The Cottage Smallholder

Morphy Richards compact steam cleaner

I hate cleaning. Even more than cleaning, I loathe grunge. Deep ingrained dirt that seems to be dug right in and almost impossible to remove. Black mould at the bottom of windows. Grease in oven. Those nasty deposits of lime scale around the base of the taps. Stains on the carpets where one of the Min Pins has had an accident. Old fat spills on the kitchen carpet. Every now and then I tackle the grunge but the effort put in no way matches the poor results, leaving me frustrated and peevish.

Also I find that cleaning is hard work and time consuming. All that scrubbing and polishing. Rinsing and wiping. Using old toothbrushes or cocktail sticks to get into tight corners. Things look good for a while but I’ve barely turned around before everything needs cleaning again.

Danny was once married to a super cleaner. I’m sure that he longed for release when she vacuumed under his feet when he wanted to relax and watch football. As we all know you have to be careful what you wish for. He got me and I never actively cosy up to the vacuum cleaner. I use it sparingly when we are expecting visitors. I’d like to be different. Wake up early, put aside that intriguing novel and pull on my rubber gloves, eager for action in the cleaning world. I do try but it’s uphill work and I’m not a natural when it comes to cleaning.

Steam cleaners only came into my field of vision a week or so ago. Groupon had a great offer for a hefty steam cleaner, the Kärcher steam cleaner. It came with an iron and as we don’t ‘do’ ironing I thought that I’d have a sniff around on Amazon and see what other steam cleaners were available. Also I wanted to know what they actually did. Were they a gimmick or actually very useful for lazy people like me?

Within a few minutes I was hooked on the idea of a steam cleaner. How had I lived so long and never been introduced to this wonder before?

Space in the cottage is very limited so I was looking for a compact steamer that would be easy to whip out to tackle my cleaning jobs and not be too much of a palaver to set up. I found the Morphy Richards Compact Steam Cleaner – the size was perfect (just a little bigger than an electric kettle) and there were enough good reviews to persuade me that this gadget would go a long way to salving my cleaning woes.

My rib is healing well and I’ve been up for three days now. Each day I’ve put the steam cleaner through its paces, watched by an audience of curious Min Pins who were intrigued by the rushing steam. Morphy Richards Compact Steam Cleaner is a marvellous workhorse. Great on stainless steel, windows, curtains, upholstery, the cooker (inside and out), lime scale, tiles, mould. The list goes on and on. The stains have come out of our carpets, and the area beside the skirting board where the vacuum cleaner doesn’t reach is now squeaky clean. I’ve even steam cleaned the seals on the dishwasher – Reg would be proud of me.

All you need to do is steam and wipe with a cloth or brush. The filth on the cloths had me goggle eyed at first – you do need a decent supply of these to hand. This is real deep cleaning with very little effort and no cleaning materials – although I did use Simple Solution Stain & Odour Remover  – sprayed on the Min Pin pee marks and areas where Danny has spilled coffee on his way up to The Rat Room before I steamed*. All that boring scrubbing, rinsing and drying are a thing of the past. Now it is just puff, puff wipe and whizz onto the next job. You can also steam your clothes instead of ironing them. Danny is going to use it to defrost the freezer.

Apart from sterilising, the steam also kills dust mites and the Morphy Richards steam cleaner is approved by The British Allergy Foundation.

The best thing of all is that it’s fun to use as it is so quick and efficient. I now enjoy cleaning if my little steaming dragon is puffing away beside me. Needless to say Danny is thrilled and very gradually the cottage is beginning to gleam.

This machine is a compact model and the attachments are quite small. I reckon that the bigger more expensive steam cleaners would be much more robust. But its dinky size and long strap means that it is easy to waft around the cottage with it over my shoulder as I tackle the grunge. I couldn’t imagine cleaning a whole carpet with it- you have to get down on your knees to do this – but it’s perfect for our needs. It’s guaranteed for two years and without the need for loads of cleaning materials it will pay for itself way before then.

Next stop cleaning and sterilising the greenhouse and a large stack of terracotta pots. Then of course there are our mattresses, the larder, the insides of the kitchen cupboards etc etc. My neck is well exercised looking for dirt!

* Simple Solution Stain & Odour Remover Is great for removing stains on clothes too. I found that before I steamed the solution sometimes left a mark on the carpet but the steaming process removed the marks completely.