Spring Cleaning

The term “spring cleaning” can be daunting. Remembering all the little items and spaces that need attention can be difficult. Use this outline to help you quickly get through the cleaning tasks you might otherwise avoid during the rest of the year.

Wipe Down the Cabinets and Drawers
Depending on what your cabinets are made of, choose a cleaner that will not damage the surface. (A multi-surface cleaner will likely work on all cabinet surfaces, but check with the manufacturer first, or test the cleaner first in an inconspicuous area.) With a cotton cloth or paper towel, wipe down the fronts and edges of all of your cabinets and drawers to remove the grime and food buildup from dirty fingers and cooking. Then, wipe down all the handles of your cabinets and drawers with a disinfectant cleaner.

Wipe Down Backsplashes
Hopefully your counters are cleaned on a daily basis in the kitchen, but people often neglect cleaning the backsplashes behind counters, which can be susceptible to splashes from mixing bowls and pots and pans on the stove top. Wipe the walls behind the counters with a cloth rag, paper towel or sponge and multipurpose cleaner to remove cooking grime and dirt.

Clean Out the Refrigerator
Use a disinfectant cleaner and and cloth rags or paper towels to wipe out the fridge from back to front. If your fridge shelves and produce bins are removable, take them out and clean them in the sink with dish soap. Make sure you wipe down the inside of the door and the walls, as well as the front of the fridge. Use disinfectant cleaner on the handle.

Clean Appliances
This may include the toaster, microwave, coffee maker, blender or anything else that sits on your counter and is subject to daily use. Wipe evertything down with a cloth and multipurpose or disinfecting cleaning product. Remove the crumb tray from the toaster and empty that, run a pot of white vinegar through your coffee maker to clean the inside out and remove stains, and wipe down the inside of your microwave.

Clean the Oven
If your oven doesn't have a self-cleaning setting (or you just hate the smell of it) use this cleaning technique to remove grease, spills and buildup. Mix 5 tablespoons of baking soda, 5 drops of dish soap and 4 tablespoons of vinegar into a paste and use a sponge to cover the inside of the oven with it. Close the oven door and let it sit for 15 minutes. Then, cover half of a lemon with salt and dish soap, and use that to scrub (and scrub!) the paste into the oven. When all the buildup is disintegrated, wipe away the cleaning solution with a damp cloth or paper towels.

Clean the Dishwasher
Freshen up the dishwasher and remove buildup by placing a glass cup full of vinegar in the top rack and running it through a cycle with the hottest water possible. (Make sure there is nothing else in the dishwasher besides the cup of vinegar.) After the cycle is done, sprinkle a a cup of baking soda around the basin and run it through another cycle with the hottest water possible. This combination of baking soda and vinegar will remove stains and soap buildup.

Sweep and Mop
Sweep and mop the kitchen floor, taking care to get into the corners and underneath cabinet edges that may be neglected during regular cleanings. Pull out the fridge and clean the flooring area where it sets. Yes, this will be a pain, but the combination of collected dust and moisture from the fridge can actually damage your flooring, not to mention cause your refrigerator to run inefficiently.

Bathroom

Clean Around the Base of the Toilet
Wipe down the base of the toilet (where it meets the floor) with a sponge or cloth and disinfectant cleaner. Pay close attention to the sides, front, and area behind the toilet, which can get dusty and are often ignored during routine cleanings.

Wipe Down the Inside of Cabinets
Take all products out of the medicine cabinet, drawers and other storage spaces. Wipe down the surfaces with a damp sponge or cotton cloth and multipurpose cleaner. Put all items back neatly when the areas are dry. Also take this time to toss any expired products and reorganize your space with what's left over.

Living Room

Deep Floor Cleaning
Pull all the furniture that sits on the floor away from the walls. This includes couches, coffee tables and any other furniture you can move. Sweep or vacuum underneath, or mop if you have tile. Put everything back and mop or vacuum one more time. You may want to rent a steamer from a grocery or hardware store to deep clean any carpeted areas.
 
Dust
Use a cotton cloth and a multi-surface spray to wipe down everything in your living room including electronics, knick-knacks, movies, books and shelves. Dust collects over time, especially in corners -- it’s time to get rid of it. Also remember to dust light fixtures, including ceiling fans. Dust collects easily on fan blades, especially over winter when you're less likely to turn the fan on. Dusting them will prevent the dirt from flinging into the air when you do start using it again.

Furniture
Give your couch and arm chairs a good vacuum with the upholstery attachment, removing the cushions to clean underneath them. Spot treat any stains the best you can, taking into account the material of your couch.

Clean Window Treatments
If you have curtains, wash them according to the manufacturer instructions on the tag and hang them when dry to prevent wrinkling.
To clean blinds, fill a bowl with hot water and 1 teaspoon of dish soap. Wipe each blind individually with a microfiber cloth that has been dipped into the cleaning solution. Always wipe blinds with a clean section of cloth so to not leave streaks.

Bedroom

Vacuum or Sweep
Sweep or vacuum as with the living room, moving furniture to clean underneath.

Dust
Wipe down all dressers, nightstands and knick-knacks with a multi-surface spray and cloth.

