Cleaning the fridge is one of those tasks that’s easy to overlook. But a clean fridge helps to keep your food fresher for longer, and stops the spread of potentially harmful bacteria.

Just Helpers Founder Antoinette shares her top tips on how to clean your fridge with minimum fuss.

When to Clean Your Fridge

It’s a good idea to clean your fridge at most every 3 months. Of course, if something spills in the fridge it’s best to wipe it up straight away. This is especially important for milk, which will smell bad if it isn’t cleaned up quickly. Wiping up sticky spills as they happen will also make it easier to clean your fridge.

To clean your fridge thoroughly, you need to empty it first. So, it makes sense to clean your fridge before you go to the supermarket or before your delivery arrives. That way, you will have less food to store whilst you clean.

Before you Start to Clean Your Fridge

Now is the time to have a good sort through the contents of your fridge.

• Throw away any food which is out of date or inedible – don’t forget those half jars of chutney left over from Christmas!
• Empty your vegetable drawers and salad crisper.
• Take everything out of the door racks – get rid of flat fizzy drinks or the dregs in wine bottles.
• Put perishable food (especially meat, fish and dairy products) into a cool bag or box with frozen chill packs to keep them fresh while you clean.
• Finally, check the manufacturer’s instructions for your fridge for any special precautions.

How to Clean Your Fridge – Step by Step

1. If possible, pull out your fridge. Vacuum around, underneath and behind it, and wash the floor.
2.  Remove the drawers, crisper and shelves.  Leave them on the kitchen counter to come up to room temperature before washing. This is especially important for glass shelves which can shatter with a sudden change in temperature.
3. Wipe all the surfaces inside the fridge including the door. Avoid using bleach or strong-smelling cleaning products which can taint the food. A solution of bicarbonate of soda, vinegar or Milton is ideal. Bicarbonate of soda is also great for neutralising odours if a spill has gone unnoticed and resulted in a nasty niff!  Cotton buds are great for cleaning fiddly corners. Dry thoroughly with a clean tea towel.
4. If you notice a pool of water at the bottom of  your fridge, it’s likely that your drip-hole is blocked. Find this at the back of the fridge – a cocktail stick is useful to clean it.
5. Wash the shelves, drawers and crisper in hot soapy water (washing up liquid is perfect). Remember to remove the plastic guard strips from each of the shelves. These often need a good soak and a scrubbing brush to get to the bottom of the narrow crevices. Don’t be tempted to pop them in the dishwasher either  – it’s too hot. I also find that it leaves watermarks on the  plastic components.  Dry thoroughly before putting them back in the fridge.
6. Don’t forget the outside of the fridge. A micro-fibre cloth is great for getting a streak-free finish. Use a vacuum to clean crumbs and debris from the door seal and wipe with your bicarbonate of soda solution. Dry thoroughly.
7. Now you’re done! Let your fridge get back to the correct temperature before re-filling it (a fridge thermometer is useful for this).

Keeping your Fridge Clean

Now that your fridge is fresh and clean, you’ll want to keep it that way! Try these tips for fridge organisation.

• Wipe the outside and bottom of jars and bottles before you put them back in the fridge.
• Try to put everything back in an organised way so you can find things.
• Try to put food which needs to be used first closest to the front.
• Consider using labelled baskets or trays to keep similar foods together (cheese, yoghurts, jams etc)
• Organise your vegetable drawers, with tender products such as salad leaves separate from heavier, more robust veg such as carrots or sweet potatoes. This will stop them getting crushed and spoiled.
• Label your left-overs and plan when you will use them, or freeze them so they last longer.
• Write the date on jars or bottles when you open them – that way you can be sure to use them up while they are still fresh, and avoid waste.
• When you do your big shop, get into the habit of checking and pruning current items before adding more stuff in. Take this opportunity to give shelves and doors a quick wipe too.

“Just Doing the Right Thing” is at the heart of what Just Helpers is all about.

