Eco Cleaning Tips
Paper Towels
Recently, I noticed a big box store was selling rolls of brown paper towels (nostalgia from public school washroom trips, if you will).Before starting a cleaning business, I thought these were budget-conscious and low-quality paper products. However, I quickly learned that while not the best for hands, they are fabulous for cleaning glass as well as general areas.The actual term for t...
Read more...Dishwasher Trick
The blue goo that goes into your dishwasher (the spot beside your soap dispenser)—you know, the rinse aid—isn’t the best for you. Surprise, surprise! Like the rest of the dishwashing agents, rinse aids leave a thin chemical residue on the "clean" dishes—a residue that you ingest whether you like it or not. I have changed my dishwashing habits and now use eco-friendly powder detergent (li...
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Good Smell, Good Times
Have you ever wondered how to get your house smelling lovely without the chemical plug-in and spray products, scented candles, and potpourri? We all know the harms lurking in the chemical cocktails that go into these products, and frankly, after I learned about them I changed my ways immediately. What I suggest is trying a few new tricks to get your house smelling lovely. • Cleaning with water ...
Read more...Get Your Grout Clean
Many people wonder how to get grout looking perfect. The truth is, grout won’t look the same if it’s not cared for properly. First and foremost, make absolutely certain that your grout is sealed. The reason is: should it not be sealed, you will be leaving extremely porous material vulnerable to dirt. Unsealed grout will easily absorb and not so easily let go of. Moreover, if mildew builds up, you’...
Read more...Daily Shower Cleaners
Are those daily shower cleaners just a marketing gimmick? Not really. The amazing thing about this type of product is that it reduces the need to clean your shower on a more frequent basis. Why is that? Well, the ingredients used are present to negate soap scum from forming at all—they collect the excess dirt and grime and don’t let it have a chance to stick to your walls. The best part is that it...
Read more...Vacuum Up Your Act!
Vacuuming is really important despite the popular opinion of not doing it (it takes work, that’s for sure). If you have pets or allergies, vacuuming is absolutely critical to maintaining your indoor environment. Sweeping, dusintg, and mopping can clear the dirt and dust out of the area, but they do not effectively remove dust from the air. This means that even if you have spent 30 minutes with you...
Read more...Smelly Shoes?
Summertime means wearing shoes without socks, or wearing shoes with socks and sweating in them. No matter how you slice and dice it, your feet and shoes will face the consequences of the heat and smell. It happens to everyone, so don’t be ashamed. The best way to keep shoes odor-free is to sprinkle good old chemical-free, additive-free baking soda into the shoes and spread around the powder to cov...
Read more...Grease Spatters
Kitchens are super high maintenance. Cleaning grease means you are taking a proactive approach to keeping an area nice and clean and reducing the amount of heavy scrubbing required during your annual clean-a-thon. Grease will leave a sticky residue on counters, hood vents, stove tops, cupboard doors, and microwaves. It can be nearly impossible to clean off if left for a long time! Not only that, i...
Read more...Cleaning Your Faucets with Some Extra TLC
Many people ask how to get the faucets looking gorgeous. Here’s what we recommend for super shiny hardware. If you have hard water stains or anything encrusted (to put it nicely) onto the sink, soak a clean rag in vinegar and wrap it around the soiled area. Leave the rag for about an hour or so, and then remove the rag. Take a clean dry cloth, buff the hardware clean and watch the hard water depos...
Read more...Counter Stains
Although granite countertops are all the rage, many people (including myself) still have the old fashioned laminate countertops, which are durable and fairly easy to keep clean. However, like all other surfaces, they are susceptible to absorbing stains from wine to offee to grease. Most people wipe over these areas and don’t know what else to do regarding the stubborn stains. Here are a few sugges...
Read more...Hardwood Floor Cleaner
Everyone wants to know how to clean sealed hardwood floors. I had to really research this. I would suggest speaking to your flooring manufacturer just to be sure the floor is sealed and can handle this mixture. Regular wood floor cleaning products work alright, but they tend to leave residue, which gets sticky and very hard to clean after a while. I’ve heard about people who have had to get the fl...
