Cleaning Preparations
When it comes time to clean, having your ducks in a row makes everything smoother!
1. A hand held basket can help you move from room to room faster, bringing all you scrubbers, bottles of cleaners, and a trash bag for disposables.
2. Having fresh cleaning materials, like disposable cloths or paper products allows you to clean areas that need more disinfecting, like sinks or toilets, without worry of cross contamination. Remaining aware of contamination flow is important with all cleaning!
3. Glass cleaner bottles are notorious for leaking, so always keep them upright. The same goes with many spray bottles – if you need to spray up under something, it would be better to use an aerosol style can, or specialized cleaners, like for the underside of the toilet bowl.
4. Gloves are a cleaner’s best friend. Even when cleaning at home, yourself, they can help you feel better and psychologically allow you to get in and scrub deeper without feeling weird.
5. Micro-fiber or lint free clothes can really help with certain tasks, like polishing or cleaning mirrors. Not all cloth is lint-free and leaving trails of small lint threads can make a surface look less clean, and touching those surfaces can let small threads stick to your fingers and then end up somewhere else!
6. Small brushes, like finger-nail brushes, or even a dedicated cleaning tooth brush are tools in many cleaner’s arsenal against dust and grime. These let you get the dirt out of seams in surfaces, like metal framing on appliances.
7. A sticky-substance remover, like Goof-off is a go-to for caked on stick substances.
8. A cleaning agent that targets calcium deposits and soap scum and developing a reliable process of application, scrubbing, and re-application can be necessary for many areas, like faucets
9. Scrub brushes – there are nylon brushes (think bathtubs, and tire rims) and also more natural materials (think painted surfaces). Each has their purpose! Knowing the different uses, and having a few in your stash can lead to surprising switches.
10. There are a lot of non-standard cleaning agents that are great to learn about, such as baking soda, vinegar, mechanic hand cleaner, Bar Keepers friend, and many others. Paying attention to the nature of each cleaner can lead to better results, often faster. Also keeping an eye on the level of abrasiveness, or non-abrasiveness is essential to taking care of your items!
No matter what level of clean is needed, having a good set of tools makes it all better. While a lot of elbow grease and time is needed to shine your place, you could always defer to Lexi Maids! But, when the iron strikes hot, sometimes it’s good to scrub a tub, or dust your tile yourself. In those situations, we hope these tips help. We’re always here for your maid service needs, and we are striving to be the best cleaning service in St. Louis – so give us a shot, and we’ll come through for you!
As the season’s roll through, a new mess comes with changing patterns of your lifestyle. We can do weekly, monthly, or bi-monthly cleans to meet your needs!