So when I was recognised as Employer of the Year in London, in the Venus Awards, I couldn’t have been more thrilled.

What are the Venus Awards?

The Venus Awards have been called “The working women’s Oscars”. They recognise the achievements of hard-working women, and female-friendly businesses, across the country. I was lucky enough to be nominated for the award by a Just Helpers customer. From 45 nominations, I made it down to the shortlist of 4. Then, at a glamour-filled ceremony at the Waldorf Hotel in London, I was announced as the winner! For me, the award is a recognition of the achievements of the whole team at Just Helpers.

Values

I founded Just Helpers out of a passion for justice, fair pay and decent working conditions. Inspired by my charity work with an anti human-trafficking organisation, I placed these values at the heart of the business.

In our cities, vulnerable migrant workers, and particularly women, are often exploited by unscrupulous employers with poor pay and working conditions.  I saw this injustice first hand, and so I decided to begin my own business to provide an alternative – providing domestic and commercial cleaning services.

The Just Helpers Approach

Being an ethical, professional business which nurtures and supports women is central to the Just Helpers Approach.

• Paying the London Living Wage – a good day’s work for a good day’s pay
• Developing People – mentoring our Helpers to improve their confidence and communication
• Professionalism –through our process of vetting, hands on interview and shared standards, we ensure your Helper is right for you
• Pride – Our Helper of the Month Award, nominated by our clients, rewards a job well done
• Recognising Potential – where we can, we grow our Helpers into Managers

Campaigning

Campaigning is a big part of who I am. The award has been a great opportunity to encourage people to follow the Just Helper’s approach. In my acceptance speech I said: “Please make sure you know how much you pay your cleaner and if you are going to use an agency, make sure they are ethical. A good day’s work for a good day’s pay – everyone deserves that.

A good day’s work for a good day’s pay – everyone deserves that.

Just Helpers is affiliated to the Living Wage Foundation. This organisation campaigns for workers to be paid fair wages which reflects actual living costs in the capital, and across the nation.

Expertise

In further recognition of what we have achieved at Just Helpers, I am excited to have been asked to be a Champion for the London Mayor’s “Good Work Standard”. This initiative aims to bring together the best employment practices in London. It will work to raise standards for workers across the city, through educating employers and informing government policy. I’m looking forward to sharing my expertise and working alongside them to ensure a robust and fair policy for all sizes of businesses.

The Future

The Venus Award has been a wonderful opportunity to celebrate and to reflect on all that we have achieved so far at Just Helpers. The positive validation from someone outside the agency has encouraged us to punch bigger and higher. Our greater passion has now become to end exploitation within the UK cleaning agency. Watch this space!

Over the coming months, Just Helpers will continue to grow, with a new Just Helpers App, an exciting new rebrand and new services such as Lifestyle Support for people in retirement.

Merry Christmas from Just Helpers!

As an office team, we want to take this opportunity to say thank you for trusting us to find great cleaning colleagues who match your home and office spaces over this past year. This year has been a big year of growth for us, which has been exciting and has kept us all very busy. We are excited about the creation of our new App which will be launched in the first quarter of next year. This will help to ease communication, allow you and your Helper to keep up with your cleaning schedules, give you an easy platform to make comments and allow you to connect with the team more readily.

It was thrilling to have our 3 babies in the manager’s team and the arrival of baby Matthew to Monika in September has been wonderful – more on that in January!

Empowering Women

Being nominated by one of you for a Venus award this year was also very humbling, and much more making it through to the final 4 and a ‘juoozy’ awards evening at the Waldorf with the team on the 3rd as an Employer of the year has been an interesting journey. We look forward to announcing the results.

