I conducted a poll on Twitter this week. I asked people which household chore they would most like to get out of completely. The results confirmed my suspicion – people hate laundry. It was validating to know that I’m not the only person who can’t bear the relentlessness of laundry.

laundryheap

I personally struggle a lot with the laundry at this time of the year. There are only two of us at home, but my daughter Belle is a fan of hoodies and my golden retriever Mako takes a lot of towelling after muddy walks in the rain. The washing part is not too bad, but we don’t have a tumble drier and getting everything dry in a small house is hard.

It’s enough to make you want to move to London, Birmingham, Manchester or Coventry.

Let me explain.

If you’re lucky enough to live in one of these four cities then you could be using the services of Laundryheap. Laundryheap can collect, clean, and deliver your laundry and dry cleaning, all with 24 hours. The Laundryheap service includes free collection and delivery and there’s even dedicated 24/7 support should you need any help. Not that you’re likely to encounter any issues as Laundryheap has been rate excellent by over half a million customers.

The beauty of Laundryheap is that you don’t even need to plan ahead, you book a collection any time, pop it in a bag, wait for your driver to collect your washing and Bob’s your uncle. No having to stick your pants out on the radiators or make your house damp with an endless cycle of drying dog towels. Put it all in a bag and hand it over for someone else to take care of. Bliss.

In a world where we’re overwhelmed by simply keeping up, surely we should be delegating any task we can? Just because as women we’ve been told that we can have it all and do it all, doesn’t mean that we should. Check out the Laundryheap website now to find out more about how the service works and to get your next laundry load booked in.

Perhaps it’s time to move to Coventry.

Laundryheap

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Sponsored post in association with DEFRA

Last week I went to some of my favourite nearby gardens, where they also happen to have some chickens. After some searching online, I think they are Golden Sebright chickens, one of the oldest British bantam breeds. Apparently, they were the first poultry breed to have its own specialist club for enthusiasts, and are a largely ornamental chicken. They lay tiny white eggs and are too small to be kept for meat.

I have a lot of respect for a largely ornamental chicken. It’s kind of sassy to say ‘you know, I’m not much use for anything other than being pretty, but keep me anyway.’

Golden sebright chicken

And to be fair to them, they ARE beautiful. I hung out with them for a little while, and they were full of personality.

If I didn’t have three cats and an excitable dog, I could see myself as a backyard chicken kind of a woman. I would go out and sit with them and let them climb into my jumper for a hug and we’d probably chat about our hopes and dreams and boys.

In this post though I want to talk to you about an issue that is impacting backyard bird owners throughout the UK. It’s not ‘which jumper is best to cuddle your chickens in’ – it’s bird flu.

What is bird flu and why do we need to know about it?

Avian influenza, more typically called bird flu, is a disease affecting birds in the poultry industry, backyard birds and wild birds alike. It’s normally a winter disease, peaking between December and February, but in 2022, for the first time ever, there were cases found in wild birds during the summer.

Although there is a very low human health risk associated with bird flu, it can be very harmful to bird populations as well as natural biodiversity more generally. We’re currently experiencing the biggest outbreak of bird flu that we’ve ever seen in the UK and it’s vital that all bird owners understand what they need to do to protect both their own birds and the wider bird population, no matter how few birds they keep.

It’s definitely not all doom and gloom though, and as a bird owner there’s plenty of guidance available to help you. To help keep bird flu under control, a UK-wide Avian Influenza Prevention Zone (AIPZ) was introduced in October 2022. The AIPZ made it a legal requirement for all bird owners to follow some simple rules around biosecurity, including: View Post

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Sponsored post in association with Stay Energy Safe

Do you understand the signs and the dangers of energy theft?

I didn’t. Not until this morning anyway.

Until then, if you’d asked me to explain energy theft I’d have probably thought about the Christmas film Deck The Halls, where Danny DeVito runs a cable over to his neighbour’s house in the dead of night to power his record breaking Christmas light display.

Spoiler – it’s not that.

How to spot energy theft

Energy theft, or energy fraud, is when gas or electricity meters are tampered with so that they don’t record usage properly, meaning you can pay less or nothing at all for your energy supply. Unfortunately energy theft if definitely NOT a victimless crime.

Although it often goes unnoticed, energy theft is hugely dangerous and can result in gas leaks, fires, electrocution and sometimes death. Not only that, but the cost of the theft is passed on to other bill payers. It’s estimated that energy fraud costs the average household an extra £30+ on their energy bills every year, so it’s worth doing what you can to help catch the people doing it.

