Clearing up the Christmas Chaos with Vax

So that's it. Christmas is over. The decorations have come down and now the house is feeling a bit bare. Although it seems a bit of a shame that all the Christmassy-ness has gone, I do quite like the feeling of being able to reclaim my home and I always find the new year to be a great opportunity for a bit of a clear-out and clear-up. This year Vax have set me up with one of their Cordless SlimVac which has been a bit of a godsend while we were taking down the Christmas Decorations.

Trying to clear a house of baubles, tinsel and Christmas Tree pine needles while there are two over-excited children whizzing around the place is no mean feat. You need a tool that can be quickly lifted out, whizzed around the living room to pick up all the needles and tinsel remnants and then very quickly put away again. Enter the Vax Cordless Slimline Vacuum which doesn't even need to be plugged in. Point it at the needles, pull the trigger and hey presto, the room is back to looking like a living room again!

Clearing up after the pine needles

It isn't the most powerful vacuum I've ever owned but these days I don't need to be able to hoover up finger-food debris or vast quantities of cat hair; I just need to keep on top of things. One of the niftiest things I liked about this hand-held cordless vacuum was that while I could use it with the long nozzle to pick the Christmas tree needles from the floor but I also got Mr. B. to remove the long nozzle and just use the hand-held vacuum with a different nozzle to furtle in behind the table where the Christmas tree had been without having to faff about with moving furniture. Long or short, its your choice.

Its also your choice whether you use it on hard surfaces or soft - a switchable brush head helps here. Swirly brush thing, or no swirly brush thing, it's your choice. Because this Vax is cordless, its so lightweight and easy to use that I could even ask Lara to use it without fear of her getting tangled up in it, or having to worry about plug sockets. The charge on the battery lasts about 20 minutes which for me is more than enough vacuuming for one sitting!

We managed to remove the tree, clear up the debris and set the living room back to rights in record time leaving us lots of time to play family games together over the weekend.  Hurrah. And we've managed to find a home for the new Vax in the cupboard inside our utility room (this isn't a photo of our utility room, it's a Vax library picture) - it is incredibly compact and comes with a wall mount should you want to use it.

Image credit : Vax

#LightentheLoad with Ecover

This week is a busy one.  Work is bonkers at present, I've got a series of medical appointments, a meeting at school and to top it off, Mr. B. is away from home.  I'm juggling.  It is on weeks like this that I'm glad I'm naturally a fairly well organised person and things such as keeping on top of the laundry are so ingrained into my routine that I don't need to juggle the chores so much as keep them ticking.  That said, the laundry is time consuming so I've welcomed the arrival of some tips from Ecover of how to lighten the load of the weekly wash with their Non-Bio Concentrated Laundry Liquid.

I haven't blogged a lot about cleaning, nor about the environment for a good while but those who have been following for some time will know that trying to make a few green savings here and there is one of the things I like to do.  Ecover's plant-based Non-Bio Concentrated Laundry Liquid is one of the products I use to help keep my family's laundry clean without making such a big dent on the environment.  Actually, one of the main reasons I like to use Ecover is because I've found it to be very gentle on the girl's skin (they both have incredibly sensitive skin).

Ecover know that we can't escape the laundry duties forever but that with a few simple steps you can take some of the drudgery out of the task and make the load faster, smarter and more environmentally friendly.

First up, Ecover recommend that every once in a while you run a cleaning cycle in your washing machine to help it keep working at its best - you can't get laundry clean inside a washing machine that is itself dirty!  It is a VERY long time since I've done this to my machine so I filled it full of an entire bottle of white vinegar and ran it through a hot wash.  Lots of the unpleasant gunk in the door seals worked loose and the washing machine does seem to have a bit of extra sparkle.  I was worried that the entire machine would smell of vinegar but it is surprisingly odour-free!

