Keeping it clean in the New Year

I think we can all agree, when it comes to cleaning our homes, we can find many other things we would rather be doing yet we enjoy having clean and tidy surroundings. And not to mention when we get that unexpected phone call or knock on the door with visitors. Yikes! Now there's a mad scramble to pick up, put away and cover up our life's messes. As well, many of us have made a resolution to keep our homes more tidy and organized this new year. Wouldn't it be nice to always have a neat sand tidy home? Yes?!? Well you've come to the right place!

I wanted to share an easy way to keep your home neat and tidy this new year, by spending about 30 minutes per day on a cleaning/organizing task in your home. You may need to customize this routine, given the size and number of rooms in your home, or even recruit (aka require) family member's help. But once this routine becomes a daily habit, you will never have to sweat that unexpected visitor, your stress levels will decline, and you will have more free time to spend with your loved ones.

Here is a list of a few things you will need to acquire or need to start doing to accomplish your new habits:

• A caddie containing your favorite cleaning agents to include glass cleaner, tub and tile cleaner, all purpose disinfectant, furniture polish and an abrasive cleanser.
• Also included in the caddie should be two old plastic drinking cups. One will house your toilet scrubbing tools which include a green/medium duty scouring pad and a pumice stone. The other will house your sink and tub scrubbing tools which include an old tooth brush, a white/light duty scouring pad and a magic eraser.
• A microfiber duster
• A vacuum
• A hand vac (if you have stairs)
• A mopping system. *I say 'mopping system' because there are so many to choose from. You need to choose the right system given the amount of hard flooring in your room as well as the type of flooring. These systems range from a mop and mop bucket for large areas of hard flooring, a microfiber mop and floor spray for medium areas of hard flooring to hands and knees for small areas of hard flooring.
• Set your alarm for 30 minutes earlier than you currently wake up.

Now let's discuss our new daily routine!

This routine needs to become a habit so don't get discouraged if it doesn't come easily or takes more time in the beginning. Also, just because you wake up 30 minutes earlier doesn't mean you have to do this routine in the morning. Getting up earlier just gives you that extra 30 minutes, to do this routine any time of the day but.... try to complete your daily task at the same time each day of the week. Doing so will solidify it as a habit that you need to fulfill at that specific time of day. Also, use your time wisely. Example: while your laundry is washing and drying, you should be doing other tasks from the list. 

Got it? Ok, here we go!

MONDAY: Bedroom (recruit (aka require) each family member to take care of their own)

• strip your sheets and make the bed with a fresh set
• put all dirty clothes in the hamper
• do a load of laundry
• pick up and put away things lying around on your furniture
• fold and put away clean clothes
• dust and polish furniture
• vacuum carpet/mop hard floor

TUESDAY: Living Room

• make your  bed! Ya I know this is in the bedroom but get use to it because you're going to do it daily!!
• do a load of laundry
• fold and put away clean clothes. Again, this isn't a living room task but you're going to do it daily!
• pick up and put away things lying around on your furniture
• dust and polish furniture
• vacuum carpet/mop hard floor

WEDNESDAY: Kitchen

• make your bed! Ya, again!
• do a load of laundry
• fold and put away clean clothes
• pick up and put away things lying around on your kitchen counters
• wipe out your microwave
• wipe down counter tops and spot clean exterior of cabinets
• scrub sink with abrasive cleanser, rinse and polish
• shake/vacuum your rugs
• vacuum carpet/sweep and mop hard floor

THURSDAY: Bathroom

• make your bed
• do a load of laundry
• fold and put away clean clothes
• remove shower necessities, dampen the walls of your shower with water then spray your tub and tile clean -let sit
• sprinkle abrasive cleanser in toilet and sink
• spray toilet with all purpose/disinfectant
• put things away on your bathroom counter
• scrub sink with white/light duty scrub pad using the toothbrush to get around the tight areas, rinse and polish
• clean mirror
• wipe down counter tops
• scrub toilet with green/medium duty scrub pad, using pumice stone for hard water or rust then flush
• wipe all components of the toilet, from the lid all the way to the floor
• wipe floor around toilet (just because it's usually difficult to get that area with your mopping system)
• scrub shower walls with white/light duty abrasive pad paying attention to corners and grout lines. Rinse the walls with warm/hot water
• sprinkle abrasive cleanser in the tub and use the white/light duty abrasive pad to scrub the tub then rinse with warm/hot water
• wipe the tub and shower walls dry and polish the faucet
• vacuum carpet/mop hard floor

FRIDAY, SATURDAY, SUNDAY: Living/Common Areas

• make your bed
• do a load of laundry
• fold and put away clean clothes
• choose one other room of the house, being a family room, another bedroom or what have you, and do one of the previous routines. Again, if you have multiple family members in the home, and they all chip in and do a room a day with you, then you may very well have these last three days to have fun! Yep, I said it HAVE FUN! After you make your bed and do laundry that is.....

