Archive for 'Cleaning'
How Can You Be Sure You Can Trust Your Housekeeper?
Posted on 21. Aug, 2009 by Mark Coleman.
How Can You Be Sure You Can Trust Your Housekeeper?
Whether you hire a maid service to clean your house or you have a housekeeper who comes highly recommended from friends and family, you want to know that you can trust your housekeeper. When someone comes into your home, they hold a lot of power over your house, over your belongings and you don’t want to have something coming up missing while they’re there. So how can you be sure that you can trust your housekeeper? There are many options available to you. You could run a background check on your housekeeper, you could ask for referrals from other people the housekeeper cleans for, and you can also call the company the housekeeper works for to ask about him or her, if applicable. There are many ways to keep your house secure while enjoying the service of a housekeeper; you just have to be smart and remember to trust your instincts.
Gut Feeling
Sometimes you just get a gut feeling about someone that says to you they’re just not that trustworthy. You should always trust these feelings. Whether they’re correct or not, they’ll at least prevent you from always wondering if the housekeeper you chose is going through your things or even stealing from you. If you don’t get any kind of feeling and you’re still a little nervous about accepting a housekeeper into your home, there are other ways to make sure the person is trustworthy.
Do Research
When you meet the person who will clean your house, ask that person for referrals from other people he or she has cleaned for. Call these people and see how trustworthy that person is. If the person works for a company, call the company and ask about him or her. You can also do a background check on that person if you know the correct information. While this may seem intrusive, you have to understand that this person will have access to your personal belongings and your very private residence; so you want to make sure you have a nice, trustworthy person working for you.
Cameras
If you’re still not sure if you completely trust the person you’ve hired, put some cameras to good use. Hidden cameras are often used by people to keep an eye on their nannies. These nanny cams have caught many child care providers abusing children and the abuses would have never been caught had the family not installed a camera. The same applies to housekeepers. You can keep an eye on how your housekeeper is going, and what he or she is doing, with a strategically placed hidden camera. They’re not that expensive and the peace of mind you’ll receive is well worth the cost.
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Choosing a Maid Service For Your Home Or Office
Posted on 16. Aug, 2009 by Mark Coleman.
You just don’t have time to clean like you want to. You want your home or your office or both spotless so that you’ll feel good about being there. When your home or office is clean, it can improve your mood, your stress levels and it can improve your quality of life. If you don’t have time to tidy up yourself, it’s time to find a good maid service. A maid service will come in and clean like you want, they can do laundry, dusting, they can make beds and they can even make sure that boardroom is ready to go for your next meeting. If you have a home, an office, or both, and you want to keep it clean even when you don’t have time, it’s time to find a good maid service to help you out.
What Do You Want Them To Do?
Before you find a maid service, you should decide what you want that company to do. Do you want steam cleaning for your carpets? Do you want them to do every room? Do you want them to do laundry? By knowing exactly what you want, it can help you narrow down those companies that do what you want them to. You can get maid service listings online or in the phone book or you can ask your friends and family if they’ve ever used a maid service.
Referrals
The best way to choose a maid service is to ask your friends and family if they’ve ever used one before. When someone you know and love tells you that they highly recommend a maid service, you can bet that the maid service is trustworthy and that they do a good job.
Check Their Work
Whether the maid service is cleaning your house or your office, you want to constantly check their work to make sure the company you’ve hired is doing a good job. If you’re going to pay for it, you may as well get what you paid for. If you don’t feel as though you’re getting your money’s worth, don’t be afraid to fire that company or to ask them to send other housekeepers to do the work. It’s your money and your peace of mind so you never want to settle for work that isn’t worth what you pay for it.
Once you get the service you pay for and your home or office, or both, are constantly clean, you’ll feel better and you’ll likely get more rest and work done as a result.
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Steam Cleaning Your Carpets Can Make Them Seem Like New
Posted on 09. Aug, 2009 by Mark Coleman.
Steam Cleaning Your Carpets Can Make Them Seem Like New
If you have stains in your carpet or it looks really old and you’re thinking about replacing it, don’t. Try steam cleaning first. Steam cleaning your carpet can remove lots of dirt and grime that you can’t get out with mere vacuuming. You might want to hire a professional maid service to do the cleaning for you so that you know the job will be done thoroughly. There are steam cleaning machines that you can buy at the store but they don’t do as good of a job as an industrial strength machine would do. With an industrial steam cleaning machine, super hot steam is used to break up the dirt and dust and whatever else is imbedded in your carpets. It’s amazing how an old carpet can come out looking almost like new when you get a steam cleaning service to clean your carpets for you.
