It’s not that you’re lazy; in fact you are incredibly busy now the sun has come out! Rushing from tanning sessions to bikini-buying afternoons and long BBQs; there simply isn’t time to keep the house clean. But housework-challenged ladies, fear not, because here are 10 of the best tips, products and shortcuts to clean your house this summer with minimum effort… Phew!

1. Go Minimalist
Dump that junk! Simply develop a love for minimalist interiors; because the less dust-attracting objects in your home, the easier it is to keep clean. On a small level this means chucking your clutter by only keeping things in your house that have a function. On a larger level it can mean replacing dusty carpets for hard floors such as wood flooring, tiles or even concrete. Either way, creating a minimalist interior will set you up for a life of minimal cleaning!

2. Evriholder Microfiber Slipper Genie
These frankly genius slippers have chenille microfiber soles that gently dust and polish your, wood flooring, tiles or linoleum while you walk around the house going about your normal business. They come in all sizes, so for best results get a pair for each person living in your house or even give them to visiting guests. Job done!

3. Steam Clean Your Microwave
Here’s a nifty little tip to avoid scrubbing caked on food from the inside of your microwave and which you can do while you’re cooking. Bring a bowl of water to the boil in your microwave (if you can, stick a slice of lemon in) and stop it heating the minute the water is boiling, but leave the door shut. Leave it steaming for about 10 minutes and everything should just wipe off easily with a damp cloth or paper towels. Easy, peasy, lemon squeezy.

4. iRobot Vacuum
This nifty bit of kit means you never have to pick up a vacuum again! The iRobot Roomba is a vacuum cleaning robot that navigates its way around your rooms, switches effortlessly from carpets to hard floors and even returns to its self-charging station. Not cheap, but very effective.

5. Build It Into Your Workout
Ok, so by now you’ve realised there is a minimum amount of cleaning you will have to do, no matter how many gadgets you buy or pots you soak. But by turning your cleaning sessions into a work-out, you can kill two birds with one stone and save precious time for tanning. Plus, you’ll look great in those summer bikinis. Cleaning burns around 100 calories per half hour and you can even wear wrist and ankle weights to tone your muscles at the same time. Simply blast out your favourite girly music and get going! (Or try this Ultimate Cleaning Songs playlist by 1926 Wood Flooring)

6. Toilet Lime-Scale Remover
If you’re not doing this already you’re missing a trick! When cleaning your toilet, don’t waste time scrubbing the inside to get rid of limescale build-up, use a limescale remover. You can buy these from all supermarkets and just squirt them up and around the inside rim, leave overnight and voila! The limescale will just wipe off clean with your toilet brush, leaving a shiny, clean bowl. Yes, just like that.

7. Dyson Hand Held Vacuum Cleaner
Dust-buster and crumb-muncher supreme, the Dyson handheld vacuum cleaner means you can dartle around the house sucking up dirt and crumbs where needed. Ideal for quick pick-ups and spot cleaning, it’s battery-powered and comes with a battery charger too. Without a lead or bag, this handheld vacuum cleaner is a no fuss bit of cleaning kit you can use for hard to reach places such as the stairs or car as well. Nifty.

8. Soak Your Pots
Ladies, don’t attempt to scrub dry pots clean of food, you are wasting your time! Stick them all in a sink full of hot, soapy water and leave them while you watch the Hollyoaks Omnibus. When you come back, they will wipe clean super-easy, no scrubbing needed.

9. Swiffer Sweeper
Great for wood, tiles or vinyl, the Swiffer Sweeper means you never have to get out a vacuum, mop or broom for your hard floors again! Use a dry sweeping cloth to remove dust and hair and then repeat the process with a wet cloth to dissolve dirt and grime better than a mop would. Bish, bash, bosh.

10. And if you really can’t face any of the above?
Get a cleaner!

Gift-giving these days is a lost art. There is nothing more satisfying than receiving an unexpected gift, but the custom has fallen out of favour in our modern times of ultra-convenience where we can have anything we want in an instant. In ancient times gift-giving was the cornerstone of all social etiquette, from kings and queens (forging diplomatic new alliances with other nations), all the way down to the farmers and peasants (expressing thanks to God).

A good, well-chosen gift is in many ways the ultimate act of appreciation – it shows your friends, partners and family that you pay close attention to the things they say and do, whilst giving you the opportunity to express your own personality. When we wistfully think back to our previous relationships, we often most vividly recall the gifts – that surprise city break to Paris, that necklace he bought that you would never buy yourself, that mix-tape she made when you first met.

But gift-giving is not easy. Some are a lot better at it than others. There’s always one person in every family who outshines the rest every Christmas with their thoughtfully conceived and beautifully wrapped presents. The mere existence of such people may cause the rest of us to suffer from major cases of ‘gift anxiety’ – the crippling fear that what you purchase will be rejected.

