Category Archives: Housekeeping

Why Recycling Can Help With Anxiety

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The kinds of products that one can recycle today is astonishing, as are the number of recycling services available across the country. Even folks living in more rural areas can typically reach a local recycling center in a matter of minutes where they can recycle plastics, cardboards, and glass.

Many grocery stores nowadays even have soft plastic recycling bins you can use to deposit used grocery bags, food wrappers, and other soft plastic material including netting and dog food bags. Recycling offers the opportunity for any individual to keep material out of landfills and reduce waste by turning old material into new products for reuse. But, it has other benefits too. Recycling is an excellent way to get organized and reduce anxiety around the house.

spring cleaning and anxiety

Spring Cleaning/Recycling can help reduce anxiety

If you’ve been feeling increased anxiety at home, take a look around the house. Sometimes a fresh start can help bring a sense of calm and clear headedness to your life. It may not be a cure-all for all of the anxiety you may be feeling, but a good spring clean may go further than you may think.

There is something to be said about walking into a room that is free of clutter and arranged in an inviting way. It increases a sense of pride in your home and your life, and makes room for your mind to focus on other things. It can stimulate productivity in other areas of your life, also. But how do you get started when the whole task of cleaning out and recycling seems a tad too overwhelming?

How to Get Started

Begin with one room at a time, tackling the easiest one first so you don’t get overwhelmed too quickly. This may be a room such as the pantry or office, or an extra bedroom. Decide how long you want to spend on each room, one weekend for example, and try your best to stick to your schedule. This process may fill you with anxiety at first, but once you get started you may begin to notice just how therapeutic the process really is.

Next you’ll need to create piles to sort your goods into: keep, trash, give away, and recycle. You can place these piles in each room or create a master pile somewhere inside or outside the house.

1. Keep Pile

This pile should be one of the smaller piles, believe it or not. It is reserved for items you absolutely need, use often, or has the highest sentimental value when compared to other items.

2. Sell Pile

Items in the sell pile are those with enough value not to throw away or recycle, but not worth holding onto because they are no longer needed or wanted. Use an online marketplace to sell them or do it the old fashioned way via a yard sale.

3. Give Away Pile

This pile is meant for all those items you love, but you really don’t need. These items you may have a hard time donating to strangers or recycling, but you may feel better about giving away friends or family. Examples of items appropriate for this pile could be gifts given to you that you’ve used seldomly, expensive items you no longer need or use but are hard to sell, or items with sentimental value.

4. Recycle Pile

Anything you can’t donate, sell, or give away should be considered for the recycle pile before going to the trash. Items that can be recycled include electronics of all kinds, paints, oils and other toxic substances, wood, yard clippings, plastic, metal, glass, soft plastics, cardboard and paper products, eyeglasses, and clothing.

3 Tips For Keeping Your House Pest-Free This Summer

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The warmer weather might be great for holidays and spending time outside, but the one thing it also brings around are pests looking for food or some shelter out from the heat. The most common problems to find their way out of hiding are rats and pigeons, both of which are a danger to your health and a mission to get rid of once they have made their way into your home.

If you ever find yourself stuck in a war with pests and cannot get the best Pest Busters in Birmingham to assist you, then you should follow these easy steps to keep your home pest-free.

1. Keep garbage cans clean and closed at all times

Vermin are attracted to dirt and areas where there is a lot of rubble. They can smell it a mile away. If you ever see pigeons returning to the same spot consistently, then you know they are on the prowl to find food from a source close. Use disinfectant around the area if any food may have spilt over accidentally and soaked into the ground.

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The smell will attract rats, which are not very afraid of humans and usually travel in groups. Like pigeons, rats are always on the lookout for food sources, so they are likely to return if they find a good start. Keep pets food indoors so that they are not at risk either, and wash your pets regularly in summer to keep them from attracting pests with their smell.

2. Bedbugs

They can make their way into your furniture or bedding through dust, pets or other pests and it can be a nightmare to try and get rid of them. The first thing you should do to prevent their unwelcomed stay is to keep your mattresses clean. These little critters thrive off your dead skin cells and multiply in thousands every day.

