Spring clean your living room - revamp your lounge!

Cleaning your living room can breathe new life into your home!Of all the rooms in the house that seem to get dirty quickly, none gets filthier than the living room. Everyone dumps their stuff in there, people walk through and before you know it the focal point of your home is an absolute mess!

Spring cleaning your living room really will turn it back into a room that you and your family can enjoy. But it's not an easy task, and can take a good few hours to do properly.

If you're keen and ready, here's how to do it:

STAGE 1: DECLUTTER

• Place all items that don't belong in the living room in a large crate and put aside.
• Purge living room belongings - what do you actually use? Donate the rest to charity.
• If your dining table is in the living room, place the chairs elsewhere - this will give you more room.
• Remove cushions and place elsewhere.
• Take down paintings and photos.

STAGE 2: DRAPERIES, CURTAINS AND WINDOWS

• Take down curtains and draperies and dry clean or wash at home, as per manufacturer's instructions.
• Clean around curtain poles and blinds to ensure all dirt has been removed.
• Clean windows both inside and out. An old toothbrush can be used to clean gaps and crevices.

STAGE 3: CLEAN THE CEILING FAN

• If you've got one, you probably know how much dust it attracts. Give it a good dust, followed by a clean with bactericidal products, to ensure it's germ-free.

STAGE 4: CLEAN OUT CHAIRS AND SOFAS

• Check down the arms of sofas to ensure you don't lose any money (or keys!) in the hoover.
• Use hoover attachments to get in the nooks and crannies of your sofa.
• If you've rented a carpet cleaner, use the upholstery attachment to make your sofas look like new.
• If there are individual stubborn marks, use an upholstery spot cleaner, although as with all products test on an inconspicuous area first.

STAGE 5: CLEAN FURNITURE

• This can be a mammoth task so start early.
• Remove all items from furniture, dust down and store in a separate room.
• Clean out furniture using your bactericidal cleaner and allow to dry.
• Replace items.

STAGE 6: CLEAN LAMPS, BOOKS AND ORNAMENTS

• Books get especially dusty - you may want to clean them outside.
• Be careful with sentimental or fragile ornaments.
• Lamps can be cleaned easily with a small hoover attachment, although open the vent to decrease the flow if the lamp is made of fabric.

STAGE 7: CLEAN ELECTRONICS

• If you haven't cleaned your electronic equipment for a while, such as TVs or HI-FIs, they're likely to be very dusty and dirty.
• Unplug all cables and check for wear and tear.
• Using a soft cloth and cleaner, wipe down all equipment including the inside of TV cabinets.
• Use a gentle cleaner on screens and LCD displays as these can be sensitive.

STAGE 8: CLEAN CARPETS AND FLOORS

• Vacuum carpets and floors thoroughly. Do it again to make sure you've picked everything up.
• Shampoo carpets: you can hire a professional firm to do this or rent a unit yourself.
• Mop down hard floors with a dedicated product to remove marks and kill germs.

STAGE 9: DUST PAINTINGS AND PHOTOS AND REPLACE

• Be careful with original paintings or those on canvas.
• Now is a good time to re-tighten screws and fixtures.

HANDY TIPS:

• Spring cleaning gives you a great excuse to change stuff around a bit and give your living room a bit of a makeover. Research shows that regular changes help keep us happy, so why not move your sofa to the other side of the room?
• Enlist the help of a friend, put on some music and arrange some bubbly for after - who said cleaning couldn't be fun?

If you'd like any more tips on spring cleaning your living room, just post in the comments and we'll respond!

Minimise the spread of germs

Reduce the impact of dangerous germs in your home with our handy guideWith all the press coverage on swine flu, you'd think we'd all be experts at minimising germs being spread around. But sometimes it's easy to forget, in the bustle of modern life, to take the simple steps that protect you and your family from germs that cause disease and illness.

Follow our handy tips and your home will be as germ-free as it can possibly be:

• Wash your hands - after going to the toilet, before preparing or eating food, after touching an animal, after covering a sneeze or cough, after touching unbroken skin or blood, after blowing your nose. Hands must be washed properly with plenty of soap and water. Children who wash their hands hastily can be told to sing 'Happy Birthday' twice in their heads to ensure they do the job properly! You may also wish to use a hand sanitiser.
• Avoid contact with ill people - This can be difficult when a child or partner is ill. Wash hands after coming into contact with an ill person and ensure sheets are washed and windows open to minimise germs being harboured.
• Separate personal hygiene products - Never share toothbrushes or combs, and make sure items of clothing - particularly hats - are worn by one person only.
• Ventilate the house - Germs thrive in stuffy, warm environments. Make sure your house benefits from open windows to allow air to circulate.
• Clean computer keyboards - Keyboards often carry more germs that toilets. Learn how to clean a keyboard and then make sure yours is cleaned regularly to avoid family members becoming infected.
• Clean surfaces with bactericidal products - If you want to kill germs you need a cleaner that will actually kill germs. Bactericidal products can kill up to 99% of bacteria to ensure you eliminate germs from your home and don't just spread them about.

