Until I get rich.....

.....I hate cleaning. I would love a cleaner but I can't have one. (I've come to the conclusion that the only way to be a domestic goddess is to have staff.) While I am very good at day to day tidying and keeping things looking ok on the surface please never open a cupboard in my house. Once a month I have to admit that the cursory odd hoover round and wipe down just won't cut it and I actually have to do some work. (If am brutally honest I like having guests because it forces me to clean the house and takes some of the pain away.)

When I do finally knuckle down to it white vinegar and bicarbonate of soda are my cleaning friends. Cheap, (Savers sell both for £1 each for a good quantity. Don't use it for cooking though!) smells better than most other cleaners, isn't as toxic as most commercial products, you don't need to have loads of different products for different purposes AND it works really fast.

Spray a bit of vinegar on any dirty surface (except marble or stone), sprinkle some bicarb on it, enjoy the fizzing action and start scrubbing. Seriously you will be amazed at how clean it gets things.

Blocked sink? First try pouring boiling water down it. If that doesn't work put as much bicarb as you can down the plughole, pour the vinegar down. Enjoy the mad fizzing, (Stop laughing at me, you'll enjoy it too.) you might as well clean the sink while you are at it. After an hour pour more boiling water down the sink and voila!

My favourite thing to clean this way is taps. They get satisfyingly shiny. It is easier to make a paste with the bicarb and a little vinegar and apply with a toothbrush to get into the nooks and crannys. BUT the real magic is if you want to shift the limescale that is caked on underneath the tap. Soak a sheet of kitchen towel with vinegar and wrap it round the limescally part. Wrap clingfilm round the whole lot to hold it in place and leave for a few hours. When you come back you will still have to scrub a bit but it will shift. Some times you may need to get a blunt edge (I use an old table knife) and carefully scrape the limescale off. It will come off easily as it has been loosened by the vinegar soak.

There are many uses for these two cleaning essentials but these are the ones that I find definitely always work and make the dull but necessary job a lot faster so you can dance off to the rest of the weekend for fun.

One final  Top Tip: If you have any lemons going a bit off in the fridge you can use them mixed in with the vinegar. It smells citrus fresh!