We all love the holidays; they give us a chance to let loose, relax and over indulge in all manner of food and drink without having to feel guilty about it. Unfortunately, with all that food and drink getting carried around, it’s pretty common for a fair amount of it to fall on the floor.
I know over the years I have been very popular at parties when a big spill happens. I quickly get called over and asked for my expertise in removing the offending red wine stain. Depending on the number of eggnogs the party goers have had, my performance can meet with ecstatic cheers or quiet indifference. Either way, I always get a call.
The holiday season is about decorations and spending time with loved ones. It is a tremendous amount of work to pull off a successful gathering.
As a professional cleaner, I understand that few people give the same amount of care to preparing for the cleaning part of the holidays. So whether you are reading this to get prepared or because an accident has already happened, let’s go over the most common holiday stains, and I will give you some tips to treat them.
Left untreated, these stains will leave a lasting reminder for years to come that is often unnecessary if you are prepared.
What are the minimum insurance requirements you should be considering when outsourcing your night cleaning? This is a relatively important if not a critical risk management basic.
In most cases, the average building or business will have millions in assets including the building, inventory, and computer systems that need insurance protection. Insurance coverage is also critical to guard against the effects of a business interruption if a disaster strikes.
Are you trying to determine a reasonable cleaning budget for your commercial building? Due to the variety of building types and office setups it is very difficult, if not impossible, to determine standard commercial cleaning costs.
Chain stores, such as movie theaters and restaurants, may be be able to establish a per seat average cost due to the fact their buildings are likely very similar in size and set up, however for most businesses this is difficult.
There are 28 million small businesses (defined as a company with less than 500 employees), so there are millions of unique, non-cookie cutter office and work environments to consider. With all that variety it’s hard to provide a per square foot charge to use as a benchmark.
Bamboo is excellent for a cutting board since it is a very sustainable resource. Bamboo grows up to 10cm per day depending on the species during the growing season.
Bamboo is a grass, and grow quickly. A mature bamboo plant takes less than 3-5 years to reach full size. Compare that to an oak tree which matures in about 25 years and can live up to 500 years. This makes bamboo a really fantastic choice for sustainability.
How to Clean a Bamboo Cutting Board
Classic cutting boards made from maple, walnut, cherry are just not as sustainable as bamboo. Also, bamboo continues to be more and more popular as manufacturing methods have made it easier to make it flat. Additionally, bamboo is very hard more so than most typical wood cutting boards, making them more maintenance free. Since bamboo is so hard, it is also resistant to knife marks etc. This is key as knife scarring on a typical cutting board allows for pockets and grooves for water or moisture to collect and reduces your ability to effectively sanitize the cutting board.
Bamboo resists water better so will not warp or crack as easily as a typical cutting board.
If you wipe immediately after use every time your bamboo cutting board will last for many years. In addition to wiping you can cut a lemon in half and run it across the surface for a natural way to clean and sanitize. Lemons are acidic and will break down organic material to a degree as well as counteract smells.
You can also set up a spray bottle with water and vinegar and use that as a spray cleaner (50% white vinegar and 50% water). The real key is quick clean up after use to prevent cross contamination and make clean up a breeze. I have also seen people use a 3% hydrogen peroxide as a spray cleaner as well. Always dry the board after cleaning, so the wood doesn’t asorb the water. No dishwasher or soaking the board.
If you feel you have to disinfect spraying the hydrogen peroxide onto the board and letting it sit for a few minutes then wiping dry is a good way to go as well. Even using a mild bleach solution (one part bleach nine part water, which is 1:10 solution). This is ¼ cup of bleach and 2 ¼ cups of water in a quart sized spray bottle. Pour the bleach into the bottle first carefully then add the water. Bleach loses its disinfectant power quickly through exposure to light and heat etc. so do not make large batches and replace often.
The key is quick clean up and limit the amount of time moisture is on your board. When possible wipe the board dry. If you have stubborn stains sprinkle, some baking soda on the board and wipe using a cloth and water.
When going through the detailed process of creating your RFP (request for proposal) you will come to the question of whether to include supplies within the RFP. In this article, we address the top 3 factors you need to consider.
1) Size and complexity of your facility
Is your facility or building large?
Do you have multiple locations?
These are often the biggest factors in deciding whether to include the ordering and managing of supplies. No matter how large a facility is, I have never seen adequate planning for the storage for cleaning related items.
Reference checks can be a key method to determine whether or not your potential new supplier has what it takes to be successful. But knowing how to check references effectively is not always clear. How can you make sure you find out the truth about the supplier knowing that the references they provide will typically be customers who have had positive experiences with them?
In this article you will get some tips and techniques to get the real truth when checking references.
In the cleaning industry getting a reference check is crucial. In most cases, you have your cleaner come in after hours and you want to ensure from a risk management point of view that you leave no stone unturned. This will limit the chances that you will have issues when it comes to your night cleaners.
The single most important item in getting great cleaning is the actual cleaning specifications. Even if you have the most simple of work environments with little room for interpretation, trust me if there is room for interpretation there will be
Say you have a standard office environment with 40 workspaces including offices and cubicles. If you specify you need the office garbage cans emptied and workspaces cleaned, you are not specific enough.
By not listing exactly what you want your outcomes to be you are leaving it to the interpretation of a night cleaner who really has no clue what your employees needs are. The cleaner may consider emptying garbage cans and dusting the top of a computer screen/monitor as cleaning an office.
Consider this: Your homes refrigerator door handle is one of the top 10 dirtiest spots in your house. With that in mind, how clean is the door handle in your company’s lunchroom? How sanitary is the space where you and your employees eat every day?
Lunchrooms are the spot where you store, prepare, and serve your food. You meet up at the water cooler for a chat with a colleague. You drop in between meetings to get a quick snack or drink.
The lunchroom is used by just about everyone in your office and it needs to be clean.
Do you think that an accurate carpet cleaning quote is something you can get directly over the phone? Do you think a professional carpet cleaner should be able to provide you a ball-park estimate of carpet cleaning costs based on the square feet you provide? Maybe you’ve had several quotes and feel that commercial carpet cleaning prices are all over the map?
The reality is that the calculation of carpet cleaning costs is not so simple.
There are several variables to consider when calculating carpet cleaning costs. These variables impact the amount of time a job takes and which cleaning processes, chemicals, and equipment the job will require to obtain high-quality results.
Ready to get an inside look into how a professional carpet cleaner prices out a carpet cleaning job?
Hard floors require maintenance and in most cases hard floors cost more to clean than carpet so the correct analysis of ongoing floor cleaning costs is important to consider when designing your office space.
Certain types of hard tile floors are low maintenance and do not require extra care besides normal cleaning. However all maintenance in really dependent on the type and volume of traffic in the building.
