H: Kate Spate, host
E: Emily Peck, BBC Good Homes
D: Danielle Stevens, Dyson

H: Hello and welcome to the Lifestyle show brought to you this week by Dyson. I’m Liz Spate. Now as you can see by the tulips in the studio, Spring is definitely in the air, and it really makes you want to go and throw open your windows, grab your duster and your vacuum cleaner and give your house a good old spring clean. So if you’re thinking of doing that this weekend, well you might be reaching for your polish, and your duster and some old cleaning products, maybe to clean the bathroom with. Well let’s get rid of these because how would you feel if I suggested instead that you maybe used some Coke, some baking soda, a lemon, I’m not going mad – toothpaste and a toothbrush, ooh I’m getting overloaded here, and some vinegar. Well are you intrigued? Stick around because we’re going to be explaining how we are going to be using all these household items to clean your house a little bit later on, and we’ll also be looking at how our cleaning habits have changed over the years, and we’ll also be taking questions from you, but before we get onto that let’s meet our guests who are in the studio today. We have along today with us, Emily Peck from the BBC Good Homes Magazine

E: Hi there

H: And also Danielle Stevens whose one of the scientists at Dyson, welcome along. Now Danielle I understand that Dyson have done some research that shows we’re a bit of a mucky lot, compared with our mothers. Is that right?

D: Well yes people traditionally these days Liz aren’t spring cleaning like our mothers and grandmothers did

H: Shame on us!

D: Yes and we’re just not being shown how to clean, it’s not traditional any more, it’s dying out, and the research has shown that only one in five people actually planned in the modern day to spring clean as it’s traditionally known, and this is quite important –

H: And why is it important to do a spring clean, and I thought it was just being house proud. Is it more than that?

D: Well some people it’s just house proud and they clean regularly anyway, but what we found is that people in the modern day aren’t cleaning as much, and after we’ve been tucked up all winter and it’s nice and warm and humid and we’ve been keeping the windows closed –

H: Central heating on

D: Yes, it’s perfect conditions for – our number one allergy in the world is dustmites, they like warm, humid conditions, they multiply all around your home, you can end up with like 10,000 in your bed alone

H: Oh yuck

D: Yes and thousands per square metre of carpet and dependent on the environment of your home, it’s unique to each individual environment and what type of carpet flooring you have

H: That’s horrible, it makes you itch doesn’t it Emily?

E: Yes definitely

D: And also dust and mould and other spores can be around your home, so you need to be able to deal with these

H: Yes so spring cleaning is a very good idea then?

D: Yes

H: I ought to be planning one for this weekend really shouldn’t I? Yes but it is mother’s day so maybe I won’t! Now this is an interactive show and we’d love you to get involved, so if you have any questions for Emily or Danielle, then all you have to do is type your question in the box that’s on the screen, put your name and where you’re from, and press submit and it will come through to us here in the studio, and we’ll try to get through as many as we can, but before we answer some of your questions, let’s have a little look at how our cleaning habits have changed over the years

Video footage:

“Is there a vacuum in your life? Well spare a thoughts for the housewives of yesteryear, as you glide around the house using the latest state-of-the-art technology. 50 years ago cleaning just one room in your house took up a whole day each week, and the equipment on offer was hard work to say the least. Cleaning the floor was a laborious task involving aching muscles, sweat and great amounts of energy. Assuming you could get the contraption to work, they tended to be clunky and unreliable, belching out dust filled air, defeating its primary purpose. In the 1950s when it came to the chore of spring cleaning a room, hours of relentless scrubbing lay ahead, as well as the precarious balancing act on top of the family puffe. In her black and white world, the housewife had to combat the dust and grime in her drawing room with a trusty dustpan and brush. What a lot of time and effort spent on hands and knees, making the home spotless before her hard-working husband came home. In 2007 the modern way to spring clean is speedier and requires much less effort. You can lighten your load with an upright vacuum cleaner that does all the hard work for you. In fact, this one sucks up dust and dirt from your carpets, room after room and keeps it trapped inside the vacuum cleaner. It’s effortless to use, and with a slight turn of the wrist it twists to clean those hard-to-reach places. And with all those attachments, you can even use your vacuum to dust your 42” widescreen television. If you’re looking for something more compact, this telescopic cylinder is designed to be big when you need I, but small when you’ve finished the job. Its extendable wand is more effective than Obi Wan Kanobe’s light saber. No nook or cranny is off limits, and there are no ladders or wobbly stools to worry about. It makes dusting quick and easy, it can also get those tell-tale biscuit crumbs from the side of the sofa too. The hand-held vacuum cleaner is great for small cleaning jobs like dusting the Venetian blinds, bookcases, the staircase, under the cushions on the sofa, even the radiators. And when it comes to eradicating those pesky dustmites, the extra attachments are a Godsend to remove dustmites from their favourite haven, the mattress. You can even clean your curtains and fabric blinds as well to get rid of pollens and mites. Hooray for modern technology!”

