Clean it, Fix it…

When I was in my house I always used conkers, freshly collected each year and liberally scattered around window cills and door entrances, and these definitely deterred most spiders from the house. Think Lakeland doe a chestnut anti-spider spray

Since I have lived in this flat (three and half years now), only ever seen two spiders. Perhaps it is because I am onthe first floor.

I love everything about it. I’m someone that has a junk filled cluttered house but I’ve always been obsessed with keeping the parts that other people don’t see clean and organised! The living room can be a mess but I’ll go and clean my cutlery drawer or put my cd’s or dvd’s in order! I like the dynamic between the three presenters as well: it wasn’t as good when Tommy wasn’t on the programme last week. I’ve always saved spray bottles that have contained anti bacterial etc and I’m going to use them for Lorraine’s tips eg using peppermint oil to deter spiders. I had a house fly on my compost caddy the other day and realised it was laying eggs which was a bit gross (it was because I’d had the back door open): the contents were in a green bag but the fly didn’t realise that because she could smell what was in it, but I’ve realised I can put some rosemary or peppermint oil on the carbon filter.

It is one of the programmes I have got ready to watch.
Have watched a few episodes but plan to watch more.

….just cleaned and sorted out the cupboard under the sink. Lorraine would be proud of me….

Memories of removing wood chip from this house when we first moved in! Fabric conditioner got rid of dried on sap on my car so it stands to reason it will dissolve wallpaper paste. There would still be a lot of preparation to get the wall ready to paint though, surely? I need to find some wallpaper to practice on. I’m not a wallpaper person but I didn’t dislike that wallpaper. What happened to the green paint?I hadn’t got any nice fabric for the room freshener but I did have some cotton knickers with a nice floral pattern. I’ve never worn them…went up a size or two before I got round to opening the packet so I cut them up using pinking shears. I need to make a note of what combination of baking soda/washing up liquid/tea tree/vinegar to use for which jobs.

Maybee - I want to try that rice and essential oil room freshener. Something new to me. Also, I had never thought of adding washing up liquid to my cleaning mixes. Have used bicarb of soda and vinegar for a very long time. My days from stripping wallpaper are long past, but that was interesting also.

Ye, Maybee70, and I think they have some unseen helpers as well.

I noticed that about the desk, too. I’ve always used vinegar and bicarbonate of soda but often had to resort to heavy duty cleaners as I never thought to add washing up liquid or tea tree oil to the mixture. I made the rice and rosemary oil room freshener yesterday and it really works! Unfortunately I’ve started to use Microfibre cloths as advised by Lorraine: I’ve had some for years but never used them because I thought they were bad for the environment but they really work. Annoyingly there was only one episode of series one on utube. I sat down to watch some of the others and they weren’t available.I don’t see how they can possibly do that work in a day. I reckon they do it in 24 hours but don’t include the time spent waiting for paint to dry. At least they’re honest and say they move the clutter into another room and expect the home owner to sort it out at leisure.

I do like the fact that this show uses basic cleaning ingredients. However, whereas, it is obvious that most things can be 'fixed' given highly knowledgeable and experienced builders, etc, tpractical use.he 'look; at the end than well as all appropriate tools - sometimes they seem more concerned with final look than practicability.

Few days ago, a small chest of drawers had its top replaced to make it also serve as a desk. Top top off and replaced it with one overlapping front by a good few inches. Great as a desk area, however, it made the top drawer of this furniture totally and competely inaccessible and unusable. Had they made that overlapping area hinged would have solved that problem.