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Household Tips

Keeping a house clean, dry and working. The biggest section, because a house throws up the same few hundred problems at everybody.

Edited by Sam Allcock

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Acid, alkali or disinfectantNearly every cleaning problem is one of three types. Matching them is the whole job.Read the guide →

Sections

Stain Removal TipsWhat to do in the first two minutes, and what will set it permanently.Cleaning TipsMatching the chemistry to the mess, so the job stops needing effort.Laundry TipsWashing, drying and the settings that quietly ruin clothes.Kitchen TipsFood, storage, smells and the appliances that do the work.Damp and Mould TipsFinding the water before you attack the mould, which is only a symptom.DIY TipsSmall repairs worth doing yourself, and the ones that legally are not.Pest Control TipsGetting rid of what has got in, and closing the way it came.Getting Organised TipsStorage, decluttering and staying on top of a house that fills up.

Guides

All guides
GuideAcid, alkali or disinfectantNearly every cleaning problem is one of three types. Matching them is the whole job.GuideWhat ruins a stained itemThe four mistakes that turn a stain into a ruined thing, whatever you spilled.GuideWhat not to mixThe household combinations that are genuinely dangerous, and what the labels mean.

Calculators for this section

What does it actually cost?

A search will give you somebody's average. These give you your own number, at your rate and your usage, with the sum shown so you can check it rather than trust it.

Appliance Running Cost CalculatorWhat any appliance costs per use, per week and per year, with the sum shown and every figure editable.
Electricity 26.11p per kWh, gas 7.33p per kWh. Ofgem price cap average for 1 July to 30 September 2026.

The data

FigureThree kinds of dampCondensation, penetrating and rising. Rising damp, the one people are sold injection treatment for, is by far the rarest of the three.
Figure900 WThe legal cap on a new corded vacuum cleaner's motor. More watts has not meant more suction since the rule came in.
Figure26.1pElectricity per kWh at the current price cap, which is what every running cost on this site is worked from.

Newest household tips

Browse a section
1053
How to organise cables and chargers so you can find them

One box, everything labelled with a strip of masking tape at the plug end, and a hard rule that unidentified cables go in the bin.

Storage
1052
How to make a cleaning routine you will actually keep

Attach each task to something you already do, rather than to a day of the week. A routine tied to an existing habit survives; a schedule on the fridge does not.

Routines
1051
How to stop paperwork piling up

Handle every piece of post once, at the door, with the recycling bin in reach. Most of it never needs to enter the house at all.

Paperwork
1050
Where to actually store things you use rarely

By frequency of use, not by category. Daily things at waist height in the room they are used in, seasonal things high up or in the loft, and anything untouched for two years probably out of the house.

Storage
1049
The rule that stops clutter coming back

One in, one out, applied at the moment of purchase rather than afterwards. If you cannot name what is leaving, you are not buying it.

Decluttering