H: I can’t believe how difficult it was to clean a house in the olden days! We’re lucky now because we’ve got a lot more new technology haven’t we?

E: Definitely

D: Modern technology’s making cleaning a lot lot easier, and people can pick up their vacuum and be assured that they can do room from room, go around the house and they’ll have guaranteed no loss of suction and the vacuum cleaner won’t clog so that the house will be clean all round, room to room

H: Do you think we’re a bit more aware now of dustmites as well, and that’s why the vacuum cleaners are so important?

D: Yes because they’re the world’s number one allergy and people are more aware of their existence really and that they are aware that it’s not the dustmite that causes the allergy, it’s the faeces of the dustmite in your carpet, so you need to keep vacuuming up that faeces to control it around the environment in your home

E: Vacuuming your mattress as well, that’s the big thing isn’t it?

D: Yes

E: That’s important. You don’t have to make your bed any more, I don’t think, I think it’s a good idea to leave it open and let it air during the day so –

H: That’s a good idea

E: Yes

H: Now we already have some questions coming in, and Becky wants to know “why do you think people are no longer spring cleaning, is it because we’re lazy or busy or are we just a much cleaner nation do you think?” So we don’t need to spring clean
E: Oh I don’t know whether we’re a much cleaner nation but I think it’s a bit of both really, bit of laziness, but also there’s so much to do these days, there’s you know going out, going on holiday, you don’t spend too much time at home, certainly I would go away and then you come back to your house and it’s already dusty and you have to do it all over again

H: Tell me about it, I hate dust

E: I know, exactly, so I mean people just don’t have as much time as they –

H: And women are working now aren’t they –

E: Yes

H: And the jobs are split – do you think women and me, do you think the housework is split half and half?

E: I’d like to think so

H: Is it in your household?

E: Yes – certainly trying to train –

H: I think the guys are getting a bit of a look in aren’t they?

E: Definitely, I was reading a book the other day that said in an ancient village somewhere actually women go out to work and the men are the house husbands and they stay at home and clean

H: Excellent. Perhaps I should move –

E: Yes I’ll find out, we’ll go there

H: Now we have another question in from Nathan, you see boys do clean, there we are – “is there a particular way to vacuum, ie. do you do it up and down like you would mow a lawn” – that’s a typical boy question isn’t it “or can I simply speed around in any fashion and will it still get up all the dirt?”

E: That’s one of yours I think

D: Yes if you’re sort of vacuuming regularly all the time so once or twice a week –

H: Like we all are of course

D: Of course, then you’re keeping on top of things, but it’s really important that you do move your furniture and don’t go around things, because dustmites like to survive –

H: I’m a bit of a naughty one at that

D: In the dark humid, so underneath your sofa, underneath your bed, so just don’t go around things, and also you know you can get attachments these days for dusting all around so it’s not just your carpet, you also can use your vacuum to do all up and round, your TV screens –

