Spring-clean your cleaners: many surface cleaning products don't actually work

Choice finds many household surface cleaners work no better than water – and some are worse

It’s a habitual thing. When you want to clean a surface, you spritz on a cleaning product, grab your scrub and get to work. But a recent test by the consumer advocacy group Choice has found that many surface cleaning products work no better than water. And some, in fact, are worse.

Choice’s Ashley Iredale told Guardian Australia: “About 50% of the ones on our test weren’t noticeably different from plain water. It’s pretty scary. You’re essentially just tipping money down the drain.”

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Spring-clean your cleaners: many surface cleaning products don't actually work

Choice finds many household surface cleaners work no better than water – and some are worse

It’s a habitual thing. When you want to clean a surface, you spritz on a cleaning product, grab your scrub and get to work. But a recent test by the consumer advocacy group Choice has found that many surface cleaning products work no better than water. And some, in fact, are worse.

Choice’s Ashley Iredale told Guardian Australia: “About 50% of the ones on our test weren’t noticeably different from plain water. It’s pretty scary. You’re essentially just tipping money down the drain.”

Continue reading...

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Bored with white? Use paint with personality in your home

A dash of rhubarb, a bright yellow wall or a whole room painted orange? Swap safe neutrals for bold hues and feel your mood lift

The feature wall – that seemingly bold decorative decision to paint one wall in the room a stand-out colour – is dead. Colour is now spreading through our homes, up staircases, across woodwork and ceilings, filling in neutral spaces with rhubarb, verdigris green, aubergine and orange. Is it a terrifying trend we’ll all pay for in gallons of undercoat, or does this colour craving signify something else?

“There’s been a seismic shift in how we’re thinking about colour,” says Farrow & Ball’s long-standing colour curator, Joa Studholme. “I am convinced the rise of bold colour comes down to the fact that the world is in such a mess. We want to go home and have colours that nourish us, that give us a hug. Pure white walls simply don’t do that. They don’t look after you.”

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Bored with white? Use paint with personality in your home

A dash of rhubarb, a bright yellow wall or a whole room painted orange? Swap safe neutrals for bold hues and feel your mood lift

The feature wall – that seemingly bold decorative decision to paint one wall in the room a stand-out colour – is dead. Colour is now spreading through our homes, up staircases, across woodwork and ceilings, filling in neutral spaces with rhubarb, verdigris green, aubergine and orange. Is it a terrifying trend we’ll all pay for in gallons of undercoat, or does this colour craving signify something else?

“There’s been a seismic shift in how we’re thinking about colour,” says Farrow & Ball’s long-standing colour curator, Joa Studholme. “I am convinced the rise of bold colour comes down to the fact that the world is in such a mess. We want to go home and have colours that nourish us, that give us a hug. Pure white walls simply don’t do that. They don’t look after you.”

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'I find it dramatic': inside the all-blue home of architect Sharon Toong

An interior designer’s flat is a showcase for the dramatic, bold blues she believes are here to stay

From dark lead to chalky white, grey has hogged our walls for years. Not any more. “I feel it’s had its day,” says architect and interior designer Sharon Toong. “I’m drawn to blue, especially the darker shades.” Indeed, moody blue paints – all similar but slightly different – are used throughout this two-bedroom flat: in the main bedroom, the study, an internal courtyard, her baby daughter’s room, and the kitchen cabinets. The hall is alive with blue banana leaves, vines and tropical palms, courtesy of design team House of Hackney.

This and the master bedroom are naturally dark spaces, so Toong decided to work that to her advantage. “There was no getting around the fact that the corridor was long and windowless, so I chose that bold, enveloping wallpaper,” she says. “It brings you out into the flat’s lighter, brighter areas, with glimpses of foliage in garden beyond. A deep blue shade on the walls and ceiling makes a room feel very cocooning.”

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How to grow tradescantia | Alys Fowler

A spiderwort was my first love and we’re still going strong

When I was about 16, my biology teacher showed me a tradescantia cell under a microscope. For the life of me I can’t remember what we were looking at: stomata or the effects of plasmolysis, perhaps? I just remember looking up from the minute world of cells in this simple plant and falling headlong in love. Not long after that I took over the biology department greenhouse and the rest, as they say, is history.

If I was rewriting my past, I’d insert an orchid or a carnivorous plant, but instead I chose the one that the biology department couldn’t kill. And for that reason, I’d recommend it to you, too.

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Gardening tips: plant a dwarf sweet box

Look after potted bay and olive trees over winter, and check out Garden Ninja

Plant this The spidery white flowers of dwarf sweet box (Sarcococca hookeriana var humilis) might be tiny but pack a punch when it comes to scent. This compact evergreen shrub is perfect for north-facing gardens where the flowers’ perfume will waft from now until March. Height and spread 1m x 1m.

Sort this Mediterranean natives planted in containers, such as bay and olive trees, can suffer during harsh winters, especially smaller specimens. Move pots to a sheltered, sunny spot or wrap your tree in horticultural fleece for the coldest snaps; rest the pots on “feet” to prevent waterlogging.

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