Aug
31
2010
I’ve been guilty of it, and I’m sure you have too; leaving a pot on the stove for too long can lead to nasty, baked on grime on the bottom of the pot which can seem impossible to remove.
Well, we’re here to help:
- Firstly, wash away as much of the grunge from the bottom of the pan as possible.
- Then, add a good solid squirt of dish-washing liquid to the pot, then fill the pot with water. Place the pot on the stove top and bring to the boil. Reduce the heat and simmer for around quarter of an hour, then turn the heat off and allow the water to cool.
- Scrape away as much of the burnt food as possible using a wooden spoon or similar.
- If you find that there are still stubborn areas of burned food which can’t be removed, coat them in baking soda, and pour just enough water to cover them.
- Leave the pot to soak overnight.
- In the morning, add 1 part distilled vinegar to three parts water, and pour into the pot, covering the burned food by a couple of inches.
- Boil the pot again, allow to clean, and leave overnight
- Scrape away the residue food with a wooden spoon.
Tags: burned food, canada, cleaning, house keeping, housekeeping, maid, maid service, pot, saucepan, toronto | 
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Comments (0) Aug
18
2010
Most of us will tolerate a slight stain in the toilet bowl, it’s something we tend to ignore while knowing that most of our friends and family have the same problem, but did you know that it’s possible to have a glistening white toilet bowl with so little effort you’ll probably run out and tell your friends about it too?
Follow our simple instructions here to have the pure, white toilet bowl you’ve always dreamed of.
- Last thing at night, or before you leave the house for the day, pour a good amount of baking soda into the toilet bowl (say half a box)
- Let the baking soda stand in the toilet bowl for at least six hours. The longer you can leave the baking soda in the toilet the better.
- After your pre-determined time period has elapsed, flush the toilet half a dozen times.
- Use your toilet brush to scrub away any loosened dirt and grime from the bowl.
And that’s it! You’ll now have a sparkling, gleaming toilet bowl!
Tags: clean toilet, cleaning, house keeping, housekeeping, maid, maid service, toilet, toronto |
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Comments (0) Jun
25
2010
At this time of the year, as the days grow longer, and the evenings warmer, our thoughts turn to entertaining. And as we all know, there’s no better way to entertain friends and family alike than a good old-fashioned outdoor barbecue.
But when the night is over, the guest have left, and the tidying done, there’s one final job that we all hate. It sits there staring at you, daring you to leave the job till tomorrow, but you know it needs doing.
What am I talking about?
Cleaning the barbecue of course….
Follow these simple steps, and you’ll have your BBQ gleaming in no time:
- Using a stiff wire brush, brush the grill grate as soon as you’ve finished cooking. Doing this immediately after cooking helps, as the grate is still hot, and any oil and fat is still soft and in liquid form.
- After the ashes have cooled, discard of them immediately. This will help keep the barbecue cleaner and allow air flow to restrict the amount of dust that accumulates between uses.
- From time to time, use a wire brush to scrub away baked on juices and grease from the sides of the walls and lid of the griller.
- Every half-dozen uses or so, take the grates out of the barbecue, and scrub with warm soapy water.
And that’s all, if you make sure you follow this regimen immediately after you’ve used your barbecue, you’ll know that it’s ready for immediate use next time you invite guests to sample your gourmet delights!
May
24
2010
Isn’t it wonderful? the weather’s warming up, we’re taking the opportunity to spend more time outdoors, and we’re even getting used to not having the heating running at full capacity.
We might even take the opportunity, as the weather warms up, to fire up the air-conditioning to cool the place down.
But did you know that if you haven’t run the air conditioner over those cold winter months, the filters probably need a good clean? Keeping the filters of your air conditioner clean means that you’re pumping clean, cool air into your house, and your air conditioner is running at full efficiency.
Follow our simple guide below to ensure that you make the most of your air conditioner.
- Remove the filter(s) from the air conditioner and make a “best effort” to vacuum the built up dirt and dust. (You won’t get all of it, but that’s ok)
- Submerge the filter in a tub filled with a solution of 50% cold water and 50% white vinegar. This solution helps kill any mold and bacteria on the filter.
- Soak the filter in the solution for a minimum of half an hour, an hour is the ideal length of time. Longer than an hour is fine.
- Remove the filter from the solution after soaking, don’t rinse the filter.
- Place in a dry area to dry, in sunlight is ideal.
