Since UK rail privatisation began in 1994, Rail magazine’s Stop and Examine column had a long-running strand known as BB&W (or the Bin Bag and Weedkiller strand in its longhand form). It named and shamed parts of the UK’s rail network dogged by trackside refuse. For instance: overgrowing foliage, abandoned wagons or substandard tracks with poorly maintained fishplates.
Cleanliness they say is next to godliness. If cleaning quotes featured on Pointless, you’d be looking at 80 to 90 points for our first sentence. For our latest post, here’s a few more quotes and slogans you may, or may not have heard of.
The late great Roger Lloyd-Pack is best known for his role as the dim-witted Trigger in Only Fools and Horses. In the first part of three episodes in the sitcom’s 1996 Christmas special (entitled Heroes and Villains), we see the road sweeper talk to Sid about his award. What was to follow was one of Trigger’s greatest quotes – possibly one of the greatest cleaning quotes ever to grace our television screens.
You wouldn’t have thought the author of murder mystery books would have come up with some cleaning quotes. Well, think again. Agatha Christie claimed that washing up formed a part of her creative process as seen in this image. The setting in the image is Stoke Gabriel village, where Agatha Christie’s house was. Her former home, Greenway, is in the care of the National Trust.
“1001 means a big, big carpet for less than half a crown”
For our first advert clip, Cussons’ 1001 cleaner enabled households to clean their carpets affordably. It was launched in the 1940s as a product which (it claimed) has 1,001 uses. By the 1960s, it carpet cleaning abilities were extolled in the clip seen above. Since 2004, the 1001 brand has owned by the makers of WD-40.
Though not a cleaning quote, Mahatma Gandhi’s quote is applicable to the fact we provide a service. In our case, this means hiring industrial vacuum cleaners. It also means impartial advice and professional services.
You can either add a few more to the list, or you could let us do a quote. For one of our quotes, why not discuss your requirements over the ‘phone on 01744 633738, or by email us on info@cleanhire.co.uk. We shall be happy to get back to you as soon as possible.
Clean Hire, 06 June 2016
SC Johnson, whom many of you may remember as Johnson Wax, are on a crusade to improve transparency between themselves and their customers. With health issues and the likelihood of cancers caused by cleaning chemicals, the company has embarked upon a mission to explain. This time, the makers of Toilet Duck and Shake ‘n’ Vac, have decided to detail every single ‘ingredient’ used in their products.
Known as What’s Inside SC Johnson, their handy website tells you:
Now you can play Candy Crush Saga AND do a spot of vacuuming from your smartphone – thanks to Botvac
You’ve got to love the robotic vacuum cleaner. No trailing wires; nor heavy bags to dump; not to mention their portability. Soon, they’ll reach a price that is suitable enough for most users. Neato is one company which has made robotic vacuums worthy of their premium price tag. Their latest model, the Botvac Connected, does everything your typical robotic vacuum cleaner does – and more besides.
As well as the usual sensing technology, the Botvac Connected has WiFi capabilities. After linking it up with your WiFi box (in the same way you can access the internet on your PC or smartphone), you can control Botvac through an iPhone or Android smartphone. The ‘phone app has details of your cleaner’s battery life and cleaning status. You can move the vacuum cleaner to a given spot with your smartphone, like a radio-controlled car. Or you can let it clean its merry way for an hour.
Better still, if you’re away from home and able to find a suitable WiFi hotspot, you can switch your Botvac Connected cleaner on several miles from home. After returning home, your carpet is cleaned. If you wanted to, you can put your feet up and play Candy Crush Saga (other smartphone games are available) whilst Botvac does the rest. This time-lapsed video clip shows you how.
What’s in the box: features of the Botvac Connected Robot Vacuum
Price:
The Recommended Retail Price for the Botvac Connected Robot Vacuum is £599. Online, the lowest price we have seen is £499 (from Thurgo, Exeter). The most common price is £549, as charged at Maplin and The Wright Buy.
Blu-Tack is great for a number of uses. Apart from sticking posters on to walls and mounting keys, it is good for picking up fragments of dust. It is also good for picking up drawing pins and loose staples, though awful on carpets. Over at the Dounreay power plant, Caithness, in the Scottish Highlands, scientists have found a novel way of picking up nuclear waste. Their methods are more Blue Peter than Star Trek. Continue reading “Blu-Tack’s Role in Nuclear Plant Decommissioning”
Imagine its 2030. The new names in motoring could either be Tesla or any present-day market leader that has dared to go for electric cars. If James Dyson succeeds, his electric cars could also be seen on the M62 motorway. (Your Uber cab could become your Hoover cab). Continue reading “Would You Buy a Dyson Electric Car?”
Your parents might have had one in the pantry. There’s half a chance your grandparents – or even your great-grandparents had this model of vacuum cleaner. For the second model in our series of iconic vacuum cleaners, we look at the Hoover Junior. Continue reading “Iconic Vacuum Cleaners: The Hoover Junior”
In October 2015, we looked at the engineering marvel that was a pair of vacuum slippers by Alexander Yurkin, Victor Oshlykov, and Timothy and Alexander Smagin Krivenkov. In this blog post, we wondered if floor cleaning slippers were around the corner. Quoting from our 13 October 2015 entry:
Could industrial vacuum slippers be considered?
If popular enough to grace the shelves of Argos stores from Penzance to Wick, an industrial version could be likely. These could use safety shoes instead of slippers and become a boon in tight corners, and designed for small offices. There could be scope for a wet and dry version for the home market known as the Moppasin.
Over six months on, we are halfway towards the development of anything like the (as-yet-uninvented) Moppasin. This in the form of a pair of floor cleaning slippers, which aren’t far off the mark. Better still, they are available now from Amazon.co.uk and other fine online retailers. Continue reading “Floor Cleaning Slippers: A Brush With Cosiness”
You’ve got to love YouTube. It is a dependable source for cat videos, 1980s music clips, and tracking down obscure sitcoms of questionable quality. On the odd occasions when Clean Hire has too much time on their hands, it’s a chance to look at full-frontal images of vacuum cleaners (You’re fired! – Ed). Before you is a selection of vacuum cleaner video clips. Some of which include images of Hoover Juniors and Henrys in full flow. In some cases, images of vacuum cleaners have been disguised to protect innocent parties, leaving you to enjoy their roar, whine, and growl. Continue reading “Vacuum Cleaner Video Clips”
Cleaning is seen as a low-level job on these shores. It is characterised by its low hours, low wages and (allegedly) low skill levels. It is seen as a dead-end National Minimum Wage job with few prospects. Without cleaners, mice will be seen in our kitchens, and alleyways could be rat-infested without refuse operatives. On the other hand, it could be used as part of a stable income for pursuing other projects. A group of artists did just that in Minneapolis, where Two Bettys have wowed customers and helped the state’s creatives. The creatives’ cleaning company has gone from strength to strength in the last year. Continue reading “Meet the Creatives’ Cleaning Company”