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Spraying your furniture with a safe detergent will keep them from being able to reproduce. If any of your beds have been affected, steam cleans the mattress and wash all the laundry immediately. You can even add an insect repellant spray to the steamer and make sure that the bed and the furniture is dry with heat. Do not leave it out on its own to dry; dry it immediately.

3. Cleaning

The result of trying to keep your home pest-free will have to be using disinfectant in all the areas where they are likely to gather and make sure that you do not leave anything out that they could use to make nests with or see as a food source. Citronella candles help to keep away flying pests like mosquitos and flies and can also help to onward off smaller vermin like mice.

cleaning-for-pest-free-home

If you suspect that you might have a problem, then call the best Pest Busters in Birmingham to help you enjoy summer pest free.

Is Your Commercial Cleaning Service Sustainable?

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It’s becoming more evident with time that people who want to ensure any form of financial security in the future need to start their own businesses. You can’t rely on your day to day job anymore to give you that feeling of financial security, and many are starting to realize this. So, people invest their money in all sorts of ventures, but one in particular has much potential for it if you know what you’re doing: commercial cleaning services. It’s probably crossed your mind at one point or another to start one, but there’s a problem stopping you. Is it sustainable? It can be, if you do all the right things.

A huge industry

In case you didn’t know it, the cleaning services industry is a multi-billion dollar one that is growing every year, and it’s a great business to get into if you know what you’re doing. The first thing you should do is identify if you want to get into home cleaning service or commercial cleaning service. The latter naturally takes the bigger chunk of the industry as a whole since companies hire atlanta cleaning service for regularly maintaining their office spaces.

Residential cleaning is also relevant to millions of people calling services to keep their houses clean, but it definitely isn’t as big as its commercial counterpart, and that’s why you probably started your cleaning service in the commercial sector. If you are aiming to make your business sustainable, you need to do a couple of things.

Stick to your niche

So, you started a commercial cleaning service, and there’s a lot of money in it. But that doesn’t mean you should get greedy and try to get into residential services as well. Spreading yourself too thin could be the end of your business, and you don’t really need to do it because the commercial cleaning industry is more than capable of sustaining your company.

Even if you hit a dry spell, don’t think about abandoning your specialty for the sake of another; instead, wait it out and things will get better for your company.

Cost VS quality balance

One of the most important things you need to do to keep Madison cleaning service running is maintaining a balance between keeping the cost low and yet giving your customers excellent quality.

You need to understand that there are dozens of others like you out there, so if your business sees a dip in quality, you’ll lose all your clients. Instead, you can cut costs by not having a large office space, for instance, or opting for older cleaning technologies, while still maintaining quality.

Invest in your people

For Wimbledon cleaning services, the most important asset is their personnel! All of the cleaning technicians are professionals who’ve gone through thorough training, allowing them to handle the great variety of cleaning solutions and to ensure the safety and satisfaction of the customers! They must always maintain professional conduct, so expect nothing but perfect results!

These are the most important points you need to tackle in order for your commercial cleaning service to be sustainable. If you can do that, the sky’s the limit for your business.

7 Benefits of Hiring a Commercial Cleaning Service

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Many business owners shy away from hiring commercial cleaners, as they have concerns about the costs. A small business may not want to invest a significant portion of its budget into keeping its establishment clean.

The mistake that businesses make is to assume that paying for commercial cleaning services is a net loss. Between proven cleaning methods and attention to detail, there are many advantages to hiring professionals for cleaning.

Below are seven reasons why you must hire commercial cleaners for your business.

Benefits of Hiring a Commercial Cleaning Service

1. Maintain a Sleek Aesthetic

Businesses that prioritize cleanliness have a much easier time maintaining a sleek and modern aesthetic. If you are running a business that aims to target Millennials and Generation Z customers, crafting a sleek and stylish aesthetic is so important.

Such aesthetics are very difficult to maintain if your workspace is untidy, dirty, and unhygienic. Rather than appearing modern and sleek, your business may look chaotic and claustrophobic. While such appearances may have been acceptable in the past, modern customers may not find them particularly appealing.