Good luck on your way to a germ-free home! If you'd like more advice, please post in the comments below or give Click Cleaning a call on 0845 680 1955.

Prochem products - for the toughest cleaning jobs around!

Prochem Products can make light work of even the toughest cleaning tasksWelcome back to Click Cleaning! It's 2010, and we hope you all had a fantastic Christmas and New Year.

If the festive season has thrown up a serious cleaning job that you need to tackle, you may want to look through our range of Prochem products. They're designed for the most demanding tasks around, and won't let you down when you need help the most. We stock a huge range of Prochem supplies that give you the power to achieve the results you're after. From the popular Prochem coffee stain remover when you accidentally slosh your hot drink on the floor to the extensive carpet cleaning range, you'll find everything you could possibly need - and more.

So why not have a look through our range of Prochem products today and see what we have to offer? We specialise in stocking these supplies, which means if you're looking to get perfect results from your cleaning jobs you should check out out great range.

If you'd like to know more about how these products can make your cleaning jobs far easier, why not give us a call on 0845 680 1955? We'd be more than happy to advise you further.

Merry Christmas from Click Cleaning!

Merry Christmas from all of us here at Click Cleaning... and Rudolph!From all of us here at Click Cleaning, we wish you a safe and merry Christmas and a happy New Year! Have a great time with your family and friends and enjoy the festive season as much as possible.

Here are a couple of useful guides we've put together to help you after the festive season has come to a close and you've got to tackle all that nasty washing up and cleaning. It's no fun, but get everyone to help and your house will be back to normal as soon as possible.

1. Resolutions and New Year's Cleaning Tips
2. Five advanced kitchen cleaning tips to return your kitchen to normal after the Christmas meal!
3. Christmas cleaning tips: how to clean up quickly and effectively after the festive season!

Once again, have a happy Christmas and an enjoyable New Year. We'll see you in 2010. :)

New Year's Cleaning Resolutions!

Clean more effectively in the New Year with our handy resolutions!New Year is a time for change. Doing more exercise, getting more work done, spending more time with your children. What about tackling your cleaning jobs more effectively?

Household cleaning, provided you prepare properly, never has to be a chore. Using the right products, for the right jobs, at the right time, will give you consistently superior results making your house a joy to live in.

If you want to improve your cleaning habits in time for 2010, that's great. Here are a few ideas to get you rolling:

• Clean as part of a routine
  Everyone knows routine cleaning is the best way to do things. You might get the majority of your chores done on Sunday, or maybe Tuesday night is cleaning night for you. But what you may want to consider is more regular cleaning, but in smaller chunks. You know when you do the washing up and you find it far easier when you wash 'as you go?' Well the same is true of cleaning. Vacuum every couple of nights after you get home from work, and you'll find your floors are always as clean as they can possibly can be. The job will be smaller, as you're doing it more regularly, and you'll avoid being overwhelmed!
• Give specific jobs to members of the family!
  If you clean the living room, your husband cleans the kitchen and your kids clean their rooms, the house will stay cleaner for far longer and be much easier to maintain. Remember, maintenance is the key to a clean home. Make sure your kids know how to achieve the best results: you may want to spend a few hours showing them the best way to clean a room and get them excited about it.
• Learn some advanced cleaning tips
  -Use rolled up newspaper to wipe down windows - the shine will be blinding.
  -Zap a bowl of hot water and lemon on full power for 2 minutes to totally deodorise your microwave.
  -Find out how to eradicate every type of stain under the sun with our handy stain removal guide.
  -Dry clean your curtains. You won't believe what a different it'll make.
• Keep products where they need to be
  If you keep all your cleaning products under the kitchen sink, it may be tidier but you'll be less inclined to give the upstairs toilet a quick once over. Keep cleaning products where they need to be and you'll be more likely to perform some quick-fire regular cleaning to maintain your house.
• Do the job properly
  This may sound obvious, but when we say properly we mean make sure you get into all the nooks and crannies and hoover up all the dust. This may take you a couple of days, but afterwards you just have to maintain your house and you won't ever have to do a full-on, back breaking spring clean again!

Best of luck with all your cleaning jobs in the New Year!