What Parts Of The Home Can You Expect A Cleaner To Clean?

The blog post What Parts Of The Home Can You Expect A Cleaner To Clean? is republished from: Coronation Cleaning

Most people have tight working schedules which give them little or no time to clean their homes. However, many cleaning professionals have seized the opportunity to offer house cleaning services at a fee to save you time. Sometimes, you get home from work too exhausted to engage in any cleaning activity. You need to hire a house cleaner to do the job for you. A professional house cleaner will be expected to do the following:

Clean every room

The total cost of cleaning your home may differ depending upon the size of your house, the cleaning company you’ve hired, type and number of upholstery to be cleaned among other factors. A professional home cleaner will:

• Dust window and door frames to remove dust and fingerprints
• Vacuum your carpet and rugs
• Swipe and mop your floor whether vinyl or tile floored
• Collect trash from every room and dispose of it properly
• Remove cobwebs which might be on your ceiling or corners
• Dust your furniture, shelves and counters while still arranging everything in your rooms
• Offer special attention to every area in each room

Kitchen and dining areas

Your kitchen and dining area is a sensitive area, and high levels of hygiene should be maintained. To effectively clean these areas, the maid will:

• Clean the microwave (both inside and outside)
• Polish chromes and scrub your kitchen sinks clean
• Clean, polish and sanitize kitchen counters
• Wash and polish stove top drip pans
• Wiping tables and chairs clean to remove dust and dirt
• Clean the refrigerator and the oven

Living rooms and bedrooms

• Dust ceiling fans, fixtures and lamps
• Make your bed and fluff pillows and cushions
• Clean your closet by vacuuming and removing cobwebs
• Dusting rugs and wall mounted items e.g. paintings

Half baths and master bathrooms

• Clean and polish vanity counters and sinks
• Clean shower doors, showers and tubs
• Clean, sanitize and deodorize your toilet
• Arrange the cabinets, fold your towels and clean the floor

Deep house cleaning

Since they’ve got the needed experience, skills, cleaning solutions and equipment, professional house cleaners carry out a deep and thorough cleaning. Tile and grout cleaning is one of the areas which require skills and experience to get cleaned. With their high level of expertise, these professionals will offer the following services:

• Cleaning HVAC air duct systems throughout your home
• Clean and sanitize bathroom tile and grout
• Washing your windows
• Cleaning, buffing and polishing hardwood floors
• Thorough cleaning of your carpet through steam cleaning method
• Vacuuming the furniture upholstery
• Cleaning hidden areas e.g. behind refrigerators and washing machines
• Degrease and clean kitchen stove, hood interiors and the range

By just hiring a professional house cleaner, you will be able to have more free time to relax, meet with friends, engage in other activities or even spend time with your family. Also, you will have peace of mind knowing that your entire house is clean and you don’t have any cleaning duties left.

Also, a well-cleaned house smells fresh and is healthy to live in since it’s thoroughly cleaned and sanitized. You cannot develop allergic reactions due to dust or mold development. Finally, your upholstery and carpets will have an extended lifespan as they are properly cleaned and maintained.

The only caution you will have to take is when hiring the cleaning company. You need to be very keen who you are trusting with your items as you may not be within the house to supervise the cleaning process. Therefore, the cleaning company should have professional and ethical cleaners who are trustworthy.

Remember to check licensing to ascertain that they are allowed to offer home cleaning services and insurance cover to avoid incurring hospital bills in case a cleaner is injured while cleaning your house.

Tips On Interviewing House Cleaners: Experience & Qualification

The blog post Tips On Interviewing House Cleaners: Experience & Qualification was originally published to: Bryan Fisher

When looking to hire a cleaner, you first place an online ad, and then you want to be sure to interview them first. Choose at least three of the candidates to interview. There are a few important things to keep in mind as well as red flags to look out for as you talk with your potential cleaner.

1. Your Needs

Any potential cleaner is not going to automatically know what you need because every client is different. Have a plan ready and be sure to let them know what you will be expecting. All tasks should be presented at the time of the interview, from kitchen organization to picking up after the kids. Without clear goals, you will not get the most efficient work from a cleaner. Discuss your needs with the candidates to get their feedback regarding how and whether they can handle them. It is also a good idea to ask about specific problem areas you have to see what they suggest.