Read more...Gorgeous Glass
I’ve learned how to clean glass beautifully and easily, using eco-friendly methods. This recipe applies to indoor and outdoor windows and does a great job with mirrors, too. I take an old spray bottle, make sure it’s nice and clean, and then fill it with 1 cup of vinegar, 1 teaspoon of dishwashing liquid, and water. (Don’t question it—it works!) No streaks and no smell and of course, no harm if it...
Read more...Overwhelming Oven Cleaning
You may be spoiled and have a self-cleaning oven. If so, consider yourself blessed. If you don’t (i.e., if you have a convection oven or one that needs to be cleaned by you), here’s an eco-friendly way to solve the problem. Squeeze the juice of a lemon into an oven-safe bowl or pan (a casserole works well). Fill it with water and drop the whole lemon in (sliced—you want to make sure it’s totally c...
Read more...Erasing the Need for Magic Erasers
I have been doing a bit of experimenting with products lately to see if I could created anything that works as well as or better than current products on the market. As a business owner, I look for ways to reduce my costs, and I also look for ways to create a healthier environment for my employees and my clients. Magic Erasers are all the rage in the cleaning community, but I’ve effectively been a...
Read more...Citrus Power
I hope I have shown you throughout my blogs how we can create clean and safe homes—naturally. Often what we find in the fridge and pantry is all we need to clean our homes. Orange oil is amazing for tackling greasy jobs. For example, when we are faced with a client’s greasy exhaust vent above a stove, we use orange oil as our saving grace. It is a natural degreaser, which means it is perfect for k...
Read more...Air Fresheners: A Breath of Fresh Air?
We all want a fresh-smelling home; it means it’s clean and under control. Some people resort to air fresheners in aerosols, plug-in pods, and a host of other creative products. Personally, I am horrified by these products and avoid them at all costs. I have neighbors at my condo who are undoubtedly hooked on the stuff; I have to hold my breath as I walk by their door. These artificial masking scen...
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Cleaning Stains Off Porcelain
I am an avid tea drinker and have a couple of tea pots in my rotation. I have a beautiful black ceramic one as well as a white one, but the white one, of course, gets stained each time I boil a pot of my favorite morning drink, English breakfast tea. I usually scramble out the door to get started with my day, so I rarely have time to rinse the pot or even dump the cup out. (I know I should rinse i...
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What Does a Clean House Smell Like?
Many people believe (or have been conditioned to believe) that a clean house should smell like Mr. Clean, Windex, or bleach. This is not true!In fact, after my endeavors into the cleaning business, I learned early on that “naturally clean” smells like—well, not much at all.You can choose to clean your house with four or five basic items.Here are the basics: Salt ...
Read more...Keeping the Kitchen Organized
We’ve seen kitchens of all kinds! It can be an incredibly overwhelming place to be, so we suggest keeping it as de-cluttered as possible. You have to treat the kitchen as it is: a storage centre for rolling inventory. It needs to be purged every so often (think about a store with last season’s fads; they all go on super discount sales to make room for fresh inventory). Buy less; even if those deal...
Read more...How to Clean Delicate Finishes in the Kitchen
If you are lucky enough to have a stunning modern kitchen, you will need to know how to clean it. Many commercial cleaners are available but natural solutions do an amazing job and should be your only consideration for these projects. Stainless steel is all the rage in kitchen design—and it looks lovely! To keep it that way, here’s what to do. Fill a sink with warm water and about a ¼ cup of white...
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Keep Your Kitchen Smelling Fresh
I love cooking, but after broiling a beautiful piece of salmon, steaming some tasty broccoli, or roasting a delightful bulb of garlic, I have no interest in the odors coexisting with me. I’ve come across some excellent tricks to reduce and neutralize kitchen odors. For starters, decaying food is a huge problem! Examine your fridge and remove old foods at once. Wipe the bottom of the fridge regula...
Read more...Keeping Your Kitchen Clean: Watch What You Wipe With
Sponges and cloths are playgrounds for nasty kitchen bacteria. Bacteria goes everywhere because we spread it about while cooking, cleaning, and preparing meals. Just think of how many times you touch and use that dish towel while preparing a dish such as roast chicken! The concept of paper towels is what we want to go with—frequent disposal (or laundering) of the cloths. Paper towels are ingenious...
