Cleaning Tips

House Cleaning Tip #341: Keeping the Laundry Room Clean

A lot of work goes on in the laundry room, but how often does that work include keeping the laundry room itself clean? If you’re like most people, very little time is ever spent keeping the laundry room clean. These simple steps are an easy way to make sure your laundry room space is just as clean as your whites.

Keep it Clean!

Where do you start? From the top and work your way down.

• Wipe down any shelves with a wet microfiber cloth. Starting from the top allows the dust and dirt that you don’t collect fall down to the ground, where you will take care of it later. On those shelves, over spray and splashes of detergent can leave surfaces sticking and gross, making them a great spot for dust, link, and even bugs to accumulate.
• Next, run your washing machine with an empty load an don a hot cycle.  Use two cups of vinegar to keep the machine fresh and clean inside. After completing the load, wipe down the interior where soap has accumulated.
• Remove the lint trap from your dryer and soak the trap in hot water and a quality soap.   After it has soaked for a few minutes, you can scrub the trap to remove any extra buildup.  If you are feeling super motivated, you can also soak the knobs from your washer and dryer as well (if they are removeable).  This will put a nice clean touch to your laundry room.
• Wipe the outside surfaces of your washer and dryer with a microfiber cloth and a quality glass cleaner.  This will help to make them shine and repel dust.
• Don’t forget to remove the dryer hose and use your vacuum to remove link that has built up on the inside of the hose.  Not only is this a good cleaning tip, it is a good safety tip as well, as it keeps your hose from turning into a fire hazard.
• Use a vacuum that has a good attachment that can clean behind, under, and between your washer and dryer.
• Sweep and mop the floors.

Keep it organized

If you’re like most people, you have a small laundry space with huge piles of laundry.  There are also probably way too many products in the room and not enough time to get everything done.   As a result, it’s easy to let a laundry room go so long without a proper cleaning.  If you can add organization to your laundry room, it can make your life and laundry chores much easier.

• If possible,  extra shelving can be very helpful with organization.  Add shelving where it’s most convenient.  This often times would be right above your washer and dryer.  This allows you to store bleaches and detergents out of the way, along with other products you might use.
• Periodically sort through the products you have and discard the ones that you do not use.
• When not in use, hang your ironing board on the wall.   This will free up a lot of extra space.
• Hang hooks from shelving or you can install a retractable drying line for a place to hang clothes.  This helps to keep them from wrinkling and doesn’t take up extra space.
• Use several laundry baskets for storing and separating dirty and clean laundry.
• Keep a small container somewhere safe for storing items left in pockets.
• Keep a trash can in the laundry room!  This will help keep clutter down so you have a place for lint, dryer sheets, and many other items that might just end up on your floor.

Is it time to clean your room? Can’t get your head in the game? We’ve created this article to give you a few easy cleaning steps to get your head in the game and get your room cleaned. Here you go! The game plan we recommend includes three steps: (1) pick up, (2) wipe down, (3) vacuum out.

Game Plan for Cleaning Bedrooms

Step 1 – Pickup

This step involves picking up garbage and recycling materials and putting them there they belong. This step also includes quick organization of objects in your room and taking other objects out of your room (ones that don’t belong there). As you go around your room, look from top to bottom and scan left to right for any items that need to be moved or trashed. Any items you don’t need in that room can be placed in a bag or empty laundry basket as an easy way to clear the junk. Just make sure you put those object in their right correct places after you finish with your room. Next you should pick up clothes, sort the the dirty clothes from the clean ones and fold the clean clothes. Check your sheets and remove them if they are dirty and replace them with fresh sheets.

Step 2 – Clean

This step is all about the cleaning. To clean your room effectively, start by dusting up high and working your way down towards the floors. When you reach other surfaces, you can wash or wipe them with with a microfiber towel and an appropriate cleaner.

Step 3 – Finishing Touches

This step puts the final touch on cleaning your room. After you have organized, dusted, and cleaned the surfaces in your room, make sure to sweep and vacuum your floor (mopping if necessary).

Clean clothes and clean environment

Yes we all love the feel and smell of clean laundry. The sensation of warmth and serenity that putting on pajamas straight out of the dryer gives. Not surprisingly the process of washing and drying your pajamas is very energy-intensive not to mention the gallons upon gallons of water that this involves. Here are some tips to get your “green on” in your laundry job.

Cold/Cold:

A large percentage of the energy used doing laundry is spent warming up water. Advances in Appliance and detergent technology have made to the point were washing with cold water is just as effective as hot water. Plus cold water prevents color bleed and is not as damaging to textile fabrics. So next time you start your washer, turn the temperature setting to cold.