2. Qualifications

As they talk with you, candidates will share stories that demonstrate their skills. You also want to check their profiles and references. If you noticed any particular details on their applications, be sure to bring them up for further clarification. One candidate may only have experience with apartment cleaning, and you have a large house, for example. It is wise to get a feel for how long they have been cleaning. While experience is not everything, you want to be sure they can handle the job.

3. Experience

A beginner can be just as talented and efficient at cleaning your house as a ten year professional. Still, you want to explain the duties and allow them to provide feedback on how they handle them. It is also a good idea to verify if they have experience cleaning special materials like granite. Have them explain the best ways to treat and clean these surfaces. You should also have them discuss the methods they use to get rid of germs as well as how they keep their equipment clean.

4. Schedules

Timing is essential, so be sure to discuss schedules during the interview. It is best to be on the same page before the job starts. Make sure they are available when you need them. Also check on their flexibility, in the event you need them at short notice or if your schedule has to change.

5. Cleaning Supplies

Make sure you both decide who will be responsible for supplies. If you are particular about green products, you want to make sure this is clearly communicated. Mostly, in this industry it is expected that you supply the products, but if not make sure you know what they are using. When it comes to equipment, ask them about the maintenance and cleaning of them between the jobs.

6. Payment

Know your budget before hiring someone. This is one factor that needs to be discussed up front. Price has to be fair for the responsibilities and agreed upon before the job starts.

7. Background Checks

If references were not provided with an application, be sure to get these during the interview. Most importantly, follow up with them. Professional cleaning services will perform checks on their employees as well as provide additional screenings for honesty and dependability to give added security to their customers. Once you have a final candidate, then you can run a background check because this person will be in your home, so you need to know they are reliable and trustworthy.

Possible Interview Questions

Some of the suggestions below are good questions for an interview, to help you get to know the candidate on a more personal level.

• What was the most recent feedback you received, positive or constructive?
• What do you do with constructive feedback?
• What is your favourite cleaning supply and why?
• What is your favourite thing about being a house cleaner?
• What would other households you work for, say about you?
• How would you describe your job standards?
• How would you define your particular style of cleaning?

Once getting to know them a little better, you can decide whether to hire them or not. If you are not 100 percent happy, then remember you can keep interviewing. You do not have to settle. After all, it is your house and your belongings; get the cleaning service you want and will be happy with. You need to be able to trust the person you hire and need to be able to develop a great working relationship.

Simple Summer Household Cleaning Tips & Tricks

Simple Summer Household Cleaning Tips & Tricks was originally published on: http://www.coronationcleaning.ca

Summer is a great time of the year. Except when it comes to house cleaning; summer can be such disaster to your home you may well consider moving. Kids are home from school, and daily activities bring most of the outdoors, indoors. Once you consider all the family time and fun summer activities, there is barely time left even to consider cleaning. Don't call the moving company yet; it's not that bad. With these eight simple tricks from Coronation Cleaning, summer cleaning will be a piece of cake.

Make New Rules

When you have kids home for summer break, you are either a permanent member of the disaster relief squad or kids actually help to keep the mess to a minimum. Summer rules can contribute to keeping structure and a clean house. Possibilities include cleaning up after an activity before starting a new one, washing hands after playing with the pets or outside and removing shoes before entering the house. If everybody pitches in, keeping the house clean will be much easier.

Keep it Simple

The smallest things can make the biggest messes, so focus your cleaning tasks on the little things. Making the bed each morning can give a clean look to the entire room, even when there is a mess on the floor. When it comes time to cleaning, doing too much at a time can be exhausting so break up the tasks into smaller chunks. Once you have done a few small chores, the task is not as daunting, and you feel a sense of accomplishment.

Have Priorities

Everybody has pet peeves, and cleaning is no different. We all have that one type of mess that drives us nuts. It can be laundry piles or fingerprint smudges but whatever it is, handle it first. Getting rid of the nuisance that bugs you the most, will make you feel better. If cleaning time is limited, then always get rid of the one thing that causes you the most stress and everything else can wait.

Major Messes

If time is limited, certain key areas should get attention over others. Priorities should include the messes that will attract bugs like crumbs or messes that can be dangerous, such as spills. If there is one mess that is particularly eye-catching, see to that first and foremost. By handling the larger messes first, you avoid a large cleaning catastrophe later on.