Spreading Christmas Cheer

Many of you ask me about potential gifts for your Helper. For all of the team, the very best thing for them is a monetary tip as they are often trying to support family still located in their countries of origin. I will leave this between you and your cleaner, but please do be mindful of your last cleaning day before Christmas with your regular Helper. I would suggest just leaving a card etc, in a prominent place where she is likely to find it. Last year I can honestly say that most of my team were moved to tears because of your generosity. Thank you in advance.

Our Christmas Charity Appeal

We are supporting two charities this year:

The first is Bulgarian charity spearheaded by Olga one of our cleaning colleagues. She and a group of friends organise a busload of items to be delivered to a charity that cares for Children in the care system in Bulgaria. There is a desperate need for items of clothing, toiletries, stationery and toys. As many of our team are Bulgarian, we want to get behind this in two ways:

Our team will rally together to donate various second-hand items from their family. Secondly, any money raised by the team for both this and our UK charity below will be matched by the agency. We will divide the money and have a day as a team in the spring where we create as many gift-boxes as we can to send with the next bus that Olga and her friends will organise. We would LOVE it if you could consider donating some money towards this.

The second is Children with Cancer UK. This was the charity that is close to our manager Yana Yaneva’s heart and won the team’s vote too. Already as a team, we have raised over £600. This will be matched pound for pound by the agency. Could you join us in donating to this charity too? Find out more at https://www.childrenwithcancer.org.uk

Christmas Festivities near you

We currently clean for 9 great churches and their clergy around London. I know that they will be busily planning their Christmas services now. If the thought of Carols by Candlelight, Alfrescosinging, festive wreath making, midnight mass, an evening of carols at your local jazz bar, Children’s Nativity service, a Christmas market or the chance to find out what Christmas is really all about beyond the trees, carols, Santa and gifts piques your interest, why not drop into one of their services or a church more local to you. See below for details of our connections:

Streatham Central Church
Dundonald Church Wimbledon
Hornsey Parish Church
St Michael’s Battersea
St Thomas More Swiss Cottage
St Peter’s Bethnal Green
St Andrew’s Chelsea
The Bridge Battersea Community Church
St Mary Abbots Parish Church Kensington

Christmas and New Year often provide a time and space for us to reboot, rethink and in some cases change direction. I pray for safety and well-being for each and every one of you as you pause, reflect, spend time with family and friends and enter into a new year.

Wishing you a wonderful Christmas!
Warmest wishes,
Antoinette, Lydia, Monika, Vivian, Vanya, Yana, Yana, and the Just Helpers Team

Just Helpers Journey – The Reason

I started the company in 2013 when I landed an amazing part-time job working for an anti-human trafficking organisation.

Having loved being a secondary school teacher for 12 years, the cut in salary to pursue something that I am so passionate about was tricky. I have always loved cleaning for friends and family and took pride in seeing peoples faces after my efforts. Coming home after a long day of work and knowing that your home space is serene, organised and clean is a joy to behold. Ensuring that “wow” and “ahhhh” feeling when clients get home still gives me the same satisfaction today. This motivation was key in inspiring and brainstorming business ideas to help support my charity work. So through my love of cleaning and hard work a business was born.

Small Beginnings

Consequently, through friends at church, I was connected to my first amazing client (Eve, how apt!) and the cleaning agency has rapidly grown from there.  My passion for justice, fair pay and working conditions was at the core of the business from the very beginning. As I received more and more referrals the business grew and gradually evolved through word of mouth recommendations. From a one-woman business to appointing my first colleagues Barbara and Yana Yaneva along the way, to what you see today – Just Helpers.

It was clear by 2015 that my role should evolve more strategically and I should continue to combine my two passions:

Cleaning and Empowering Women

Unfortunately, through my anti-trafficking work, I saw first hand the exploitation that happens in all communities even those right on our doorsteps. In our UK neighbourhoods, vulnerable people are taken advantage of and not given the opportunities, rights and kindnesses that every person should be afforded. I knew early on that If I could provide an alternative career, where women were nurtured and encouraged to build their own businesses: then my vision would help many individuals in their own journeys.

