Housekeeping Pt 5 - The Big Clean.

I think that I made a very wise decision in getting someone in to do all the painting and finish off all the odd jobs that have been needing to be tackled for a long time. However, as you will know, after the decorating comes the cleaning and rationalising which is a job that only you can do.
I decided to do a refurb towards the end of last year and that the carpets and curtains either needed a really good clean or to be replaced. There is no way that I can afford to that at the moment so, with that in mind, I purchased one of these.

I cannot tell you what a great investment it has been. To replace the bedroom carpet would have cost at least £250 but using this and alot of elbow grease the bedroom carpet has come up like new .......

it got all the ingrained dirt out that builds up around the corner of the room. As you can see it was £85 well spent (I got it on sale with free delivery) I have also cleaned the hall carpet and the hall rug which were pretty bad as it has the most traffic as all the rooms lead off it. It's like having new carpets but the best thing is that I KNOW that the carpets are clean now.

The problem with living in an old tenement is that it gets very dusty because of all the ash in between the floors and floorboards that acts as a sort of sound proofing. It covers everything with a fine layer of black greasy dust that you only notice once it has got pretty bad or you move something that hasn't been moved in a while! It also makes it's way onto the top of curtains via the fancy cornice as you can see here....

This was taken after I had put the curtains in the wash once, admittedly it was on cool because although the top part of the curtains is a cotton fabric that was washed before I made it into curtains, there is a border of fabric (that I added to make them longer for this house) that is supposed to be dry clean only. I decided to take the risk because I couldn't afford to replace them and I couldn't afford to get them dry cleaned either!! I recently had the curtains in the living room dry cleaned and it cost £82.00 !!! Anyway, I scrubbed the worst affected areas with a soft bath brush and woolite and put them back in on a cool wash and they came up like new.

I think the border did fade a little but it shows the pattern better AND it DIDN'T shrink so I'm not too bothered........

Ideally I would like curtains made entirely of the border fabric which is called 'Cosmos' but it is horrendously expensive! I actually bought this fabric a few years ago when I was working in Newcastle and it was only recently that I discovered that it is designed and manufactured in Scotland not far from Glasgow. It is made by a company called Voyage who have the most amazing range of fabrics - if you are thinking of getting new curtains go and check them out immediately! And, if you are thinking of investing in a carpet cleaner I say DO IT! The one I have is great, easy to use, all the parts go together and come apart easily, the tanks are not too heavy to remove when full of water and it is easy to manouvre. Plus 2 of my friends have already cleaned their carpets too - perhaps I could start charging.................?

Comments

[Bella Bheag]

You can't beat a deep clean!x

[Fancy Elastic]

oh, well done... do you want to come and stay at my house?!

[Debs]

I didn't realise Voyage were from these parts - just about all my favourite fabrics in recent times have come from them.
Well done on your Spring clean
D

[monica]

do you want to know a trick from my grandmother? when you wash the curtains hang them up still wet from the machine... their own weight will stretch them if they shrunk a bit in the wash and also the creases tend to stretch out.

Seriously, it works a treat even with cheap IKEA curtains.

[Rebecca]

We used one of those and saved a fortune on a new carpet! its amazing to see the colour of the water that comes out of it once you've cleaned it isn't it! Hope your well! Rx