Get Out

The more time you and the kids spend outside, the less mess can be created inside. Summer weather gives you the perfect excuse to be outdoors, especially when it comes to eating. Enjoy meals outside and using disposable dishware, you save on cleaning and kitchen mess. Organize activities in the yard or trips to the local pool, parks or library. Getting out means getting more relax time because there will be less to clean.

Top to Bottom

Although the floors probably grab your attention quicker, it is actually more efficient to clean the top of each room and work down. This makes perfect sense because if you start with the floors and then start wiping and dusting, debris will end up on your clean floors. Now you have to clean the floors twice when you could have started with counters and tables first.

Clutter Control

There is no stopping clutter; it is a part of everyday life. The more people you have in your house, the more clutter there will be. Out of season items can be stored away in garages or sheds. If you walk through the house picking up clutter, the next day will be like a clean slate. This small task makes a big difference because the house will look clean without having to actually dust, wipe or clean.

Have the Kids Help

Most kids are looking for extra responsibilities, so dish out age-appropriate chores to them. You can make a chore chart to help them remember and to stay organized and offering incentives is always a guaranteed way to get kids on board. Give out gold stars for each chore completed, and a certain number of stars get s a treat. This makes the cleaning activities more fun and helps to teach children about responsibility and helping out. Make it a true family activity and add your name to the star chart too!

Simple Cleaning Tips For When You Plan To Sell Your Home

The following blog post Simple Cleaning Tips For When You Plan To Sell Your Home is available on: Coronation Cleaning Services Ltd

When you are planning to sell your home, the main objective is to make it clean and appealing to impress the potential buyer. Here are some cleaning tips to follow when selling a home:

Remove clutter

To make your house look attractive and spacious, you need to declutter the rooms, basement, attic and the garage. When decluttering the house, you can either sell or donate useful items or throw away the trash. Most potential homeowners do not like seeing a congested house because they assume its small or it poses a safety hazard, and they develop a negative attitude. Hence, make sure you declutter the rooms as well as closets and shelves to impress potential buyers.

Clean all the rooms

After decluttering, start cleaning the bathroom, living room, dining room and your kitchen. To do it right, clean the walls, ceiling, windows and the floor. You can as well wipe the doors and clean your closet if they are dirty or dusty.

When cleaning these rooms, give close attention to the bathroom and kitchen because most potential buyers pay high attention to these rooms. Check the labels of cleaning products to ascertain that they are appropriate for use on the surfaces to be cleaned. Although using abrasive cleansers facilitate removal of food particles and grease residues in kitchen sinks, you should not use them to clean sensitive surfaces e.g. solid surface countertops or laminate but instead use liquid or gel cleansers.

When cleaning small areas e.g. countertops, spray cleaners are the ideal choice while powder or liquid cleaners mixed in a pail of water are effective when cleaning large areas e.g. floor and walls. However, since some floors look cloudy and untidy as a result of a cleaning residue, you should either use no-rinse cleaners or rinse the floor thoroughly to make it clean. However, if you have a carpet flooring, you need to have the necessary equipment or rent to clean the carpet effectively. Alternatively, you can hire a move-out cleaning service to handle the cleanup.

Clean mold and mildew

If some parts of your house have molds or mildew, make sure you clean the surfaces thoroughly. There are specific cleaning solutions e.g. liquid household bleachers or cleaning solutions you can buy to thoroughly remove the mold and mildew since they can grow overnight or within a few days. Mold and mildew growth is facilitated by the presence of moisture or damp conditions. Therefore, they are common in bathrooms, kitchen and garages. You can also notice mold on the wall, corners or even on your ceiling especially if your roof is leaking.

With listed health risks e.g. allergy related to mold, most home buyers would not risk buying a house with mold or mildew growth. If the mold is a major problem in your home, you need to get a professional plumber to assess your plumbing system and fix any leaks to solve the problem for good. You may end up spending money, but you will have fixed the problem that may limit the possibilities of selling your home. When you are done cleaning your house, don’t forget to clean all your windows both from inside and outside and vacuum your carpets. When dusting the drapes, door mats and curtains, use a dusting product to trap the dust rather than dispersing it in the house. Later on, you can vacuum the floor to remove dust particles.