Read more...Neat Tricks with Vinegar
You will surely run out of vinegar by the time you have had the chance to use all of these tricks, so stock up on the large containers! Here are some little tricks using vinegar for everyday use around the house. We have found them to be quite useful! Ants can be warded off if vinegar is sprayed in the infested areas. The same also goes for cats: simply spray vinegar in places where you want your ...
Read more...The Benefits of Vinegar: Deodorize in a Snap
Vinegar works very well for removing odors. When cleaning something out (for example, a garbage pail—see the baking soda trick from a few weeks back), wash it with vinegar as opposed to anything else. It will remove any foul smells and neutralize the material. Following that, keep it fresh by using the baking soda trick. Another thing I love about vinegar is that it can remove cooking odors if you...
Read more...The Benefits of Vinegar: Grease-Cutting Machine
Vinegar is fantastic for cutting grease. When the Clean My Space crew encounters a greasy area, namely the kitchen, we arm ourselves with clean cloths and plenty of the good stuff. The key is to always buff it dry to avoid any damage (because vinegar is acidic). Apply the vinegar, let it sit, and then wipe off with a cloth or semi-abrasive sponge (depending on what is being cleaned). Fingerprints ...
Read more...The Benefits of Vinegar: Cleaning Glass and Soap Scum
Although vinegar has a certain pungent smell, we can’t argue the beneficial cleaning power it harbors. Over the next few weeks, I’ll provide a few cleaning tips we at Clean My Space have used involving vinegar, which I am sure you will find beneficial. Vinegar works just as well as, if not better than, your run-of-the-mill glass cleaners. What we do for ease of use is place vinegar in a spray bott...
Read more...Wonderful Baking Soda 4: Laundry
As if we haven’t already heard about how amazing baking soda is, there is even more to be learned. As a business owner, my time is limited; whatever I do needs to be incredibly functional and as time-saving as possible. So, I have invested some time to figure out how I can make doing my laundry less cumbersome. I have learned, not to my surprise, that baking soda is also a huge helper when it come...
Read more...Wonderful Baking Soda 3: Pots and Pans
Whether or not you have tried these baking soda tricks (they are so cool), I am sure you will love my story about cleaning pots and pans with baking soda.I am an avid cook, always interested in trying out new and exciting recipes. Since I love cooking from scratch, it is a fairly laborious task to get all the ingredients prepared and cooked. I am not complaining, but I am sure those who love cooki...
Read more...Wonderful Baking Soda 2: Shower Tiles
In my own shower as well as at homes of some of our clients, we come across dirty grout. This is a total eyesore and embarrasses many. When I bought my pre-owned condo, it was evident that the former owners couldn’t care less about the grout in the shower. The kitchen tiles were fine, but the shower, no matter how many times I cleaned it, didn’t look right. I tried to tell myself it was ok, but I ...
Read more...Wonderful Baking Soda 1: Kitchen Odors
Baking soda is one of our best friends when it comes to quick and natural cleaning and housekeeping. The things I have learned to do with baking soda are amazing, and as you can see from the last post about carpet deodorizing, it’s applicable to our daily lives. For the kitchen, I have come across some areas that could really use special attention, and baking soda is just the magic bullet. I know ...
Read more...Fresh Carpets and Rugs at Last!
Walking into a home and smelling that “familiar smell” can be comforting, but it can also be downright nauseating, depending on the condition of the carpets. Pets, kids, shoes, dust, etc. can leave the carpets smelly in no time. A great trick we use, especially for clients with pets, is the baking soda trick. Baking soda is an awesome deodorizer (I’ll keep writing more about its wonders), is cheap...
Read more...Natural Furniture Polish
Maintaining your wood furniture properly is critical to promote longevity and cleanliness. However, have you ever seen what the spray of furniture polish looks like when it comes flying out of the canister? I liken it to a waxy hairspray. That lemony scent is there (mixed with some other mysterious scents that make you want to sneeze), and after copious amounts of spraying and rubbing, your furnit...
Read more...Resolve to Be Clean, Naturally
With the start of a New Year, we all aim to do things that will better our lives. One thing you may wish to consider (and probably not at the top of your list of resolutions) is to use cleaning products that are better for the environment and the person doing the cleaning.How many times have you sprayed your mirrors and felt your nose burn, or coughed in response to the mist of your glass cleaner ...
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