Finding A Company
Steam cleaning your carpets isn’t that expensive. You should be able to find a good steam cleaning service by looking in the phone book or by going online, and then comparing them as you find them. Some companies charge per room and some per square footage so compare and contrast the cost of each company as you decide which one you want to do your steam cleaning.
It’s Much Cheaper
When you compare the cost of having a steam cleaning company come out to clean your carpets against that of replacing your carpet completely, you’ll see that steam cleaning is much cheaper. You should at least try it to see if you can revive the newness of your carpet. You may find that your carpet isn’t that bad. You actually may find that it looks great. All it needed was a little steam cleaning.
So before you replace that carpet, give it a chance by cleaning it thoroughly. There are some store bought machines that will do a good job on your carpet, provided that you follow the instructions thoroughly. However, having a service come to your home to clean your carpets is probably your best bet because you know the job will be done correctly, thoroughly and you know that you’re getting the best care for your carpet before you actually decide to replace it completely.
There are many companies out there so start comparing them today so that you can make your home, and your carpet, look beautiful once more.
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What Will A Professional Maid Service Do?
Posted on 04. Aug, 2009 by Mark Coleman.
When looking for a maid service, you want to make sure the service will do what you need it to. If you really want the job done correctly, you should look for a professional maid service. Whether it’s for house or apartment cleaning, a professional maid service will always do the job correctly, you can bet that your belongings will be safe and if you have a complaint, you can go to the head of the company to have your grievances heard. All of this makes hiring a professional maid service much better than just hiring an individual that may have been recommended to you.
Your Belongings
Many times, people hiring a professional maid service have the main concern of being worried about their personal belongings. When someone is folding your laundry and going through your drawers, all of your personal belongings are right there. They could be easily stolen and it’s not likely that you’d notice anything missing until way after the fact. You want to makes sure your personal belongings are safe, you want to make sure you can trust the people going through your things and you also want to make sure the company has insurance in case any of your belongings come up missing or broken.
What Will They Do?
When you find a professional maid service, you want to make sure they’ll do whatever you need them to. Make sure you are clear about what you want. If you want the service to do your laundry, make your beds, dust, vacuum or anything else, make sure you make everything apparent before the professional maid service begins cleaning.
Make Sure You’re Completely Satisfied
There are many professional maid services out there so you have your choice of which ones to hire. If one doesn’t seem to be doing the job you need them to, don’t be afraid to go with another company. That’s the great thing about going with a professional service. A professional service is going to want to get good referrals from customers. That means they’ll try extra hard to please you. Because they know if you’re not satisfied, you’ll just go with someone else and there are many more companies out there willing to take your business. Again, just make sure you’re clear about what you want so that the company can do their best to clean your home or office as you need them to.
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Apartment Cleaning Made Easy
Posted on 28. Jul, 2009 by Mark Coleman.
If your apartment is really dirty, it can have an affect on the rest of your life. A dirty apartment can put you in a bad mood, it can cause you more stress, and it can even make you hate your living quarters. Apartment cleaning doesn’t have to be as overwhelming as it seems. Apartment cleaning can be easy as long as you break the job into smaller jobs, you’re clear about what needs to be done, and as long as you have the tools you need to get the job done.
Break It Into Smaller Jobs
Apartment cleaning doesn’t have to be done at once. Depending on how big your apartment is, you should break the job into as many different jobs as you can. For example, apartment cleaning typically consists of doing the dishes, cleaning the counters, cleaning the carpets, cleaning the bathrooms, and doing laundry. If you have children, you also have to clean up their toys, their clothes and whatever else they have lying around. Take a sheet of paper and write down everything you need to do. Then, decide how much time you have each day to devote to apartment cleaning. If you only have fifteen minutes a day, do a little bit each day. By the end of the week, your apartment should be spotless.
Carpets
Clean carpets can do wonders when it comes to apartment cleaning. If your carpet is really bad, you may want to ask your leasing office if they use professional rug cleaning services. They may allow you to contact that company or you may be able to get your carpets cleaned as an incentive to renew your lease. If your carpet isn’t that bad, make sure you get some stain cleaner to get any stubborn spots and make sure you get a steam cleaner. You can rent steam cleaners from grocery stores sometimes or you can buy a steam cleaner at your local department store.
Reward Yourself
Once your apartment cleaning chores are done, reward yourself. Make yourself your favorite dinner, take yourself to the movies, or do anything that makes you feel good about going through with your apartment cleaning. Breaking the job up will make it much less overwhelming and having a clean apartment will do wonders on your mood and your sense of being.
So get to work on your apartment and don’t stop until you actually feel good about where you live.
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Professional Rug Cleaning Or Do It Yourself?
Posted on 22. Jul, 2009 by Mark Coleman.