- Once dry, place the filter back in the air conditioning unit
And that’s it. It’s a good idea to clean air conditioner filters around twice a month, to ensure that your unit is running at peak efficiency and cleanliness.
May
10
2010
Over the last few years, stainless steel counter tops have moved from only being found in restaurants, to becoming the benchtop of choice for many consumers. Due to their durabgility and resilience, and the fact that they are easy to keep clean, you may be considering the idea of a stainless steel bench top for your kitchen.
Keeping your stainless steel kitchen counter top clean is easier than you might think as well, just follow our simple instructions below.
- Make a mixture of 1 part baking soda and three parts water in a bowl.
- Take a soft rag, and moisten it with your solution. Using a generous amount, rub the paste over the bench top. If you have areas which are stained, use a toothbrush to clean these areas.
- Take another clean cloth, and wet it in a bowl of water, use this to clean the paste from the surface.
- Polish the surface with another dry cloth.
And that’s it. Your stainless steel bench top will now sparkle as if it were new.
Apr
28
2010
Is there anything better than the smell of a lovely roast cooking away in the oven? If there is, we don’t know about it.
Unfortunately, one of the side effects of creating that magnificent family meal is that our oven can quickly become greasy and grimy.
Cleaning the racks from your oven is a job that nobody wants to do, but by following our instructions below, you can have them back gleaming in all their stainless steel glory.
- In your bathtub, place a layer of old towels, this will prevent your from scratching the tub with the steel racks.
- Place the oven racks carefully on top of the towels
- Place 150ml of laundry powder and 300ml of baking soda in the bath and run the hot tap till the water covers the racks.
- Soak the racks overnight
- Use steel wool to scrub the racks the next morning, this will remove any leftover food particles.
- Rinse the racks under clean, cold water, then allow them to dry.
And you’re done, place the racks back in your oven, happy in the knowlege that they are shiny and clean.
Tags: canada, clean oven, clean oven rack, cleaning, house keeping, housekeeping, maid, maid service, toronto |
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Comments (0) Apr
14
2010
As the weather is starting to warm up, our kids (and ourselves) tend to spend a great deal more time outdoors.
Whether it be time riding bikes, playing catch, or digging in the dirt, we love this time of year, after being cooped up indoors through the winter.
One of the problems that accellerated outdoor activity can bring is the fact that our kids tend to drag dirt into our houses on their shoes.
Whilst our first thought to clean the dirt out of our carpets may be to just hit it with a damp cloth, there’s actually more to it than that – read on and we’ll show you the *proper* way to clean walked in dirt from your carpets.
- Spray a carpet pre-treatment spray on the affected area and let it soak in for a at least fifteen minutes.
- Using a sponge, brush the pre-treatment liquid into the carpet.
- Using a steam cleaner, clean the entire carpet in the room. you’ll need to remove all the furiture from the room before you can do this.
- The reason that we clean the whole carpet is for consistency. We want the area we’re cleaning dirt from to be the same colour as the rest of the carpet.
- You may need to steam clean the dirt affected area more than once to remove tough stains.
- Place your furniture back where it was, after the carpet is completely dry.
And there it is, don’t look at dirt that’s been trampled into your carpets as a problem, look at is as an opportunity to give your whole carpet a thorough cleaning.
Tags: canada, carpet, cleaning, dirt, dirt carpet, house keeping, housekeeping, maid service, toronto |
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Comments (0) Mar
29
2010
Shhhh! Listen closely… Can you hear that?
Is it the Easter Bunny, tip-toeing into your children’s rooms to deliver his chocolatey delights?
Easter is a time of celebration for those of faith, and a time of catching up with family for pretty much everyone. There’s little more heart-warming that watching satisfied kids with chocolate covered faces running around the house with their brothers and sisters, or extended family.
But what happens when their games end up leaving melted chocolate trampled into your beautiful carpets? Fear not! Follow the instructions below to mitigate the damage that this potential disaster can cause.
- Before you do anything, make sure that the chocolate is completely dry. Whilst it may be tempting to set to work straight away, you can actually cause more harm than good by moving too quickly.
- Using a flat object such as a butter knife, scrape up as much of the chocolate as you can. After you’ve finished scraping, use a vacuum cleaner to pick up as many of the flakes as possible.
- Place several layers of paper towel over the stain, and using an iron set at its lowest possible temperature, gently iron over the paper towels.