Energy fraud is a crime, with a possible prison sentence attached, and yet with rising fuel costs putting pressure on businesses and individuals it’s a crime that’s on the rise – there has been a 15% increase month on month recently, which means more lives at risk. View Post

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Last weekend I met a friend in a café in Langport for brunch.

‘We can visit my old dining table!’, I said, in reply to her suggestion. ‘It lives there now!’

‘I am weirdly looking forward to that,’ she replied, proving why we’ve been friends for nearly thirty years.

You might be wondering why exactly my dining table now lives in a café in Langport. It’s because when we first bought our house around five years ago, my partner at the time was a teensy bit on the controlling side and was insistent that proper people ate their meals at a table. Now in principle I’ve nothing against this – gathering around a table for a family meal is all very wholesome, sharing news, playing games, nothing to dislike there.

My idea of sitting down around a dining table though would be in a lovely big kitchen, preferably with bifold doors opening onto a beautiful garden. The table would be a long wooden table, maybe with benches either side and obviously with some sort of charming homegrown flower arrangement in the centre.

Something like this one from Furniture Village:

Best dining tables

You get the vibe right?

Unfortunately the only house I could afford to buy just has a small kitchen and a average sized living room, large enough for a small dining table as long as you don’t insist on having a piano taking up one wall. OH WAIT. Yes, ex-boyfriend insisted on having a piano taking up one wall, meaning the only space for a table of any kind was in the kitchen, wedged into a corner, where to sit down you had to take turns and breathe in. If you wanted to go outside you had to open the back door only very slightly and squeeze through carefully. Not a bifold in sight.

Idyllic was NOT the word. View Post

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Last week I tidied my bedroom. Tidying my bedroom makes me feel like I’m 15 years old because in my mind grown-ups are meant to have the sort of bedrooms that somehow stay tidy. Grown ups put their pants in the laundry basket before they get into bed and definitely don’t leave them on the floor.

*looks shifty*

What I concluded in the process of tidying my bedroom was that I simply have too much stuff in there. I have lovely built in wardrobes, so it’s not like I’m short of basic storage, but there was just so much clutter everywhere, piles of toiletries and books and a large old bedside table with a huge drawer full of cables for phones I no longer have and dead batteries and old plasters.

Rather than just tidying it then, I did a proper sort out. I gathered up all the coins and old hair bands, I threw out rubbish and I filled EIGHT bags to take to the charity shop. EIGHT! I don’t even know how I did that really, I don’t even have a big bedroom. I think it was mainly clearing out the shelves in the top of my wardrobes, which I’d probably not looked at since I had the wardrobes built. This made space for sensibly stored bags and shoes and suddenly the room itself was freed up to become the tranquil oasis of calm that I always want my bedroom to be.

Then it was time for the fun bit.

I’d been asked to team up with Very, who are honestly a bit of a mecca for furniture and homewares. I didn’t realise that as well as lots of own brand stuff they actually carry all kinds of other brands, so as well as choosing one of their lovely rattan bedside tables from the sideboards section I also picked a gorgeous solid oak bench from Cox & Cox and lots of lovely bits and bobs to accessorise with too.

I had a very jolly couple of hours carefully arranging plants and ornaments and I am extremely pleased with the result.

Very sideboards View Post

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I recently set up an alert for houses near me on Rightmove.

I’m not one of those people who normally has Rightmove as a hobby, but I got a bit overexcited a couple of months ago when a house identical to mine came on the market in the next street for £85,000 more than I paid for mine four year ago. That might not seem much in the grand house buying scheme of things, but given that I only paid £180,000 for mine, it feels significant.

So, then I started having house move fantasies, obviously, not really stopping to consider the cost of actually moving, or the fact that if house prices have increased I’d also need to spend more… BLAH BLAH BLAH! Not listening! I just wanted to look at the pictures okay? Let me be.

What I quickly discovered was that there are two types of house sellers out there. The first type don’t seem inclined even to make their beds, and have random piles of crap scattered everywhere, leaving you not entirely sure what a room is even meant to be. I swear I looked at one last week where in one room they just had what appeared to be a giant metal safe and a box full of chains.

And then you have the second type, who have breakfast bars. 

A breakfast bar has always felt to me like the height of sophistication, and the second type know how to work them. The breakfast bars in type two photos are adorned with overflowing bowls of plump fruits, luring me into the fantasy that if only I bought this house, I would become the sort of woman who enjoyed apples, who would actively choose to snack on an apple in fact, even over a Jaffa cake.