Next up, Ecover recommend that you keep on top of the washing loads by creating a weekly schedule.  Apart from staying organised, they've also noticed that a schedule means you are more likely to wash full loads which can save you a couple of loads of washing a week.  This means less water and detergent used.  Yay.  Planning ahead also helps reduce the feeling of rush - I tend to schedule my wash to complete while I'm out at work so that it finishes as I step through the door in the evening.

In-grained stains are a regular feature in our house - particularly in clothes that Holly wears to nursery.  Rather than running your clothes through the wash multiple times to shift the stains, there are other products around the house that you can use to eliminate stains instead,  Shampoo can help remove greasey stains, hairspray can help remove biro and sliced bread can help remove make up stains.  For me, one of the most effective natural stain removers is a lemon - it doesn't work the wonders that some chemical whiteners can, but a whole lemon's worth of juice in a regular white wash does seem to help to keep our towels looking white rather than grey.

I'm a big fan of small natural alternatives than can make a difference around the house and if you've never tried some of the Ecover #LightentheLoad tips above, I'd really recommend giving them a try.

Ring Handheld Vacuum Cleaner Review

I never thought I would become the kind of person who had a messy car but parenthood does strange things to us - quite why I ever thought it would be a good idea to offer my toddler a packet of raisins while she was sat in her car seat, I really don't know.  I have been finding squished raisins on the back seat of our Audi for the past 12 months!

Travelling with kids seems to inevitably result in dirt, debris, food and bits of sparkly stuff strewn all over the car.  The trouble is, I really don't have the time or the inclination to be dragging out the vacuum to the car every weekend to put it back to rights and I definitely can't afford to get the seats and carpet cleaned professionally more than once in a blue moon. I've been contemplating getting a handheld vacuum for some time and so the new Ring Rechargeable Vacuum Cleaner was perfectly timed for the challenge.

A small, handheld vacuum, the Ring Rechargeable Vacuum Cleaner is cordless so you can charge it up on the handy charging unit inside the house and then take the vacuum out to clean the car.  It is very compact and light, so if you know you are going on a family journey that could get messy, you can take the Ring cleaner with you.

For me, a handheld vacuum in the car is perfect for keeping on top of the mess.  After a journey to the park, or a trip to the grandparents I can quickly whizz the vacuum cleaner around the back seat of the car to put it back to rights.  It is powerful enough to pick up the main pieces of dirt and debris but I'll probably need a professional clean every few months to really get the car clean.  This is the perfect solution to reduce the frequency of "big" cleans in that back seat.

The Ring Rechargeable Vacuum Cleaner has a couple of nifty features that make it ideal for use in a car.  Firstly there is a set of LEDs which you can switch on to light up dark nooks and crannies.  Perfect for that void down the edge of Holly's ISOFIX car seat where the raisins collect!  Next, it comes with a set of attachments which make it stand apart from many handheld vacuums; these can allow you to really get into the pile of a carpet (either inside or outside the car), into tight corners or hard to reach places.

The charging unit itself is also sleek and compact; you simply slide the vacuum onto it so that it sits upright while it charges.  I was a bit surprised to find out that the Ring vacuum cleaner only held 16 minutes of continuous charge but then I stopped to wonder when I would ever think of spending more than 16 minutes cleaning the back seat of my car!!!  The cleaner is easy to empty (you simply click off the end piece) and you can see into it to know when it needs emptying.

Ring also make a 12V version of their handheld vacuum cleaner which has a 4m cable and you can run it directly from the car power supply.  Both are perfect for cleaning up the children's crumbs and sparkly bits in the back of the car!

The VAX Big Spring Clean

I actually find it quite hard to put into words the feeling I get when my house is really and truely clean.  I'm not a natural when it comes to housework (and pesky things like a full working week, running and blogging get in the way) so cleaning always seems to take me forever... which means that the big jobs get put off.  This weekend I cleaned the carpets. Something I only do about once every two years, if I'm lucky.  Now my house feels like it has a whole new lease of life - this is the refreshing, cleansing feeling that people seek when they attempt a big spring clean.

