Mary's Quick N Easy Cleaning Tip

Clean mini blind and window blind strings by squirting a bit of foaming shaving cream in your hand. Use your fingers and cover the string. Wait 15 to 20 minutes and rinse with a damp cloth dipped in 1/4 cup white vinegar per quart of water.

Holiday Cleaning Tips

Cleaning chores can be so much easier during the holidays with a few tips to prevent problems. Here are some of my favorite cleaning tips to help maked holidays a bit less hectic.

1) Avoid pet accidents: If guests are coming for dinner and have small children or pets, purchase a couple of holiday plastic table cloths. Turn them upside down and place them on beds where toddlers will be sleeping. Then put a bath towel on top of the table cloth. The towel catches any “accident” that might happen and the plastic saves the mattress. This works well for fabric furniture where they might be sitting or sleeping as well. Turn it plastic side up under their chair at dinner or as a wonderful place for them to play games etc. It keeps toys and games confined to one area.
2) Cleaning spills on floors: Keep a Mary Moppins mop http://www.goclean.com/mops.htm handy during meals with a dampened towel over the mop head. When spills happen, and they always do, it takes but just a minute to mop the floor and return to dinner. Since the mop head needs no rinsing, you simply toss the towel in the washer.
3) Clean the fireplace and hearth: Fires crackling in the fireplace warm the heart and home. Be sure to clean the chimney to prevent house fires. Clean the soot stained glass carefully using a single edge razor blade. Our new TerraPlus will clean the rest. Just be sure to rinse well with vinegar and water. The cost for a concentrated 32 ounce bottle is $24.95. The introductory price is $19.95. You can order by calling 800-345-3934. Terra Plus also cleans soap scum off shower walls and hard water marks off sliding doors - quickly! It works as fast as phosphoric acid only it is environmentally and human safe. Grease stains in the driveway soot stains on bricks? TerraPlus to the rescue.
4) Treating dry wood: With the furnace running and fire places burning, wood furniture and cabinets dry quickly as does vinyl and leather furniture. Be sure to treat your wood with Mary Moppins Wood Care http://www.goclean.com/wood-care.htm. Treat your Leather or Vinyl with our Leather Care. http://www.goclean.com/leather-care.htm. We are doing a holiday special when you buy both bottles you receive $1 off each bottle. Both deep clean and condition and can be diluted for weekly use.
5) Removing candle wax: Be sure to read about using candles and what to do with wax that has dripped onto a surface on my website http://www.goclean.com/wax.htm. It is just too long to print here. And while you are there copy the entire stain removal guide so you have instant access to remove most stains. There is a complete stain removal guide in my book “The Complete Idiots Guide to Cleaning.” http://www.goclean.com/bookclean.htm. It encompasses nearly every stain on 7 different surface including fabrics. And you will learn my speed cleaning tips which are quite handy this time of year!
6) Red wine and punch stains: Please resist the temptation to treat red wine stains with white wine or seltzer water as you hear from so many cleaning experts. Both are difficult to remove from carpet and leave a sticky residue behind. Instead buy a fresh bottle of hydrogen peroxide and the day of your dinner or party, mix a 50/50 solution of peroxide to water and keep a second bottle of a 1 to 4 mixture of white vinegar to water handy. When those spills happen, same thing with red stains caused by punch, spray with the peroxide mixture – wait 10 to 15 minutes blot and rinse with the vinegar solution. Stain gone and no sticky residue to attract dirt.
7) Keep the carpet clean: Don’t hesitate to ask your guests to remove their shoes when they come in your home. Let them know ahead of time that your home is shoe free and to bring a pair of holiday socks or slippers for their feet and to get creative! The laughs from all the colorful toes are a hoot!
8) Have a wonderful and safe Holiday season!

This article may only be reprinted giving full credit to Mary Findley and her website at http://www.goclean.com. Copyright @2006 All rights reserved worldwide.