Category: Cleaning Tips

You wash your bedding every week or two, but the mattress underneath usually gets ignored for years. Considering we spend around a third of our lives on it, the mattress deserves more attention than it gets.

The short answer

A deep clean every six to twelve months works for most households. Go for the shorter end if you have allergies, pets that sleep on the bed, young children, or if anyone sweats heavily at night.

What actually builds up in a mattress

• Dust mites and their droppings, a major trigger for asthma and allergies
• Dead skin cells, which feed the dust mites
• Sweat and body oils that soak through sheets
• Stains from spills, pets and little accidents

None of this is visible from the outside, which is why a mattress can look fine and still be the dirtiest thing in the bedroom.

What you can do yourself

Vacuum the mattress with the upholstery attachment when you change the sheets, air the room daily, and use a washable mattress protector. Sprinkling bicarbonate of soda, leaving it for an hour and vacuuming it off helps with light odours.

What a professional clean adds

Professional hot water extraction reaches deep into the mattress, kills and removes dust mites, lifts sweat marks and stains, and leaves the mattress fresh and dry within a few hours. It is especially worth doing for allergy sufferers, after illness, when moving into a new home with existing mattresses, or for a mattress that has never been cleaned.

Need a hand? Send a photo of the job to Pepa Cleaning on WhatsApp and we will reply with a price, usually within minutes. We cover Hampton, Twickenham, Richmond, Kingston and the rest of South West London.

Rented carpet machines and supermarket foams promise professional results for a fraction of the price. Sometimes they are good enough. Often they are not. Here is an honest comparison from people who clean carpets every day.

What DIY does well

For light refreshes of a fairly clean synthetic carpet, a rented machine can make a visible difference. If you are confident, careful and the carpet just needs a pick me up, DIY can be decent value.

Where DIY goes wrong

• Overwetting: home machines have weak suction, and a soaked carpet can take days to dry and start to smell
• Residue: too much detergent leaves sticky fibres that attract dirt faster than before
• Wrong products: some cleaners bleach or damage wool and delicate fibres
• Set stains: heat and the wrong chemicals can set a stain permanently

What professional cleaning does differently

Professional machines run at far higher pressure and suction. That means deeper cleaning, proper rinsing and carpets that are dry in hours rather than days. Add trained stain treatment, fibre identification and insurance if anything goes wrong, and the gap is bigger than the price difference suggests.

The honest verdict

Light refresh on a budget: rent a machine and take your time. Stains, pets, allergies, wool carpets or a proper deep clean: professional extraction wins every time, and it often costs less than people expect.

Need a hand? Send a photo of the job to Pepa Cleaning on WhatsApp and we will reply with a price, usually within minutes. We cover Hampton, Twickenham, Richmond, Kingston and the rest of South West London.

Sofas quietly collect more dirt than almost anything else in the house. Unlike carpets, they sit right at face level, and everyone touches them daily. Here are the five signs your sofa is overdue a proper clean.

1. It smells when you sit down

If sitting releases a musty or stale smell, that is trapped sweat, body oils and moisture in the padding. Fabric sprays mask it for an evening. A deep clean removes it.

2. The arms and seats look darker

Compare the arms and seat cushions with the back of the sofa. If they look grey or shiny, that is a layer of ground in dirt and skin oils, not the original fabric colour.

3. Allergies flare up in the living room

Sofas hold dust mites just like mattresses. If you sneeze or itch after time on the sofa, the upholstery is a likely culprit.

4. Visible stains you have given up on

Tea, coffee, wine, ink and food marks that have survived your best efforts usually respond well to professional extraction and targeted stain treatment.

5. You cannot remember the last clean

If the sofa has never been professionally cleaned, a single visit will usually take years off its appearance. Most fabric sofas benefit from a deep clean every twelve to eighteen months, sooner with pets or small children.

The good news

A professional sofa clean takes a couple of hours, dries the same day and costs far less than reupholstering or replacing the sofa.

Need a hand? Send a photo of the job to Pepa Cleaning on WhatsApp and we will reply with a price, usually within minutes. We cover Hampton, Twickenham, Richmond, Kingston and the rest of South West London.