Fair pay and good working conditions are rare in the cleaning industry

I decided that this ethic should underpin everything that we do. So “Just doing the right thing’ became our motto. Just Helpers from its very inception have been proud affiliates of the London Living Wage Foundation. An organisation campaigning tirelessly to ensure fair pay is awarded to workers and help highlight the poverty crisis in the UK (please find out more here). Just Helpers supports your cleaner by ensuring they receive an equitable wage from their clients but my conscience pushed that we go way beyond that. Just Helpers is my family and I instil pride and enthusiasm in all of my teammates from the very start. With a team of great in-house, ‘home-grown’ managers, we mentor your Helper to improve their confidence and assist them in their communication with their clients.  Where we see Helpers with the potential for growth beyond cleaning, we promote them to be a manager at the earliest opportunity.

Ethics are central to our company operations and we employ this internally within our office team and in our interactions with you and your cleaner.

We have grown to be a management agency providing London cleaning services for both domestic and commercial clients. We act on behalf of professional, affordable and conscientious cleaners (we prefer the term ‘Helpers’), who will love your home like their own. Our experience in the industry enables us to help you and your Helper develop a strong, solid relationship.

All of our Helpers providing cleaning services in London are vetted and put through three hands-on cleaning interviews to make sure that they are the right Helper for you.  We want to know that they subscribe to a shared standard that they have agreed upon as a collective over time. This is ever-changing, especially as new Helpers join the ranks and share their expertise. We have learnt how to spot a great ‘Helper’ through our robust interview process and are regularly approached by women wanting to join Just Helpers as our honest, fair and empowering reputation spreads across communities both here and abroad. I am so proud and delighted to advocate and administrate for such a committed team of colleagues.

So that is the Just Helpers Journey so far. What’s next?

The Future

Being a South Londoner, London has always been my home but since childhood, I have had a love of the sea. In my younger years as a teacher, I taught both in the UK and in Africa and have been fortunate enough to travel broadly.  Even with experiencing many countries, I love nothing more than coming home. This summer I took the first step in making my longer-term dream come true. I moved to live by the sea. Just Helpers now has a team of Operations Managers and over 40 Helpers providing high quality, reliable and efficient cleaning. My aim is to eventually own my own home by the sea and help raise teenagers through fostering.

This is my 5-year plan

Professionally, Just Helpers must continue to grow and I have some great people supporting me in navigating the next exciting phase of growth. I have also been privileged to have been invited to contribute to the Mayor of London’s ‘Good Work Standard’ initiative as a Champion.  The aim of this initiative is to promote equitable and nurturing working standards in London businesses. This exciting committee should help to educate and inform other businesses and government policy in this sector. Ensuring working conditions improve for all is the focus for the future.

I am also extremely excited to have been nominated for the Venus Women’s Awards (by one of our clients) in the category of ‘Employer of the Year – London’. This team effort is a great recognition of how far we have come. We are thrilled to have just found out we are Finalists. The whole management team will attend a lovely event in December to find out if we win. Regardless of the outcome I am so proud of everyone and cannot wait to celebrate!

Who knows what the future holds after that, Homecare and Life Administration is another string to our bow coming soon to London’s postcodes. A new system and App to streamline our communication between Helpers, Clients and the office team,  Just Helpers in another part of the UK…Watch this space!

For now though lets ‘Just’ take one step at a time!  And thank-you to all of those who have journeyed with us along the way.

Room by room by Antoinette – Entrance Hall

The Entrance Hall in your home is often the first space that your guests will see. Taking time to ensure that this room is clean and clutter-free will enable both you and your guests to feel relaxed as soon as you come through the door.

With so many elements making up an Entrance Hall it is often overlooked as it can be tricky.

Here are my top tips on how to achieve the best for your Entrance Hall. It is the window into your home after all.

