Clean the house like Granny did

Clean the house like Granny did Before the days of powerful vacuum cleaners and supermarket sprays, our grandmothers cleaned their homes in a much simpler way. Mrs White's favourite product for most household cleaning tasks was vinegar. When she died, her household cleaning tips - which she had scribbled down through the years and tucked inside notebooks - were inherited by my great aunt, then passed on to me. Lawrence has tweaked a few of her recipes for cleaning products, but Mrs White's ideas and principles are still relevant today. "Borax crops up again and again," Brenda says. It's made from a natural mineral, sodium borate, which was discovered over 4,000. "It works along with any fly spray but doesn't contain chemical pesticides or toxic heavy metals as some off-the-shelf sprays do. You can absorb them through your skin and breathe them in. Inspired by the tradition of leaving bowls of chestnuts on windowsills to deter spiders, Roullier White sells a spider repellent spray called Leg It. As well as being effective, simple, natural cleaning products have environmental (and therefore health) benefits, Lawrence says. If you spritz your window frames and doors, they won't come near. It's non-toxic, safe to use, and was originally used to soften water and make white clothes brighter. It has many uses as it has both disinfecting and deodorising properties and is also great for preserving cut flowers. "She spent all her teenage years in service as a housemaid, then worked as a cook," explains Lawrence. Another product that's inspired by Mrs White's notes is the Swatnot spray, which repels flies. Until about 10 years ago, natural cleaning products weren't that widely available. "Granny did not use proprietary cleaners laden with bleach and other products that claimed to work miracles," she writes. To keep the bases of her irons free from starch build-up, Brenda's grandmother kept a cloth soaked in white vinegar to hand and wiped the iron after each round of ironing. "Today, we make it using olive oil instead, but it's not much different and it works in the same way. There weren't really viable natural alternatives, but now there are. "Spiders 'smell' through their feet," Lawrence explains. Clean the house like Granny did Trade News selected by Local Linkup on 26/04/2012