I’ve pointed her to this link which uses ammonia and baking soda and no hard rubbing.  I haven’t tried this so it would be great if you could let me know if you’ve used this and how it worked. Or what other method you’ve used to clean rust from your oven trays.

So go for it make your own.  It only takes a few minutes – and check out the size of your supermarket bill. If you don’t have a food processor you can use any other kitchen  equipment with cutting blades.  Or you can save electricity as well and use a fine hand grater for the soap and crush the washing soda crystals to a powder with a rolling pin or well sealed glass jar or  bottle filled with water or sand.

We’ve got some ideas for you for dishwasher powder, laundry powder, household cleaner

Trish – you’re probably aware that cats are pretty fussy about cleanliness and wash themselves over and again.  But they’re not so keen on having a bath!

However no matter how much a cat washed itself, there are times when that’s simply no enough and human intervention is necessary.

What you need

large basin or bowl  (large enough for the cat to lie down)
warm water
natural cat shampoo (herbal preferably – and if there is catnip in it the cat shouldn’t be too stroppy about having a bath)
towel or bathmat for cat to sit on
dry towels
peace offering

What you do

Before you start the bathing process, groom your cat as best you can.  Clip claws to reduce the damage from scratching and brush the fur to get rid of any knots.  You can do this ahead of time.

Fill the basin with warm water and put an old towel in the bowl to stop the cat slipping.

Have the shampoo and extra towels ready

Put cotton wool balls in the cat’s ears to keep water out of them if the cat splashes around trying to get out (unless the cat’s head is smelly you won’t want to get its head wet – but …!)

Do all this preparation out of sight of the water and bathing area.

Then the fun starts.

Put the cat in the water and wet the fur well.  Massage the shampoo well into the fur.

If you do need to wash the head and face use a soft cloth and no shampoo.

Rinse the cat well and make sure the shampoo is completely removed, especially around joints and body crevices.

Wrap cat in a towel and rub the fur as dry as you can, rubbing from tail to head.  Use another towel and continue till the fur is mostly dry.  The cat will get its tongue going to finish off.  Keep it out of draughts until it is quite dry.

If you can, give the cat another brush to get rid of any tangles.

You now have a clean but exceeding unimpressed cat.

Now is the time to offer the treat. A catnip-filled toy will go down well and probably send the cat off to sleep off the whole experience.

1. Line a deep bowl or jug with aluminium foil.
2. Add ½ cup washing soda crystals and dissolve in 1 cup boiling water.
3. Leave to cool a little and immerse silverware in the solution.
4. Remove silverware from the solution, rinse in warm water and buff dry with a soft cloth.

So just how does this work?  The blurb on the back of the Washing Soda pack says “the chemical reaction between the soda crystals and the aluminium foil generates hydrogen to remove the silver oxide (the tarnish)”.

Note – this won’t work on aluminium or plated silver, so check your metal first.

I used to hate cleaning the brass things in our house with the commercial brass cleaner my mother used to give  me.  Everything got black – black cloths, black hands, black under my fingernails! Yuck!.

I much prefer, even enjoy, cleaning brass with this mixture – it’s so much easier than using that commercial cleaner.

Dissolve  ¼ cup washing soda crystals in 1 cup hot water and add 1 tablespoon liquid ammonia.

Dip a soft cloth into the mixture and rub brass ornaments gently then rub with a clean dry cloth till they shine.

For smaller items, pour the liquid into a small deep bowl and place the ornament into the bowl for a few minutes.

A word of warning, make sure you are cleaning brass and not brass plate. I understand that might not be so successful.  I can’t test that for you because I don’t have any brass plate around.

Let’s pretend you’re going to sell your house and prepare for putting it on the market.

Make a list of all the jobs that need to be done.

Then just do them !! One at a time and cross each of them off the list when the job is done.

You’ll probably find that they don’t actually take very long and don’t even cost a huge amount.

Do the same with cleaning jobs – walls, windows, carpet cleaning etc etc etc.

Then sit back in your own home, without the hassle of packing up and shifting, relax and enjoy the result.  How good is that feeling!!

1. Grate the soap with a kitchen whizz or hand grater
2. Pour the grated soap and washing soda in to the bowl of the kitchen whizz
3. Using the knife blades mix until you have a powder consistency.
4. Pour into a clean dry container and use 1-2 tablespoons per wash load.

This makes enough for up to 10 loads of washing.

Also works well if your home is for sale and you want to have a pleasant aroma wafting through the door to greet potential buyers.

There are marks on the inside of my glass oven door (between the two).  How can I get them clean without dis-mantling the whole door?

Judy suggested that:

1. If this is a relatively new oven, contact the manufacturer because I think this may be a problem with the seals around the two layers of glass.
2. If this is an older oven, then maybe phone call to a small appliance repairer would be useful before you try to dismantle the oven door.

Cam writes about his recent experience and gives instructions for dismantling the oven door.

“I recently had the same problem – turned out one of the seals had been turned in when the door had been put back together last time.  Often these rubber seals can degrade.  I was able to reseat the seal once I had cleaned the interior.

Unfortunately, the only solution I could find was to dismantle the door.
Most doors can be removed from the over by simply opening them and lifting the hinges up so they can be slid out of the oven chassis.  This may be a 2 person job due to the with of some doors.

Lay to door on the kitchen floor on an old sheet.  The outer can usually be removed from the door frame by unscrewing screws somewhere around the perimeter of the door.  Simply slide the outer off the inner to gain access to the inside of the door.  Make note of the way the door is put together.  Check all seals and clean the interior and make sure you repeat in reverse the disassembly instructions.  Refit the door by sliding the hinges back into the chassis.”

But – white vinegar came to the rescue.

Use a half and half solution of vinegar and water, say half a cup of each. You need to make sure the  element is covered.

Boil the vinegar/water for a few minutes, then empty and rinse the kettle well.

Boil the kettle again with plain water and empty that water before you try to make a cup of tea.

I did this with my kettle about three months ago and it still looks very clean adn there is no limescale. (But we haven’t been on bore water yet this summer!!)