If you had not planned of repainting the house, you could clean the wall surfaces to remove fingerprints, grime and dust. However, you should choose an appropriate cleaning solution and equipment to avoid removing the paint or having streaks on the surface. A non-abrasive cleaner is recommended and when cleaning vertical areas e.g. a wall, start from the bottom to the top using a circular motion to avoid leaving any marks. Alternatively, repainting the entire house if not very expensive. Hence, you can consider doing it to sell your home faster or sell it at a higher cost.

Alternatively, there are numerous professional cleaning companies you can hire to clean your home. Their skills, experience, man power and equipment enables them to do a thorough cleaning in a short period of time. When they are through, you just need to maintain the house daily by clearing off your kitchen and bathroom countertops and sorting items around your living room to look orderly. This is vital because a potential buyer may show up unexpectedly

How Often Does My Businesses Office Need To Be Cleaned?

The blog post How Often Does My Businesses Office Need To Be Cleaned? is courtesy of: Coronation Cleaning Services Blog

With offices being of different sizes, layout and having a different number of occupants, their cleaning requirements vary. For instance, if an office has high traffic, it should often be cleaned to reduce the build-up of dirt or dust. On the other hand, size and layout of the office can determine the equipment to be used and the cleaning method. It is therefore not easy to determine how often you should hire professional cleaners to clean your office. However, on a daily basis, standard cleaning tasks should be carried out to maintain high levels of hygiene and well-being of the occupants.

Regular cleaning needs

Regular cleaning is not only important to impress visitors to your business, but also to motivate your staff. Most people prefer working in clean environments where they are not exposed to any health risks. This can help you increase productivity and commitment from your team contrary to when they are working on dusty desks, computers and dirty floors. Regular cleaning each day shows that you are concerned about the well-being of your staff, responsible and professional.

Having your office cleaned regularly and thoroughly increases productivity as opportunistic infections e.g. allergy, coughing and cold which may affect your staff as a result of exposure to dust or cold conditions are limited. The staff will not have hospital leaves or days off because they are ill from any of these infections. Your professional cleaners should vacuum the carpets, disinfect the bathrooms, mop the floor, dust all the surfaces and clear up kitchen areas. To avoid interrupting the normal working hours, cleaning should be done early in the morning before your staff reports to work or late in the evening after office hours.

When cleaning the office, advise the cleaners to place computers and other electronic equipment in the office at a central point in the room and cover them to prevent dust build up which could cause malfunction or reduce performance or life span of the equipment. They should also be wiped using a dry cloth and then returned to their specific locations.

When hiring an office cleaning company, you should be keen to consider their level of professionalism, skills, licensing, credibility and their insurance cover. This is important because you will have to hire a reputable company with professional office cleaners who will handle office equipment with care to avoid breakages or missing equipment as they will be working when no one will be in the office. Hence, take your time to hire the right company to avoid loses and damages during the cleaning process.

Less regular cleaning needs

While regular cleaning needs are mainly focused on appearance and hygiene, less regular cleaning needs may be required to maintain your office in a perfect condition. For instance, even though the frames and sills should be cleaned regularly, the windows only need to be cleaned once a month. However, in case they get dirty in between due to weather changes or due to any activity in between, you can have them cleaned. If your office has carpet flooring, it does not need daily cleaning. Rather, shampooing or deep cleaning it after every six months is enough to maintain it in its perfect condition.

Nature of business

The nature of your business can determine how often you need to clean your office. Offices located in medical premises e.g. dental practice or a general practice (GP) surgery office requires thorough and frequent cleaning to maintain hygiene. This is contrary to warehouse and factory offices because they just need regular daily cleaning. You will have to consider several factors to determine how frequently you will have your office cleaned.

How To Thoroughly Clean Your New House Before You Move In

How To Completely Clean Your Home In Under Four Hours

How To Completely Clean Your Home In Under Four Hours was originally seen on: Bryan Fisher

Most people would be surprised to learn that you can clean any house top to bottom in just about four hours. It is always easier to clean a house other than your own because you are not personally involved in the mess. Another house does not present the distractions that yours does, interfering with your cleaning efficiency. A lot can be learned from cleaning a different home.