E: They’ve got flat heads haven’t they now –

D: Yes, yes

E: Where they go under the –

D: With soft brush bristles and they’ve also got flat heads –

E: Go under sofas

D: With machines so you can actually fit underneath your sofa, tables –

H: So you don’t have to move all the stuff –

E: You don’t have to hurt your back

D: And they’re more movable as well, with our Boar machines, they actually manoeuvre around better so there’s better flexibility so you can go underneath and around corners and things, so – it really depends on how often you –

E: The hand-helds are great aren’t they in the morning if you spill something –

D: You can get it straight up

E: Yes definitely

D: If you’re doing all your cobwebs as well

E: Exactly

H: Now Gerry wants to know, I’m not sure whether Gerry is a man or a woman, but Gerry wants to know “should I vacuum my mattress, we sort of covered that already haven’t we before?

D: Yes

E: Well my mum always told me to so I think it’s quite a good one

H: And how often should you be doing that, every time you change the bed?

D: Well we try to advise people once a month really. People tend to move their mattresses over, so turn the mattress and that’s an ideal time to do it, but if there’s anybody out there, if you actually take your vacuum cleaner, especially with the Dyson you can see through the bin, if you go up to your bed, take off all the sheets and do your mattress and actually look and you’ll see a fine white dust that will go through, and that’s your skin cells that the dustmites are actually going to feed on, so –

H: Oh dear

D: So that should scare you into doing it more often because you can fill up your bin if you’ve never done your mattress before

E: Makes you want to go home now and –

H: That’s horrible. And with the Dyson you can really see all the dirt can’t you?

D: Yes

H: You can see it all whizzing round. That’s disgusting! Now we’ve got a question from Mrs F Watson and she wants to know, she’s always been told that you vacuum carpets and sweep floors, I suppose she means wooden floors or tile floors, is that true, is that how you do it these days?

E: Well there’s lots of heads now that haven’t got as much suction has they so –

D: Yes there’s one here. And also we’ve got hard floor tools that have been designed so they’ve got bristles so they won’t actually damage your hard floor, a lot of allergy and asthma sufferers find that if they sleep the dust will get around –

H: It throws it all up into the air

D: In the atmosphere yes, and then they have to breath it in, so obviously you can still sweep, we’re not saying don’t sweep, but a lot of allergy sufferers find it’s much better if they just vacuum everywhere, and then they’re not worried about laminate floors, hard floors –

E: What about Persian carpets, is there a specific suction head for those?

D: If people find that rugs or specialist carpets with the heads that you can actually change the amount of suction coming through, it’s also we have suction release for doing carpets and blinds, so pollen that comes through for hay fever sufferers

E: Oh ok

D: If they want to do the curtains and the –

E: Hadn’t thought of that one

H: But that sucking it in doesn’t start if off

D: So there is ways if you’ve got specialist carpets of making sure that they’re preserved so that you don’t damage them

H: Yes. And then we’ve got another question in from Jane, she doesn’t know – say where she’s from, I’m sure she knows where she’s from but it doesn’t say where she’s from! She says “why is it spring time that people traditionally spring clean?”

D: Well I think we’ve covered it before, it’s because it’s been so warm over the winter in our homes –

E: You hide yourself away

D: Yes we’ve been hidden up nice and cosy and we haven’t really been cleaning as much so –

E: Like the sun’s come out today and I want to open the windows and let the light in and –

H: Good, keep them open

E: And stop hibernating, yes

H: When the weather’s like it has been, I mean it’s just been so lovely hasn’t it?

E: Yes

H: It really does make you want to have a nice clean home doesn’t it?

E: Definitely

H: Because also you might have more people coming round as well, you don’t want them checking behind your sofa

E: And it makes you want to stay at home and take pride in your house and you know just give it some attention really, which it deserves

H: Now we have another question in from Angel 123, that’s a lovely name, Angel, she says that she has a real problem cleaning her house as her two children are asthmatic, and hoovering and sweeping really sets them off. Have you got any suggestions?”