Order

• When cleaning your home a common mistake can be doing the hallways last.  If the floors need mopping you need to think this through, as the worst thing is mopping and then having to walk back over your hard work.  Consider doing the downstairs hallway before you go upstairs or vice versa depending on what order you have cleaned the rest of your house.  This gives your floors time to dry.
• Vacuuming rugs and moving them out of the way is essential for a thorough clean.  Expensive and delicate rugs should be vacuumed carefully and then placed safely somewhere to air.
• Bookshelves are often housed in hallways and can give a lovely aesthetic to this space. This feature is often neglected and can get very dusty. By using a  Feather Duster you can easily eliminate the dust. The much maligned feather duster is great for getting to the tops of books and into the edges of the bookshelf. I highly recommend an annual prune and spring clean where all the books come completely off of the shelves to prevent any stubborn marking on your selves.
• Every home has it! The ‘Tidy Disaster Zone’. You know that drop zone by the front door. Shoes, scarves, jackets, scooters, shopping bags, Abel and Cole boxes… and anything else that randomly gets dumped there. Is it time to throw away the broken umbrella that’s been lurking there for 3 years? YES!
• Entrance Halls are also notorious for cobwebs. Staircases are often the highest ceilings of the house, so by using a Telescopic-Static-Duster, you can dust high-level cobwebs with ease.
• Light fittings and their bulbs show dust off when illuminated. So take time to dust light fittings and chandeliers.  If you do have chandeliers in your home be very careful when dismantling.  Allow an hour for this task and take a photo before you start from all angles! They are like a jigsaw puzzle, you do not want to be left with a random piece once you have carefully reassembled it.
• Carefully dust tops of pictures. Be careful of precious artwork. I find an old-fashioned feather duster comes in handy here.
• Polish mirrors using a special glass microfibre cloth for a sparkly, streak-free finish.
• Dust Dado Rails and Skirting Boards.
• Dust tops of light switches, then anti-bac wipe and polish them for a hygienic and sparkling finish.
• Dust tops of plug sockets, anti-bac wipe and polish them to ensure no dirt accumulates.
• Dust between the balusters (I bet you didn’t know that term!) for us common folk, they are the spindles or banister supports on your staircase.  If they are really dirty, use the damp cloth to give them all a thorough clean.
• Hard to reach windows can be difficult and potentially dangerous to clean effectively. You may need specialist window cleaners. Please feel free to contact us for our recommended window cleaning partners should you require this service.
• Vacuum the whole area including the stairs.  Don’t forget to do edges first with the corner nozzle attachment and then use the large attachments for each step. Ensure that you adjust for the correct floor setting for carpet, hardwood or other surfaces to do the landing areas.
• Mop, make sure you always mop your way towards the next room you will clean.

Enjoy

Now you can fling open your front door with pride and let your Entrance Hall welcome guests in.  Think how proud (and shame free ;-)) you will feel the next time friends and family visit. Until next time. Happy Cleaning! Antoinette.

Is your bedroom a place for relaxation and rejuvenating sleep?

In order for your brain to ‘switch off’ this room should be clutter-free and look and smell fresh and clean. Here is a helpful insight into how your Helper ensures that this is our priority in your home, enabling you to spring out of bed ready to rock with whatever your day has in store.

Having the correct toolkit for any job is essential for getting great results. Here is a list of the key ingredients to making your boudoir beautiful. Next, of course, is the method in which the magic happens. Follow this simple, yet highly effective order and I know you will be impressed with the outcome:

