Am I now the queen of clean? (The Cleaning Bible - Kim Woodburn)

Member Name: x-cupcake-x

Product:	The Cleaning Bible - Kim Woodburn
Date:	15/09/09 (87 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Brilliant advice, and easy to read

Disadvantages: None really

Whenever I visit my best friend I always have a nosey at her bookshelf to see if there are any books I can borrow or if not add to my wish list.

We actually moved into our first homes around the same time as each other and it was on one of the first visits to her new house I spotted a copy of The Cleaning Bible, to be honest I didn't really pay too much attention to it. About a year later I'd got hooked on watching repeats of How Clean Is Your House on More4 and paid a little bit more attention to it the next time I visited. I had a quick flick through and decided it would be a book I would benefit from owning permanently, and set about buying it when I got home.

I ordered a copy online and was a little upset as her copy was a lovely shiny hardback copy and I could only get the paperback version. I don't think there's any difference apart from the hardback looking more impressive.

The Cleaning Bible is written by Kim Woodburn and Aggie Mackenzie the stars of the channel 4 programme How Clean Is Your House. The subtitle of the book is Kim and Aggie's Complete Guide to Modern Household Management.

The book is made up of four main chapters, but begins with a little introduction on Kim and Aggie telling you about how and why they learned to clean.

The main chapters are:
*Conquer the clutter
*Safety and hygiene
*Room by room
*General mainenance
*Household management

Each chapter has little subsections, and these contain handy hints which are on pink pages so are easy to spot. One of my favourite sections of the book is in Safety & Hygiene, it's all about making your own cleaners. It tells you the quantity of ingredients to use, and what the best purpose for using them are. These often work out better value for money and more efficient than shop bought cleaners.

The Room by Room chapter is the best in the book in my opinion with lots of helpful tips for each room. The subsections of this chapter are set out by each room starting with the kitchen, going onto the dining room, living room, bathroom, bedrooms and finally the stairs and hallway. I like the way it is set out in the way most homes will be, and this is the order most people would set about their housework. It's how I do anyway.

One thing that I'm not over keen on is at the end of each chapter, is that there are a few pages on Kim's Housekeeping Tales. I suppose it's a nice little break from the "work" but I found myself skipping most of them.

This book isn't just about cleaning, it gives advice on dealing with paperwork such as bills or bank accounts and organising your budget.

The general maintenance chapter on laundry and how best to look after your clothes on shoes. It has a little guide on the care symbols your find on clothing labels which I found quite interesting as I've never really paid much attention to these before.

One of the most invaluable parts of the book for me is in the Appendix. There are several pages on stain removal, the first two pages list traditional stain removal agents, what they should be used on and how best to use them. There are then four pages on different stains for example blood, what the best thing to remove it is and the method for getting the stain out.

If you know someone who is moving into their first home I would definitely recommend buying this for them. I also think people who have had their own place for years would find it useful too, I know my Mum would use it.


It can be bought from Amazon for just over £9.

# Paperback: 448 pages
# Publisher: Penguin (5 April 2007)
# Language English
# ISBN-10: 0141027002
# ISBN-13: 978-0141027005

Thanks for reading.

Summary: A worthy addition to any home