Spring is here again. You’ve done outside. You’ve done inside. What about the doors? How do you start when it comes to spring cleaning your screens, doors and sliding doors? Check out these ideas for cleaning a very visual and important part of your home:

Flyscreens and security screens

Your fly or security screen collects a huge amount of dust, particles, and if you look down the bottom, remains of animals that could not escape! Unless you’re keen on having science projects on your screens, you’ll need soap up some water and be prepared to flush your screens a number of times. There’s no real quick or easy way to clean a screen – just time and effort.

If you find during your cleaning that your security screen is coming out of the mounts or the door just does not feel as ‘secure’ as it should, it’s probably an indication that your security screen isn’t doing what it’s designed to do – protect you and your family from creepies and creeps. If you find you’re not feeling secure, it’s worth contacting a home security expert, such as Stylewise Security for options on creating a safe environment for you and your family.

Hinged doors

Spring cleaning is a great opportunity to check your hinged doors for any defects and remedy any potential issues. When cleaning your hinged doors, the golden rule is to start clean. Check the surrounds of the door – do you need to remove or replace a worn doormat? Are there leaves or debris near the doorway that need cleaning? Once the surrounds are clean, you can get to work on spring cleaning. Check the door hinges – have you been putting up with a squeaky door all winter? Lubricate! Are your keys getting jammed, or is your door becoming stiff to open or close? This may be a sign your door is becoming damaged or warped. Spring cleaning the door itself is easy; like anything, use hot soapy water, a microfiber cloth and a bit of elbow grease to give your door a fresh, clean look.

Sliding doors

There’s a multitude of things to consider when spring cleaning your sliding doors. As with hinged doors, ensure the surrounds are clean before you dive into a good spring once-over. With sliding doors, start from the top and work your way down. Give the outside a good hose or high-pressure water clean, getting rid of any surface dirt. With inside glass panels, use water and a microfiber cloth to both clean and give the glass a shiny buff.
One area that many people neglect when spring cleaning sliding doors are the tracks and wheels. Using hot, soapy water, get into the grooves of the tracks. Dirty tracks and wheels turn a sliding door into a grinding door. Where possible, give the wheels a once-over, too.

What methods have you employed in cleaning your doors? Are there any tips you can share to make this boring job quicker and easier? Drop your ideas in the comments below.

The thought of rats in your home is enough for anyone to panic. Rats can be big carriers of germs and disease and are not something you want to share your lives with so it is essential to take all necessary steps to avoid them nesting in your home.

Blocking all Holes and Gaps

Ensure that all your windows are sealed properly and there are no holes in walls or floorboards as rats can get through incredibly small spaces and once they are in your home it is hard to eliminate them. They chew on wires and wood so will quickly cause damage if they make it into your walls or roof. Make sure you regularly check your roof for any holes or cracked tiles that will allow rats to enter. Crawling into heating equipment is also a favourite activity so make sure you check heaters or the back of fireplaces etc.

Remove garbage

Make sure you regularly clean out bins and try not to leave them resting up against your home. Ensure your areas where bins are kept are neat and tidy and don’t present any hiding places for rats to stay in. Keep the area around your home free of shrubs, weeds and anything else. The less that is around your home the less places for the rats to hide.

Moth Balls

Moth balls don’t just eliminate moths – as Rats don’t like them either. Place moth balls in sheds, cupboards, storage containers – just make sure that you take the necessary precautions about moth balls being around food sources.

Traps

Traps are very effective ways of preventing rats nesting in your home. Simple traps with a piece of cheese or pumpkin seeds are a good way to entice rats to be caught – after all they are always searching for food so if you make it easy for them they will be very easy prey. There are many different traps that can be bought – but sometimes the old fashioned wooden trap with the metal spring will be one of the most effective. Just be prepared to hear them going off in the middle of the night after one of your unlucky rat residents succumbs to their lure! The traps are so cheap to buy that you can throw the whole trap, with the rat caught inside straight into the bin.

Regular Pest Control

Jump online to http://www.trustedpestmanagement.com.au/ and book in your half yearly pest control treatment. Nobody gets rids of rats like a professional pest controller who has the skills to both find any nests they make and knows the best way to eliminate them.

There are many different ways that you can catch rats if they do make their way into your home. Have you thought about actions you could take around your home that might help you avoid a rest infestation? Sometimes it is just simple actions that can make the biggest difference – if all it takes is a clean out of your bin and relocation of them to another spot around your home it will certainly save you a lot of hassle and the unfortunate instance of rats in your home!

Being a glass surface outside is a recipe for dirt and damage. A large glass pool fence is going to have things dropping off trees, dirt blowing in from the outside world. Even without those things you have to deal with the moisture in the air and the kind of people who spend time in pools, teenagers, children, other people who are going to be having fun. They aren’t really going to be thinking about the value of your glass. Even something as simple as people putting dirty hands all over the fence will lead to mess accumulating over time. Here are some easy ways to fix the damage to the glass.

Coating the Glass

Acquiring a protective coating for the glass will allow you to get rid of mess and dirt before it even arrives. Getting a decent coating of VitroGlaze or some other protective product will allow you to keep the dirt off and cut down on the amount of cleaning you need to do. People often forget to clean things like pool fences. This is because most people usually think of them as outside stuff they don’t have to think about. This little measure will allow you to go to less effort or forget from time to time without any real problems. This is also very good against things like oils that cause hand prints on the glass or things like that. If all you have to deal with is little stains like that all you have to do is wait for the rain. For more information on the VitroGlaze product check out Clearly Glass.

The Best Way to Treat Your Coated Glass

Coated glass is a good protective method, and it makes the glass more forgiving of little slip ups. like everything else there is a right and wrong way to manage it. The right way is small amounts of maintenance taken regularly. In some of the more annoying kinds of dirt the acidic nature of the mess builds up and erodes the coating, as well as damaging the glass. Taking a quick cloth to the glass every so often will stop that, as well as making sure you don’t need to do a big clean later. Cleaning it with something that isn’t abrasive or corrosive is important, as those things also do damage to the protective coat. Treating it regularly and gently will get the job done with the minimum of problems.

One of the few problems with glass as a protective measure is how easy it is to damage. While it’s difficult to do anything about the breaking. Even little things like dirt and scratches cause real problems on a substance so delicate. Every piece of protection you can get for your glass fence is a step against dirt, scratches and other damage that might otherwise take professional intervention to fix.