To spruce up white plastic garden tables and chairs, there’s no quicker way than rubbing over with an old cotton cloth dipped in thick bleach.

Once the stains have gone, give everything a good rinse.

You’ll need Lithofin Oil-Ex. This draws out the stain but must be used in warm and dry weather.

You need to apply with a stiff brush and leave 8-14 hours.

If some bricks are discoloured by, say, the overflow from a long-leaking bathroom pipe, first get the leak fixed.

Then to clean the brickwork of stains and algae you’ll need something like HG Green Slime Remover (from good DIY shops), which is perfectly safe near plants or grass but you need to use it in dry weather and when no rain is forecast for the next couple of days (not easy most years!).

Apply with a watering can or broom; no need to rinse. It takes about 36 hours to remove algae but will protect the surface against regrowth for several months.

When cleaning the exterior of a car, it’s hard to beat a good old-fashioned chamois leather.

To make yours last longer, after each use handwash in a warm soapflake solution (rinse well in warm water to which you’ve added a teaspoon of cooking oil to keep it soft), squeeze hard and hang to dry away from direct heat.

When almost dry, scrunch up and store in a sealed jar to keep soft.

How annoying is it when you’re wearing some gorgeous pale-coloured satiny kitten heels at a wedding and the walk to reception involves trailing through wet grass?

Don’t despair and chuck them in the bin…

Instead mix up a strongish solution of biological washing detergent in fairly hot water and steep the heels in this for a couple of hours. Then take an old soft toothbrush and gently work away at the stains.

Rinse, pat dry with a clean towel and leave to dry.

What’s happening is that the iron acts like a vacuum, sucking up fibres from your clothes and, over time, they discolour the water inside the tank.

Get into the habit of using the self-clean function at every second session (on most irons nowadays), which forces steam through the holes and flushes out deposits.

Tap water is best for the iron – an element of hardness is needed for a good jet of steam. If your water is really hard, mix tap with shop-bought distilled water in equal measure.

Kitchen floor mops can be a bit of a dirty secret…brought out to ‘clean’ the mucky floor then hidden away again in a dark corner with all the smelly grime clinging to them.

I’ve seen a few specimens in my time. And don’t get me started on string mops – putting one of those away clean is a lot more work that doing the floor itself.

A few years ago I was converted to microfibre mops – – you dampen the microfibre pad, kept in place with Velcro, which scrubs without any effort, and only water required (so no rinsing). And the best bit is you strip off the pad after use and pop into the washing machine, time and time again, so you’ll always have a clean mop to do the cleaning – makes sense, doesn’t

Fill it with hot (not boiling) water, add a tablespoon of biological detergent and leave overnight.

Rinse well and if it’s not all gone use a nylon brush to shift the rest. Take a bottle brush to the spout.

My sister’s two-year-old beech kitchen worktops were looking a bit worse for wear – lots of dark rings left by hot cups and glasses of red wine, and it seemed the more she scrubbed, the worse they looked.

So when I went to visit her, I got to work. Using a damp green scourer I rubbed a little neat washing up liquid into the stains. Indeed I did the whole surface, then rinsed it well and dried. Much better!

Then I lightly rubbed it all over with some very fine sandpaper (in the direction of the grain) before applying a thin film of oil. I made up a solution with one part boiled linseed oil – from most hardware shops – mixed with two parts spirit. Best to do this before going to bed so the oil soaks in overnight.

Thin film, remember – too little is way better than too much.

If there’s any still sitting on the surface in the morning, wipe with a dry, lint-free cloth.

There are many different ways of cleaning the loo pan, but a brush is my least favourite – they give me the heebie-jeebies.

I much prefer to put on my ‘bathroom’ rubber gloves, sprinkle around some disinfectant, rub away with some kitchen paper (don’t forget under the rim…scary what you can find there!), then stick this in the bin outside (never flush away kitchen roll or baby wipes – they can easily block your loo). 

And don’t forget to wipe the handle!