Don’t waste your precious time scrubbing away endlessly at bake-on grime on a roasting dish.

Fill with hot water to cover the stains, add a handful of biological washing power or a dishwasher tablet, bring to the boil and simmer away for about 15 minutes.

Leave to soak for a further few hours and then everything will come off really easily.

If it’s wooden, scrub thoroughly after every use with very hot soapy water, then rinse with hot running water. Never leave it to soak – it’ll swell and crack. Dry with paper towels to avoid germs from a used tea towel. Leave to air, resting on its edge (it can warp if dried flat).

To get rid of strong smells, squeeze lemon juice (or sprinkle mustard powder) on the board and wipe with a clean damp cloth.

A plastic board can go in the dishwasher, but otherwise treat in exactly the same way.

Always use separate boards for raw meat and veg, and replace a cracked or badly scored board, whatever it’s made from.

If you live in a hard water area, you’ll have limescale, and the build-up of this is one of the main reasons kettles break down. When the metal element gets coated with scale that inhibits the heat getting into the water, which may cause it to overheat, reducing its life.

To overcome this you should descale the kettle about once a month. Fill with half water and half clear vinegar, making sure it comes up over the scale line, and bring to the boil. Switch off and leave to cool until the fizzing stops.

Another idea is to put a Cadnit inside your kettle. It’s fine stainless steel wire coiled into a ball that provides a large surface area for the scale to collect instead of on the heating element.

Next time you buy a kettle, get one with a built-in water filter. It’ll improve the taste of your tea, get rid of scum and reduce limescale build-up.

Other things you can do: empty and rinse before refilling with fresh water each time you boil (helps get rid of loose scale); boil only as much as you need; pour away any surplus water before it cools; empty the kettle each night.

How annoying is it when you polish your nails and little bits end up on other parts of your fingers or toes? Then when you get the cotton buds out with the polish remover, it somehow ends up on the nail and you’ve ruined your good work.

Easy solution: using an emery board, just go gently at the skin and you’ll be rid of the marks in a jiffy. Do the same thing on fabric – as long as there’s not too much of a stain, the emery board will deal with it.

Perhaps they have been in storage?

Ivory needs to be used often and exposed to daylight so it can bleach naturally and keep its creaminess. So the best thing is to get the knives out (so to speak!) and use them daily.

Wash by hand in warm soapy water and dry immediately. Never soak or use hot water as ivory is porous and can split with hot temperatures, and water can seep into the joints and soften the glue attaching the handles.

Over the years I’ve had many tales of woe from people who have spoiled the surface of their bath through too-rough cleaning.

If yours is acrylic, use an all-purpose bathroom cleaner (never anything abrasive). Any scratches can be very gently rubbed with cream metal polish.

If the bath is enamel, use products only with the Vitreous Enamel Association logo on the back label.

Never, never throw on limescale remover – you will strip the top layer of the bath.

If you’re unsure of anything, test on a small area first.

…and you have sticky residue showing on the outside of your hem, the easiest way is to cover the residue with a soft, dry clean cloth and place a clean damp cloth over that. Press with a hot, dry iron until the soft cloth is very damp and hot. Now lift the soft cloth sharply away from the trousers to remove the residue. Repeat until it’s all gone; make sure you use a clean area of cloth for each pressing and take care not to mess up the trousers from other bits of the cloth already used for removal.

If you have smudges or smears on your plasma screen TV, first wipe it with a very soft pure cotton or smooth microfibre cloth – do not use paper towels or loo paper as they will scratch.

Also go very, very gently. If that doesn’t work, dampen the cloth slightly with plain water – don’t overwet as you’ll end up with more smears – then buff dry with another smooth dry cloth.