Dinner party cleaning essentials

Cleaning Essentials for a Dinner PartyWe all know the biggest cleaning job of a dinner party is the washing up. With glasses having to be refreshed and plates replaced to serve a different course, the washing up can mount up. So why not keep on top of the load by using a washing up liquid that offers glistening results every time? Keeping on top of things throughout the event, means you will have a relaxing night offering you the opportunity to reminisce about the dinner party.

If you’re searching for a top of the range washing up liquid, Click Cleaning can offer you one of the best liquids on the market today as well as an environmentally friendly alternative. Citrol Lemon Washing Up Liquid produces a long-lasting foam to combat greasy dishwashing problems, perfect for cleaning up baking trays used to roast vegetables. Whereas the Ecoforce Washing Up Liquid is a readily biodegradable neutral detergent that provides an effective finish, whilst being gentle on the skin.

Washing up by hand can be a green way of ensuring your crockery is kept sparkling clean as long as the sink is filled and no additional water is run. However, according to a study by the University of Bonn in Germany, a dishwasher can be more eco-friendly as it uses less water (up to 35% less). So if you will be running a dishwasher for your dinner party, we’re sure you’re going to love these products from Finish:

Finish Classic 3in1 Dishwasher Tablets

Finish Rinse Aid

Finish Special Salt

Finish Dishwasher TRIPLE PACK

However, there are many other cleaning jobs that need to be completed over the course of the day before the guests arrive, which makes this essential list one of the most useful guides around. Not only is there washing up to do, you also need to tidy and throw away all the food preparation waste and have stain removal products around you just in case there is an accidently spill! Here are the top products we believe you should have around the house ready for your dinner party:

Acorn Green Bin Liner Clear/Printed

Biodegradable Refuse Sacks

Prochem Spot Remover Kit 

The Reasons Why You Should Clean Your Carpets

When we think of cleaning our carpets, we tend to believe it’s to remove stains, odours and to enhance the carpet’s appearance. However, this is a common misconception as these reasons are often the least important. 

In fact, it’s our health that’s the most imperative of all. Unclean and dirty carpets can harbour a lot of organic and chemical ‘nasties’. These can include microscopic bugs, fungi, pollen and bacteria. When it comes to harmful chemicals in our carpets, the list can quadruple. Whether you come into contact with chemicals inside or out, they’re sure to travel onto your shoes and eventually onto your carpet.

The second reason you need to maintain a clean carpet is to improve its longevity. Carpeting your home can easily become one of the biggest investments you’ve made, so taking care of them should be one of your main priorities. What many people don’t realise is that dirt particles are often sharp and jagged, so when walking on the carpet it’s constantly being cut, the dirt actually shears parts of the pile at the base next to the weave.

Having a general clean once or twice a week will help improve the longevity of your carpet and your health, as well as providing you with an aesthetically pleasing carpet.

For all your carpet cleaning needs, you will find a great range of products at Click Cleaning.  You’ll find everything from detergents and protectors to carpet sanitisers and carpet stain removal products in this unique range.

Carpet Fact File

•    The first carpets were hand-knotted pile thought to originate from southern Central Asia, between the 3rd and 2nd millennium BCE.
•    The earliest group of surviving knotted pile carpets (often referred to as Konya Carpets) were produced under Seljuk rule in the first half of the 13th century on the Anatolian peninsula.
•    The Pazyryk Carpet is the oldest surviving carpet in the world dating from the 5th-4th century BCE, discovered by Sergei Ivanovich Rudenko in 1949.
•    The Pazyryk Carpet is richly coloured, measures 200 x 183cm and is framed by a border of griffins.


Keeping the house clean during Christmas Day

Christmas is a brilliant time of year to get the family together, but it can also be a messy time of year. There are many presents to open, much food to be served and a lot of drink to consume. You want Christmas to be a stress free as possible, so how can you keep the house looking tidy and clean effortlessly?

Christmas Presents

If you have a large family and they are all congregating around yours for the day, there will be a lot of presents to unwrap. Make sure all present giving is in one room and have a few refuse sacks stashed away in a corner.

Once all the presents have been unwrapped and everyone has showed their gratitude you can simply reach for a couple of sacks and quickly pick up all the rubbish, leaving the living room spotless. 

Christmas Dinner

If you like to have different stations in the kitchen for different parts of the meal make sure to have a black refuse sack at every station. Having a bin in reach whilst preparing the meal will keep people motivated to throw the rubbish away and keep the kitchen looking presentable.

Use Biodegradable refuse sacks for recyclable products. Having different coloured sacks will help keep non-recyclable products separate from what is not. Once the meal is in the oven, give the countertops a quick wipe down and put all refuse sacks in the appropriate bin.

