Household cleaning - bread boards and brushes

As the days move towards Christmas and the end of the year, it's a good time to do a few small cleaning jobs. Many of us will have visitors over the holidays and getting everything clean and tidy before they arrive will give us the opportunity to relax and enjoy the season just as much as the rest of the family and the visitors do.

This is one of my cleaning brushes but it was still clean so I didn't wash it this time.

The first task on my list was to clean my bread boards and then my cleaning brushes. Remember that if you have wooden boards, they're porous so you have to think about what you put on them. You don't want your bread board smelling of bleach or chemicals for the next month. That's where the brushes come come into their own. I use a camel hair brush for this job. It will create quite a lather as I give the board a good scrubbing.

You'll need to wait for a sunny day to do this but you'll get a much better result with scrubbing and sunshine than with any chemical that will leave residue on the board.

CLEANING A BREAD BOARD

1. First wet the board and apply a couple of drops of dish liquid to the brush.
2. Scrub the board all over.
3. Rinse off with hot water from the tap.  In summer our solar hot water is very hot. If your tap water isn't hot, boil the kettle and pour that over it.
4. Take the board outside straight away and leave it in the full sun - make sure the dogs and chickens can't reach it. After a few hours, turn the board over. It needs to be solarised on both sides. Along with the scrubbing and scalding with hot water, leaving your boards in the sun will sanitise them 

CLEANING BRUSHES

I have a number of brushes that I use for cleaning. They're much better than anything else I've tried, including microfibre cloths.

To clean my brushes, I swish them around in a bowl of hot water to which I've added a squirt of laundry liquid.

• I look at all the bristles up close and make sure there is no gunk caught up in the brush. 
• Swish the brush through the water and rub the bristles with your hand.
• When I'm sure they're all clean, I rinse and scald them with very hot water and take them outside to dry in the full sun.
• Generally, I leave all these items out in the sun all day.

If you buy good quality brushes you can keep them in service for a long time by washing and solar drying them. It's much better to buy a product, even if it's slightly more expensive, that you know you can keep going for a long time with regular maintenance and cleaning.

This is a very old cane basket I found at an op stop recently for $3.

Next week, I'll be challenging you to thoroughly clean your oven and stove so they're ready for Christmas too. Don't go running into the hills. This is an easy job, even if your stove is very dirty.  All you need to have on hand is some oxy-bleach - Napisan or its generic equivalent. We won't be using any harsh chemicals.  Who is ready to sign up for that one?