Archive for August, 2009
Posted by Candice on August 31, 2009 at 23:22 pm
House Cleaning for House Guests
When you have a dinner party planned are you one of those anal hosts who rushes around the house cleaning, making sure everything is neat and shiny before the first guest arrives or are you a more relaxed host who doesn’t feel the need to eliminate every dust bunny. Do you have that internal debate about whether your guests will even notice the state of your home … beyond the obvious? Even the most laid back guest will definitely notice if there is clutter strewn about or everything is covered in a thick layer of dust.
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Posted by Candice on August 27, 2009 at 17:38 pm
House Cleaning - High Efficiency Appliances
When it comes to cleaning I certainly would hate to have to live without my washer, dryer and dishwasher. In my quest to be more eco-friendly though I am aware that doing these things the old fashioned way, by hand and with elbow grease, would probably be more environmentally responsible. All things considered I’m not quite ready to go to that extreme so what is the alternative?
The major appliances we have in our homes are refrigerators, washers, dryers, dishwashers account for the biggest environmental impact aside from our trusty whole house ACs. In many cases these appliances are more than a decade old and by all accounts are completely inefficient compared to new models. If you have old appliances you are spending much more on energy … and water … than you need to be. Changing to a newer, energy efficient model can result in savings in the hundreds of dollars range.
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Posted by Candice on August 25, 2009 at 17:47 pm
Green House Cleaning Pantry
Borax is a naturally occurring mineral composed of sodium, boron, oxygen and water. It’s also an ingredient in cosmetics, medicines, ceramics and building materials. It is included in our green cleaning pantry because it is more environmentally friendly than your typical commercial cleaners and is very inexpensive. We do add the one caveat though that you should store it where it is not accessible to your pets and children. Ingesting even small quantities can be toxic to animals and children while larger quantities will be toxic to adults.
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Posted by Candice on August 24, 2009 at 23:21 pm
Orange County House Cleaning
For Orange County house cleaning services we have a number of great local providers ready to help you with your housekeeping. Orange County is one of our largest locations and is second only to Los Angeles in population size among our Southern California location. We offer maid service, window cleaning and carpet cleaning in the OC.
Here is a selection of our pre-screened providers ready to bring some housekeeping help to your home in Orange County from Aliso Viejo to Yorba Linda:
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Posted by Candice on August 21, 2009 at 16:14 pm
Friday's Eco-Friendly Find
Known as the “green living source for today’s conscious consumer”, TheGreenGuide.com shows people how to make small changes that add up to big benefits for their wallets, for their health, and, of course, for the health of the planet. The Green Guide was acquired by National Geographic Society in March 2007 and is available in book and magazine format aside from online. The main goal is to provide simple, useful tips with achievable steps for going green. The focus is on affordability and practicality.
The Green Guide also has a buying guide which features over 2 million products with everything from personal care products and clothing to refrigerators and cars. The goal is to help eco-aware consumers find information of the greenest and most cost-effective products. The products featured are chosen by Green Guide editors and the Evo partnership provides the ability to immediately purchase any of the featured products. The Green Guide point out that they receive no revenue for their endorsements of products.
Featured categories are: Summer Guide, Home & Garden, Personal Care, Kids, Travel, Food and Go Local.
We were of course happy to see that they have a section on Cleaning in their Home & Garden category with the obligatory information on green home makeovers, DIY household cleaners and which toxic ingredients to avoid. if you’ve ever wondered about enzyme cleaners then look no further because Green Guide has the 101. Philip Dickey of the Washington Toxics Coalition, “enzymes allow a product to be effective without the use of harsh solvents.” However, they do this by biomimicry which still sounds a little too scientific to be entirely “natural”.
A very useful feature is the Green Glossary where you can lookup all the alphabet soup chemical ingredients in the products you use in your home as well as all the buzzwords and certifications related to the organic or green supply chain. There is also a great Q&A section where you can ask your burning questions – we of course looked at the Home & Garden Q&A first. For example: “Are there organic or natural methods to clean slow drains?” or “Is it better to unplug or reboot?” Don’t expect in depth analysis because all you’ll get is a quick one liner.
