Elevating the mundane

another post embracing the domestic; this week lifting the drudgery of cleaning

Photo by Daiga Ellaby on Unsplash

I’m not going all Mrs Hinch on you. I don’t particularly like cleaning my house but I do LOVE a clean, tidy, fragrant, orderly home. I also love my home, so it seems only fitting that I should look after it. I am not a house-proud lunatic, forever plumping cushions and hoovering up lint from carpets. I am not a slave to the duster and there are times when my standards slip well below my happiness threshold, but I am aware that I simply do not function well in a messy environment, so ‘to bring order where there be chaos’ calms me and gives me peace. There are women who look down on others who care for their homes by regularly doing housework as if they’ve betrayed the sisterhood in some way by engaging in this trivial activity (bet they like a clean house though). But looking after your daily surroundings, caring for your own space and making it a pleasure to inhabit is surely a worthy pursuit. I don’t feel that cleaning is beneath me but I do feel the need to add some pizazz to make it feel less of a chore (never thought I’d write a sentence about housework using the word pizazz). It’s also another way of bringing beauty to your everyday. I wrote of this last week, hoping to make it a series and here we are already with episode 2.

The simplest and easiest way to an uplift while cleaning is by using fragrance and by ditching commercial, chemical laden crap. You can go the make your own route using bicarb, white vinegar, washing up liquid and essential oils - recipes for homemade products are out there in abundance, but if that sounds like too much of a faff there are plenty of natural cleaning products available.

Purdy and Figg are one of the most well-known with their do it all counter clean product with added combos of essential oils. It embraces the most important element for me, which is fragrance. My P&F favourites are patchouli and cedarwood and orange and petitgrain. However I became irritated by the subscription model at Purdy and Figg where I found I was unable to request my favourite scents. Having said this I should note that it is now possible to make one-off purchases of refill packs of specific scents rather than a multi-pack subscription. They suggest a refill pack lasts around three months. To be honest I can’t be sure how long it lasted in my household.

Prior to the arrival of Purdy and Figg on my radar I used Koh cleaning products, not so well known but free of nasty chemicals and it works. I was introduced to Koh by the fabulous food writer Debora Robertson who had a brilliant column on all things domestic a few years ago in the Saturday Telegragh called Notes from A Small Kitchen Island. The column sadly ended but gladly we can access Debora’s brilliant writing here Lickedspoon with Debora Robertson.

I use Koh’s universal cleaner and steal Purdy and Figg’s essential oil combos by adding a few drops of each to the Koh cleaner in my refill bottle. I do prefer to use a glass bottle not the plastic ones from Koh and they are easy to find (some here).

Aside from cleaning products themselves, the other way I elevate this mundane activity is by using good wholesome cleaning tools. I’m going for the aesthetic here. I know that using anything made from gaudy neon coloured ‘orrible plastic is never going to motivate me. So I think, go mad and buy great stuff as it’ll make chores so much more bearable. Also many of the high quality brushes and dust gatherers available will be more efficient and last well. I have many of the items I am about to share and as a result of finding links for you I have discovered a ‘need’ for many more.

Firstly brushes, The Oxford Brush Company have possibly the most comprehensive range - a brush for every conceivable purpose.

Look at some of these.

Even a leaf brush featured here - who knew!

They also do feather dusters which I love to use. Just add a few drops of your favourite essential oil and banish cobwebs with joy.

I bought this one from Folk Interiors

Willow and Stone have a great range of wholesome cleaning products (a fabulous shop and local to me - hurrah)

I am not actually suggesting you pay £11.25 for the bundle of cleaning cloths shown here, just rip up some old T-shirts, but presented this way they make the prospect of wiping a cloth over surfaces so much more appealing.

Re-Found is another source for cleaning with glory.

I’m not convinced the Vetiver pan scrubs (pictured in the middle) will be man enough for pan scrubbing but I am always on the look out for an alternative to the green scourers which I know aren't terribly eco doodah. I may be tempted as they would look pretty by the kitchen sink.

Another shop, not so local for me but a joy to visit is Watts Trading in Lostwithiel.

This post and my last, are really all about trying to make life just that little bit better, which has been a theme I have been drawn to of late. This quote from The Kitchen Book by Ella Risbridger - an extract shared by India Knight here.

‘I love to make my life nice in ways that it doesn’t need to be nice. I love to make things nicer than they need to be. I love to make things just ten percent more lovely than the bare minimum.’

It was also shared recently by Christina Patterson’s lovely post here on just that, making everything that bit lovelier. Let’s make it a trend.

I listened to this on Radio 4 this week - for people of my generation who wang on about 1976 when any one mentions heatwaves (I did mention 1976 last year here), it was a memorable year for many and this is a fascinating listen/read.

Kitchen Disco Record of the Week

Staying with the mid seventies and sunshine, a friend reminded me of this happy, happy track this week so I thought I share it with you.

Boogie Shoes - KC & The Sunshine Band

If you’ve got this far, thanks so much for reading. As ever, a click on the ❤️ button if you liked it, would be gratefully received. It might help in some small way to spread the theme of making things a bit lovelier.

Thanks again.