Order

1. First strip the bed linen and place it in the washing machine. If you are anything like me, the idea of getting two jobs done in one time slot is intensely satisfying.
2. Vacuum any rugs thoroughly and remove them to the landing outside the bedroom.
3. Make the bed with clean linen (It’s really important to do this now so that lint and fluff doesn’t land on your newly dusted surfaces)
4. Dust all available surfaces going from high to low. Don’t forget your window ledges, blinds and radiators.
5. Use this opportunity to declutter your room and arrange high traffic areas such as dressing tables and bedside cabinets so that things are relevant and easily accessible. This is the time to let your artistic flair shine!
6. Vacuum the floor. If you are a shredder and don’t have a fabulous Miele Hoover with it’s special hair grabbing head, then try using the brush function to loosen any hairs from the carpet.
7. I would suggest, that once a month if you store your life under the bed, pull it out and make sure the vacuum gets into all those nooks and crannies. Once a quarter pull your bed away from the wall and make sure you get to these areas too. Grossly, it’s renowned for dead skin cells, hairs, runaway tissues and all the other clutter you have dropped down the side during your nightly Netflix binge.
8. It’s likely that you have ruffled the bed. Make sure that one of your last actions is to give it that hotel feel. Pull the edges of the duvet out and smooth the duvet down from the middle to the edges using the flat palm of your hands.
9. If you have special items such as silver, gold or brass trinkets, take them out to the hallway and treat them using specialist cleaning solutions. Watch this space for our future blog on ‘The Lost Art of Polishing including Silverware’.
10. Return any rugs.

Stand back and admire our handiwork, smug in the knowledge that you can look forward to a good night’s sleep in crisp fresh linen and a newly adjusted Feng Shui bedroom.

Rock a bye baby….

It’s worth noting that we would recommend minimal use of sprays and products in your baby’s bedroom. Dry dusting with microfibre cloths should be sufficient along with a good vacuum. At worst, an anti-bacterial spray could be used, though there is a school of thought that recommends no products so that your baby can build resilience to germs. I’ll leave that battle with you!  Don’t forget to do a regular dust between the struts of your baby’s cot too.

Sweet dreams, Antoinette.

Your living room should be an area of your home where you can relax and unwind.

In order for you to do this, it help’s if it is clean and tidy. Here are my tips on how to achieve a sparkling living room clean.

This is the time for me to rave on about one of my favourite topics – yes! Miele Vacuum cleaners. The ‘creme de la creme’ of vacuum cleaners, consistently number one in most Which? trials, and more importantly for us, most widely recommended by our Helpers. Miele cylinder vacuums come into their own when cleaning your carpeted rooms, and rooms where other fabric surfaces need attention such as your sofa, curtains, and pet beds.

It is really important to invest in a vacuum cleaner that has at least 3 attachments: The Corner crevice/Extension wand (long with a tapering thin end), the Upholstery tool; great for vacuuming sofas and curtains and your Dusting brush – great for leather sofas, and other dusty surfaces that your arms can’t easily reach with a cloth.

Most Miele models helpfully store the three main tools in it’s body so you need never have to scrabble at the bottom of your cleaning cupboard again.  With it’s helpful variable suction feature you can use your machine to vacuum a large variety of surfaces.  That said, your hand, a good cloth and some elbow grease are still the very best tools for most things.

Things that are commonly forgotten

Don’t forget to dust skirting boards using either the crevice tool, or a cloth. A great tip from my good friend Clair is to put a pair of fluffy socks on and use the edge of your foot to dust the skirting boards.  Genius! Lamps can be vacuumed with the vacuum dusting tool and the lightbulbs dusted by hand with a cloth. Blinds can get a quick dust with the long handled duster, or a more thorough clean with a cloth and one finger. We usually recommend this happens as a ‘Helpful Extra’ twice per year.

Other things to consider

Special items such as brass door knobs, silver ornaments and photo frames all need special polish and cloths. Follow the manufacturer’s instructions. It is best to remove the items to the dining room or kitchen counter, covering the surface with newspaper to protect it.

Final touches
Mop your way out of the room, moving furniture back into place as you go.
Clean another room in the house and come back to replace the rugs and dustbins.

That’s it! I hope you find this useful for your living rooms. Now you can sit back, relax and enjoy ‘Strictly’ in a dust-free and sane environment!