VAX understand that the mammoth job of spring cleaning the house can seem like an insurmountable mountain so they challenged me to find out whether it would become any more bearable given the right tools for the job.  Even though our cream carpets throughout the house are in massive need of replacement, I just can't justify replacing them until Holly is more reliably toilet trained, the girls are less liable to pour blackcurrant squash all over them, and the cat is less likely to bring in muddy footprints.  Right now, cleaning is the only sustainable option for me and the VAX Dual Power Reach Carpet Cleaner has come to my rescue.

The biggest challenge in our house is the living room.  This is the highest traffic room of the house and the most susceptible to to spillages. The carpet is a really low pile and has some fairly unpleasant almost-permanent stains and has born the brunt of two rounds of potty training so we do like to wash the carpet when we can.  This weekend, the living room is where I started my big spring clean.  I gave the room a really thorough hoovering before washing the carpet with the VAX Dual Power and yet you can see the disgusting blackness from the water after washing!  Ick!  Maybe I need to wash the carpets more frequently!

Washing is fairly easy with the VAX Dual Power.  Into the top unit you place warm water mixed with a carpet cleaning solution.  As you move the washer forwards over the carpet you gently squeeze the trigger with your hand to release the solution into the carpet.  As you pull the washer back it sucks the water up... all the while it is brushing the carpet to really get in among the pile.  After washing, I left the carpet for a few hours to dry before putting back all of the furniture.  The room oozes clean now.  It smells fresh (that'll be the cleaning solution) and it looks noticeably brighter.  It took me two tanks of water to get the living room clean, and about 20 minutes in total.  Now that the feeling of clean-ness is fresh in my mind, I am promising that I will do this more frequently.  In fact, I might do it again next weekend to see if a second treatment makes it even better!

For now, I'm on to the rest of the rooms in the house.  I've started doing one room every evening and it is quite astonishing the results.  Interestingly the worst room of the house is our spare bedroom which seems to sit and collect dust... however frequently we hoover, we obviously can't get it clean enough because the effects of washing the carpet show that it had really dulled without a regular wash to keep on top of things.

Having used both personal and professional carpet washers in the past, I'm really impressed by the VAX Dual Power.  It is easy to use and very effective (I'd say 90% as effective as when I've hired a carpet cleaner).  It has a great long cable which stores easily looped around the back.  I do however find that it is a little unstable both when full of warm water (before washing) and when both water tanks are absent (during cleaning) and it has been known to topple.  On the plus side, I've found the water tanks to fit much more securely into the unit than any washer I have used previously which means less drips and leaks.

The VAX Dual Power is so named because it also features a cleaning hose for long-reach jobs for instance when washing the carpet on the stairs or when cleaning upholstery.  You clip the hose into the front of the unit and can unclip it for storage in a handy hanging-bag.

The VAX Dual Power kick-started my spring clean but I'm hoping that actually it doesn't only come out once a year but becomes part of our regular cleaning schedule.  It costs around £200.

Disclosure: I was sent the VAX Dual Power Carpet Washer to perform my review but the words and opinions are my own.

My 5* Bathroom

Viakal sent me a handy guide - "How to Achieve 5-star Results in Your Own Bathroom" in which Louise O'Mahony, provider of housekeepers to 5* hotels across the capital shares some of the industry secrets on how to make your own bathroom look as stunning as those in top hotels.  Knowing that I live in a MEGA hard water part of the country, this seemed like rather an optimistic challenge but probably not as much of a challenge as dealing with this...

Little did Viakal know that my planned bathroom rennovations would take 'for-ev-er' and that when my 5 star guide arrived I would be clearing up plaster dust on a daily basis.  That said, I knew that a shiny new bathroom would be the perfect way to put Louise O'Mahony's five-star bathroom tips to the test.  What better challenge that to try and keep a new bathroom looking like new?