E: Yes that’s a tricky one

D: Yes, Angel 123, great name, what we always advise people is to use a vacuum cleaner, you haven’t said which vacuum cleaner you’re using, make sure you’ve got one with a hepa filter because that will also trap the allergens and the mould spores and any dustmite allergens that are going through your vacuum. And also make sure you’ve got a machine – we say with Dysons there’s no leakage from our machines, and also from the emissions, because what’s probably happening is you’re going around vacuuming and that you’re sucking up the allergens and the mould and dust spores, but they’re going through and they may be coming out the exhaust of the machine and back into the environment, which is why your children are then finding that they’re coming up into the room and they’re finding that room really difficult to breathe in. Also sweeping is a bit of a no-no because it will, as we’ve said earlier, and we’ve already discussed, throw it up into the atmosphere of those rooms, and also the other thing you can do is to try and kepe your children out of the rooms that you’re in

H: Put them out in the garden or something

D: Hope that helps

E: Let’s hope it stays sunny

H: Now Maureen wants to know every time she sweeps her house she gets a handful of very light, grey fluff. She says she hasn’t got any cats and no children, so where does it come from? Do we really want to know this?

D: Tumbleweed

E: Well you’ve probably got the statistics to tell that – from the air, your skin –

D: Yes what we’ve shown is dead skin and we shed about 28g which is like a packet of crisps from our bodies, approximately a week

E: Nice

D: So if you think how much that is all around your home so you can notice it more on hard floors

E: Yes it gathers in the corners doesn’t it, behind the door and –

D: Yes and also with our clothes fibres drop off and we don’t realise, and hairs, and if you have any pets, you know it all mixes together and people think I haven’t got any pets or anything, but it does all come together so –

H: And you’re bringing things in on your feet as well all the time aren’t you, you don’t really think about that

D: Yes. We also – people tend to vacuum hallway areas and stairways because that’s the area that you first walk on and go round your house and spread allergens and things around your home

E: Yes and it’s an idea with a very damp cloth just to go round the skirting boards once you have vacuumed as well

H: Oh that’s a good idea, you have to get down on your hands and knees for that though, I’m not very good at that. Now you’re watching the Lifestyle Show brought to you by Dyson, our guests today are Emily Peck and Danielle Stevens and we’re talking about cleaning, spring cleaning, and a little bit earlier I was talking about using maybe polish and sprays and dusters to clean your home, but how about using some of these instead, things you might find around the house. Well confused, take a look at this, it will explain a little bit about it

Video footage

“Dyson has some more top tips to help make your spring cleaning as easy as possible. They’ll make stains, dirt and dust a thing of the past. Small fingers are mucky fingers, and whether it’s mud, jam or soot from their regular chimney-cleaning exploits, young urchins leave their mark wherever they’ve been. Get rid of those unsightly smudges by wiping with a damp cloth that’s been dipped in a little white vinegar to remove fingerprints. Even Inspector Clueso will be left clueless. And if your little angels have developed their artistic abilities on your walls with their crayons, don’t scream with despair. Pick up an old toothbrush and toothpaste and scrub it onto the dreaded doodle. Toothpaste acts as an abrasive and will banish those scribbles. Doesn’t take long before the bottom of your iron gets covered with nasty brown stains. Don’t worry, head for the fruit bowl, cut a lemon in half – and rub the lemon juice over the bottom of the iron. Wipe off with a cloth to remove and put an end to those unsightly marks smearing onto your clean clothes. Your bathroom is a hot and steamy incubator for mould and mildew. You’ve watched in despair as the grout between the tiles turns a sickly orange colour in the humidity. Get out that baking soda, mix with water and reach for your old toothbrush and scrub the paste onto the grout. Marvel as the original whiteness returns. Newpapers can give you a clearer outlook on life, simple tear up your used newspaper, screw up the pages and tip some white vinegar onto them. The acidity of the news print ink combined with the acidity of the vinegar and a bit of elbow grease cleans your windows, leaving them sparkling and smear-free. While you lie in bed, snug as a bug, you’re closer to the truth than you might think. Warm, humid conditions make the perfect breeding ground for dustmites, and as you shed skin cells on your bed clothes you’re providing lots of food for the little mites. Vacuum your mattress regularly, use the mattress tool for maximum effect to get rid of bed bugs. Curtains harbour dust and pollen, so vacuum them regularly using a crevice tool attached to the wand of your vacuum cleaner to clean them thoroughly and keep those mites at bay. Tea-riffic – there’s nothing worse than a wet bottom when it comes to your tea mug as the heat will leave tell-tale white rings on your stylish smoked glass table tops. Banish the unsightly marks by grabbing a jar of mayonnaise and rub it onto the ring mark. Leave to permeate the surface overnight, wipe off the next day and the rings will be a thing of the past. Constant use and limescale can leave your toilet bowl with unsightly stains. Banish the ugly marks using a can of cola, tip the contents down the pan. Leave to digest for an hour or so, then flush for a sparkling, clean loo. Happy cleaning!”

