Ironing boards, vacuum cleaners, buckets and mops, they all take up valuable space in your home.  And their clunky and awkward sizes means it's often difficult to keep them hidden too. But I've uncovered these nifty little pieces that can be rather more easily squirreled away:

Ikea's JÄLL ironing board, doesn't need a stand. It can be propped up on  a table and hung on the back of a door when not in use. 

I have to take everything out of my broom cupboard in order to get my  standard vacuum cleaner in and the door to shut. So I recently tested out the Vorwerk Kobold VR100 robot vacuum cleaner. It was brilliant, it sped off cleverly cleaning up every space of my floor even the hard to reach areas such as under the sofa, which is where I conveniently stored it. You can even set it to work when you're out.  

What I discovered, however, is that robot cleaners are ideal for tidy people, but if your floor is likely to have the odd bit of lego, chess piece or dog chew lying around on it you will need to get into the habit of doing an in-depth site survey before setting the thing off.

Cordless is the way to go though. Without having wires to wind around things and unplug and replug as you move from room to room you can get things done so much more quickly. The Gtech Air Ram cordless vacuum cleaner performs as well as a standard wired version and it doesn't require bags, so that's one less by-product to stock up on and store. Gtech has just launched the Multi too, a useful hand-held cordless device, which is all you need if you have a really tiny place and don't mind a quick whizz around on your knees.

If you don't have space to hide all your cleaning equipment away, don't worry, just go for products that look good enough to show off, the 
Dot com gift shop has a lovely selection of Russian doll-inspired dustpan and brush sets and their hot pink feather dusters are fun too. 

Whilst this Dish Wish Dish brush from Maiden will have the washing up magically clean in no time!