Before

Before

Even two days after our beautiful new bathroom was complete I could already see the effects of the local limescale on our taps and shower fittings.  I've resolved to keep everything looking as new so at the weekend I gave them a quick fix of Viakal bathroom spray to get rid of the water marks and after rinsing, I polished them with a soft cloth to make then look as good as new!

I've followed Louise's tips to ensure that all of the clutter is tidied away out of view; this required a bit of re-organising of the shelves in our cabinet but it was definitely worth it.  I've given the mirror cabinet a polish to get rid of toothpaste splatters! and limited the toiletries on show to be seriously scrummy ones only (functional ones hidden away from view).  I like it, it makes the room still feel like new.

I've placed a little aromatherapy oil burning stone on the window ledge with my favourite ESPA luxury aromatherapy oils (one for a pick-me-up in the morning, and a more mellow relaxing scent for the evening); it makes a much nicer touch than a bowl of pot pourri!

One of the things I'm not quite sure I yet agree with is a recommendation to avoid brightly coloured towels and bath-mats.  I love the crisp white towels but I feel like my room is crying out for a splash of colour.  I'm tempted by a vibrant green.  What do you think?

After

After

So here is what my bathroom looks like after this weekend's mini Viakal makeover.  I'm feeling inspired... it wasn't a lot of work and I think if I do a little bit of a tidy up every weekend I'll never be faced with the mammoth limescale clear up like I used to have to in my old bathroom.

Rug Doctor Carpet and Upholstery Cleaning Review

Holly is mobile and that means that I have a line of snot and dribble around the entire living room at exactly Holly's height.  Ick.  So when Rug Doctor challenged me to give their upholstery cleaning solution a try, I thought it was perfect timing.

ick!  Toddler snot and half-chewed biscuit.

Rug Doctor loaned me one of their carpet and upholstery cleaning machines which you can normal find for rental in supermarkets, dry cleaners and sometimes hardware stores.  They also sent me some of the Rug Doctor upholstery cleaning solution which is best used with some of their anti-foam solution as it tends to froth inside the machine a lot more than the carpet cleaner does.

The upholstery cleaner came as an attachment which was very easy to put onto the machine.  I filled up the bottom reservoir with hot water mixed with the upholstery cleaner and then used the hand-held vacuum over my sofas and curtains by squeezing the trigger to release some of the water mixture and then sucking it up with the brush-head.

For me, the difference was instantly noticeable.  I have risked putting my sofa covers through the wash in the past (when we were potty training Lara) but obviously it is impossible to put the arms of the sofa or the sofa base through the wash and they looked instantly improved.  The vaccuum left the sofa arms quite dry (just a little moist to the touch) but by the time I got back from work in the evening they were completely dry and looking spotless.  I will definitely be doing this again in the future as I think it has given my sofa a new lease of life... we had been previously considering replacing the sofa but it just seems such a waste when we KNOW we have another period of potty training and crayons and felt-tips to get through in the future.  Being able to fully clean the sofa means that we can make our sofa stay looking good for a few more years.

after cleaning with Rug Doctor upholstery cleaner

As we had the Rug Doctor machine with us, we decided to treat and clean the carpets throughout the house.  We were already fans of the Rug Doctor urine eliminator from our potty training trials but we were also sent a bottle of the carpet detergent with spot blok which coats the carpet and protects it from staining in the future.

I will honestly say that the Rug Doctor is the most effective cleaning machine I have ever tried (and very easy to use despite being incredibly heavy) and that the Rug Doctor carpet detergent was a LOT more effective at cleaning our cream carpets than my existing detergent although I think it would be even more impressive if I had pre-treated the carpet with Rug Doctor's Trafflic Lane treatment.  One evening I cleaned the living room carpet and ran out of liquid in the machine with just one small area of carpet left to clean... I decided not to both cleaning it and tidied up for the night.  The next morning I came downstairs and instantly noticed that the piece of uncleaned carpet looked black in comparison to the rest of the nice clean carpet!

clean at the top, dirty at the bottom!