- You will notice that the paper towels will start to absorb some of the chocolate from the carpet.
- Keep replacing the paper towels as they become soiled with new ones.
- Repeat the process until the stain has been removed.
- For any remaining stubborn stain, use normal carpet cleaning solution or spot remover. Follow the manufacturers instructions.
So there it is, Easter needn’t be a time of worrying about your nice new carpets. Sit back and enjoy it, safe in the knowlege that if the worst does happen, you are prepared.
Tags: canada, carpet, chocolate, cleaning, easter, easter bunny, easter eggs, house keeping, housekeeping, maid, maid service, stain, toronto |
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Comments (0) Mar
16
2010
There’s something inherently soothing about watching fish slowly make their way around an indoor fish tank. But there’s nothing soothing at all about barely being able to make out the fish behind a wall of slimy, dirty glass.
Follow these simple instructions to get your fish tank back to that sparkling, just like new state. You’ll enjoy looking at it a lot more, and your fish will thank you too!
- For safety’s sake make sure you unplug any electrical components of the tank, such as lights and filters.
- Take the top glass or hood off the tank, and wipe down with clean water and a sponge or paper towels.
- Either using a secondary smaller tank, or a clean bucket, remove some water from the tank and carefully move your fish to the holding container using a fish net.
- Remove up to half of the water from the tank.
- Using either an algae scraper or algae pad, gently scrub the inside walls of the fish tank.
- Take all the fittings from the tank (rocks, plants, toys etc) and rinse thoroughly under cold tap water. Place on a towel or paper towels and allow to dry.
- Change the filter over for a new one, and rinse the filter housing under running tap water.
- Re-fill the tank with tap water.
- Add a chloramine remover as recommended by your fish supplier to remove dangerous chemicals from the tap water.
- Place all the rocks, plants etc back in the tank.
- Plug in any electrical appliances that your tank uses (lights, filters etc).
- Run the filter for at least an hour prior to returning the fish to the tank. This prepares the water better for the transfer of the fish back into the tank.
- Using glass cleaner and paper towels, clean the exterior glass of the tank.
You now have a crystal clear tank, with clean water for which your fish will thank you. You can cut down on the time that this process takes by allowing time each week to undertake the task of cleaning your fish tank.
Feb
21
2010
The Winter Olympics are upon us. A time where finely tuned athletes give their all in the pursuit of eternal glory, and the thrill of standing atop the dias with that gold medal around their neck.
Whilst pondering the outstanding acheivements of the Canadian Olympic team at Whistler (four gold medals so far at the time of writing!), I got to thinking about those gold medals, and what happens to them in the years after they’re won.
Clearly in the first few weeks after they’ve been bestowed on the winner, they’re paraded to the media, and shown to all and sundry, but what after that? Our guess is that they’re either placed in a cabinet, or put in a safe to be kept and handed down from generation to generation.
The problem is, that when they’re being paraded around initially, they’re going to be covered in all sorts of grease and grime from the hands of every Tom, Dick, and Harry who wants to be able to say that they held an Olympic gold medal.
So we thought we’d give a bit of helpful advice to our Olympic athletes. Once they’re ready to place their medal in a display case, they should give their medals a good clean. Although part of the intrinsic value of gold is that it does not tarnish, we still want to get rid of all the smudges and dirt before we put it on display. (By the way, this method can be used to clean gold jewelry as well!)
It’s a pretty simple and quick process, just follow the steps below, and your gold will be shining brilliantly, just like new.
- In a bowl, mix a mixture of mild dishwashing liquid (just a squirt) and some warm water.
- Place the gold in the bowl of warm water, and allow to stand for ten minutes.
- Using a soft toothbrush, gently scrub the gold items. It’s important that you don’t use anything harsh to scrub your gold, higher quality gold (18 carat and above) will scratch easily if you use a scourer.
- Remove the gold from the solution, and rinse thoroughly under running water.
- Use a soft polishing cloth to gently dry the gold.
And that’s it, of course, you should always ensure that your gold is completely dry before storing it, but once you’re done, your gold will sparkle like the day you got it.
Finally, a note to our Canadian Olympic athletes: We here at homestead Maid are so proud of every one of you, keep striving to do your best!
Tags: canada, clean gold, cleaning, house keeping, housekeeping, maid, maid service, olympics, toronto |
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