A standard cleaning like this will not include dish washing, laundry, or intensive kitchen cleaning (such as inside the fridge and oven). These serve as some of those distractions that were mentioned above. When you clean floors, and dust, the kitchen needs to be included for those tasks. Working like a professional cleaner can get the job done faster, and the tips one can use from their services are priceless.

Cleaning versus Clearing Clutter

Most will think these are one in the same, but they are very different. When cleaning our own homes, we often do both of these tasks, but this is very inefficient. When you hire cleaners, items and belongings are already picked up and tidied away. Cleaning should be separate from putting clutter away.

Stick to the Plan

Keeping a house clean requires organization and consistency. If you devise a cleaning schedule for each week and stick to it, over time, the tasks become easier, and you get quicker at performing them. When too much time is left between cleanings, dust and dirt build up, making the cleaning task longer than necessary. Practice makes perfect, so the more you clean, the more efficient you become. Then the tasks are not such a daunting one because now you are a pro.

Start with the Bathroom

Do all of the bathrooms in the house first. Remove all items from the tub or shower and let the fixtures and surfaces soak in cleaning solutions. Put cleaning products in the toilet and stir around with a brush and then let sit. While everything is soaking, you can empty the wastebaskets.

Ceilings and Walls: Go Top to Bottom

Leaving the bathroom items to soak, you can move onto walls and ceilings. Dust away cobwebs from the roof, door jams and corners. Moving from wall to wall in a room and them from room to room. Clean from the ceilings to the base boards, using a Webster or a cloth for the sticky cobwebs.

Microfiber mops work best for floors, but it can also be used for ceilings. While doing the ceilings, be sure to get all light fixtures and fan blades. In the event you have especially dirty light fixtures (complete with dust and dead bugs) cleaning them takes too much time. So to fit in your four hours window, clean a few each time until you have done them all.

Return to the Bathroom

The bathroom has had adequate time to soak by now so you can go back and start with the tubs and showers. Mr Clean products such as the “Magic Reach” make it easy to scrub the whole bathroom. This way you don't have to practice a number of body contortions.

Return everything to the vanity, shower or shelves and finish off by wiping and polishing the sink fixtures. The next task is to finish the toilet so remember to get your rubber gloves. It is a good idea to disinfect the brush with bleach after you are done. Use paper towels to wipe down the exterior surfaces of the toilet.

Finally, you clean the floors; using a rag is more thorough and easier than a mop, especially in smaller bathrooms. Swiffers can work for small clean-ups, but they are not able to reach all the tight spaces like those hiding behind the toilet.

Dusting

At this point, all the hard work is done, and you can start dusting the furniture. Remove all items from shelves and tables. Polish all the wooden surfaces with your choice of wood spray, oil or wax. Wipe off lamps (with fabric coverings) with a rag and dust underneath. The cover itself should be removed and set aside to vacuum. Wipe down all items before returning them to their original placements. Be sure to use a new rag for wiping down items, so as not to smear them with oil or wax.

Just like the dusty light fixtures, dusty books can also be time-consuming. At this time you can just dust the fronts and tops of the books. You will want to remember at some point when you have more time, to go back and remove each book to dust individually. As you get more efficient at your cleaning routine, you may get extra time. In that case, you can dust a shelf at a time, individually.

Ready for Floors

It is now time to vacuum. Do the lamp shades first and return them. You should also vacuum any furniture upholstery once a week. Use the vacuum attachments to clean in furniture crevices and along the edges and corners of the floor. You can then clean the rugs and carpets, making sure to vacuum first in one direction and then the opposite to get a full deeper clean. The more you do this, the less you need to spend on hiring professional carpet cleaners.

The last part of floor cleaning is for hard floors. You can either use a canister vacuum if you have one or sweep first and use a regular vacuum. For tile or linoleum floors use a roller head sponge mop to remove the stuck in dirt. You can also use a microfiber mop if they are only a little dirty. When it comes to hardwood floors, make sure you consult the manufacturers cleaning guide.

Congratulations

And just like that, you are done. And it only took four hours. You are a pro after all. All that is left to do is put away your supplies and equipment, sit down and put your feet up. Relax as you look around and enjoy the freshness and cleanliness of your home.