Home Care Tips

Some home care tips that I’ve found useful. Mostly learned from experience.

7 easiest money and energy saving tips at home

Posted by on Jun 15, 2007 in Home Care Tips | 22 comments

Here are a few of the most common sense, and therefore, easiest to follow ways to save energy and therefore save electricity around the home. Of course, energy costs money, so if you’re saving energy, you’re saving money, right? So, let’s all be kind to mother nature and save money while we do it…I can’t believe I actually used a line like that… let’s just save money… Please note, this is not a scientifically proven article. As I’ve said, it’s mainly common sense. If you disagree, or feel like adding to these ideas, please leave a...

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Remove price tags from glass

Posted by on Jun 13, 2007 in Home Care Tips | 3 comments

Here’s another nice tip that works well for us. I’m sure you’ve bought vases or plates etc. and when you get home you struggle to wash off the sticky price tags from the bottom. And, even if you manage to take them off, you sometimes end up with a dirty, stubborn gray sticky bit left.Well, try using furniture spray. Spray the sticker and wipe. It might take a few attempts, but it works. Perhaps there’s a reason it works, and maybe there’s something else that works better (please let us know below), but this works for us. Share on Facebook

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Cleaning your wooden dining room table

Posted by on Jun 1, 2007 in Home Care Tips | 3 comments

Carrying on from the “Cleaning Leather Couches” article, I thought I would share how we clean our wooden table. It’s a dark wood table and needs extra care regarding scratches. As with the leather care, cleaning the table is a similar 2 step process:Step 1 The first step is wiping the table down. But, as I mentioned before, you will see scratches quite badly on the dark wood. ESPECIALLY if there is a light just above the table. So make SURE you use a completely clean dust cloth. If you use a cloth that has been used to dust something else, it WILL scratch the table. Step...

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Cleaning Leather Couches

Posted by on May 31, 2007 in Home Care Tips | 4 comments

I get a few visitors wondering how we look after our leather couches, so I thought I’d share it here. It’s quick and easy, and it works for us. Cleaning leather couches is a 2 step process for us:Step 1 Dust the couches. I’m sure everybody does this, but it has to be said anyway. This is done every single week. Especially since we have beige coloured leather. It’s preferable that a clean cloth is used to dust the chairs to prevent scratches, though it’s not as noticeable as when cleaning wood. Step 2 This step involves actually cleaning the leather couches with...

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Cleaning dirt marks off walls

Posted by on May 8, 2007 in Home Care Tips | 0 comments

If you have dirty (non-permanent) marks on your walls, then here’s a good way to clean them off… But first, some of the ways that I’ve noticed these marks GET on the walls:Dogs rubbing up against the walls as they run past You sqaushed a mosquito on the wall, and now there’s a mark You tried to clean the mark on the wall, and only made it worse… While installing cupboards (or anything else) pencil marks were needed. Now they’re not…So, the FANTASTIC way to clean these marks off the walls?Try putting some dishwashing liquid (like Sunlight) onto a...

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Varnishing Wood Experience

Posted by on Aug 19, 2006 in Home Care Tips | 0 comments

Well, it’s almost the rainy season here in South Africa, and I’m cramming in all the lovely wood varnishing and wood sealing for all the wooden doors, wooden garden furniture, wooden window frames and wooden gates. If I have had one main piece of advice from everyone I know, it’s been: Don’t buy wooden furniture or a house with wooden window frames.Of course, wood has so much more character than aluminium, so I’m not so sure that’s great advice. But, if you do have to start varnishing all your own wood, here are some tips I’ve picked up: - If the...

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