No to the Dryer

Nothing beats the feel of fresh laundry out of the dryer. Unfortunately this comes to a huge cost to the air quality. The amount of energy spent in the drying of clothes can equate to 15% of your home’s energy consumption. Luckily for us, there is always the sun to take care of our clothes drying needs. A clothesline will do the trick, just remember to keep you clothes in the shade to avoid color and fabric decay. If this outside don’t look so sunny, you can always hang your clothes inside your home.

Use “Green” Products

There is different ways for detergent to be “green” or environmentally friendly. Like I mentioned above, detergent formulas are now designed to work well with cold water and the concentrated formulas require less product to perform a similar job. The chemical compounds found in regular detergents can be harmful to the environment. Look for products that do not include phosphate and dioxanes.

Recycling

This may not be as closely related to your laundry, but it is little things that make the difference. Be sure you are properly disposing of any containers. Some bottles and boxes can be recycled while others can’t. Read and follow the labels and things should all fall in place.

Energy Star Appliances

Energy Star appliances will almost always be more energy efficient than other option. It is their washers water economy that really makes the difference. Buying a newer more energy efficient model can reduce your water consumption by up to 50%. This of course is for the people who are already into buying new appliances. If you are going to make a purchase, make sure you are at least getting something more efficient than your old model.

Cleaning Your Home Makes You Healthier

When trying to avoid sickness cleanliness is basic. There is of course factors outside our homes that will inevitably lead to sickness a couple times a year, if not more. The fact of life is that you will get sick, and if you do not take the appropriate measures the rest of your family will get sick too. Getting sick may be inevitable, but you can always prevent disease from spreading by disinfecting surfaces and following healthy habits.

You probably already know that hand-washing is the single most efficient way to prevent the spreading of illnesses like the common cold. What you might be forgetting is that in most homes people use the same towels to dry everyone’s hands. Hand towels should be replaced as often as possible during this time to avoid spreading bugs around. Consider paper using paper towels as well; this is not a very ecologically friendly approach, but it is an option to be considered.

Our second recommendation would be to maintain a clean bathroom. After all that is where most of us will be washing our hands. Keep your sink handles and toilets clean to avoid more cross contamination. Another good idea would be to limit yourself to use one bathroom and avoid maintain this habit until everybody is feeling better.

If you have little ones that have fallen ill, a good thing to do would be to clean and disinfect toys and play areas. You may do this on a regular basis already, but it is especially important to maintain toys and common areas disinfected. Along with the idea of cleaning toys, make sure the “toys” of the older children are also clean. Of course we are talking electronics: Keyboards, TV remote, and video game controllers are great things to keep in mind.

If you are sick enough to miss work, you will probably spend a good time of your “time-off” stuck in bed. You need to make sure your sheets and pillow are clean and disinfected after your get better. You want eliminate the source of the illness altogether; you probably don’t want to sleep on dirty sheets anyways. While you’re at it you might also want to flip your mattress.

Another benefit of maintaining a clean home is the comfortable feeling you get walking into a tidy place. If you are already feeling down, the last thing you need is to feel even sick in the space that you are in. Nobody wants to clean while under the weather, but the feeling afterwards is totally worth it.

Cleaning your home is not a bulletproof way to stay healthy, there are external factors that will eventually get you sick. Cleaning will make sure that you are not spreading the bug around your family and hopefully will shorten the time you spend under the weather.

How to use your vacuum correctly.

A lot of us will think of do not think that there is much to vacuuming, how hard can it really be? I mean, the vacuum is already doing all of the work, I just have to push it back and forward right? While that is not wrong there is a lot more to vacuuming your floors than just running the cleaner around your home. With the right knowledge you can not only keep your floors and surfaces clean, but you can also make sure your vacuum cleaner will last for years.

The First thing to consider is what type of vacuum cleaner you need. Yes, there is many different types of vacuum cleaner and they all have their advantages and disadvantages. There is going to be vacuums that outperform others in certain tasks, the key is figuring what capabilities you are in need of. But we won’t get too into the different types of vacuums; you can always look at reviews of these on the internet.

For a normal house cleaning vacuuming should be pretty straight forward. You choose a room or area to clean, you find a power outlet, you clean. The truth is that we often forget to do the little things that really make the difference. Whenever you are cleaning hard floors (tile or hardwood) make sure to get those corners with the crevice attachment on your vacuum.