2. Impress Customers and Clients

When you are running a business that depends on daily interactions with customers or clients, you must prioritize cleanliness. If someone walks into your store, restaurant, or office first thing in the morning, they should see a spotless environment.

Perhaps a customer is unsure of where they want to shop, and they take an interest in your store. They walk inside and immediately notice areas of the floor that have a great deal of dust and debris. Such an appearance does not create a positive impression, and may even cause them to turn around and look for a different place to shop.

3. Avoid Liabilities and Risks

Commercial cleaners are very thorough in their work, while they also keep up to date on the latest OSHA compliance and state health standards. Your business does not have to concern itself with cleaning standards, as your cleaners will take care of that for you.

commercial cleaning services

Many business owners make the mistake of delegating the cleaning of an establishment to specific employees. While those workers may do their best, they are unlikely to know the latest OSHA standards and compliance. That means your business could suffer consequences when your annual health inspection comes around.

4. Retain and Attract Employees

The state of the economy in the United States is extremely precarious in 2021 and beyond. Despite the impressive performance of the stock market and housing market, many businesses are still struggling to reach the same levels of business as pre-2020.

In addition, many workers are not showing a great desire to get back to work. Others are a lot more cautious about committing to a workplace, and will not hesitate to change jobs if they believe a better alternative is available.

Business owners must ensure they can both retain existing employees and attract new workers in such an environment. Maintaining a clean business is one way to project your company in the best possible light.

If a prospective employee comes in for an interview, they are likely to look through the various areas of your business. Should they notice dirty corners in certain rooms, messy communal spaces, and other issues, they are far less likely to take up a job at that establishment.

5. Avoid Business Shutdowns

Companies that are not making cleanliness a priority are taking a significant risk in 2021. There are countless stories of businesses that had to shut down for several days due to a virus outbreak among their staff.

Not only do such outbreaks cause your business to lose money, as you must shut your doors for a few days or weeks, but you may develop a poor reputation among the local community. If people hear that your business shut down due to a virus outbreak, they will be more hesitant to frequent your establishment in the near future.

The cost of hiring cleaners to spend a couple of hours at your business each day of the year is likely to cost less money than a few days of your business being closed down due to health issues among staff. Similar shutdowns are possible if you fail annual health inspections.

6. Lighten the Load on Your Staff

Considering the changes occurring in 2020 and 2021, many businesses are placing greater workloads on their staff. Most workers already have many tasks they must handle each day, which means that adding cleaning into that workload could overwhelm your employees.

Rather than doing a great job cleaning your business premises, those workers may look to cut corners in every area of their job. As they are tasked with so many different responsibilities, they may attempt to do the bare minimum with each task. That could result in your business not receiving the care it deserves.

If you are overworking your employees, their stress and tension may spill over into interactions with customers. That is not how you want your business to appear to a customer, whether they are coming in for the first time or are a regular visitor.

7. Save Money on Cleaning in the Long-Term

Business owners assume that if they are hiring a cleaning company one or two times a week, they are likely to spend a lot of money on cleaning in the long term. In contrast, hiring professionals for a deep cleaning one time a month can save money.

The Future of Cleaning

What many people do not realize is that hiring commercial cleaners for regular cleaning is cost-effective over time. If cleaners are constantly at your business mopping the floors, vacuuming, spot cleaning surfaces, and ensuring your bathrooms are thoroughly disinfected, then you will not require major cleaning at any stage.

Every area of your business receives priority from the cleaners during each of their visits, ensuring the entire business is spotless when they leave. In contrast, a company that only hires professionals one or two times a year may end up with excessively dirty surfaces, floors, and carpeting. Some of the dirt or debris may not come off easily, which can increase the cost of cleaning significantly.

How The Cleaning Industry Can Be More Sustainable

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In over 90% of the CPG categories, sustainability-marketed products grew faster than their conventional counterparts. According to Harvard Business Review, products that had a sustainability claim accounted for 16.6% of the market in 2018 and delivered nearly $114 billion in sales. After all, cleanliness is one of the most essential aspects of our lives – the very reason Green Cleaning existed.