If you want your carpets cleaned, you have the choice of hiring a professional rug cleaning service or you can do it yourself. Home carpet cleaning can be done by yourself but it’s going to take some extra work. That’s because professional rug cleaning services use industrial powered machines that are able to get up much more dirt and grime than machines you can buy at your local department store. There are many professional rug cleaning services out there and many don’t cost much money. There are actually pros and cons to both choices; it all depends on what your carpet looks like and how much money you have in your carpet cleaning budget.
Hiring Someone
Hiring a professional rug cleaning company is probably the best choice for a carpet that’s really bad. If there are a lot of stains or the carpet just looks really dirty, a professional rug cleaning service will have all the tools to get that dirt up. You’ll likely be amazed at how new your carpet looks after the professional rug cleaning service does its job.
The downside to hiring a professional rug cleaning service is that you’ll have to call them out, and pay their fees, every time you want your carpets cleaned. If you tend to need your carpets cleaned often, you may want to buy your own machine so that you can do maintenance on your carpet every so often instead of constantly calling a professional rug cleaning service out to your home every time you want a clean carpet.
Doing It Yourself
Buying your own machine to clean your carpets has its upsides. First of all, you always have the capabilities to clean your carpets whenever you need to. You’ll probably have to buy the chemicals or soap products but that’s still cheaper than hiring a professional rug cleaning service every time you want your carpets cleaned.
The downside to doing your carpets with your own machine is that those machines usually aren’t as powerful as a professional machine. That means your carpets may not get as clean as they could if you would’ve hired a professional company to come do the work for you.
Neither choice is a bad one. They both have their upsides and their downsides. It all comes down to how bad your carpet looks, how often you tend to need to clean your carpets and how much money you can spend.
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Many Ways To Do Home Carpet Cleaning
Posted on 15. Jul, 2009 by Mark Coleman.
Most people dread home carpet cleaning more than they dread going to the dentist. It’s usually not the actual home carpet cleaning process itself that is so painful to them, but paying for a professional carpet cleaning service. It seems pretty sad to shell out all of that money and time only to know that your carpets are only going to get filthy again. But you don’t absolutely have to hire a professional carpet cleaning service. There are many ways you can do home carpet cleaning yourself.
Rent The Equipment
There are many places where you can rent a carpet steam cleaner. This writer used to work at a pharmacy that also did a brisk trade in renting out carpet cleaning equipment. Since many allergy sufferers need their carpets cleaned more often than others, many pharmacies or chemists will often have a carpet cleaning rental service. You can also check with your hardware or DIY store for rentals.
The only real disadvantage here is that you have to do all of the work yourself. This means you have to move all of your furniture if you want to do an especially thorough home carpet cleaning. But, if you really only need to do some areas of your carpet rather than every single square millimeter, then even spot cleaning with rental equipment can be worth it.
Use A Shop Vac
Another way you can do your own home carpet cleaning for less money is to use a portable wet/dry vacuum, usually called a “Shop Vac” after one of the most popular brands. These are normally kept to clean up the inside of cars or cleaning up after tinkering in your woodshop. This isn’t good for the whole carpet not unless you have strong knees. This does, however, work great for spot cleaning or for the parts of the carpet your guests will notice.
You have to first get on your hands and knees with a bucket of hot, soapy water and scrub the carpet, or parts of the carpet that really need attention. Then, you take the Shop Vac and just vacuum up all of the water and soap. You really should try this on just one discreet spot on your carpet (say, the part under a table) to see if the carpet will change color or become damaged after such a home carpet cleaning.
Worse comes to worse, you can always check the web or your local paper to see if your local professional carpet cleaning service has coupons.
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The Advantages Of Renting A Carpet Steam Cleaner
Posted on 08. Jul, 2009 by Mark Coleman.
Unless you have a medical condition, hotel or office that needs always to be looking its best for your customers, there really isn’t much of a need to buy a steam carpet cleaner. Some people who have a lot of pets add a carpet steam cleaner to their Christmas or Hanukkah gift lists. If you don’t have the time to use a carpet steam cleaner and do all of your carpet cleaning yourself, then it would be easier on your nerves and your wallet to hire a carpet cleaning service. But if you have the time, then there are many advantages to renting a steam carpet cleaner periodically.
Less Expensive
In the long run, renting a carpet steam cleaner once or even twice a year is going to be less expensive than either hiring a service or buying a carpet steam cleaner outright. You also don’t need to take any time off of work in order to wait for a professional service to arrive. You also don’t have to worry about getting the carpet steam cleaner fixed if you are getting a rental.