WARNING -never mix cleaning products, always use them as directed and wear protective equipment as suggested. 

I hope this routine helps you achieve your goals of keeping a neat and tidy home this year. And don't forget, you can always get a little help from a licensed, bonded and insured professional cleaning service in your area. 

Sincerely, Erica Jensen -President Clean Right Company, Spokane, WA.

The Holiday Clean Up

After the dinner's done, the gifts have been opened and the guests have left for the evening, you turn around with a sigh, stare at what looks like the remnants of a tornado that has torn through your home.

Now comes the chore of post holiday clean up.
Here are some simple tips to help get things back in order and your life back on track.

1. Use re-usable totes to store your Holiday decor so you can safely put away your decorations and easily find them again next year. I would choose clear totes so you can see what it in it. If you are ultra organized, you can print a list of what is in the tote and tape it to the inside wall (so the type is visible from the outside) or tape it to the top of the lid. This way you don't have to take the tote down and open it to see you've chosen the wrong one.
2. After the tree comes down, wrap your lights around a piece of cardboard so they stay untangled and are ready for next year. Tape the replacement bulbs to the cardboard as well. You can also use this method for your garland and things of similar nature. 
3. Use the things eggs come in for storing your ornaments. 
4. Use a shop vac to suck up the needles and anything else that fell off the tree when you removed it. An upright may get clogged with the course, long needles and you will most likely come upon an ornament hook here and there that can cause damage to an upright. Once you get the majority of the needles up with your shop vac, use your upright to make sure you've got all the glitter and small leftovers.

I hope these tips help in getting your household cleaned up and ready for the new year. 

~Erica Jensen, President Clean Right Co.

Need some help cleaning up? Give Clean Right Company a call and schedule a cleaning service today! 

Call (509) 534-3343 or visit www.cleanrightco.com for your Free Estimate!

Time is Money

Professional cleaners walk a fine line between giving the customer what they want versus what the customer is willing to pay for. Many times the two just don't line up.

Here are a few things to keep in mind when you are requesting bids for your cleaning service needs:

1. Make a list of what is most important to you in the cleaning of your home and compare that to the service being offered. Find out what the company's standard is then inform them of the discrepancies between your list and theirs, if any! If the discrepancies are many, then this is a good sign that this is not the company you will be happy with. Save yourself some time and move on.
2. Most cleaning services offer a basic service that can be expanded on so don't be afraid to tell them what you want. The only way they will know what you expect is if you say it. 
3. Keep in mind that the more tasks you add, the more you will pay. When you hire someone to clean your home, you are paying for their time. Labor is the most expensive part of any business so keep that in mind when making your requests.
4. Be realistic with your expectations versus what you are willing to pay. If you want all of your furniture moved and vacuumed under at each service, versus a couple time a year, then be willing to pay for the time associated with doing so. 
5. A professional and experienced cleaner will know, on average, how long it takes to clean a half bath versus a full bath versus a 3/4 bath versus a large master. If you have a question as to why their price is the way it is (high or low) you should start by asking how long they have allotted for the cleaning of your home. This will either answer your question and relieve your concern or, let you know that you are not on the same page as the cleaner and again, you should move on.

I hope these tips help! Sincerely, Erica Jensen ~President Clean Right Company

Clean Right Company is a full service residential and commercial cleaning company servicing Spokane, WA and surrounding areas. Please give us a call at (509) 534-3343 or visit our website at www.cleanrightco.com for more information.

Kitchen Cleaning Tips and Tricks

The kitchen is another area of the home that most people are not too keen on cleaning. But, it doesn't have to be as big of a chore as it seems. Let me share some tips and tricks for getting, and keeping, your kitchen clean (even if you cook in it!!).