I have enjoyed using the Rug Doctor.  It is a lot more effective than my own small carpet cleaner and I think that for occasional use it is good value.  I will probably continue to use my own small cleaner in between more serious 'spring cleans' using the Rug Doctor.

Kärcher Steam Cleaner Review

I'm not a clean freak (you would know this if you had ever met me!) but since the Kärcher Steam Cleaner came into my life, I've certainly found a lot more enjoyment in my weekly cleaning flourish!  I was asked by Kärcher to review one of their Steam Cleaners from a parent's point of view.

There is something very satisfying about blasting dirt away.  Especially when it is dirt that has been sitting there teasing and taunting you for many years.  Having blasted my way through the kitchen with the steam cleaner one rainy Sunday afternoon, my kitchen was almost unrecognisable.  You know the really gunky bit by the side of the dishwasher where all the dribbles of tea and food collect?.. totally spotless.  You know the gungy bit at the back of the cooker and the oily bits on the outside of the cooker hood?.. totally spotless. If you've ever owned a cat... you know the bit of plastic around the outside of the catflap that collects general purpose yuck combined with a layer of cat hair that normally won't budge?.. totally spotless.  With a gadget such as this, I could actually get to enjoy cleaning!!!

For me, there are two big attractions to the steam cleaner beyond it's ability to shift hard-to-clean dirt.  The first is that it doesn't require me to use chemicals which makes me feel better about my impact on the world; the steam cleaner simply uses a jet of steam which you can focus using different sizes of brush head.  The second big attraction is that a steam cleaner can help to remove known allergens such as dust mites and pollen and you can use the steam cleaner to freshen up fabrics and use the power of the steam to get rid of nasties from materials you probably wouldn't be able to put through the washing machine - the curtains, sofa covers and the girls' mattresses.

The highchair BEFORE

The two places where I have found the Kärcher steam cleaner to be most effective are on removing stains such as limescale and toothpaste from the bathroom sinks and.... and this is the best... Holly's highchair.

Our highchair has lasted three years now but I normally find it astonishingly hard to clean.  On every single joint there was three years worth of baby food that I hadn't even been able to flush out with an old toothbrush.  Every couple of weeks I remove all the padding and covers from the highchair and try to remove the dried-on food but I had never quite managed to get it clean until I started using the steam cleaner.  The steam cleaner makes light work of it - blast, blast, blast and within about 2 minutes it looks as good as new.  Who would have thought that a steam cleaner would become my number 1 weaning aid?  I also find that with one of the soft terry cloth covers over the floor-cleaning head, that I can clean up the floor beneath the highchair in a matter of seconds as well.

The highchair AFTER - much more hygienic!

The entry level Kärcher SC 1.020 Steam Cleaner costs around £129.99 and the SC 2.500 C costs around £219.99 and I think I've already got more value from it than many of the other cleaning gadgets I've ever owned.

 

Viakal Made My Shower Sparkle

This week Viakal came to my house and made my shower sparkle.  It sparkled so much that Holly needed sunglasses to look at it!!!

Seriously, our shower cubicle was so manky that I had given up on it.  When we moved into our house nearly 2 years ago it was encrusted with limescale and after a feeble attempt I decided that the limescale could stay - I wasn't up to the task of dealing with it.  Very occasionally I clean the shower screens of soap scum but in a hard water area like ours it often feels like a losing battle.  Viakal sent a lovely lady to clean it for me and show me that even as a working mum with barely any spare time to spend scrubbing that I can make my shower room presentable by using their Viakal spray.

 

I also challenged them on my taps.  Taps don't sparkle in my house normally, once again, the limescale just slowly creeps up on you and before you know it everything is dull and grey or else crusted in the stuff.

I was genuinely surprised when I first took a look at the clean bathroom.  the shower cubicle was almost unrecognisable!  In the evening Mr. B. said it felt quite good to actually be able to see out of the shower!!!