For the longest time, we have learned how poor indoor environmental quality has had a significant effect on our health and the economy. Thus, the choices we make in cleaning products, can either save the planet or wreak havoc on future generations. Here’s how the cleaning industry can be more sustainable.

green-cleaning

What is Green Cleaning?

According to Stephen P. Ashkin, president of The Ashkin Group; Green Cleaning is simply defined as “cleaning to protect health without harming the environment.” This means using cleaning tools, chemicals, and equipment that have a positive impact on the environment. Green cleaning requires more than using products that are more environmentally friendly through the use of goods that help to promote sustainability.

This starts with the product utilizing natural and renewable resources to where it is packed through the use of recycled materials. Not to mention, sustainable product and packaging help reduce the amount of paper and plastic used as well as the fuel used for transport.

More Companies Adapting To Green Cleaning

In terms of economic growth, several companies are implementing effective green cleaning strategies because they believe that sustainable action has a triple bottom line effect. John Elkington proposed that a green, sustainable company or facility should concentrate on the “three Ps”: profits, people, and the planet.

office-cleaning

Studies also show that cost-effective savings are possible when sustainable operations are in place. In 2001, Kimberly-Clark Professional, one of the world’s leading manufacturers of washroom products launched Reduce Today, Respect Tomorrow. This program reflects the company’s philosophy of reducing the use of natural resources throughout the life cycle of its products. Products are manufactured with a source-reduction in mind and designed in such a way that users consume less, either by improved efficiency, more reliable dispensing methods, or both.

With the current global economic and environmental crisis, there are so many reasons for green and sustainable initiatives to be taken. More and more businesses are going green, and more consumers are noticing the value of using eco-friendly, non-toxic products, and preventing harm to nature.

The cleaning industry is one field that needs to be green, as the heavy use of chemicals and other products contribute a great deal to pollution and household safety.

3 Tips to Help Keep Your Sewer Line Cleared

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A sewer back up can be one of the costliest, messiest and most stressful problems you will ever have to deal with. It is possible that raw sewage can back up into your toilet, sink and bathtub, eventually overflowing into key areas of your house. It’s admittedly a disgusting topic to talk about, but it does happen, and it is important to know how to prevent it. So, here are a few tips on how to clear a mainline blockage:

1. Clear Roots

These are the most common culprits behind sewer backups. Roots belonging to trees and shrubs seek moisture underground and can, therefore, make their way into sewer lines through cracks in the pipe. Typically, they start small but grow and eventually obstruct the line, allowing waste to build up and back up. Here are some tips on using salt to get rid of such tree roots.

  • Obtain 4 pounds of rock salt and flush it down the toilet in the evening before the family goes to bed. That will give the saltwater at least 8 hours in the sewer line. For that duration, do not use any drains in the house to avoid diluting the saltwater.
  • After 8 hours, flush the toilet again and resume use of the drains in the house.
  • Follow this practice about once or twice a month. Any tree roots in the sewer line will die from the excess of sodium, and the lines will soon be clear.

2. Clear Paper Products

These include such products as paper towels, sanitary towels and diapers that are not intended for flushing. These products aren’t like toilet paper in that they do not disintegrate easily. They can, therefore, block the sewer line and cause a backup. To prevent this from happening, they should not be flushed down the toilet but should instead be thrown in the garbage.

Sanitary towels and diapers should never be flushed down the toilet as they tend to clog the sewer line the fastest. This also includes tampons. All of these should be disposed of in a specialized garbage bin placed next to the toilet, such as the ones in public restrooms.

3. Avoid Putting Grease in Drains

Grease is another culprit that has a way of causing backups. You should avoid, as much as possible, pouring grease down a drain. This also applies to cooking oil as it often has the same effect. Some people believe that using hot water to wash grease down the drain helps. That is not true. The grease will go down the drain more easily, but it will eventually cool off further down the drain and solidify. When it does that, it will clog the drain and cause a backup.  The line will have a harder time letting water through and get clogged.