H: That’s amazing isn’t it, some of those tips, now I’ve actually done one of those, that mayonnaise, I had a bottle of wine that was, had a lot of condensation on it, and I left it on my oak table, my pride and joy, and the next morning I came down and there’s this terrible water mark, so I put mayonnaise on it and it worked, it worked, so there we are, they do work

D: Brilliant

H: Now let’s talk through some of these products and how they actually work. Lucy wants to know, did she see vinegar there, she did, we have some distilled malt, it’s white vinegar –

E: White vinegar’s the one to use

H: And why is that good for cleaning then, what sorts of things can you clean with that?

E: It’s just a really natural, really good natural product for the home, I mean you can put it in your washing machine if you want to freshen up the washing machine, you can use it on glass to polish, you know –

D: Gets rid of smears

E: Exactly. It’s just a great one to have, you know if you’re sink’s looking a bit dirty you can just leave some in there and get rid of those water marks and – it’s a really good one to have around the house, and also –

H: And you’ve usually got a bottle of vinegar

E: Exactly and then you can go and have a salad so –

H: Dual purpose!

E: Exactly

H: And also that would be cheaper than maybe some of the cleaning products that are out there as well, wouldn’t it?

E: Yes I would say so, there is such a wide range at the moment that you know, don’t ever underestimate what you can do with a damp cloth and some water, it’s just – an d you know a bit of elbow grease

H: Yes, good old-fashioned elbow grease, our mothers used a bit more of that than we did I’m sure

E: And also you don’t want to put all those chemicals into the environment, at the moment it’s a very hot topic obviously, so the natural products that we’ve got in our fridges and cupboards, you know the lemon, how many times have I gone into the fridge and there’s been a lemon going a bit old and I don’t want to throw it away

D: You’ve not used it for your gin and tonic?

E: Didn’t have a gin and tonic last Saturday, so yes! But no, cut it in half put it in your dishwasher and put it on a cycle and that will keep your dishwasher smelling nice.

H: Yes that’s a good idea. Aren’t they quite antiseptic, lemons?

E: Yes they are. They have got a really good cleaning property. I think you can put them on chopping boards as well if you have got stains on chopping boards they are quite good at rubbing it and getting rid of the stain.

H: The smell is just amazing of a fresh lemon isn’t it, a fresh lemon?

E: Yes I mean lemon is in everything the washing-up liquid, in those wipes you can get for the bathroom. Also washing up liquid is a really good one, especially the thick kind you know, it can do a lot, you can clean your bathroom, you can clean your kitchen units you can clean everything. Just a tiny bit of washing up liquid on your windows and you don’t need to have so many products, you don’t need to have lots and lots of different things

H: But we see so much advertised on the telly don’t we and we say oh I have got to have that. Then you get it and you think ooh.

E: Yes it’s all a gimmick

H: Then you go off and buy the next one that comes along, don’t you? We’re all the same aren’t we? Now toothpaste why does this work then? We saw in the clip there about cleaning scribbles off walls. Why does this work?

E: It is an abrasive isn’t it, I think?

D: Yes it has properties yes

E: It clings to -

H: It is a quite mild abrasive otherwise you wouldn’t be able to use it on your teeth I suppose. It is not like a Brillo Pad.

