Shannon Lush Jennifer Fleming - Spotless : room-by-room solutions to domestic disasters

Have you ever accidentally put a jumper in the washing machine and found it will now only fit a twelve-year-old? I have. Do you know what to do if you burn a pan, aside from chucking it out? I do. What do you do if your lovable pooch has a mishap on your white wool carpet? I know.

The good news is that there are solutions to these and many other problems that occur in and around the home, and this book will show you how to fix them. It also offers guidance on the correct way to do all those things youre not really quite sure how to do. Things like how to vacuum properly, how to organise your wardrobe, and the best way to wash dishes.

This book will also give you the confidence to walk past those expensive cleaning products in the supermarket. Because we know less and less about cleaning, advertisers can play on our fears of not being quite clean or hygienic enough. We will buy an overpriced product that promises instant cleaning because we think it could rescue us from becoming a social pariah. Well, theres no need to be seduced any longer. You will learn to love bicarbonate of soda. Vinegar wont just be part of a salad dressing. And heres something you wont hear about in one of those gleaming white ads on TV: the best cleaners are water and sunshine.

This book is a room-by-room guide to your house. Theres information on how to care for and fix just about anything that can go wrong in each room. The advice is set out like a cookbook so you can see which ingredients or cleaning products youll need before following the recipe or cleaning process. Youll also find real-life questions from people whove called me when Ive appeared on radio.

There are a couple of tricks with stain removal. Firstly, dont panic and put something on the stain that could make it worse. Work out whats in the stain. Then work out what the solvent is. If there are several components to the stain, you must remove the protein part first, then fats, then any chemical or biological dyes, and then any resins or glues. The way to work this out is to remember that proteins are anything animal or seed based, fats are greasy between your fingers, and resins and glues are not water-soluble. If youre not sure, clean with cold water first, then use hot water, then any solvents.

Youll read a lot about blood-heat water in the book. This is lukewarm or warm water. The way to test the temperature is to put the water on your wrist; if you cant feel itif its not too hot or too coldits blood heat.

When using vinegar, youll get a better result if you use cider vinegar on hard surfaces and white vinegar on fabrics or white marble.

Dry-cleaning fluid is the same thing as white spirits or Murlex, which is a brand of dry-cleaning fluid.

When you come across the two-sponge method for bicarb and vinegar, it means that you dip one damp sponge in bicarb and another in vinegar, then lay the vinegar sponge over the top of the bicarb sponge and squeeze the two together as you clean. As an alternative, if youre working with an intricate surface, make a paste of bicarb and water to the consistency of soft butter. Paint it over the surface with a cloth, leave it to dry and then polish off with a rag dipped in vinegar.

And if youre feeling disheartened while cleaning or tackling that stubborn stain that just wont shift, just think about the Exxon Valdex disaster when thousands of litres of oil spilled into an Alaskan harbour. Your disaster will never be as bad!

One of my earliest memories is of my grandmother coming over to help Mum clean the house. I would watch as brass and silver were polished and stains were removed. The house would be filled with the smell of beeswax. Even now, when I open a tub of Gumption, Im reminded of my grandma.

My mother trained as a tailor and taught me to sew. Shes absolutely brilliant with a needle and sewing machine and is such a great cleaner that the family refers to her as the white tornado. My father was an engineer, artist, builder and inventor and knew a great deal about chemicals. He always explained what something was, why it worked and how chemicals react with each other. I think learning that kind of information at such a young age made it instinctive for me.

As a child, I loved anything creative. I loved using coloured pencils, painting and sewing. At the age of eight, I sold my artwork to school classmates so they could enter art competitions! Sewing classes at primary school were taken by Mrs Roberts, who was from the old school and stiff as a ramrod. Before each class, you had to wash your hands and anyone with sweaty palms had to pat their hands with talcum powder. Everything was done by hand; every seam had to be backed. I learned how to do fairy stitches, embroidery and petit point. At the time, we all thought Mrs Roberts was a dragon but her attention to detail and craft was an invaluable example for me.

I turned these skills into a living when I was a teenager and embroidering denim was popular. I also set up stalls outside rock concerts and painted peoples faces. Then I got a job in the rag trade which taught me about the line and hang of fabric. I became a lot faster at sewing and sold things at markets. I learned every craft that I could: ceramics, glass, leadlighting, painting, sculpture, working with metals and making jewellery.

The move into ceramics opened up a whole new area for me. After winning several awards at competitions, I set up a makeshift shop at the bottom of my sisters house. One day, a woman came in with damaged ceramic and asked if I could repair it. I did some research, managed to fix the piece and the woman was so thrilled she sent her friends along.

This led me into the world of restoration. I spoke with other restorers and studied for some time with a very knowledgeable man who was in his eighties by that time. It was a perfect melding of my artistic skills and my love of antiques and decorative art. When I look at anything antique, I see the tracks of all the hands that have moved over it. And my fathers early teaching about chemicals also helped, because restoration often involves breaking something down before rebuilding it.

Ive always loved books on handy hints, particularly old ones. My great-aunt Letitia kept a notebook with hints, proverbs, quotations for women, recipes and jokes, which was a wonderful resource. I developed an active interest in stain removal after marking things with paints because, when Im painting, I make a serious mess. There were plenty of phone calls to my mother for advice. I also test any handy hint I come across. No matter what it is, Ill give it a go.

This book is a collection of that knowledge.

Im part of the generation that rings Mum for advice on how to fix any spills or stains around the house. And Im very lucky to have a mum who knows what to do. Thats why most of my friends didnt believe me when I told them I was writing a book on household hints. Its not that my house is dirty. They just knew I had very little knowledge in this area. Now, they cant shut me up.

When I was growing up, Mum did show me how to wash up, hang out the washing and iron, but I rarely use those skills today. I take the phrase wash and wear literally. For many years Ive paid someone to clean the house, as much for domestic harmony as anything else. All the knowledge in this book is Shannons. Im just the absorber and writer of the book.

This book came about through James Valentine and his radio program on 702 ABC Sydney. He heard the advice that spiders are deterred by lemons, which reminded him of all those old-fashioned handy hints. He asked listeners to ring in if they were having problems fixing a spill or stain around the house and then invited other listeners to give their solutions. One day Shannon rang in and answered every question. She became a regular guest on the program and has been helping listeners ever since.