Your kitchen needs cleaning more regularly than any other room in the house; it is used 2-3 times a day and sometimes much more in shared accommodation.

They can also be the biggest bone of contention for households of any size: “Are you gonna wring that cloth out or just leave it dripping on the side?”… “I don’t think it’s ok to leave your toast crumbs on the worktop”… “How big does this washing up pile have to get for you to start doing it?!”… “Next to the dishwasher is not in the dishwasher, is it?”. I’m afraid we can’t offer any advice for those niggling day to day issues but if you are ever in need of a full top-down clean we are here to help.

Again, as with the bathroom clean, I can’t stress enough how important it is to get a good set of clean microfibre cloths in your arsenal. Here’s what you’ll need for the kitchen, in addition to a white-topped scourer (less harsh than their dark green counterparts):

• Cloth 1: This one may start dry but will get progressively wetter as you go along
• Cloth 2: This one should be done dry and lint-free and used for drying all cleaned surfaces
• Cloth 3: This one is a specialist polishing cloth, best-kept bone dry
• Cloth 4: This is for the dusting

Also, always remember to work from high to low so that you are not leaving spray residue on areas you’ve just done and centre all your cleaning on the sink being the final battle, moving towards it from the left and then the right so you can keep using it to rinse your dirty cloths in hot soapy water right until the last moment.

Step 1: Tackle the lime scale & grease first

Pre-emptively spray the taps and hard lime scale areas around the sink with lime scale remover before moving on to your first job. Also spray the hob with degreaser. Soak any tough looking stains with a splash of water. For Induction or electric hobs: a product called Hobrite works well for stubborn burnt on stains; make sure that the instructions are carefully followed otherwise it is not as effective as it could be. Just leave things soaking for the moment but keep an eye on the time, some of these products have a limit on how long they should lay on the surface.

Step 2: Bins

Empty all bins and spray with anti bac cleaner, leaving it to soak.

Step 3: Clear out the sink

This will probably involve emptying or refilling the dishwasher and switching it on if it is full. Once the sink has been emptied, fill it with hot soapy water ready for your top to bottom wipe down of all surfaces, doors, countertop items and applicances. Think HOT so get your gloves on.

Step 4: Don’t forget the washing

If you need to get the washing machine on now is the time to do it.

Step 5: Doors and handles

Wipe down all the fronts of the cupboard doors with your wet cloth soaked in your hot soapy water, then move on to the handles, not forgetting the rooms doors, light switches, oven buttons and glass oven door – giving an extra squirt of Anti-bac spray for those high ‘finger-fall’ areas. Go over the surfaces with your dry cloth and finish any glass surfaces with the polishing cloth.

Step 6: Counter and Countertop items

Now let’s be logical about this, move items to areas you’ve not yet cleaned in sequence, wipe counter, wipe item, dry counter, return item. Think about some of those special countertop items that attract all the daily use grime too: toasters, kettles, microwaves, coffee machines, bread bins, oil and spices racks…make sure they get a little bit of extra hot soapy love.

Step 7: Hob & Extractor fan

Put any rings and frames into the sink. This is where the pre-soaking will have come in handy. Avoid using the scourer, unless it is a ceramic hob because you won’t realise until after how nasty that scratched patch will look and how much it will catch your eye after every clean. Use the wet cloth to wipe down the hob, rinsing regularly in the sink. The final touch could be to use a metal cleaner, we recommend Cif stainless steel cleaner, then polish with the dry cloth once the final wash has been done. Don’t forget to wipe down the top of the extractor fan too – it can get very greasy up there, even though it is out of your eye line: use a cloth rinsed in warm soapy water and have the polishing cloth on hand to immediately polish once wiped down.

Step 8: Sink and taps

Rinse and clean your wet cloth one more time and drain away the dirty water, not forgetting to wipe down the anti-bac off the bin before your final rinse. Go over the taps and the sink one last time with the kitchen spray and wipe round, polishing as you go afterwards to avoid streaks.

