Clean your carpet with a window squeegee!
...use hairspray to remove stains from handbags and all my other favourite cleaning tricks
HINCHING isn’t just about washing, vacuuming and polishing. I’ve come across all manner of clever little tricks you’d never think would work to help put the finishing touches to your pride and joy.
LIVEN UP YOUR LIVING ROOM
IF YOU’VE got a rug, turn it upside down and vacuum the underneath. Once you’ve done that, give it a shake, then vacuum the top. Doing this helps revive the fibres and bring it back to life a bit more.
Tumble-dryer sheets have been around for donkey’s years but I don’t just put them in a tumble dryer, I pop them inside my cushion covers, down the side of the sofa, inside vases of artificial flowers and even in my suitcase when I go away. The smell is amazing. You can make your own shake ’n’ vac too, which is quite fun. Sprinkle bicarb – which is an odour-eater – over your sofa and leave it for a few hours. Then vacuum it off and it will remove any smells.
MAKE YOUR BATHROOM SPARKLE
GOT a bit of mildew in your bathroom, even on grout? Spray Astonish Mould And Mildew Spray – I really rate it – on to a cotton pad and leave it on the area for a few hours. When you take it away, you’ll find the cotton pad has drawn out the grime and mould. I did this in my own shower and it worked well for me.
After Hinching, I leave everything in the bathroom to air-dry apart from the shower doors and windows – I’ll always finish those off with the Minky M Cloth Glass & Window (aka Kermit). However, for extra perfection, you can’t beat my window vacuum (Victor) for a streak-free finish on all glass. And he’s fun to use as well!
Make sure there’s a capful of Zoflora in your toilet-brush holder – then every time you use it, you’ll be hit by the lovely smell. ONE of my most satisfying hacks is the Hinching Squeegee – simply drag a window squeegee (you can pick them up in a pound shop) over all your carpets and rugs to collect all the old fibres, pet fur, hair and day-to-day dirt. Don’t do it too often – once a fortnight is absolutely fine – otherwise you’ll cause damage. None of us want bald carpets now, do we!
Chandeliers can be a bit of a nightmare to clean because dust and thunder flies get caught up in them, but if you wipe over the small crystals or the delicate details using a tumble-dryer sheet it picks up all the nasties. It’s all about the anti-static technology, you see. Picks up everything.
FOR THE CLEANEST KITCHEN
TO CLEAN out the little ridges in the door seal around your fridge – which can get really filthy – use a cotton bud dipped in a bit of disinfectant.
A quick fix for your plugholes is to pop a dishwasher tablet on top (I don’t have a dishwasher but always have tablets in Narnia because they’re so handy), then pour a full kettle of boiling hot water on to it until it dissolves because the tablet breaks down grease and grime and helps keep the pipes clear.
I also like to pop a dishwasher tablet in the washingmachine drum if I’m washing my bath mats or front door mats because they’re quite strong and help break down the dirt a bit more. These mats are walked on every day so need a tougher clean – I also often pop in my oven gloves because they sometimes need a tougher wash. WASHING-UP liquid isn’t just for washing-up. The bubbles it produces can be used as a stain-remover that works really well and isn’t too harsh.
I had an expensive white throw and I was gutted when I spilled foundation on it.
So I went downstairs, mixed up some Fairy Platinum and worked the suds – only the suds, not the green water – into the stain and it lifted it out.
If you get a lipstick or pen mark on your bag, spraying it with hairspray and wiping it with a white cloth works really well on leather, but go easy and do a patch-test first. SPRAY your curtains and bed with Febreze – or a mixture of water and fabric softener – every day and you’ll love crawling into it every night.
Hinchers do this every day and we’ve got a ‘made and sprayed’ hashtag on Instagram to show off our photographs when we’ve done it.
Vacuum your mattress to within an inch of its life – you’ll get rid of all the dead skin cells and dust.
Then, using a flour sieve, shake bicarbonate of soda evenly all over it – remember this amazing stuff is an odour-eater.
Leave for a few hours at least, then vacuum it off – it will lift out any nasty whiffs. Take the same bicarb and pour it into a small organza bag and ‘hide’ in a convenient location – such as wardrobes or drawers – to stop clothes smelling musty. TAKE pictures of your achievements! When I go back and look at the results on my Instagram, it motivates me to make my home sparkle.