If you have ever purchased something with that pesky little sticker price tag on it, you will love this trick. Someone named Rosemary told me about this (thanks!) and it works quite well. She suggests to take a dab of olive oil, rub it over the sticker, let it sit for a bit (the ultimate cleaning trick) and then wiping it off. The oil takes care of the gooey adhesive and you are left with a beautifully clean and sticker free new toy!
Those felt floor protectors are helpful for making sure furniture does not scratch wood flooring, but they are magnets for dust, hair, crumbs, lint, and the list could go on. One of our clients, Paul, requested that we use a lint roller (yes, those cheap ones you can get at Ikea for a buck) on the bottom of his bar stools to remove the lint. It seems gimmicky, but it keeps things nice and clean and is really easy to do!
Enjoy this little tip, it’s a keeper!
Magic Erasers are indeed magic. I’ve been thoroughly impressed with how well they remove scuffs, soap scum, and otherwise difficult stains from clients’ homes. Many people have worried about what Magic Erasers contain and just how that ‘magic’ actually comes to be. I have yet to find any conclusive information about the true harmful effects of using a Magic Eraser. I do know that when I used it to clean a wall a while back, the product wreaked havoc on my beautifully manicured hands, which was sad. On the plus side, the wall looked great!
Being a fan of all things eco-friendly (and cost-efficient) I have looked for alternatives. To my amazement, baking soda has swooped in and saved the day in this case (what else is new)! I won’t get in to the boring chemistry behind it all, but baking soda provides enough abrasion (think of those toothpaste commercials where the micro beads remove stains) to remove stains from surfaces, and this applies to scuff marks high and low.
We had a client with scuffs all over her bedroom closet walls, and she was thrilled with the results! The technique involved baking soda and a wet cloth (vinegar or water), and a dry cloth for removing the residue from the wall. We applied a sprinkle of baking soda on the damp cloth, rubbed the cloth over the scuff mark, and almost effortlessly the marks were gone. Later in the week, a client’s gorgeous walnut wood floors had black scuff marks all over them from a construction crew, and we used baking soda and water with a damp cloth to gently wipe away most of the scuff marks. Always remember to wipe it after the treatment with a clean cloth, because baking soda does leave a residue!
So, save your money - or invest it in Arm & Hammer stock, your choice!
Everyone worries about the dangers of using a product that removes calcium, lime, and rust. But, when faced with seemingly impossible stains on tiles, in the tub in the kitchen, in the toilet, etc. where else are you supposed to turn?
Luckily for us, Nature Clean has come up with an eco-friendly alternative which works wonders on such areas. The product is called Nature Clean Calcium / Rust / Lime Removerand is available at retailers who carry eco-friendly lines, such as Whole Foods, Canadian Tire, Grassrootsstore.com, etc. It’s simple to use with directions on the bottle! We recommend this products to our clients often.
For me, one of the most frustrating parts of home ownership is seeing something that bothers me day in and day out and it gently gets under my skin, yet I leave it because I don’t know how to handle it or am too lazy (yes, it happens to everyone) to do it. However, when I am seeking a quick project or major satisfaction, I research it and do what I need to do to solve the problem.
If you are reading this blog, it’s not because you are thrilled by the exciting world of calcium, lime, and rust, but likely because you have lime scale in your shower or a rusty sink and have reached your breaking point. Give this a try and let me know how it goes for you!
Happy cleaning
So, what else do we have on our plate? Try a ton of chemical residue from washing detergent which contain harsh chemicals that are completely unnecessary for us to ingest and terrible for the environment. I am not a fan of giving science lessons, but I do want to explain that dish-washing detergents and rinse-aids are full of bad stuff. Chlorine, when heated, can release toxic fumes, and phosphates are very harmful to our water systems. In fact, it has been banned in laundry detergents and replaced with polycarboxylates (a synthetic substitute) and the affects of it are still unknown. Then, we are told to purchase a rinse aid, sold to us by a hyperactive talking blue bottle. After skimming the MSDS sheets online at the product’s website (Jet Dry in case you were wondering), I have found that the agent used to remove scum, residue, and improve dry time actually contains chemicals that should not be left on skin or clothing, and that is an eye irritant. Not much else was available, but from what I found, I know that I don’t want that stuff on my dishes.
So, the simple solution is as follows:
Use an eco-friendly automatic dish-washing liquid such as ATTITUDE’s (that smells like lime and tea tree - all organically pressed and natural essential oils, no chemicals there), or Ecover’s dish-washing powder. For rinse aid, good old vinegar will do just fine. Add it in where the Jet Dry used to go (once it is empty of course, no mixing). Vinegar will remove spotting beautifully. Cheap and eco-friendly, that’s what we like!