• The Microwave: Ever open your microwave to find, what looks like, a bomb has gone off in it? We come across this often in our industry in both commercial and residential settings. Because you use this appliance to cook food, you don't want to use a chemical cleaning agent to clean up the mess. So what can you do? Take a towel and get it damp, place it in the microwave and nuke it for 60 seconds. Once the dinger goes off, let it sit, with the door closed, for another 60 seconds. (You can use this down time to wipe the back splash and counter tops!) Now open the microwave and use that warm towel to wipe away the mess. What happens is you are creating a steam bath in your microwave that loosens the stuck on junk. Make sure you wait that second 60 seconds so you don't burn your hands on the hot towel!

• The Fridge: I've already done an extensive post on cleaning and organizing your fridge. Check it out!  http://cleanrightco.blogspot.com/2012/08/what-about-fridge.html

• The Oven: Yuk! The oven is one of the cleaning tasks everyone dreads. But, here are some tips to make it a job that isn't so bad. First, use the self cleaning mode, if you have one. Sure it's gonna heat your house up and, usually, stink it up too but, it sure beats scraping and scrubbing all that gunk from the bottom of the oven. Once the self cleaner ends, open the door and wipe out the ash. Any remaining gunk can be scraped out with a razor or scrubbed out with a piece of fine grade steel wool. If you aren't lucky enough to have a self cleaner or just don't want to use it, there are a couple choices you have. 1- use a chemical oven cleaner. Spray it in, let it sit, scrape up the gunk and scrub out the left overs with a piece of fine grade steel wool. 2 -if you don't want to use chemicals your are going to have to put some elbow grease into it. First, scrape out as much gunk as you can with a razor. Then put some water in an oven safe container and turn your oven on a low temp. Close the door and heat the water till it steams the inside of your oven. Let the steam work over the gunk for as long as you want but make sure you don't let it go so long that all the water evaporates and you end up cooking the gunk back on. Turn the oven off and let it cool. Once it has had a chance to cool down, wipe out the gunk. You may need to use a piece of steel wool to get any left overs. Another helpful tool for an oven is a pumice stone. Yes, a pumice stone. The inside of your oven is made of porcelain, just like your toilet, and a pumice stone will scour out those stubborn stains. Tip: Don't let your oven get out of control. Wipe out the spills and splashes as soon as you notice them. Of course, make sure your oven is cool before you do it!

• The Garbage Disposal: Oh my how these things can get stinky! Once a week you should sprinkle some baking soda down the disposal drain and then pour some vinegar down it till the foam fills the drain and comes through into your sink. Not only is it fun but it cleans out the drain! After that run HOT water down the drain for a minute or so. Once I do that I like to take half a lemon and grind it up in the disposal. Tip: When your dishwasher is draining, turn your disposal on while it does it. The water draining from your dishwasher is super heated (as long as you have that button selected on your dishwasher) and will help clean out the drain and blades of your disposal.

That's it for this week! Hope you've enjoyed ~Erica Jensen, President of Clean Right Company in Spokane, WA

Want a clean kitchen but would rather spend the time with friends and family? No problem! Give Clean Right Company a call and we'll do it for you (along with the rest of your house!) (509) 534-3343 or visit www.cleanrightco.com for more information on Clean Right Company and the cleaning services we offer.

Final installment of "Keeping it Tidy..."

We've tackled the bathroom, the kitchen and the kid's rooms but what about the rest of the house?
In the cleaning industry, we call the remaining rooms of the house -'The Living Areas'. Named so because that's exactly what we do in these areas, or at least we should be. When areas of our home become too cluttered they become lifeless because we avoid spending time in them. Think about it, when's the last time you spent some quality time in your storage room?

We all do it. We collect things over the years, whether bought or, received as a gift, and we add it to the rest of our collection of things. Many items are sentimental and others are, what I call, "what if I need that?" items. Unfortunately, we run out of space and our homes become cramped, uncomfortable, and frankly -disorienting. There are so many 'things' in the room with us that we get distracted trying to make sense of everything.

So let's start de-cluttering our homes one area at a time.