E: No, that would be worrying

H: And it’s probably got – I don’t know whether it’s got a little bit of bleach in it, maybe that’s – I don’t know what I’m talking about really, but maybe it’s that

D: They do that don’t they, to whiten your teeth

H: Maybe it does

E: So hang on to your old toothbrushes as well

H: Yes that’s a good idea, clean the grout in your tiles, it was this one wasn’t it that they were talking about?

E: Yes that’s great for carpets as well, if you just sprinkle a little bit over and then vacuum clean over, freshen it up, make the room smell nicer. You know obviously a clean house is basically no smell at all, you know you walk into a house and you instantly think if it smells of all different perfumes, I wouldn’t say that’s clean, I’d say that’s just being disguising, you know all these different products you’re disguising the fact that you know –

H: It smells of dog!

E: Exactly! So you know a clean house is one that there’s no smell at all, and that’s really, these are really neutral products that are really fresh

H: So maybe it’s best to use things like this rather than have your home full of chemicals, like we’re talking about earlier, children that have –

E: Better for the environment

H: Got allergies

E: And allergies as well, lots of ammonia, you can breathe in, so if you’re cleaning your shower cubicle, if you’re going to stand in your shower cubicle and you’ve got all the fumes around you, all the –

H: It does make you feel a bit heady sometimes doesn’t it?

E: Yes all the powders coming out so there’s ammonia in there that you can have allergic reactions that you might not have had you know many years ago when they used a lot of simpler things

D: You’ll find as well that allergy sufferers, because – if they have older homes and they have a mould allergy, in their bathrooms if it’s an older house they might not have an extractor fan fitted, so when they’ve had their shower or their bath the room’s quite damp, and then it’s an ideal breeding ground for mould so, obviously getting your toothbrush and doing the grouting properly rather than using harsh chemicals which then, if they have an allergy already they find that other problems –

E: Yes there’s not much ventilation so –

D: Effect them, yes so if there’s not much ventilation in those areas

E: Definitely

H: Right now we have a question in from Sarah and she says that she’s dreading her spring clean, now aren’t we all? And she says “have you got any tips for making it easier?”

E: Well all the things we really talked about, just do a little at a time you know

H: That’s a good tip

E: You know make a list of all the things you need to do, don’t start getting really overwhelmed, I know sometimes I’ve looked in my cupboards and bathroom and thought I’ve got to do it all at once. Just do a little bit at a time, you know spread it over a couple of weeks, so just put all your top priority duties and then you know at the weekend I cleaned out a couple of drawers. Next weekend you do the bathroom cabinet. You don’t have to do it all at once, you know spring is lasting

H: You’ve got to get out and enjoy the garden as well don’t you?

E: Yes

H: You don’t want to be stuck inside cleaning all the time

D: We saw in the film as well, the clip that was just played, with your vacuum cleaners, all these different attachments in one, so you don’t have to have lots of different utensils these days, you don’t have to have your duster and you’re –

H: Whiz round the house

D: You can actually do most of the stuff around your home with your vacuum cleaner

E: Brilliant

D: You know, even just take the surface dirt off the skirting boards, on top of cupboards, do underneath all the furniture, around the back of the sofa, you know all these places on top of books that if you do have an accessory, you know there’s a tool for most places

H: Yes

D: You can reach most places, so it makes it a lot easier because you can just do it all rather than make it a huge chore

H: Well that’s it, if you did a room a day or something, I like lists, you make lists and then you can tick them off, can’t you and it makes you feel really satisfied –

D: Yes, give yourself a reward afterwards

H: Some chocolate or something. Now Della wants to know that we were talking about vacuuming earlier, she says that she’s got a boyfriend, and she says have you got any tips on getting her boyfriend to do it, because she’s fed up of doing the vacuuming on her own

E: Ooh I know about this one, you have to use my reverse psychology for this one. Basically just you know leave the vacuum cleaner out for a bit and then –

H: Leave it for him to trip over

E: Trip over, you know get – be sort of “oh can you help me, I really don’t know how to do this” you know play the weak card, act as if you really don’t know how to use it and he’ll be like –

D: It’s quite high, Dyson’s actually quite high on a man’s list of gadgets to have

H: It’s a cool gadget, there’s a lot of tools and kit to play with

D: Exactly, so even if you like buy him a car cleaning kit or something because it gets him into using it, and then it’s oh it’s actually quite a cool toy to have almost, and then give him some of our stats about the dustmites and how many live in your bed, you know 10,000 a mattress, and then he’ll be thinking oh what’s actually in our mattress

H: Yuk

D: 28g of skin, a crisp packet of skin a week, and he’ll soon get the vacuum cleaner out!