The only thing you have to buy outright is a carpet cleaning shampoo, and even that’s an option. However, some rental places will insist on your using only a certain brand of carpet cleaning solution. This is usually because it’s the easiest solution on the machine, which gets used a lot. A very thick shampoo or one with strange homemade ingredients can sometimes damage the carpet steam cleaner.
Easy To Find
There are many shops and stores that are more than eager to rent you a carpet steam cleaner. You can start your search at a drug store, pharmacy or chemist. You can also ask furniture and electronics rental shops. You can also check out your local hardware or DIY stores. Some vacuum shops will also do rentals of carpet steam cleaners. You might even know of a church that might rent out their carpet steam cleaner as a way of making a few extra bucks.
Take Your Time
Usually when you rent a carpet steam cleaner, a manual or set of operating instructions will come with them. However, that’s not always the case. But many manufacturers of carpet steam cleaners put all of their instructions online. If you know the exact make and model number of your rental cleaner, than you can download and print out the instructions.
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The Advantages Of Using A Carpet Cleaning Service
Posted on 03. Jul, 2009 by Mark Coleman.
Although you need to pinch your pennies more than ever, there are many reasons why hiring a carpet cleaning service can wind up saving you money in the long run. This is especially important if there are any health issues in your family such as asthma or allergies where your doctor has recommended that you get your carpets cleaned on a regular basis.
You Can Sue Them
This is an important advantage of using a professional carpet cleaning company rather than just trying to do it yourself. The odds are very big that you will never need to sue a carpet cleaning service, but isn’t it nice to know that you have that option? Your carpet cleaning service will know that you have that option and will bend over backwards to help you resolve any situation that may arise after the cleaning. Their business depends on word-of-mouth recommendations.
Time
You’ve heard it so often that you probably don’t listen to it, but your time is money. If you work very hard running your own business or bouncing back and forth between two jobs, then you don’t have much time to go rent carpet cleaning equipment, move your furniture around, read the directions and cross your fingers hoping you are using the rented equipment right.
Some carpet cleaning services will be in and out in only an hour because they are so used to cleaning carpets that they know all of the short cuts and have access to quicker drying carpet cleaners. They also know how to make sure there isn’t any residue left, which can often happen when you use rented equipment. Getting the job done right and quickly is worth money.
They Come To You
In these times of four dollar a gallon gasoline, you don’t need to add more driving trips to your strained gas budget. When you rent carpet cleaning equipment, you usually have to haul it around by car to and from your home. You don’t have to spend a drop of gas when you hire a carpet cleaning service. They come to your home. If they don’t, get another service!
Special Offers
In order to get or to keep your business, carpet cleaning services will often ruin promotions, coupons or even a discount for repeat customers. This differs with each company. It’s worth looking into to make savings in money, time and aggravation in the long run as well as living with cleaner carpets.
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Who Needs Professional Carpet Cleaning?
Posted on 25. Jun, 2009 by Mark Coleman.
It can be hundreds of dollars just to get a few rooms in your home with carpet cleaned by a professional carpet cleaning service. Do you really need to hire them and spend all of that money? Can you just buy some commercial carpet cleaner at Kmart and do it yourself? The answer depends on a lot of circumstances. There are times that you would be best off getting professional carpet cleaning.
If You Own Property
Whether you are trying to sell a house or are renting a complex full of apartments, you should definitely get professional carpet cleaning. You need to make the best impression on new renters or home buyers that you can. Professional carpet cleaning usually makes the property smell better, as well. This can help relax a potential buyer or renter.
When you own property, you have a million details to handle and need to sell or rent as quickly as possible. A dirty, smelly carpet can make all of the difference as to why you’re loosing money on your property. Getting professional carpet cleaning can also make a big statement to your buyer or renter in that you care about the property and not just the money.
If You Have A Lot Of Pets
Not all pets will track in dirt or have accidents on your carpet. If you have a lot of fish, for example, you probably don’t even have a lot of carpeting or problems with the fish tracking in mud and dead mice. Some breeds of dogs keep themselves really clean and some individual dogs hate getting dirty and so they wouldn’t get your upholstery or carpets dirty.
But even if you have a lot of guinea pigs that only get a few hours of “floor time” a week, there’s bound to be accidents. Regular vacuuming just doesn’t do it in order to get rid of ammonia vapors or mold growth that can make your pet’s breathing more difficult. Professional carpet cleaning can use pet and kid friendly ingredients and make your home healthier for your pets. Please do not use this article as a substitute for your veterinarian’s advice.
The Chronically Ill
If you are chronically ill, then you probably don’t have the physical strength to handle heavy rental carpet cleaning machines. If your doctor recommends that your home should be as free of dust mites or mold spores as possible, then professional carpet cleaning should be looked into. It also is emotionally lifting for a chronically ill person to be in a clean room.