With new relationships it’s even harder, as there’s more at stake. A poorly judged personalised shower cap for your almost-bald uncle is never going to change the fact that he’s your blood relative, but for us singles an error on that scale could mean the difference between a bright new relationship and never seeing your date again.

Worry not. Gift giving is less of a technical skill than a personal outlook, and it doesn’t require lots of money to do it well. It’s an extremely useful thing to learn if you’re looking to build a new relationship.. This is especially true of online dating – a carefully chosen gift works beautifully in translating the mutual attraction between two online personas into the mutual attraction between two real human beings. The best gift givers also tend to be excellent listeners and observers of people, making them ideal relationship material.

Luckily, if you want to give good gifts you will, and if you really care, it will show. If you treat gift giving as a necessity, as an obligation, you will give bad gifts and appear disinterested (because you are). Think of it like the secret to a good Facebook status update – the best ones just occur to you, with minimum effort, but if you’re really trying to think of something when you don’t have much to say, you’ll probably embarrass yourself, or just annoy others.

With some patience and love (and a knack for shopping), gift giving will become an enjoyable and useful part of your life, strengthening existing relationships and forging new ones.

So how does one go about becoming a good gift giver?

1. Give them what they want

DON’T superimpose your ideas of what you like onto your date. Gift giving isn’t about you and the life you think your date is missing. If you like bowling, it doesn’t mean your date will necessarily appreciate it, or the top-of-the-range bowling ball you bought them.

Paying close attention is the key to finding appropriate gifts. If your date mentions a book that they’ve been dying to read, make a mental note. If your date makes a comment about their favourite dessert, jot it down in a notebook. Having this information will make gift buying easier and better.

2. Be specific

DON’T waste time and money on something generic, like socks or book tokens. These gifts are bland and overdone and will speak poorly about you as a character. Even if this is a first date, and you barely know what to expect, use your imagination and don’t resort to clichés. Try to think of a gift that is geared specifically toward the particular event, or playfully subvert the norm (e.g., rather than give your date a dozen roses – she would expect that – get her a vintage brooch with a rose on it). A good gift stands out.

3. Never buy anything your date will buy for themselves

DON’T buy something for someone that they could and will probably buy for themselves. Cheap, popular items, such as bestselling books and the latest DVD releases are to be avoided – if your date wants these things they can get them easily any day of the week on the high street or on Amazon.

The best gifts are not always the most obvious, so you have to pay close attention to hunt them down. When searching through magazines, travelling abroad, or wandering through a favourite store, be alert for gift ideas. The best gift givers go out of their way to look at everything as a potential idea for a gift – this is often what makes their gifts so unique and unusual.

4. Keep to a budget

DON’T spend more than the other person would be prepared to spend. Try to roughly match the price with what you’re likely to get in return. Spending too much on a date looks as though you’re trying to buy their affection, and is embarrassing for the other person. On the other hand, spending too little will come across as cold and ungenerous.

Money is one of the top reasons that couples split, primarily due to discomfort when talking about it, so agree on a similar budget. It’s the sentiment that counts, but an imbalance in the cost of your presents will cause problems later if unaddressed.

5. A gift is as good as its wrapping

DON’T skip on the presentation. All gifts – be they from Liberty or a charity shop – can be made more exciting with a personal presentation. Everyone loves the act of unwrapping a present. This may be even to the point where they forget about the present, so immersed as they are in the pleasure of untying ribbon and ripping paper. As a child, my most memorable gift was a couple of inexpensive toys buried inside a never-ending nest of boxes, wrapped in colourful paper, with sweets and hidden messages hidden in between the layers.

Some elaborate presentation is visually striking, affordable and an excellent opportunity for flirting. Turn the act of gift giving into a game with your date. Wrap your gift in a different shaped box, or a nest of boxes as described above, and tease them into guessing what it is. Prolong the excitement all evening and until your partner can’t bear to wait any longer.

6. Keep it simple

DON’T come on too strong. The hard sell has never been attractive. If you’re still in the early stages of dating, then your gifts should reflect that: a bottle of wine, flowers, a journal, chocolates, that sort of thing. Be wary of leaping straight in with the “I love you”s – at this level of a relationship, keep it simple.

7. Giving gifts is optional

DON’T feel obliged to give gifts. Gifts are special because they happen unexpectedly, only every now and again. Nothing particularly has to merit a gift, that’s why they’re special. And if someone gives you a gift, they’re not looking for something in return (if they are, they’re not a real friend). They’re meant to be a pleasant surprise. If you set a precedent for constant gift giving, you crush all the fun out of it.

We must be always careful to what we eat as our health depends on this. But, during pregnancy, everything changes and you become responsible not only for your health, but also for the one of your baby. Find out what you can eat, so that you and your baby benefit of the essential nutrients.