 

According to Viakal, the danger areas when it comes to limescale are the taps, plughole and shower head and their advice is to tackle the limescale as soon as you notice it - hmmm, maybe I'll try that now rather than letting it build up and having to tackle it with a screwdriver to chip it off!

Other handy tips include wiping the sink down after every use and storing all your bathroom products, cleaning products and bits and pieces in a cupboard so that they don't get dusty or grimey.

Thank you Viakal!

Method Laundry Review

Searching back through the Mellow Mummy archives you'll notice that I am somewhat of a Method fan; Method products so far have made me mellow because they are quite genuinely effective and yet they attempt to reduce their impact on the environment by, wherever possible, eliminating the nasties from their products. Until now I had never tried Method laundry - my own Mum recommended it to me last month at precisely the same time as I was offered the chance to review it.

I've been quite fussy about my laundry products since Lara and her sensitive skin came into my life. I've tried a number of brands since she was born but in general I have stuck to two big names but a recommendation from your own mother can't be sniffed at!

My first observation was of the pump dispenser. Why don't more companies do this? With gel laundry detergents I'm always measuring it into cups which then dribble everywhere but with a pump there is no mess.

I also noticed that I hardly needed ANY detergent in my wash at all. the (recycled plastic) bottle told me to use 4 pumps but I found that this produced so much foam in my wash that I could barely see in to the washing machine drum so after a couple of tries I reduced this to 3 pumps. The detergent is highly concentrated with 95% active plant ingredients so not only does it have less scary chemicals to seep back into the water system but it requires less packaging that most other brands, including those that market themselves as highly concentrated.

I love the peony blossom smell but the fragrance doesn't last long on my clothes afterwards. I'm looking forward to trying out one of the Method refill pouches as it always seems a waste to throw away an empty bottle.

I haven't tried Method laundry out on any really evil stains yet but I am sure that with new-baby reusable nappies coming in a few months time I will get a chance to really put it to the test; eco-cleaner vs eco-nappy-contents!

Away with the Fairy('s)

This past weekend Lara and I were invited to the OXO tower in London for a very special meal. Fairy Platinum invited us to enjoy a meal cooked by Michelin-starred chef, Michael Caines (a personal her of mine) for free but with one big caveat... we had to wash our own dishes up afterwards! It seemed like a reasonable deal to me.

Michael Caines is an understated celebrity chef who runs, among other restaurants, Gidleigh Park in Devon. For just two days this month Michael ran a pop-up restaurant at the OXO Tower serving a limited menu. Myself and Mr. B actually met Michael the weekend before as part of a prize experience at the Masterchef Live; he cooked some mouth-watering dishes and seemed like a friendly, down-to-earth sort of guy (I even managed to help him with his wireless connection, that's how much of a geek I am).

To really put Fairy Platinum cleaning products to the test, Michael cooked a range of dishes which included Shepherd's Pie and Sticky Toffee Pudding - guaranteed to leave nasty dishes to clean.



Both Mr. B. and I took the washing up challenge. I managed to clean my dishes by hand in just over 25 seconds which I thought was a pretty awesome time but in the end I was beaten by a massive amount. Sandy from Baby Baby won the challenge in around 15 seconds. Mental. For her efforts Sandy won a year's supply of Fairy Platinum washing up liquid and dishwasher tablets.

On the train home from the OXO tower I read through all of the marketing bumph about Fairy Platinum which claimed that with the washing up liquid you could get the effect of an overnight soaking in just 10 minutes... hmmm. That evening I cooked sticky barbecue chicken wings in the oven and the following morning I thought I'd put Fairy Platinum liquid to the test on the dirty dish. In 10 minutes the dish didn't come immediately clean but most of the burnt-on sauce came off and I knew that it would only need to go through the dishwasher once to come completely clean - it turns out that the Fairy marketing people weren't away with the fairies when they dreamed up their bold claims!