Cleaning the Shower

A great tip for keeping the shower clean from lime and grime is to keep a fill and clean scourer (like the Dishmatic one, pictured) in the area, half filled with white vinegar and half with washing-up liquid.  Just wipe the walls and door of the shower when you're done and rinse!  Saves on buying those fancy - and expensive - cleaners which may or may not work...

Unclogging a Drain

Firstly, boil some water.  While this is being done, pour a bunch of bicarbonate of soda (also known as baking soda) into the drain.  I use enough to go in to the plughole and pretty much cover it.

Then pour on some vinegar, an amount a bit less than the baking soda.  Some places suggest white vinegar but I find malt vinegar works just as well.  You'll see it all start to work, with the mixture bubbling up nicely and satisfactorily!  This is the clog breaking down.

Next add some salt on top of the vinegar to make it even more foamy and work even better.

Let it sit for a while to gurgle away - 15 minutes or so, until you're ready to clear it all out by pouring in the boiled water.  This should do the trick easily and naturally.  And look!  Pretty sink with no clogs, environmentally-friendly and naturally.

If necessary, repeat for those more stubborn clogs.

Descaling the Kettle

If you live in a hard water area like me, limescale builds up on your kettle very frequently.  Not only does this affect the taste of your drink, but horrid chalky bits end up in your tea or coffee and it's just vile!  Look at mine today - gross!

In order to combat this, you can fork out on chemical descalers.  However, apart from the cost of these, my main problem is the fact that it's so unnatural and I imagine if it's not rinsed from the kettle properly, it would be nasty.  Which is why I was so pleased to discover that plain old malt vinegar does the same thing as a chemical descaler.  Any malt vinegar works; I usually use supermarket own brand, but I guess they had run out as I was substituted with some posh stuff!

To descale the kettle, pour the vinegar into the kettle - use as much as you like.  I then top it up with water to cover all the limescale, but you could use more vinegar if you don't want to dilute it too much.  Wait at least half an hour, rinse and voila!  A sparkling clean kettle, at a cheap cost with no chemicals (albeit a bit smelly - rinse, rinse, rinse)!  Perfect!