E: Or just offer him a few, alternatives, say could you vacuum or would you like to clean the bath or the toilet, you know

H: Yes that’s right and they’ll usually jump at the chance of doing the vacuuming

E: That’s right

H: But if you do things together it really does halve the task, I mean it’s just amazing because -
E: You’ve got to work as a team in a household

H: Yes you do

E: You’ve got to get everyone, the children, everyone working as a team

H: Yes that’s a good idea. My little girl’s a bit young for that, but it won’t be long. She’ll have a duster in her hand before she can walk!

D: If we can change it and teach the next generation, and not make it so bad because the technology’s there to make it kind of cool, cooler to clean really, you’ve got all these attachments

H: And people are very house-proud as well, these days, I think people are more interested in interior decorating and getting their nice furniture and what have you

E: Yes people want to stay at home a bit more into home making so it’s something that –

H: They’ve got to get into cleaning a bit more haven’t they?

E: I think it’s going to make a bit of a comeback now

H: Now Steven wants to know, he’s thinking of buying his wife a new vacuum cleaner for mother’s day – “aren’t I generous?” Very generous! And he says “what do you recommend for a house which is a mixture of carpets and wooden floors?” A lot of people have got homes like that these days haven’t they?

D: Yes

H: What do you recommend?

D: Well what we usually say to people, obviously if he looks on the Dyson website which is www.dyson.com, and he can actually go through the range of products that we do and it can actually suggest what he should have, that’s probably the best thing. People are either generally upright or cylinder people, it depends –

E: It’s a really good website actually, I tried that out, it’s just quite simple to use, you just click on the buttons and you can get a specific one for you can’t you?

D: Yes, and most of the models will actually do both types of flooring, and then you go up the model range dependent on whether you have pets or allergies for the people within that home, so that’s probably the best thing for him to do, if he has a look on the website

H: Yes and find out the one that’s best for him, that’s best for his wife. I hope you’re both going to be using it Steven?

D: If he’s got both floors. If he’s got both floors you need to be able to switch the brush on and off so it doesn’t damage his floor

H: Now I understand that Danielle you’re looking for tips on cleaning and also cleaning disasters?

D: Yes

H: Can you tell us a little bit more about that?

D: Yes we’re looking to compile some tips if anybody’s got anything that they’ve sort of been brought up with, or they know

H: Old wives tales that work

D: Or something different – we’re thinking about collating them, so if they just email those in, I think you’ve got the address there?.

H: That’s right we have cleaningtips@dyson.com, that’s cleaningtips@dyson.com. And also cleaning disasters, what sort of thing did you have in mind for that?

D: Sort of anything really, maybe if you’ve put vinegar on something that you shouldn’t of, or any of your products have gone a bit wrong or –

E: Used the wrong vinegar

D: Yes

H: Perish the thought! Well if you do have any tips for us or any cleaning disasters, then go to cleaningtips@dyson.com or click on the link on the screen. But we’ve run out of time so thanks to all of you who sent in questions, I know we’ve not got through as many as maybe we would have liked but we hope we’ve answered some of them, and thanks very much to Emily and Danielle for coming in

D: You’re welcome

E: Thank you, pleasure

H: So I’m off to do my spring clean, put a bit of Cola down my toilet

E: I’m going to hoover – vacuum my mattress

H: Vacuum your mattress, there we are we’ve all got jobs for the weekend, so thanks ladies for coming in and happy cleaning, we’ll see you next time, bye bye