Liquid spillages, food spillages and watermarks are the most common issues when it comes to cleaning a slate hearth. It is important that any spillages are cleaned up as soon as possible using dilute, hot soapy water. This will help to prevent any liquids, or oil from foods soaking into the slate and causing a stain. Follow the same advise as a weekly clean when it comes to cleaning any spillages or watermarks.

It made the vacuuming process straightforward, requiring only one pass on all floor types, although we did find that it ran out of battery on the normal cleaning mode after 31 minutes. Our main test involved seeing how well each model cleaned up dirt, coffee, red wine, fruit punch, ketchup and soy sauce stains on a low-pile carpet. All of our tested cleaners could remove the stains, but the best models cleaned up our test carpet without requiring significant force or repeated passes. The run time is up to 60 minutes, which is pretty impressive for a cordless vacuum and the 1.7-litre capacity is absolutely excellent if you want a cordless vacuum for a family home. During testing the large vacuum head was noticeably excellent for covering a larger surface area in less time. There were some unanticipated issues with the sorting of the house along the way and Debbie handled these brilliantly. Not only did she take it all in her stride she also sorted out a way forward immediately, informed us of the plan and put in extra hours to ensure very swift resolution.We all lead busy lives, juggling work, families and daily jobs which leaves little time for decluttering and organisation. Once we have got on top of this, it is much more manageable and will enable you to keep on top of things. Features: Aside from simply cleaning your floors, plenty of vacuums have extra features to make them worth your investment. That includes additional brush, crevice and pet tools, as well as attachments to help you clean your car. Other models have varying settings when it comes to power, so you can go turbo when you need to. If you or a family member struggle with allergies, a HEPA filter can help you keep allergens at bay too. The Bissell Revolution HydroSteam Pet’s new HydroSteam system applies direct steam to carpets for heavy-duty cleaning — and it performed phenomenally in our testing, pulling out ample dirt from a medium-pile rug and removing multiple grease stains on a high-use foam kitchen mat. In steam mode, we saw visible steam from the Revolution’s head and felt strong residual heat after passing the cleaner over an area. If you have carpeting or rugs in your home — and especially if you have pets or kids along with them — you’ve probably spent some time trying stain removers of various kinds to deal with spills, pet messes and the grime that builds up with everyday wear. But sprays and scrubbing will only get you so far. Type: The classic iteration of a vacuum cleaner is corded, meaning it plugs in at the wall. If you need a larger, more powerful vacuum cleaner for a bigger space or a busy family home, then it’s likely you’ll be opting for a corded vacuum, as you won’t have to worry about losing charge. Cordless vacuum cleaners are handheld appliances that you can use to get around your house with ease. They often have charging ports that you can attach to your walls or within your cupboards, and they are often lighter and smaller, for convenience. For the ultimate handsfree experience, there are robot vacuums that can whizz around your floors collecting dust and debris.

We cannot praise Debbie highly enough for the way in which she helped us to deal with the contents of a house that needed to be sorted due to bereavement. We were so relieved when we first came across her company as the services she offered were exactly what we had been hoping to find but did not think would exist. From the outset, Debbie approached our situation with immense empathy, understanding and positivity and was not at all daunted by the scale of what the task involved. Debbie’s sorting out of the house surpassed all our expectations and we will be forever indebted to her for the help, support and advice she gave to us at a hugely difficult and stressful time. I also really appreciate that Debbie not only takes away anything you aren’t keeping, but she ensures that it all gets donated to various charities shops or community groups that she knows are looking for certain items. Anything that can’t be donated will be recycled rather than binned. This makes the clear out guilt-free and actually encouraged me to be more ruthless as I knew someone else might make better use of the item than I have. But the Power Scrub’s handling can take some getting used to — the cleaner’s handle section consists of the clean water tank and a thinner plastic portion that hovers over the dirty water tank like a turtle shell.The result? Everything you need to know is contained in this handy guide, with premium and budget-friendly brands sitting side by side – we're talking Shark, Dyson, Miele and Vax just to name a few.

The Beko Powerclean is easy to use and comes with a range of attachments that will adapt to any home. There are two brushrolls that can be switched out for hard floors and carpets, as well as a crevice tool, mini brush head and dusting attachment. We also prioritized usability and design during our evaluations. Models that were easy to carry around, clean and maintain earned the best marks throughout our testing.The Hoover ONEPWR Spotless Go weighs only around 7 pounds, and it’s also battery-powered, so it’s easy to take around the house or into your car. Despite the ONEPWR’s small scale, we had no problems cleaning off juice and dirt carpet stains during testing. The Spotless Go is part of Hoover’s ONEPWR series, which includes vacuums and other tools that use ONEPWR-branded batteries. One of our favourite things about this vacuum was the clever charging stand, which has a progress bar for battery life. It's a lifesaver if you can't drill a holder into your walls, and makes the whole appearance of this vacuum look more sleek. To find the best portable and upright carpet cleaners, we tested all nine models for more than a month and ran them through a gamut of cleaning scenarios. But the Revolution is very expensive, and the extra cleaning power comes with one major downside: it’s gigantic. By itself, the Revolution weighs 22.5 pounds (around five pounds heavier than comparable upright cleaners), and a full water tank adds an additional eight pounds to the cleaner. Plus, the Revolution doesn’t have features like a semi-articulated handle to help displace this additional weight. If you’re a smaller person or regularly moving the cleaner between floors, the Revolution’s bulk will be an added burden.

The tube is long but telescopic, making this a good cleaner for tall and short people alike. We loved it for its straightforward cleaning power. Its suction is outstanding thanks to a powerful, fast (more than 100km/h) cyclone. The single cyclone design also makes for low noise and controllable power. The cylinder moves smoothly on its castors and perches acceptably on a stair, though it's not the easiest to clean this section of the house with. With its modest battery life and 9-ounce dirty water tank, the Hoover ONEPWR isn’t necessarily cut out for frequent or even medium-scale carpet cleaning. But if your biggest concern for a carpet cleaner is portability and you already own ONEPWR equipment, the Hoover Spotless Go could be worth a second look. It's the little things that make this vacuum great, alongside the pet-appropriate level of power and suction. The ability to operate the vacuum by using your foot makes manoeuvring easier, and switching between modes is really easy too. It has wonderful consistent power and the hose is extra long, with 8.5 metres of freedom to get around your house. The canister was easy and fairly dust-free to empty too.Cleaning your carpet means ending up with a tank full of dirty water, and though upright carpet cleaners are generally harder to clean than portable cleaners, Bissell tried to make the process as painless as possible. The ProHeat’s water tanks can easily be washed out, and Bissell includes a hooked plastic tool for fishing out hair and other debris in the nozzle. You can also pop off the ProHeat’s nozzle housing by holding down two clearly marked buttons on the cleaner’s front side. When we brought the handle down, the jumbo-size clean water tank shifted the weight balance of the handle toward the top and made it awkwardly top-heavy. On models like the Hoover SmartWash+, the handle section includes both water tanks to help evenly distribute weight across the handle. The Power Scrub’s clean mode buttons are also awkwardly placed on the cleaner’s front side, and this can be a slight hassle if you’re adjusting modes mid-clean.