The best solution is to pour the grease into a container that is resistant to heat and let it cool off. You can then dispose of it in the garbage.

How To Stay Green With Your Office Cleaning

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Businesses are incorporating sustainability into their daily practices in an effort to do their part in creating a more eco-friendly future.  If you’re among the businesses that are adopting eco-friendly business practices such as conserving resources and reducing waste, you’re probably always looking for additional ways to go green.

An area that some businesses overlook is their cleaning practices. Many conventional cleaning products contain chemicals that have a negative impact on people, animals, and the environment. Chemicals in cleaning products can cause health problems such as asthma, cancer, and birth defects. After the products are used, they typically get washed down the drain. Water treatment facilities can get rid of some of the contaminants but not all. These contaminants then get washed into our rivers and lakes, where it can have a negative impact on wildlife.

This is why more and more businesses are incorporating green cleaning into their business practices. If you’re looking for additional ways to stay green, it’s time to look at your cleaning practices.

What is green cleaning?

Green cleaning is when you use cleaning methods and procedures that are designed to preserve human health and the environment. Typically, this means using products that contain environmentally friendly ingredients. Most green products are also manufactured in an environmentally friendly way and are biodegradable.

office-cleaning

Most green cleaning products contain a label on their packaging that indicates the company has met certain environmental and labor standards. However, it’s important to remember that some companies can get this label just by donating to environmental causes or using recycled packaging while their products still contain harmful chemicals. You should always check to see what ingredients are in the product to ensure that it is environmentally friendly. Avoid products that use phosphates, chlorine, artificial fragrances, and artificial colors.

The right green cleaning products smell more natural and will still clean your business just as well as conventional cleaning supplies.

How do I switch to green products?

If you would like to practice green cleaning, the first thing you’ll need to do is to find out what you’re currently cleaning with. If your business does its own cleaning, go around your business and make a list of all your products. If you’re using a cleaning company, ask them to provide you with a list.

After you have your list of products, go through and see if any of them are green products. You can do this by seeing if any of them have an ecolabel or checking to see if they are EWG verified.  If any of them are, great! You’re already using green products.

“There are many options for ordering green cleaning products,” says Martha Hernandez of Beyond Eco, a commercial cleaning business in Austin, TX. “Be sure that the label is transparent in the ingredients that are used. Many will withhold information. You also can look up your own recipes for cleaning products. We make many solutions ourselves and utilize reusable bottles or containers to reduce waste in the process.”

If they don’t, you’ll want to see if the vendor you buy your supplies from offers a green product line. If you’re using an outside cleaning company, see if they’re willing to use green products. Most companies will already have alternative products on hand. Some companies, such as Executive Cleaning Services, LLC, will also let you provide your own green cleaning products while still doing the cleaning for you!

Aren’t green products more expensive?

No, not necessarily. Depending on where you buy your products, you can get them for around the same price as conventional products.

There are a number of ways to make green cleaning affordable. If you’re a small business, you can consider making your own cleaners out of natural ingredients. If you purchase your products from a vendor, see if you can buy in bulk or buy concentrated products. You’ll spend more money upfront, but the products will last longer.

You should also eliminate unnecessary products to help reduce costs. There are many all-purpose cleaners out there that can be used on multiple surfaces.

What other ways can I stay green with my cleaning?

Switching to green cleaning products is the best way! If you’re not using green products, then you’re not practicing green cleaning. However, it’s also important that your entire team is on board. If your employees go out and buy conventional cleaning products to clean their own cubicle with, it defeats the purpose of your company using green products. Engage your employees in the process of switching to new supplies so that they have a say.

Some might even start practicing green cleaning at home! If you use a cleaning service, make sure you choose someone who also adopts green cleaning practices. An example of someone who does this is Ideal Cleaning – they only use environmentally cleaning products as they understand how much safer they are to use.

In conclusion

If you’re already practicing sustainable business practices, make sure to add green cleaning to your list of practices. Or, if you’re trying to find ways to start being sustainable, green cleaning is a great first step! It’ll take some time to review your current cleaning products, but once you identify new green cleaning products, you’ll be good to go.