If you are getting quotes for carpet cleaning in London, prices can look confusing. Some companies charge by the room, others by the property, and cheap deals often grow once the cleaner arrives. Here is a plain guide to what people typically pay and what affects the price.

Typical prices in London

• Single room: usually somewhere between £35 and £60
• Two bedroom flat: around £80 to £140
• Three bedroom house: around £120 to £200
• Stairs and landing: often £25 to £45 as an add on
• Sofa or armchair: around £60 to £120 depending on size

These are typical ranges across London rather than fixed prices. Every job is different, which is why a photo is worth more than any price list.

What changes the price

The main factors are the size of the area, how dirty the carpet is, the fibre type, access and parking, and whether you need stain treatment for things like wine, pet accidents or ink. Heavily soiled carpets take longer and need more product, so they cost more.

Watch out for very cheap quotes

A £15 per room offer usually means a quick spray and vacuum, or a big upsell once the cleaner is in your home. Proper hot water extraction takes time and professional equipment. If a quote sounds too good to be true, ask exactly what is included.

How to get an accurate price

The quickest way is to send a photo of the rooms or furniture you want cleaned. A good local company can price most jobs from a photo and stick to that price on the day.

Need a hand? Send a photo of the job to Pepa Cleaning on WhatsApp and we will reply with a price, usually within minutes. We cover Hampton, Twickenham, Richmond, Kingston and the rest of South West London.

A glass of red on a cream carpet is one of the worst feelings in any home. The good news is that most red wine stains can be removed or dramatically reduced if you act quickly and avoid a few common mistakes.

Act fast, blot, never rub

Grab a clean white cloth or kitchen roll and blot the stain from the outside in. Rubbing pushes the wine deeper into the fibres and spreads the mark. Keep blotting with dry sections until no more wine lifts out.

What to use

• Cold water: dilute the stain and keep blotting
• Salt: pile it on a fresh spill and let it draw the wine out for a few minutes, then vacuum
• Bicarbonate of soda paste: mix with a little water, apply, let it dry, then vacuum
• A small amount of washing up liquid in cold water for stubborn marks

Always test any solution on a hidden corner of carpet first, and never use hot water on red wine because heat sets the stain.

What not to do

Avoid coloured cloths, avoid scrubbing, and be careful with supermarket stain removers on wool carpets. Some products bleach the carpet and leave a light patch that is worse than the original stain.

When to call a professional

If the stain has dried in, if the carpet is wool or another delicate fibre, or if a large area is affected, professional hot water extraction will get results that home methods cannot. A dried red wine stain that has been there for weeks can often still be lifted with the right treatment.

Need a hand? Send a photo of the job to Pepa Cleaning on WhatsApp and we will reply with a price, usually within minutes. We cover Hampton, Twickenham, Richmond, Kingston and the rest of South West London.

Moving out is stressful enough without losing part of your deposit over cleaning. Deposit deductions for cleaning are one of the most common disputes between tenants and landlords in the UK. This checklist covers what letting agents actually look at.

Kitchen

• Oven, hob and extractor cleaned inside and out, including racks and trays
• Fridge and freezer emptied, defrosted and wiped
• Cupboards cleared and wiped inside
• Worktops, sink, taps and tiles degreased
• Bins washed out

Bathrooms

• Limescale removed from taps, shower screens and tiles
• Toilet cleaned and descaled
• Grout and sealant free of mould
• Mirrors and glass polished

Every room

• Carpets professionally cleaned, especially if you had pets
• Skirting boards, door frames and light switches wiped
• Windows cleaned inside
• Cobwebs removed and marks on walls spot cleaned where possible

Why carpets matter most

Many tenancy agreements ask for carpets to be returned in the condition they were let, and a receipt from a professional carpet clean is often the difference between a full deposit and a deduction. Agents can tell a rented machine job from a professional one.

Make it easy on yourself

A full end of tenancy clean including carpets can be done in a single visit. That means one receipt to show your agent and nothing to argue about.

Need a hand? Send a photo of the job to Pepa Cleaning on WhatsApp and we will reply with a price, usually within minutes. We cover Hampton, Twickenham, Richmond, Kingston and the rest of South West London.