Type two breakfast bars have bar stools that will make you feel like you’re in swanky cocktail bar. All you have to do is perch yourself on a type two bar stool and the husband/butler of dreams will appear, ready to slide a hand crafted cocktail down the breakfast bar towards you while he whips you up some sort of wholesome dinner involving steamed sea bass.

‘All you need is this breakfast bar,’ the type two Rightmove pictures whisper at me, ‘and your life will be complete.’

You’re feeling it right?

To further immerse myself in the breakfast/cocktail bar fantasy I went old school and made myself a Pinterest board. Remember when everyone made Pinterest boards? I haven’t used Pinterest for ages but oh my goodness it was such fun. Cutting and sticking without getting glue all over your clothes.

This is my breakfast cocktail bar board. You can see the vibe I’m going for can’t you? I will never be able to afford it, but a woman can dream.

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Homesense finds

Home improvements are an extremely popular industry in the current day and age. In the past year, people have been spending more time in their homes, prompting many of them to want to improve its appearance, quality and condition. Therefore, now is an excellent time to invest in a home improvement franchise, considering the soaring demand.

There are many different types of home improvement franchises UK and globally. So, whatever your business ambitions, a global franchise directory could help you to find the type of franchise that will provide you with a rewarding and stable investment.

What are home improvement franchises?

Home improvement franchises encompass a wide range of different businesses. They can include construction, cleaning, damp mitigation, pest control, and several other types of business that provide services to improve people’s domestic environments. In some cases, this can include extending their homes, while in other cases it can simply entail making the environment cleaner and healthier. Here is an insight into what is available.

Construction

The construction industry has experienced a surge in demand over the past year. People are looking to extend their homes or refurbish them. Many people are considering loft conversions or simply want to improve their house with a new garage or a conservatory. Construction franchises are therefore a fantastic investment for any investors who want to ensure that their profits can continue to grow.

Some of the most popular types of construction franchises include:

  • Loft conversion, insulation or boarding
  • Home renovations
  • Extensions

Experts predict that the global construction industry will increase in size to 8 trillion US dollars by 2030showing how much potential for profit there is in a home improvement franchise.

Cleaning

Cleaning and home maintenance franchises are an exceptionally popular choice as more people value high standards of hygiene in their homes. With so many people turning to professionals to keep their homes clean and tidy, now is a great time to invest in a domestic cleaning franchise.

Damp mitigation

Damp and mould can be extremely unpleasant to live with and they can also pose serious health risks to a home’s inhabitants. Damp is often linked to severe respiratory diseases and other health conditions. These can affect children even more seriously than adults.

As a result, buying a damp mitigation franchise not only offers excellent scope to generate custom but also provides a rewarding and helpful service. When you are running this kind of franchise, you can enjoy job satisfaction from knowing that you are helping people and may even be improving their health thanks to your company’s services.

Pest control

Rats, cockroaches and other pests affect many homes across the world. They often spread disease and can be a horrible housemate to have. As many pests often seek warmth and shelter inside people’s homes, there is always a constant demand for pest control services. This means that if you choose to invest in a pest control business, then you will be assured of regular business and continual profits.

Pest control franchises are a low-risk investment. In some cases, they can also be run from anywhere, including your home. That means that you would be able to cut your overheads as you would not need to pay rent on business premises. In the end, that can result in a larger profit margin and better returns on your initial investment.

Aesthetic improvements

There is a large industry for people to improve the look of their homes and these kinds of franchises can be extremely popular. For example, there are many different franchises that specialise in blinds or even modern sofa beds. Not only can this be a great option for modernising a room, but it also gives people improved levels of privacy and a feeling of safety and security in their homes.

Therefore, it is no surprise that these are extremely popular when it comes to home improvements across the world. People want to live in trendy and fashionable homes. As trends are always changing and updating, this is great for your investment potential because you will always find new customers who want to keep up with the latest fashions in home appearances.

What are the benefits of a home improvement franchise investment?

Franchises can be highly profitable, low-risk investments. They are a long-term investment that can provide you with a secure and stable income to support yourself and your family. They are extremely flexible with a variety of different levels of investment available. They also provide flexibility once you have invested because you can often work from home or vary your hours around other commitments.

Many home improvement franchises also provide essential services to your customers, allowing them to live in better conditions and to enjoy an improved quality of life.

