Tidy Brown Wren, bringing order to your nest

OK. It's almost Summer and we need to be done with our Spring cleaning because the beach is calling and we need to work on our tan. This post will cover cleaning floors and rugs. 1. One of the most important things you can do to keep your floors in good shape is to put a good quality door mat at each entrance to your home. Secondly, have family members remove their shoes at the door. 2. Next, vacuum your floors. If you have a canister vacuum, you can use the floor attachment to clean all of the hard floors and the carpet attachment (with beater brush) for the carpets and rugs. If you have an upright vacuum, vacuum each area with the appropriate setting on the vacuum. You might need to use a dust mop to get under furniture or into corners where the vacuum cannot reach. 3. Every type of hard flooring has a different guidelines for care. If you had your flooring installed then the retailer/installer probably gave you car instructions. If you inherited the flooring with y...

Spring is in full swing. We still have more time for that Spring cleaning. In the previous blog I talked about cleaning windows and upholstered furniture. Today, we'll talk about cleaning walls and wood furniture. Cleaning walls: 1. First, dust your walls with one of those fuzzy dusters on a long pole. If you don't have one of those, wrap an old towel, pillow case, or undershirt around a broom's bristles. Wipe the walls, starting at the top and working your way down to the bottom. You won't believe how much dust accumulates on your walls. (Don't be alarmed if you come across a few spiders) 2. Next, mix up a cleaning liquid. I use 1/4 cup ammonia with 1 gallon of water and 2-3 drops of dish detergent. If you have really greasy walls (like in the kitchen) I would mix some Greased Lightning with water and use that. 3. For stubborn spots, use a little baking soda on a sponge and rub very gently to remove crayon marks, scuff marks etc. 4. Now, working fr...