TIDY UP YOUR HOME
Become your own ‘cleanfluencer’ with the latest breed of cleaning gadgets for the home, from stain-blasting steam mops to streak-free window vacs.
If you believe what Marie Kondo says, there is joy to be found in tidying up. But we’re the first to say that cleaning isn’t for everyone: after all, there are plenty of things we’d rather be doing on a Sunday than washing windows. Apparently not everyone feels that way, as there’s a growing number of people who find cleaning to be strangely therapeutic and beneficial to their general wellbeing. Why? Positive psychology has some answers…
In 2014, Indiana University associate professor Nicole Keith studied a group of 998 people and found that those of them with cleaner homes were generally healthier than people with messy homes. Before that, in 2011, researchers at Princeton University found that clutter can make it more difficult to focus on a task, lending weight to the old adage of ‘tidy home, tidy mind’.
Cleaning is a de-stresser for some and can provide a sense of accomplishment, especially if you’re into making your own cleaning products.
For those of you who do find cleaning to be therapeutic, get hands-on with Dyson’s latest cordless vac, the V11 Absolute ($1,199, www.dyson.com.au). It has interchangeable ‘heads’ – one for hard floors and one for carpeted surfaces – with smaller attachments for cleaning sofas and stairs, and vacuuming into cobwebby corners and cupboards.
A steam mop is another good investment for your home’s wellbeing. How? The Shark Klik n’ Flip Pocket Steam Mop ($129, www.sharkclean. com.au), for example, eliminates 99.9% of common bacteria from hard floors and lino.
So fresh and so clean
For every one of us that enjoys cleaning, there’s another who loathes it, so let’s now take a look at some house cleaning tech that pretty much gets the job done for you…
The fun starts with a brilliant robot vacuum cleaner, and right now one of our favourite smart vacuum cleaners is the iRobot Roomba 960 ($1,299, www. irobot.com.au). It’s designed to clean deep into corners and can follow a map of your home, so it won’t vacuum into a room or space you don’t want it too. Best of all, the 960 even empties itself and automatically takes itself back to the charging base whenever it’s low on battery.
Next up is tech to tackle everyone’s most-dreaded house chore: cleaning the windows. Let the Karcher WV6 ($199, www.kaercher.com) take the sting out of it for you. This handheld waterfuelled vac for cleaning windows, glass doors, mirrors and tiled floors and walls creates a streak-free finish with shine for days. A full charge delivers 100 minutes of power – just imagine the cleaning marathon you could have.
Dirty dishes cluttering up worktops can make any kitchen seem overrun. Instead, stack them inside the Bosch Serie 6 Dishwasher ($1,031, www. appliancesonline.com.au), a smart freestanding dishwasher that’s big on energy saving; it uses AquaSensor III to automatically assess how much water is needed for what you’re washing. It does the same for your dishwasher detergent, helping it last longer, and thanks to an EcoSilence brushless motor it’s Quiet Mark accredited. That means you can clean up at night without disturbing anyone else at home.
Finally, a high-quality air purifier is one of the greatest allies for maintaining a cleaner home, as they actively reduce indoor air pollution, which is especially important for those of us who spend a lot of time indoors. The Scandinavianlooking, ultra-quiet LightAir IonFlow Signature ($1,034, www.lightair.com) air purifier not only removes harmful particles, it also eliminates viruses while they’re airborne. A must for winter germ management and for improving the air quality of your main living space.