If your home is like most Arizona homes, a portion of your home’s floor is carpet. Very comfortable and soft but also great at attracting and hiding dirt within its fibers. To make sure that you get all of that dirt off your floors you have to make sure that your vacuum really gets in between the carpets fibers. You have to start by the corner that is the farthest from the door. Start by vacuuming parallel to the door, once you get to the door go ahead start all-over again only that this time you’ll do it on a perpendicular motion. This will really moves those fibers around and gets that dirt off your floor.

Now that you’re making sure that your carpets and floors will stay clean and will last long; now it is time to make sure your vacuum will too. A brand new vacuum can run anywhere from a couple hundred dollars to almost $1000, so it is in everyone’s best interest that these piece of equipment last for more than a couple months.

First make sure to unplug the vacuum, this is probably a good time to check the power cord for any wear and tear, if there is make sure to cover it up with some electrical tape. Check your vacuum’s bin or bag for any debris, the cleaner the inside of your machine, the better suction it will provide. If your vacuum has any filter make sure to inspect and clean those as these also have an effect on the vacuum’s ability to pick up dust and dirt.

Clean the brush roll, that spinning part that sweeps the extra dirt in. It will most likely be covered with hair and gunk. Make sure to clear the brush of any hair as this can reduce its cleaning effectivity.Probably the last to do would be to make sure that nothing is obstructing the way from the brush to the bin or bag. Making sure that the hose isn’t block will make sure that you does a good job cleaning without causing any extra strain on the motor.

If you follow these simple tips you can be sure that your home cleaning goes great and a vacuum that will last for years.

Tile flooring is easy to clean but definitely needs to be done daily. No one likes walking barefoot into a kitchen and feeling of the sticky or crumby tile beneath their feet, wishing they had put on socks. You have to stay on top of it! Here some basic cleaning suggestions, deep cleaning methods as well as a list of how to get rid of the build up in the grout to make your life easier.

Basic Care
-Vacuum or sweep daily
-Clean tile with a mild detergent and warm water, using a rag or chamois-type mop, rather than a sponge mop
-Exchange the water frequently throughout the process; this will increase the shine and glossy look of your floors
-For everyday simple clean up you may use a clean damp dust cloth
-Make sure to dry the floor with a dry mop whenever you use water wile cleaning; this will help prevent future dirt from building up

Deep Clean
-Mop the floor using a gallon of warm water and ½ cup of vinegar
-Rinse the floor with clean warm water afterwards
-Dry using a dry mop

Ways to get rid of Grout
-Use a #2 pencil eraser to remove dirt in small sections
-Use baking soda and water to make a paste, and then scrub with a toothbrush
-If either of these don’t do the trick, using bleach is always an option. Mix beach and water at a 1:3 ratio, then e a toothbrush or sponge to scrub
-After the stains are removed, wait until the grout is dry and then use a grout sealer to finish it off

Deep Cleaning Your Kitchen

The kitchen is the most important place to deep clean.  You wash dishes and wipe down counters daily but the rest of it might get put on the back burner, literally. Here is how you can make sure not to miss a thing.

Daily Dos:
First, you have to take care of the daily jobs, and then you can get to the deep clean.
Wash the dishes in the sink, wipe off the counters off and unload the dishwasher.

Oven-on:
Now the fun begins! To start, turn on your self-cleaning oven. Make sure to check it when you are done and get rid of the excess ashes of food debris at the bottom. No one needs those.

Organize:
Take everything out of each cupboard. Place all items on the counter and wipe out each shelf. Now you can start to decide what to keep and what to get rid of. Make piles of trash and donation, then place the rest of the items neatly back inside the cupboards.
Now lets hit the drawers. We all have those junk drawers we are procrastinating. Get rid of anything you are not using and de-clutter! Make sure to wipe them out before placing any items back into them.
Then, it is time to tackle the fridge and freezer. Throw away anything that is freezer burnt or questionable. Wipe down all surfaces and wash drawers in the sink that are removable. Dry all surfaces and place items back inside the fridge/freezer.
Tip: to get rid of sticky food left behind mix vinegar with dish soap and wipe clean

Under the Sink:
Make sure everything is labeled. Refill any products that are running low. Wipe out area and let it dry completely before placing products back. Run your garbage disposal with half a lemon and hot water. It will give your kitchen a fresh smell.

Almost done:
Turn off your oven and sweep up any mess you made with the ashes. Then mop! Makes sure to pay special attention to corner and baseboards. Also, pull out any appliances that can be moved in order to get underneath.

This sounds like a lengthy process and it is! Try listening to some music to pass the time, or just give us a call!