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Barbecue info

As summer slowly arrives, the BBQ begins to take more of a focal point.  When it comes to cooking and serving meals from the BBQ we need to cautious of food safety.  Raw meats harbour bacteria that will grow in unrefrigerated conditions.  Some food left in warm sunlight before cooking, even for a few minutes, can become poisonous, as can the dish the meat is on and the hands that touch it.  To insure a safe and pleasant BBQ, be sure to keep meat refrigerated until it is time to cook, thoroughly wash platters, bowls and hands immediately after handling or contact with raw meats.

Smoke damage

Someone recently sent an email asking about removing smoke damage, first most of the time a professional should be called when repairing smoke damage.  For a small amount of smoke damage you can use a soot sponge, found at any professional janitorial supply store.  Soot sponges are also effective at removing pet hair from upholstery.

Poker felt…

I had a recent email asking how to remove pilling from a cheap felted home poker table.  I can only guess the felt used is a traditional felt which balls up or pills quite easily.  A professional poker felt would not pill up, but with the popularity of poker these days, there would be many homemade tables out there.  The best thing I have seen to removing pilling is a nature pumice stone ( www.sweaterstone.com ) I use this on my sweaters or sweatshirts which develop pilling. (Sweater pills are tangles of fabric that naturally come loose where the garment is rubbed the most. Typically, a sweater’s arms and sides are first to pill.)

I think this would work best for the homemade poker felt.  If you ever have to clean a poker table to best action it to have a thick absorbent (white) towel handy to absorb spills as they happen.  Then rinse with plain water and absorb with a white towel.  Its far better to deal with spills as they happen on a difficult to clean surface like a poker table.  If a cleaner is necessary use a spray bottle with water and a drop of dish soap mixed in, this is a basic neutral cleaner which is effective in many cases.  Using anything stronger on a poker felt and you will have a challenge removing excess cleaner residue and the appearance maybe as bad as the stain even if it has been cleaned.

How to make whites, whiter…

Whites, whiter…

My white clothes look dull and dingy. Most of the labels say “NO Chlorine Bleach” – is there another way to whiten them?

There are many reasons for whites to become dull. A very common factor is hard water. The trace elements in the water can prevent soap from lathering properly and the residue can leave a dull or gray appearance. Check with your local utility to see if this is a concern. For slightly hard water, it is possible to overcome the problem of siding, by simply adding more detergent.

You can try an all fabric bleach (Bleach for un-bleachable), or an oxygen bleach, but always test for color fastness on the clothing, and add the bleach to the soap and water, BEFORE adding the clothing. Even these ‘safe’ bleaches can cause damage if poured in concentrate, directly onto wet clothing.

You might also try soaking in a solution of water and lemon juice overnight before washing. Then add this soak water into the wash water with the regular detergent when washing.

The final tip would be to hang these articles to dry in the sun. The sun is an excellent natural bleaching tool, which can actually even lighten some stains to the point they are invisible. The other huge benefit of air drying, along with the fact it is free, is that stained clothing will not have the stain ‘set’, whereas a tumble dryer gets so hot, that the stains are baked into the fibers.

General Information: How to blot…

General Information: How to blot…

It sounds silly but this cleaning technique is critical to removing many household stains.
Blotting is the act of absorbing a stain with a dry absorbent towel such as a terry towel or even a paper towel (best using white towels so no colors from the towel will run into the carpet or fabric you are blotting.) Blotting immediately after a spill or stain has occurred is the best way to combat stains. Blot by placing the towel over the stain. First fold your towel in quarters so you can flip over the towel a few times to get the maximum absorbency of your towel.

Do’s and Don’ts of stain removal

General Spot Cleaning Tips

DO

Use a clean white, absorbent terry towel.
Blot or tamp the spot.
Pretest the carpet in an inconspicuous area.
Clean the stain from the edge to the center.
Apply cleaner to the towel.
Clean with modest amounts of cleaning solution.
Adhere to product safety and follow instructions.
Remove the stain as soon as it is noticed.
Remove the dirty excess before cleaning.
Use cleaning compounds at lukewarm temperature.

 

DON’T

Use a dirty or coloured rag.
Rub, brush or scrape the spot using force.
Pretest the carpet in the middle of the room.
Clean the stain from side to side.
Apply cleaners directly to the stain.
Saturate the spot with cleaners.
Ignore manufacturers instructions.
Ignore the stain or leave it until later.
Wet clean before removing the dry excess.
Apply heat to the stain.