1. Kitchen Cupboards - Go through your cupboards and box up the items that you don't need or never use. Keep enough plates, bowls, cups, silverware and glasses to feed your family for a day's worth of meals but pack up the rest and donate them. Yes, you will need to do the dishes daily but, doing the dishes won't be as big of a chore as before because there won't be as many dishes to do! Also donate anything you haven't used in the past year. If you have muffin tins but never bake muffins, then donate them. This is one of those "but what if I need that?" moments... I have a hard time with this kind of stuff so here is my compromise. You could donate them and then purchase new ones if, and when, you actually are going to bake muffins or.... you could purchase a plastic tote and pack up these "what if I need that?" items. Of course this is the same with any other baking or cooking item. I would suggest getting a see-through tote so you can see what's in it without having to open the tote and make sure to give it a label -'Kitchen Wares'. You'll need a place to store this tote though. Don't just throw it in your 'storage room', which we'll get to in a moment, but put it somewhere you will be able to find when you actually do need one of these items.
2. Closets - This is another hard one. We hang on to clothes that we want to wear again but, either because we never have the occasion or they don't actually fit us anymore, we most likely won't. So.... donate! Be honest with yourself. Are you really going to wear that? Some clothes we keep because we like the way it looks on the hanger but when we put it on, we don't like the way it looks on us. If that's the case, donate it! Also, if you've had that piece since high-school, it's time to let it go. Another compromise though! When you get rid of those clothes you can get new ones that you will actually wear and that actually fit you. (But only if you need them of course!) And what about towels? How many towels do you need? I would keep enough towels & wash clothes to get your family through a week. Again, you may need to do laundry more often but it won't be such a chore because you'll have less to wash, dry and fold. Coats are another item in closets we tend to collect too many of. You should have two for each season, a casual one and a formal one. And if you ski or, do some other outdoor activity which requires special clothing, you should keep just what you need of them as well. Shoes are probably the worst things to let go of. Especially for us ladies -we love our shoes. This is another "what if I need that?" item. But again, if you haven't worn them in a year or, when you do you curse yourself for it because your feet are killing you, get rid of them. And yes, you can replace them, but make sure you replace them with ones that are comfortable and that you can wear with more than one outfit. Try to consolidate. 
3. Furnishings and Decoration- Yes even furniture can become cluttered or be the clutter themselves. If you have furniture that no one ever sits in or uses, then why have it? Also, keep the decorations on your furnishings to a minimum. It is difficult, I know, because we tend to display items that are sentimental to us. But, we can't display everything! When we display too much decor, it gets lost among all the rest. So that precious knick-knack you put on display won't even get noticed because no one can focus on any one thing with all that other stuff! Another tip, put holiday decorations away when the holiday is over! Get another see-through tote and pack up your holiday decor. Make a tote for each holiday and store it in your 'storage room' with the rest of your holiday decor so you can find it again next year. When you do break out the holiday decor, don't just display it with your every day decor. Neatly pack up the decorations you have out normally and let the holiday decor take center stage. Even do this with pictures of your friends and family. Have Christmas photos, in frames, with your Christmas decor and put them out in place of your ever day photos. This gives your home a fresh and festive feeling while you and your family can reminisce and discover hidden memories.
4. Storage Room - Last but, not least, we are going to tackle the storage room. We all have one (or two) rooms in our homes that collect the things we don't use on a daily basis. So let's open the door and take a look around. Can you even find anything you might need in here? Can you actually walk around and get to things without tripping? If you answered no to either of these questions we need to get this room organized. Let's start by taking out the things we really don't need. A lot of times we use this room to store things because we just don't know what to do with them and really don't want, or need, them. So this is a great time to get rid of them -donate! Now we need to get more see-through totes and start organizing things into categories that we can pack up together. As before, we packed our holiday decorations into separate totes. Don't forget to label them! Now we will stack them in one area of the room which we will consider our holiday section. You would also put all of your wrapping paper and any other holiday type item in a tote and put in this section. Put all your crafting items in one area as well, putting each of your project tools in a separate, labeled tote. Do this with each of your categories and soon your storage room will actually be a functioning room again and you will actually be able to use the things you are storing in it!

So there you have it. A nice, neat and tidy home. Have fun de-cluttering, organizing and re-discovering your home!

A note: For those of you that don't want to donate your items, you could have a yard sale and earn some extra money for those new shoes! 

Written by Erica Jensen, President and Co-Owner of Clean Right Company of Spokane, WA. www.cleanrightco.com

Let's tackle that kitchen!

This week in the series of making your home neat and tidy, we will tackle the kitchen.

