| By :
Nick Vassilev
* In spite of all the promises made by a lot of commercial cleaning products, water is all you really need for the majority of jobs, such as wiping down tables and dusting. Water dissolves an awful lot of smears and will float dirt off. If you have a lot of dusting to do (around windowsills, on bookshelves, etc), you will need several rags, as one will get dirty very quickly. Warm water is not necessary but it can make things a bit more pleasant. * While doing so will make your manicurist gasp in horror, fingernails are superb cleaning tools. You can't beat them for cleaning wax off wood or tablecloths (in the case of a tablecloth, you may need to get the last bit of residue off by padding the area of the spill with a lot of loo paper or tissues, then holding a hot iron over the spot to melt the wax so it can be absorbed by the paper). And they also help get stubborn fly-spots and the like off windows. * Newspapers are great for window cleaning. Scrunch them up and use them to buff the glass up after spraying on whatever window cleaner fancy. The ammonia based products can be tough on the eyes and nose, but dilute vinegar (the best natural alternative, closely followed by dilute vodka) works just as well. Change sheets of newspaper as soon as they look damp or they will disintegrate and leave papier-mâché all over the window, TV screen (a CRT glass screen) or shower door. * Keep old toothbrushes. They are perfect for getting into lots of little nooks and crannies that get covered with gunk. Have one for cleaning around the hinge of the loo seat and another one for other scrubbing jobs (e.g. around filigree or fretwork in wood). * If you have to scrub a floor on your hands and knees, get hold of one of those kneeling mats sold in garden shops. Don't use a cushion - it will get soaked and grubby. * Use a transistor radio or a ghettoblaster to give yourself something to listen to as you work. Cleaning can be done on autopilot. Using an iPod or other personal stereo with a headset is possible but the cords can get in the way as you work. * A feather duster made of real feathers is great for cleaning computers, as they use static electricity to pick up dust and other gunk from keyboards and off plasma/LCD screens. Hen feathers are pretty good, but ostrich feathers are better still, if you can get them. These look like the classic sexy maid prop, but if you want to use one for this purpose, have one for work and one for... play... as the work one picks up heaps of dust. Give a feather duster a good shake outside on a windy day to get rid of the dust. * Work systematically when vacuuming. As you will need to go back and forth over a section of carpet, it's best to divide the floor up into sections and work section by section. This means you are less likely to miss any of the floor.
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