Not all stains can be completely removed, but appearances can be improved.

How to choose a cleaning company

3 Things to Look For When Hiring an Office Cleaning Service

September 22nd, 2009 by www.microsreport.com

The sour economy has wreaked havoc on existing businesses, but it has also spawned a whole generation of brand new business owners. If you are just getting started, and you are ready to move into your new office space, it’s time to start thinking about which you should hire to keep it clean.

A clean working environment is important on three levels: it makes your space a pleasant place to work for employees and staff; it adds legitimacy to your enterprise in the eyes of your customers; it helps preserve the integrity of your furnishings and equipment. Here are three things to look for when hiring an office cleaning service.

1. Experience

There are plenty of fly-by-night janitorial services that may be cheaper, but they could just mean trouble over the long term. Choose an experienced cleaning service with an impeccable record that is also licensed, bonded, and insured.

2. Trained and Certified Staff

You want to be sure that the people who come to your office to do the cleaning have been thoroughly trained in how to work in an office environment safely. Make sure that the service you choose has a training and certification program.

3. Green Cleaning

The service’s methodology and cleaning products should be in line with todays green approach to cleaning. With a wide availability of natural and organic products on the market today, there is simply no excuse for the use of highly toxic chemicals when it comes to everyday cleaning. When your cleaning service uses green-friendly products, your employees and customers will never suffer from allergies and respiratory ailments caused by chemicals.

Follow these three guidelines, and your chances of having a positive experience with your cleaning service will be greatly enhanced.

Blacklights and bathroom cleaning

If you  want be sure your housekeeper  is doing a through job when cleaning the washroom you can turn out the light and shine a black-light around the toilet.  The black light bulbs use long wave, ultraviolet light to illuminate substances practically invisible under ordinary light.  The uric acid in urine glows brightly under black-light and can identify a superficial cleaning of the toilet, toilet bowl, or area around the toilets including the walls and floor.  uric acid is the final oxidation (breakdown) product of purine metabolism and is excreted in urine.

You can also use a black-light to find urine spots from cats or dogs that are hard to find and are the cause odor issues due to the fact you cant find the stains once they have dried etc. I have found this useful as my pets have aged and have had accidents during the day that I have not been aware of  etc.

Keeping clean and organized

The number one thing you can do to keep clean and organized is to have a spot for everything.  My daughter is famous in our house for leaving her shoes in random locations, after millions of requests (hyperbole for effect) over a long period of time I bought a giant shoe shelf(5 feet tall) for the mud room. I have seen an improvement in the random shoes around the house.  Invest the time to figure out the place for everything, shirts hanging in the closet, sock drawer, athletic clothes drawer etc.  Its helps reduce the constant “Mom!!! wheres my _____________?”

I also invested in shallow tupperware containers to slide under the bed, so I can have more places to put stuff.  Knowing where the cleaning stuff for example also helps.  As my kids have gotten older I can just tell them to clean up the spill they created because they know the precise location for everything.  I wonder how my mother managed because she did everything for me, I never had to lift a finger.  I guess I went the opposite way, I must be very lazy because I try to have a system that lets my family figure it out.  Hopefully in the long run it helps them run an efficient home so they can spend more time doing fun stuff in life.

Walls…

Dirty walls??

Here are some quick tips for wall cleaning

This is the one thing where you do the opposite of what you normally would like to do when cleaning.  Normally you clean from the top down when cleaning most things.  Like dusting before vacuuming, or cleaning the lights and mirrors before cleaning the washroom counter.

When cleaning walls clean from the bottom to the top this prevents the drips and streaks on the dirty part of the wall which are harder to remove from dirty walls than freshly cleaned walls.  Use a cleaning solution bucket and a clean water rinse bucket.  What you use will depend on how dirty your wall is.  If you are cleaning before painting using a strong cleaner like TSP (found in any hardware store).  For less dirty walls use a general purpose cleaner mixed with water.

Invest in a professional wall mop from your location janitorial supply store, this will save time and back strain since it is a flat mop on the end of a broom stick.  This allows covering more space quickly and using greater force or elbow grease while cleaning.  In addition to not having to climb on ladders to reach the top.

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