The Green Guide is well worth adding to your green bookmarks but it doesn’t require a daily visit. Weekly or monthly to catch up would probably be fine.
Posted by Candice on August 17, 2009 at 22:53 pm
Do You Hate House Cleaning?
If you just do a twitter search for house cleaning you’ll see many a tweet from ladies begging for cleaning fairies and complaining about having to do the house cleaning so using that as your benchmark you would probably say that yes, women do hate to clean house. However, according to a poll run by the publishers of Consumer Reports for their ShopSmart publication, only 7% of women surveyed reported hating cleaning their home. Interestingly enough, 25% of women actually say they love cleaning and some even find it relaxing. Vacuuming is apparently the preferred task for 41% of survey respondents with cleaning the shower, tub and toilet being the most disliked chore as reported by 25%.
The survey also revealed that the vast majority, 75% believe that their is home is as cleaner or cleaner than their childhood home.
Women report spending about 5 hours a week cleaning but say that in general men do lend a hand. In 56% of cases the spouse or significant other helps with the cleaning but 26% of women said that the amount of cleaning done by the man in their life is declining and a large number of married women, 83%, report that they still do most of the cleaning and 37% say house cleaning causes disagreements.
If you are one of the many who do not enjoy house cleaning or who find that it causes disagreements in your home you may be considering outsourcing the cleaning to a maid service on a weekly or monthly basis. The easiest and most convenient way to find and schedule house cleaning is to visit Bidmycleaning.com
Posted by Candice on August 11, 2009 at 23:01 pm
Bidmycleaning.com's Green Cleaning Pantry
People of great worth and quality have been called the salt of the earth which implies that salt is of great worth and quality. The two major components of salt, chloride and sodium, are necessary for the survival of all known living creatures, including humans so you could say that it is indeed of great worth. Not only is salt essential for life as we know it but we have certainly come to rely on it for adding flavor to our food. Is there another role for salt? Is salt a possible addition to our green cleaning pantry?
There are many applications for salt in home cleaning; everything from removing stains from carpet to polishing sinks.
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Posted by Candice on August 7, 2009 at 17:55 pm
Friday's Eco-Friendly Find
Wikipedia defines a salon as a gathering of stimulating people of quality under the roof of an inspiring hostess or host, partly to amuse one another and partly to refine. This epitomizes our eco-friendly find this week – ecosalon.com. This is a light and entertaining website but with a strong message. In their ‘About Us’ section they say that the central question that defines what they do is – “How do you go green without sacrificing style?” They believe that you can be green without being a granola munching, hemp wearing freegan. You can be environmentally conscious and do your part in the green movement while still retaining your style. As they say, “style and sustainability belong in the same sentence, and an eco-friendly lifestyle can be both ethically satisfying and fashionably fun.”
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Posted by Candice on August 6, 2009 at 15:24 pm
House Cleaning San Francisco
One of the busiest Bidmycleaning locations in California is San Francisco.
For homeowners and renters in San Francisco and the Bay Area we offer standard once-off and regular cleanings in addition to special services like deep or annual cleanings and move-out / move-in cleanings.
We are also a valuable resource for local property managers and realtors who need a quick and efficient way to arrange multiple house cleaning services at different locations.
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Posted by Candice on August 4, 2009 at 23:50 pm
Hydrogen peroxide is a great all around all purpose house cleaning agent. It is also great at killing molds, mildew, algae, bacteria and viruses and removing odors.
It is a great disinfectant and can be used in the kitchen and bathroom. In the kitchen use it to wipe down surfaces and spray on to your cutting board to kill salmonella. E. Coli is anothe one we are concerned about – research published by the Journal of Food and Science in 2003 showed hydrogen peroxide to be effective for use as a wash on fuits and vegetables. In the bathroom use it to clean all surfaces but it is particularly effective as tile grout cleaning but works best when allowed to stand on the surface for 15 minutes before scrubbing.
Tough to remove stains like wine, fruit juice, grass stains and blood can be successfully treated using hydrogen peroxide. Always remember to spot test the carpet or fabric for color fastness in a small less visible area.
Read other Bidmycleaning Green Cleaning Pantry posts or visit our Eco-Friendly resource page.
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