create a flowery super highway.

Avoid harmful pesticides by removing slugs and snails by hand instead. Night is the best time.

www.butterfly-conservation.org

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