Ferrum (Iron) has an essential role in transporting the oxygen toward cells, so its presence in blood is very important. During pregnancy, women need a bigger blood volume so that the body can assure the transport of nutrients to the placenta and therefore to the fetus.

Many women suffer of anemia so the doctor may recommend you many ferrum supplements during the second and third trimester of pregnancy. Some aliments which contain a large amount of ferrum are red meat, fish, dehydrated fruits, integral cereals.

Folic acid is also a necessary substance when being pregnant but not only then. Nourishment doesn’t contain the necessary folic amount, so the doctor will prescribe you many supplements containing it, especially in the first pregnancy trimester. Some of the aliments which contain folic acid are broccoli, spinach, green vegetables.

What should you avoid during pregnancy?
Alcohol in excess during pregnancy is very dangerous. A recent study emphasized the connection between severe alcohol consume and the appearance of nerve problems to children.

There are different opinions regarding the coffee consume during pregnancy. Some doctors say that 1-2 little cups of coffee can do no harm, while others recommend avoiding coffee during pregnancy.

Plant infusions can also be dangerous for pregnant women so before preparing a tea, ask your doctor if there are any problems. Fish contains many important vitamins so try to eat as much as possible. Be careful although! Oceanic fish contains many toxins so avoid eating it.

Communication, a lot of love and patience can help you in convincing your husband to do some changes in his behavior. Let’s find out some tips on this matter.

1. Let him do “his things”.
If he wants to do some of the house keeping, let him do it. If you refuse this and say that you want to take care of them, he will never do something in the house. Even if you are not happy with the things he has done in the house, praise him and stimulate him to do it also next time. You will find the suitable moments to remediate the “problems”.

2. Ask him to help you.
Even if he says, as most do, that he doesn’t know what to do, explain him patiently and if it is possible monitories him. On the contrary, he will either get nervous, or he will give up and you will have to continue the job.

3. Tell him to bring you flowers.
When your husband is out, it’s the better way to ask him to buy your favorite flowers. If you do this several times, you will be very surprised to see that, next time, he will bring you flowers from his initiative.

4. Help him without him to know it.
Mark down in his mobile phone some special days such as your birthday, your wedding anniversary day but also important days for his mother. Set the phone alarm so that it remembers him these important events two-three days before.

5. Be friend with your mother in law.
If your husband has a sister, try to be very friendly with her too. They are your allied in any problems you might have with him.

6. Try to mediate a good relationship between your husband and your parents.
Usually, a good relationship between son in law and mother in law is easier to be obtained than one between you and your mother-in-law. If you can, try to help them have a better relationship as it will be of use for both of you, in the future.

7. No matter how busy you are, try to convince him make time for some romantic moments shared only in two. If these moments will be pleasant for both of you, he will always have a positive response regarding your ideas for some relaxing moments.

8. Encourage him.
Appreciate his efforts both at work and at home, no matter if some times you might exaggerate. The secret is that men are reserved in accepting praises they think they don’t deserve so that they will try to do things better next time.

Planning a wedding is one of the most emotional moments in anyone’s life but also one of the most expensive one’s. Let’s find out some tips in order to plan the ideal wedding without spending a lot of money.

Decide over a budget for that day. Establish the maximum sum of money which can be spent on the occasion of your wedding and promise that you will take it into account during the event’s organization.

Establish your purposes. If you do so you will succeed also in better administrating the wedding budget.

Season opportunities – take into account the fact that in January, February, March and November the prices for the restaurants and photographs hiring are lower. Weddings take place usually on Saturday so if you choose Sunday you will surely benefit of a cheaper price.

Every bride desires the most beautiful wedding dress ever, but it usually turns out to be a very expensive choice. Take into account the opportunity to hire a dress, to buy it on line or to find one already designed – it will be cheaper than one especially created for you.

Reflect on the guests list. Invite only your family and closest friends; it will surely turn out into a quiet, intimate and less expensive wedding.

Use your creativity! Buy everything you need in order to create your own invitations. Don’t forget to mention also your e-mail address and cell number for those who will like to confirm their presence this way. If you prefer free invitations, visit a website.

Finding the appropriate place for your wedding is always a hard choice. The hiring of the reception room will surely be the most expensive part of the wedding. Instead of organizing it at an expensive hotel why not try your own yard or an intimate restaurant?

Don’t spend more than necessary on flowers. Buy them engross and ask your friends to help you obtain special attractive flower arrangements.

Ask also your family and friends help in choosing the wedding cake. Don’t choose something pretentious therefore expensive. A cheaper wedding cake can also taste delicious.

When it comes to photos, hire a photograph for the official wedding photos but ask your friends to help you the rest of the wedding.

An expensive wedding isn’t always a perfect wedding. Sharing your joy with your family and closest friends it’s much more important than focusing on other unimportant organizing details.