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This post is a review of the Vax Platinum SmartWash Carpet Cleaner. I was sent this Vax carpet cleaner for the purposes of this review. All views are my own.

I have a large peace lily in my bedroom that is over 20 years old. It stands, rather inconveniently, in front of one set of wardrobe doors, but its positioning is strategic. For at least three years it has been covering up a rather bright yellow stain on my carpet.

I couldn’t tell you where the stain came from – a neon cat vomit incident perhaps? – but one day there it was. My chosen method with most things I don’t want to deal with is just to pretend they’re not there, (see the satsuma on the car dashboard incident), and so the plant found its home.

Now you’d THINK that as a professional, seasoned blogger type, the first thing I’d have done before I tested out our new Vax Platinum SmartWash Carpet Cleaner would have been to take a photo of the stain for a before and after comparison. Here I have a bit of a confession to make though. I was upstairs with the Vax, my phone was downstairs, and I thought to myself ‘ah well, it probably doesn’t matter because the Vax isn’t going to get rid of it after all these years is it?’

*GASP*

I know, I’m sorry Vax, but I admit it, I was cynical. I’ve never owned a carpet cleaner before, (I’ve never cleaned my carpets the whole time I’ve lived here), and I always assumed carpet cleaners were one of those hyped up things that people bought and used once and then stuck in the garage, like foot spas.

If you’d have asked me a couple of weeks ago ‘do Vax carpet cleaners really work?’ I would have probably scrunched my face up cynically and said ‘Ha! I doubt it!’

If I’d even just had a look at the Vax Platinum SmartWash Carpet Cleaner on the website I’d have seen that it has won awards, kills over 99% of bacteria and has been shown to outperform the leading rental cleaners, but oh no, I thought I knew best.

HOW WRONG I WAS.

I gave the stain a couple of goes with the Vax and POOF. ‘Well this is awkward,’ I thought to myself, ‘I really wish I’d taken that photo…’ View Post

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I know, I know, a new home office chair – I spoil you with content don’t I? Give me a break though, it’s been over a year now of basically doing nothing expect reading murder mysteries, walking in laps around the park and working in my little study, so I don’t exactly have a lot to talk about.

Seriously though, a home office chair is actually pretty exciting news when you have been spending so much time working from home. If your job has shuffled you off into your spare room and working from home looks set to stay then you might want to read this and think about investing in your posture. (Maybe your boss might want to invest in your posture on your behalf and buy you a nice new office chair?)

Although I’ve been self-employed and generally working from home for 12 years now, I normally break things up with mornings in cafes, (under the guise of researching brunch club), or coworking spaces. Having to concentrate on work in the same space for large chunks at a time has been hard going. I gave my spare room a makeover in September, (see the ‘workpsace’ highlight on my Instagram), in a bid to create a more motivational workspace, and although I do love it, a lot of my time in here is actually spent in the little armchair in the corner reading magazines or, like this morning, sat at my desk taking stupid selfies.

I.e. wasting valuable time.

Office selfies

One of the issues, quite genuinely, was that I was too tight to invest in a decent home office chair. Since the makeover in September I’ve been sitting uncomfortably on a wooden dining chair which, although very stylish and ideal for dinner parties should anyone ever be allowed into my house again, lacks a certain something in the lumber support department.

As I mentioned on Instagram stories recently, when I told you about the pickled quail eggs, my manifestation powers have been strong lately, so it was barely a surprise when Summit At Home got in touch to ask if I would like to review a British manufactured ergonomic home office chair. ‘Well dur,’ I wanted to say, ‘what took you so long? I’ve been putting this out into the universe for ages?’

My first thought, obviously, was which colour to choose. View Post

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When I bought a house for the first time three years ago I thought that was it, at last, I’d be able to paint the walls whatever colour I wanted without worrying about what the landlord would say when they realised. Fast forward to last month and I’d managed a teal chimney breast and one feature wall in the bedroom.

I didn’t know what was the matter with me.

In pretty much every rented house I’ve ever lived I’ve completely ignored restrictions on decorating and painted every room in elaborate combinations of pink and yellow, red and gold, teal and chocolate brown. (I just had a trawl back through Facebook to find you a picture of the kitchen where I painted bright pink and yellow on opposite walls, and draped the windows with turquoise sari fabric, but I look too drunk in all of them to be honest. I had some good parties in that kitchen.)

Perhaps it’s just that I don’t like being told that I can’t do or have something, and like to prove otherwise, and the minute I was actually allowed to paint, I wasn’t that bothered anymore?