After the meal

Get everyone to join in with the washing up. Put on some Christmas songs and have a little sing-a-long whilst cleaning. Designate jobs for everyone, some retrieving the empty plates and glasses, someone washing up and a team drying and putting away.

If you have a dishwasher have someone bringing in the plates, someone filling the dishwasher and someone giving the dining room table a quick wipe with some multipurpose spray.

When everyone comes together, such a big job will be done is half the time and half the effort is required.

Christmas drinks

Organise three separate bins outside the house; one for glass, one for recyclable products and the last one for non-recyclable.  Creating order from the beginning of the day, will keep the house looking clean and tidy throughout it and doesn’t require any time or effort.

This is a great way to organise what can go to the bottle bank and what can go in the brown or black bins after the Christmas holiday has finished. 

Doing all these tasks throughout the day will allow you to finish the evening putting your feet up with a cup of tea, and look back at the day’s activities without having to think about cleaning.

Spruce up the kitchen before cooking your Turkey

When it comes to Christmas we automatically think of Christmas dinner. You want to serve up the perfect Christmas turkey along with all the trimmings, but your kitchen is in a state. Giving your kitchen a good clean doesn’t have to be such a daunting task; following this guide you will wonder where the time has gone.

1. Begin with the biggest job, the oven.
   1. Put on some protective gloves and with an oven cleaner
   2. galvanised scourer.
   3. multipurpose spray
   4. Put the oven racks back into the oven and close the door.
   5. Cleaning countertops

      i. Countertops are one of the main areas in the kitchen that collects germs and bacteria. Regularly clean them with a multipurpose spray to kill as much bacteria as possible and help maintain the look and hygiene of your kitchen.

   6. Clean the sink

      i. Now that you have cleaned the oven racks, there is probably a lot to clean up in the sink. This is the perfect time to clean your drains as well.

      ii. Pick up as much residue from the sink as possible then give it a quick clean with a multipurpose cleaner.

      iii. Using Defence Sanitising tablet wash the sink thoroughly. This is a safer alternative to liquid bleach and is suitable to use when cleaning sink drains. 

   7. Combating bacteria

      i. Dish towels, rags and sponges normally carry a high number of germs and bacteria. When combating germs in the kitchen it is best to replace towels, rags and sponges every three weeks.

   8. Sweep and mop the floor 

          i. After sweeping the floor, mop it using a solution of Ecoforce Floor maintainer and warm water.

Top 10 Cleaning tips you can't live without

Household cleaning can either be a nightmare or a quick and easy job that you love to get stuck into, but most of the time we are searching for the motivation to get up and get on with our chores. However, with these ten cleaning tips from Click Cleaning, trying to find the motivation to have a squeaky clean house will be a thing of the past.

Toughest stains to combat

Removing the effects of spilled red wine and coffee can be a daunting task and can be time consuming, but with these quick and easy tips you will be removing stains in no time.

• Red Wine

-          From carpet – blot with a kitchen towel, then use Prochem Red RX to remove the stain and rinse thoroughly

-          From fabric – blot the stain, then use a stain remover like Prochem Stain Pro then wash

• Chewing Gum

Freeze the chewing gum off carpet and fabrics with Sel Freez, and then scrap off with a blunt knife.

• Grease & Fats

-          From carpet – kitchen towel over the stain, use a cool iron over it then use a grease stain remover and rinse thoroughly.

-          From fabric – rub laundry detergent into the fabric before washing as normal.

• Coffee

-          From carpet – blot with a kitchen towel, then use a coffee stain remover and rinse thoroughly

-          From fabric – blot the stain, then use a stain remover like Prochem Stain Pro then wash

Cleaning Appliances

Appliances are normally over looked when sprucing up the kitchen, but even the kettle could do with some tender loving care and it only takes a few minutes.

• Kettle

With a metal kettle use soapy water then buff with a microfiber cloth.

• Hobs

Use an over cleaner spray to clean ceramic hobs, but don’t use any abrasive cleaning supplies as ceramics scratch easily.

Household Surfaces

There are so many types of surfaces in a home, you have wooden, metal and painted, but that doesn’t mean you have to have a multitude of products. Find out what you can use today:

• Wooden Surfaces

Use a damp cloth before polishing the surface

• Painted furniture

Dust with a microfiber cloth then use washing up liquid and warm water solution

• Soft furnishings

Take off for example the pillow case, rub detergent into the fabric before washing as normal.

• Metal furniture

Use a damp cloth and multipurpose cleaner to clean metal frames. Use wire woll gently in the presence of rust. To finish use Dazzle Stainless Steel Polish to give it that glorious dazzling effect.