Kitchens are the hub of the home. We gather there to chat, snack, sip coffee, cook and eat meals. We also, often times, use this area as a catch-all. Not only do we have our small appliances on the counter but we also throw the mail on the counter, toss the keys on the table and put odds and ends in the infamous junk drawer. If you're not careful, this room can quickly become a cluttered disaster that is now a place no one wants to sit and chat or even cook! Here are some great tips and ideas on how to wrangle your messy kitchen and make it the communal communication hub of the home.... again!

http://www.hgtv.com/kitchens/quick-tips-for-keeping-an-organized-kitchen/pictures/index.html

Did you smell that smell?

Smell is a very powerful sense. It invokes memories, emotions, cravings & behaviors. Our sense of smell is also 70%-75% responsible for the way things taste and impacts us 24 hours a day. We take 26,000 breathes a day and are able to distinguish over 10,000 different aromas. In the cleaning industry smell is a very important part of our job. The first experience a customer has when they walk in their home or office after a cleaning is the smell. 


Aromatherapy, the practice of using essential oils taken from plants, flowers, roots, seeds, etc., in healing,  is meant for psychological and physical well being. Though aromatherapy has been practiced for thousands of years, dating back to the ancient Egyptians and the Vedic culture of India, where plant extracts and medicinal plants were widely used, there is much more scientific research being done for both fields today. ~serendip

Aromatherapy is being used to:

• Promote relaxation and reduce stress
• Improve work performance
• Elevate mood and reduce depression
• Modify sleep and dreams
• Enhance self-image
• Retrieve memories
• Enhance sexuality
• Improve social relationships

What smells do you associate with clean?

Clean laundry is associated with a bright floral scent including a faint smell of bleach perhaps. Or maybe you enjoy a citrus-y scent or a slightly spicy smell. Whatever the scent, we associate clean with scents including bleach, lemon/citrus, lavender and pine. There is an ever growing market of cleaning agents with different fragrances to choose from so you can customize your aroma-therapeutic environment. 

Citing:
http://serendip.brynmawr.edu/exchange/node/1887

Hiring an Independent Cleaner versus a Professional Cleaning Service.... What's the difference?

When most people consider hiring a cleaning service for their home, the most common questions they have include; What price am I willing to pay for the service? What areas of my home do I want cleaned? and How often do I want service? 

What most people are not aware of are the differences between hiring an Independent Cleaner and a Professional Cleaning Service. This is one of the more complicated, and possibly dangerous, things to consider. There are numerous laws, both state and federal, surrounding employment, worker's compensation, taxes, and payroll that you would have to research and follow if you didn't have Clean Right Company as your home cleaning service.

Below are three legal facts you should know before hiring an independent cleaning service.

FACT 1. If you pay more than $1700 per year to an independent housecleaner, you must sign up for an Employer ID Number with the IRS. You are required to pay Social Security and Medicare (also known as FICA) and Federal Unemployment Tax. You may also be liable for Federal Income Tax withholding, state taxes and disability taxes. These taxes become part of your personal tax liability and must be reported on your Form 1040. Penalties for non-payment include interest penalties and fines.
(For the entire list of forms to be completed, see this page on the IRS website .)

FACT 2. You must verify that the person is legally allowed to work in the United States by having them complete the I-9 Employment Eligibility Verification form. Penalties for hiring illegal aliens range from $250 to $10,000. You should keep a signed W-4 form on file for each employee; you may also want to keep a photocopy of each employee's Social Security card. (For the entire list of forms to be completed, see this page on the IRS website .

FACT 3. Make sure that your homeowners' insurance includes a liability clause in case your employee gets injured at your home. At least $300,000 in liability protection is recommended, but up to $1 million in an umbrella or excess liability policy may be needed to protect you. You also may be liable for workers' compensation payments that would not be covered by your homeowner's insurance. See this page for workers compensation laws in your state.

If you hire a professional home cleaning service, like Clean Right Company, all of these concerns will be taken care of for you. We are the employer, so you don't have to worry about filing with the IRS for an employer ID number. We also verify that each employee is legally allowed to work in the U.S. and we have all of the insurance that covers any accident that happens in your home. Not only that but Clean Right Company diligently screen each of our staff members to ensure we are hiring honest, dependable and hard working individuals. Once hired, each of our team members are put through a rigorous training program teaching them Clean Right Company's unique cleaning system which has been developed to provide a thorough, quality clean each and every time.