It’s not a terribly flattering insight – it makes me sound a bit immature and possibly like I have some issues with authority – but it’s probably true.

This month though I got over myself. For ages I’ve been toying with painting the hallway, stairs and landing a lovely coral pink colour, and now I’ve finally done it!

Coral pink wall

I also may have got a bit carried away with the idea and repainted Belle’s bedroom AND painted my spare room a gorgeous dark green colour, basically turning it into a teeny tiny working men’s club. Go and have a look at my Instagram story highlights under ‘workspace’ to see it in all it’s glory.

Back to the hall though. View Post

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Advertisement feature in association with Competition Finder

Every so often I take a good look at Instagram and think to myself ‘what is it that I really want to see?’ We can all be guilty of that mindless scrolling, but if we’re going to get hypnotised it might as well be by pictures that fill us with joy right? For me that means colour, pattern, beautiful interiors and houseplants.

I bloody love houseplants. They’re one of the things that I think really makes a house a home, along with pictures and cats, obviously. I love looking at other people’s pictures of houseplants, and even better if they also have cats in them.

If you’re a plant lover and want to fill your Instagram feed with beautiful houseplant accounts then you’ve come to the right place. I’ve picked out seven of my favourite Instagram accounts for houseplant lovers, to help bring some green to your ‘gram.

To celebrate all things botanical, I’ve also teamed up with Competition Finder to bring you the chance to win £50 to spend on houseplants of your very own! Competition Finder is a brilliant one stop shop to help you find all of the latest competitions and giveaways, so if my competition gives you a taste for comping, do go and check out Competition Finder.

In my giveaway, one lucky winner will win £50 to spend on their favourite houseplants from Patch Plants. How cool would that be? New plant babies! As a nation, the recent enforced time at home has only fuelled our love of houseplants – Patch Plants has seen a massive 500% increase in sales over the period of lockdown, especially amongst plants popular on Instagram. ‘Rapunzel, the golden pothos continues to be our most popular houseplant,’ Patch Plants told me, ‘with 31,000 sold so far this year. Susie the Sansevieria and Big Ken the Kentia Palm also feature regularly in our top ten. Our Instagram following tend to opt for more exotic plants like Ray.’

So there you go houseplant fact fans.

For a chance to win £50 to spend on houseplants, you’ll need to read on to the end of the post. First up though, seven Instagram accounts for plant lovers… View Post

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Advertisement feature in association with Hive home

When I was in my early teens, maybe younger, I had a vision of myself as an adult. I can remember it so clearly, even now. It was just a few seconds, a snapshot of what I imagined my life would be like.

The vision involved me arriving home from work on a Friday evening and opening the door to my swanky looking flat, where I lived alone. I can picture the key, turning in the lock. I never knew what job I was arriving home from, I never even got as far as going inside, but I do know that I was wearing a pencil skirt and a silk blouse and high heeled shoes. Clearly in my mind that’s what being a grown up woman was all about.

As things turned out the reality of my life is pretty far from the vision – I’ve never lived alone, I work from home, and I particularly dislike silk. (I don’t know what it is, I’m just not keen on the feel of it.)

What has always struck me most about that vision is the symbolism of the transition between work and home. I never really knew where I’d been, or what happened when I opened the door, but there was something about that moment, the emotional switch from work to home.

Spending more time at home over the last few months has been tough at times, and I’ve definitely felt the lack of that transition and that I’ve not been striking the right work/life balance at times. It’s hard when you’re in the house so much isn’t it, to get that clear definition between work and fun?

What if that moment where you turn a key and open the front door could actually create a physical change as well as an emotional one?

To help restore some harmony to my home life I’ve teamed up with Hive, to show you how a few strategically placed smart home devices can go a long way to creating a more relaxed atmosphere at home.

Servicing 1.7 million homes across the country, Hive is one of the nation’s favourite connected home providers. Hive’s family of smart products include the award-winning Hive Active Heating and a range of plugs, sensors, light bulbs, indoor and outdoor cameras and thermostatic radiator valves and services that offer customers the ability to control their homes, save money and reduce their carbon footprint.

Sounds good right?

First up I needed a trigger – something to let my Hive devices know that the WEEKEND IS ABOUT TO START. For this I used a Hive window and door sensor which I attached to the front door. I then came up with a cunning plan to recreate that ‘key in the lock’ moment – I decided that when I finished work for the day or for the weekend, I would leave the house by the back door, take a walk around the block to clear my head of work, and then return via the front door.

Tada! View Post

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