Clean Your Bed
Remove your mattress, bed skirt and box spring from your bed frame to wipe the frame down with a damp cloth. Also wipe down the wall and floor boards behind your bed. After removing the bedding from the mattress, make a solution of 1 cup baking soda and 4 drops essential oil, such as lavender. Use a kitchen strainer to sprinkle this mixture over the surface of the mattress. Let it sit for an hour and then vacuum up with the upholstery attachment. The baking soda will draw up dirt and deodorize while the essential oil leaves behind a fresh scent.

Miscellaneous Areas

Baseboards
In all rooms and entryways, wipe baseboards with a cotton cloth that has been dipped into a multi-surface cleaner. Pay close attention to corners and high traffic areas that can be easily missed.

Windows
If you don't want to hire a professional window cleaner, this is a task you can accomplish yourself, at least for first story windows. If possible, remove the window pane and screen from the track and hose them down in the yard with a high powered spray. For a thorough cleaning, use dish soap and a sponge, rag or bristle brush for the screen. Let the screen and windows dry thoroughly in the yard before you insert them back into the window track. In the meantime, vacuum the frame out with an attachment and wipe out any visible dirt or grime from the track so the window can slide smoothly.
For windows that aren't removable, a solution of water and white vinegar works as an effective cleaner combined with a clean cloth to wipe it down.

Vents
Take all your vent covers outside and spray them off with the hose on high power. Let them air dry outside before putting them back in the house.

Carpet Cleaning and Commercial Carpet Cleaning Machines

Maintaining the carpet, or other floor covering, in a commercial environment is an important, if sometimes unconsidered, part of any good housekeeping regime. The question is why is it important? And how best to do it?

Carpet in commercial premises represents a significant investment so one major reason for looking after it is to protect that investment, a pretty good reason in itself. One less obvious reason for keeping a carpet well maintained is that it looks better, both from an employee’s and visitor’s point of view. If a carpet is dirty and has the appearance of being uncared for it sends a message to the workforce and others that the company is equally uncaring in other aspects of their business.

So we have established that caring for the carpet is a significant activity, the question then is how is it done?

Getting the basics right

• Starting from first principles, the ease or otherwise of cleaning a commercial carpet depends on the quality of the carpet installed. Selecting the right carpet for a particular application can determine the amount of maintenance required. For instance you wouldn’t put a handmade Turkish carpet in an office environment unless you wanted to replace it on a regular basis.
• The carpet selected should be fit for its purpose – high traffic areas will need one type, perhaps predominately nylon based, whereas in another area, say in a customer facing environment a more luxurious carpet with a wool base may be more appropriate.
• Colour is important as well. As we all know patterned or darker colour carpets show less signs of soiling in between cleaning.

Using carpet cleaning machines

• The most obvious cleaning machine is the vacuum cleaner. The efficient removal of dirt from a carpet is dependent to a large extent on the quality of the vacuum cleaner as well as how it is used. It is important that the dirt is collected in the machine and not allowed to become airborne and settle elsewhere. Particular attention should be given to heavy pedestrian traffic areas as well as the perimeter edges where dirt can build up, if not removed, which can leave dark lines.
• No matter how efficient the vacuuming regime may have been there will be occasions when deeper carpet cleaning is required. This is where a carpet machine to extract the dirt should be employed, which will remove the dirt which has lodged deeper in the pile of the carpet. By introducing chemicals in solution with water and agitating it into the carpet the dirt can be separated from the carpet fibres, which the extractor then removes by means of a vacuum. It is worth bearing in mind that as a carpet extraction machine is not something used every day there is always an option to hire.

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Buying Floor Cleaning Equipment

There is a lot of floor cleaning equipment available to buy or hire, fulfilling different functions within a business’ cleaning regime. Things have moved on significantly from the simpler times of the broom or the mop and bucket, and now there are a plethora of sophisticated floor cleaning machines available to those managing commercial facilities. So what sorts of machines are there? And what should you look for before buying.

Types of floor cleaning machines

Floor Sweepers

The floor sweeper is a machine often seen in factories and warehouses, and effectively replicates using a broom, but there is much more to it than that. Using rotating brushes the floor sweeper effectively sweeps the dirt from the floor and deposits it into a hopper for emptying at a later date. These machines are available as pedestrian, where the operator walks behind the machine and pushes it along, and as a ride-on version where the operator actually drives the sweeper, which is more fun!

Floor Sweepers

Scrubber Dryers

As the mechanical floor sweeper imitates the action of using a broom; then the scrubber dryer replaces the mop and bucket in the modern workplace. Similar in appearance to the floor sweeper, the floor scrubber uses its brushes to agitate cleaning solution into the floor to remove the dirt and the resulting residue is the collected by a system of squeegees at the rear of the machine. This residue is then vacuumed into a collection tank for later disposal. The floor should be left both clean and dry which means the minimum of disruption to the business. Like the sweeper the scrubber dryer can be a pedestrian or ride-on model.

Scrubber Dryers

Floor Buffers and Polishers

Floor buffers are versatile floor cleaning machines capable of polishing various types of floors including wood or stone and some heavy duty machines are also capable of scarifying concrete floors. The machine pads can be changed to suit the job in hand such as cleaning or polishing.

Floor Buffers and Polishers

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