Book Review - "Spotless" by Shannon Lush & Jennifer Fleming

If you're after ideas on how to deal with household cleaning disasters, this is a fantastic book. Designed as a reference book, it's split into room by room chapters, making it easy to find what you're looking for. It's such a handy resource to have & it solves a lot of the problems associated with a household, including cleaning, smells, scratches, mould, & more.

Here are some examples of what you'll find in the book:

how to clean a smelly dishwasher,
how to keep your cupboards clean,
how to remove pen stains from fabric,
how to remove crayon marks from walls,
how to remove lipstick & make-up stains from your sheets,
how to remove yellow marks on clothes,
how to clean a barbeque,
how to stop squeaky floorboards,
how to remove beetroot stains from laminate,
& so much more.


The beauty of this book is that there's reference to a lot of household items (such as white vinegar, talcum powder, salt, milk, bicarb soda & lemon juice) which most of us have in our homes, & that are quite effective in solving a lot of the domestic challenges that come about in the house.

Of course, you can still buy some of the supermarket products which you find useful & that work for you, but it's good to know that, just in case you run out of those chemical products, there's bound to be something in the pantry that will help keep your home "spotless"!

Tip - Cleaning Stains from a Rug

I was so annoyed with myself today. Little Miss has a new cream coloured rug in her room & I make a point of being careful not to get it dirty when I walk in there. Well, don't ask me how, but I somehow managed to get soil stains on her beautiful rug today, & I was beside myself.

Hubby asked me if we have a carpet cleaning spray (we don't), but I just kept staring at the black stains on the rug. There would have been about 6 or 8 blotches staring up at me.

It took several minutes before I gathered my thoughts & remembered I had seen Sharon Lush on A Current Affair, talking about stain removal around the home. She kept mentioning bicarb soda, white vinegar & water, so I decided to experiment, as I needed to act quickly.

Here are the details:

Put half a teaspoon of bicarb soda on each stain &, with a brush, lightly start to brush on the stain in one direction, then in another direction, so as to displace the soil embedded in the pile. You can brush a bit harder as you go.

If it's a light stain, it should disappear.
If it's persistent, put another half a teaspoon of bicarb soda & repeat the process.
This removed most of my blotches, but unfortunately I had 2 tough ones that didn't want to go.

That's when I used the vinegar & water solution.
Mix 1 part vinegar to 3 parts water in a spray bottle & spray the stains lightly. Grab the brush & brush lightly (as before) in different directions but without being too harsh so you don't damage the rug, until the stain finally disappears.
It's a bit of trial & error, but it did seem to work for me.

Once it's dry, give it a good vacuum (I'll be doing that tomorrow), & it should look as good as new.

Just wanted to share. Do you have any great cleaning tips you'd like to share? Any triumphs that came about after a moment of panic? Feel free to leave me a comment.