A lot of pens are water-based which makes getting ink out very easy.

Blot as much of the undried ink out as you can. Use a water-based stain remover (check the instructions that it can be used with the garment you are working on) to pre-treat the stain and blot again. This way you can get a good proportion of the ink out before you try and wash the garment.

Wash with normal detergent and at normal temperature on its own. As soon as the wash has finished, check the stain and if necessary pre-treat again and put on another wash cycle. Don’t let the garment dry with the stain still visible.

Further tips, including on how to remove ink that is not water-based can be found here.

Ceiling fans are not the easiest thing to clean and they accumulate a terrific amount of dust – just where you can’t get to it on top of the blades. If you’ve ever tried dusting these in the conventional way you know what happens! You end up with a face full of dust.

No more! Find yourself an old pillow case – slip the pillow case over the blade and then pull off taking the dust with it. The dust ends up inside the pillow case and not in your face!

For professional and reliable domestic cleaning try Diamond Home Support.

The Front Door Mat

I thought I might ask a 91 year old friend/client of mine if there was a piece of cleaning advice that her mother had given her and she said that there was:

“Beat the living daylights out of the front door mat, everyday”.

Now I thought this very funny – not just because of the multitude of expletives that were thrown in but when I asked why I had not been asked to do the same, her reply was “you’re too old for that kind of exertion”!! – At least she cares (I think).

So I decided to test out both methods – her Mums, in the back garden, but firstly mine by running the Dyson over it.

The “Welcome Home” coir mat got the hoover treatment and then we went out and beat it to death with one of her ‘grabbers’. I’m not too sure who came out on top, the mat or me!

What I did learn was two things…1, old methods are probably best to stop you treading dirt up the hallway and 2, replace coir mats frequently! I couldn’t believe how much dust and dirt came out and how much it moulted. There were bits of coir flying everywhere.

Front door mats certainly do their job, grabbing the dirt from your shoes, but hoovering doesn’t necessarily mean that they are clean…a good beating in the garden once a month does that perfectly, saving you time and energy to do your other chores.

To find someone else to beat your mat for you try Diamond Home Support.