Step 9: Wash the floor

Poor hot water and your floor cleaning solution into the bucket and, working towards the door, wipe the floor with your rung out mop, rinsing as you go.

That’s it! I hope you find this useful for your kitchen.

Following the long running theme of reviewing household appliances to minimise the disturbances to your already busy lives I am moving on to Dishwashers.

It won’t be a surprise to those who know me that I highly recommend a Miele Dishwasher, but I’ve also reviewed a few others below using a mixture of hands-on experience in clients homes and Which? reviews.

No.1 rated Best Buy by Which?: The Miele G6620 SC

It comes as no surprise to us that a Miele appliance is first in the Which? rankings. Highly rated for its energy efficiency as well as its capacity and excellent cleaning and drying. Main issue is that, due to its energy efficiency and ability to get your dishes bone dry at the end the cycle takes 3 hours, also with the handy extra cutlery drawer in the top it also reduces the 2^nd drawer capacity meaning you may struggle to put some larger items up there like a big mug. Overall, Which? rates it as ‘Practically Perfect’. The icing on the cake for me is that at the end of the wash, the door pops open (secured by a nifty child safety catch) allowing the steam to escape and your dishes to complete their drying cycle. Genius!

A good buy under £550: The Integrated Bosch SMV69M01GB

The energy and water efficiency of this dishwasher is excellent when used on the slightly longer Eco program. It is very good at avoiding water marks even on glass and leaves everything very dry. The one down side it that the cutlery drawer is a bit fiddly to load and unload.

Best slim line under £350: The Integrated Belling BELIDW45

With several programs to choose from this dishwasher can be flexible with your washing needs ranging from a long Eco program to a short wash. It is, however, quite noisy compared to other dishwashers and the slim line layout sometimes makes it difficult to cram everything in without unknowingly restricting the wash of items adjacent or underneath – I guess this is often a problem for slim line dishwashers.

One thing that you always need to compliment your dishwasher is an effective dishwasher tablet.  In our experience Lidl does very well with it’s own brand, and the highly recommended Finish tablets also produce a great, dirt free, tea stain busting, glass sparkling clean.

As part of our regular cleaning service we will always unstack a clean dishwasher or load an empty or half empty dishwasher.

You often hear us saying at Just Helpers how much we love our clients and love our colleagues. And it’s true.

Our team take great pride in treating your homes as they would their own. We want to take this opportunity to say thank-you for trusting us with your home and office spaces over this past year, and to some of you, for embracing us as an additional member of your household.  We’ve loved being your Helpers and look forward to journeying with you next year.

Many of you ask me about potential gifts for your Helper.  For all of the team, the very best thing for them is a monetary tip as they are often trying to support family still located in their countries of origin. I will leave this between you and your cleaner, but please do be mindful of your last cleaning day before Christmas with your regular Helper. I would suggest just leaving a card etc, in a prominent place where she is likely to find it.

Christmas and New Year often provide a time and space for us to reboot, rethink and in some cases change direction. I pray for safety and well-being for each and every one of you as you pause, reflect, spend time with family and friends and enter into a new year.

For those of you who live in and around my neighbourhood, Streatham, I’d love to invite you to a Christian carols service at the Hideaway on 10th December at 3.30pm for families and 7.30pm for adults find out more here. It would be great to welcome you there for what I know will be a fab evening.

Wishing you a wonderful Christmas!

Warmest wishes,
Antoinette, and the Just Helpers team

P.S. Our Christmas Charity appeal is underway with bobble hats galore! As a team we have already raised £800, and hope you can join us too. For every £1 raised through Facebook, they will match our donations. Our team voted for two charities: Battersea Dogs & Cats Home and Great Ormond Street Hospital. Because we couldn’t access our chosen charity, Great Ormond Street Hospital through this giving site, we would love you to partner with us and UNICEF too.