So yet another weekend is over way too soon. Once again raucous alcohol-fueled parties gave way to a weekend of cleaning, tackling our overflowing washing basket and preventing two feuding kiddies from doing one another an injury. Gone are the days we can simply say “hell to this, let’s book a hotel” and saunter off for an evening - parenthood ruins any social life you once had.

I won’t pretend the homes Craig and I have shared together have ever resembled those from the glossy pages of Homes & Gardens, but we were houseproud. Before children, we had expensive tastes and could (mostly) afford everything we wanted. We got home from work and cooked, cleaned and tidied together before cuddling up on a white sofa in front of the telly. It wasn’t always exciting, but it was cosy and it was just how we wanted it.

Now, as I type this post, I’m surrounded by a sea of plastic. Plastic bricks, plastic cars, plastic furniture… Clashing colours scream at you from every direction and it’s hard to reconcile this mess with the home we once kept.

The truth is, when you start a family, your home will never be clean again. You wipe your dining table and it’s quickly coated with tomato sauce and sticky rings from glasses of OJ, and no sooner have you vacuumed than it’s showered with a blanket of cookie crumbs. You simply can’t get up to date when you have children. Fact.

With this mind, it’s hard to say how I feel about a quiz I’ve recently taken with cleaning specialists Kärcher. As part of the company’s cultural sponsorship programme, Kärcher have landed various big contracts and cleaned dozens of famous landmarks all over the world. They’ve created a fun quiz for people to identify the countries within which these landmarks are located, along with interesting facts about how they cleaned them, and how long it took.

Have a guess how long it took them to clean the London Eye in 2013 (for the first time since it was erected in 2000)

My guess: 2 months

Answer: 3 weeks - working mostly at night so as not to affect its operation during the day

3 weeks might seem like a huge project. Working in difficult conditions, in the dark, sat atop millions of pounds worth of steel up to 70m high. In fact, having first applied an alkaline cleaning agent, they then cleaned by hand with scouring pads before finally spraying the blackened grubby steel with hot-water high-pressure cleaners.

Don’t get me wrong, that sounds pretty impressive, and a fear of heights would have put paid to me ever donning those coveralls - but at least, when it’s done, it’s done. Safe and clean for another decade, the London Eye has been brought back to its original splendor.

I’m now thinking Kärcher should add my home to their list of landmarks. It might not be architecturally beautiful, and we might not be famous residents, but I’d simply love to see them work their magic on my 3-bed terrace. Bet that would take them longer than 3 weeks! In fact, ours would be the project that just kept on giving! It’s this, or I could send my two brats to their HQ to set them the ultimate cleaning challenge. Just cleaning one room they’ve occupied for an hour takes double that to restore it back to normal!

If you want test your geography, take the Kärcher quiz for yourself and read all about these very special projects including the Prague National Theatre, Olef Dam and Königssee Ice Track. Let me know if you fared any better than me - I only got 1 question correct out of 15 (must be all those Mr Sheen fumes…)!