HOME VIEWING
'Throw as you go' key to a clean house
February 6, 2010
Jennifer Wilson-Speedy
YOURHOME.CA EDITOR
It's that time of year when New Year's resolutions start to slip. That paperwork you promised to file is building up in the foyer and the dust-bunnies you vowed to banish are rapidly multiplying in the spare bedroom.
Luckily, the new season of How Clean is Your House? (Mondays, 8:30 p.m., W Network) is here to offer some helpful tips – and the assurance that your housekeeping could be much worse.
The new season brings "dirt, dirt and more dirt!" says Kim Woodburn.
Woodburn, a professional cleaner since 1984, and co-host Aggie MacKenzie, who was involved in testing consumer products for the Good Housekeeping Institute, snoop around homes that make descriptions such as "neglected" and "dusty" feel like understatements.
In addition to the horror movie-worthy dirt-detecting scenes, the pair also tests surfaces for bacteria to show how the mess is affecting residents' health.
As for how the homes featured on the show get into such a dismal state, Woodburn blames it on laziness while MacKenzie says problems like depression, debt and death can cause life to come to a stop, and, before you know it, the home is overrun.
And, while the spaces on the show are extreme examples, Woodburn suggests that everyone could be stepping up a bit in terms of cleanliness. "Even in the best run houses, kitchens and baths leave a lot to be desired," she notes.
The pair's top cleaning crimes in normal homes include messy toilets, people who don't clean up after themselves in shared spaces and unclean beds.
To help keep your home from becoming How Clean Is Your House?-worthy, Woodburn says it's vital to "throw as you go and clean as you go. ... Get off your bum!"
If not, the messes just accumulate and you're faced with hours of work – which makes starting an even more daunting task.
She says it's always possible to find a half-hour here and there to clean up the less trafficked areas of the home.
The show is full of tips for tackling those hard-to-clean messes, accumulated over Woodburn's years of professional cleaning and collected from friends and family.
For example, try WD-40 to remove crayon marks from walls, rub away watermarks with mayonnaise or repel mice with peppermint.
For cleaning essentials, Woodburn says you need a good scourer for the toilet, a soap-filled scouring pad, spray polish, window cleaner and dish soap.
AIRING THIS WEEK
Sunday: Extreme Makeover: Home Edition (8 p.m., ABC).
Monday: How Clean is Your House? (8:30 p.m., W Network), Marriage Under Construction (9 p.m., HGTV), Love it or List it (9 p.m., W Network), Yard Crashers (9 p.m., DIY), My First Place (9:30 p.m., HGTV), Take This House and Sell It (10 p.m., W Network).
Tuesday: Million Dollar Listing (8 p.m., HGTV), Bang for Your Buck (9 p.m., HGTV), Man Caves (9 p.m., DIY).
Wednesday: Agent vs. Agent (8 p.m., HGTV), Real Estate Intervention (8:30 p.m., HGTV), Property Virgins (9 p.m., HGTV), Renovation Realities (9 p.m., DIY), The Unsellables UK (9:30 p.m., HGTV).
Thursday: House of Bryan (9 p.m., HGTV), Colour Confidential (9 p.m., W Network), Cool Tools (9 p.m., DIY), Real Renos (9:30 p.m., HGTV), Divine Design (10 p.m., W Network), Love it or List it (11 p.m., W Network).
Friday: House Hunters International (8 p.m., HGTV), World's Greenest Homes (8:30 p.m., HGTV), Location, Location, Location (9 p.m., HGTV), BATHtastic (9 p.m., DIY), Kitchen Impossible (10 p.m., DIY).
Read more:
Diary of a mad hoarder
Organize your closet in 10 minutes
Weed out clutter’s roots
Guide to getting organized
Cures for 9 common clutter problems
Is the economy keeping you from paring down?
Toronto Star