Crisp, fresh air. Sunny skies. Leaves budding on the trees. Ahhhhhh, Spring!
After being cooped up in the house all winter long, hiding from the frigid temps, our tradition of Spring cleaning blossoms anew. We can’t wait to throw open the windows to bring those clean yet still-chilly breezes. We turn our attention to starting the year anew but chucking the old and giving everything a spit-and-polish.
Spring cleaning at our house typically happens spontaneously on some particularly warm weekend and, with a war-cry, gather the kids and supplies and begin tackling a deep cleaning that surpasses the clean room at IBM!
While our Spring cleaning starts spontaneously, we have prepared a list tips and tricks to make Spring cleaning not only easy, but fun.
1. Gather the troops. Chores are always more fun with a group. Have everyone dress in their “grubbies,” assign each person to a room or a specific task, and hand them the supplies they’ll need for their task.
2. Put some music on … loud! We have younger children in our home so we blast Disney Sing-A-Longs; but feel free to play any music that energizes the team.
3. Revive drab drapes. Take the drapes down, remove hooks, and run them through the air-fluff cycle in the dryer with a damp towel to attract the dust for 15 minutes. Re-hang immediately. Wipe blinds with a damp cloth.
4. Dust thoroughly. Don’t cheat. Take everything off shelves, tabletops and dressers to dust. Remember all the places you’ve been neglecting throughout the year: ceiling fans, above kitchen cabinets, baseboards, and doorways.
5. Wash out trash cans. Deep-clean your garbage cans by hosing them down and dumping out the water. Then spray the inside with a disinfectant spray, scrub with a handled brush, and rinse. Leave them upside down to dry.
6. Clean upholstered furniture. Vacuum pillows, as well as underneath the cushions. Look for stains and clean according to the care label.
7. Investigate all doors and windows for leaks and drafts and look for peeling and chipping paint. This could signal water intrusion. Seal any open areas between the frame and the wall to keep out water.
8. Clean inside the refrigerator. The best cleaner is a combination of abrasive salt and bubbly soda water.
9. Rid your faucets of lime build-up. If your faucets have lime build-up – usually around the base, spigot, and the swivel joint, lay paper towels over the fixture, and soak it with vinegar, letting it sit for an hour. The deposits will soften and easy to clean.
10. Remove hard-water scale and/or mildew from showerheads, faucet heads, and drains using the same method in number 9. If the shower-head isn’t removable, position a plastic bag filled with vinegar over it and tape it shut.
11. Clean your chrome, glass or stainless steel appliances. Fill a spray bottle with a mixture of 50 percent rubbing alcohol and 50 percent water. Spray and wipe off.
12. Launder bedding and pillows. If you change bedding for the season, air out the spring blankets before putting them on bed. Store your winter bedding after having it cleaned.
We hope your Spring cleaning goes well. Don’t forget to prepare and have fun.
Squeeky Clean Window Washing guarantees you’ll be satisfied with the quality of our work regardless of the season the work is performed.
Anybody can clean, however it is the standard of the work and the techniques used that count. That is why some individuals want to hire the services of a professional for windows and gutter cleaning. The keyword here is “professional” which sets the agency apart from the standard cleaning services. In short, these agencies are in the business of ensuring that clients get their money’s worth through offering the top cleaning services.
Never use razor blades to scrape off dirt from glass in a window or door manufactured in the last 5 – 10 years. The reason is newer glass often has a defect called “Fabricating debris”. Glass dust created during the manufacturing process can land on the pane and become fused to the surface when heated during the tempering process. When a well meaning but poorly trained window cleaner scrapes the surface of the window or door these particles are broken loose from the surface and snowplowed across the surface of the glass. It doesn’t matter how “experienced” they are. It doesn’t matter that they used a new blade. They can’t hear or feel that they’re damaging the window. The glass particles that have been broken off and pushed across the surface will leave hundreds of scratches like a satin ribbon in the direction the window cleaner pushed the razor when they attempted to clean the window. This will be painfully clear whenever the sun shines through the damaged glass.
No matter what trade you are looking for, you may wonder how you can weed out the companies that do not provide a quality product or service. Unfortunately, there are far too many companies that will do as little as possible when providing a service or a produce in order to make that cash.
I’m often asked when is the best time to have my windows cleaned? Let me answer with a brief story. Once when I was the area marketing rep for the Sherwin – Williams dealer group I spent a day with a chemist from the Baltimore factory named Joe. We were to travel to a paint complaint involving an important contractor and the dealer had asked I bring a chemist to investigate. He talked as I drove and described the most common reasons for paint failure including what he described as the “Bio- Film” that could interfere with paint adhesion. According to Joe, Ultra fine dust particles from construction sites, decomposing organic matter, exhaust from cars, fireplaces, etc. float along with the wind, and mix with the humidity in the air. The morning dew coating everything evaporates and a minute film is left behind. This process repeats itself over days,weeks, months continually until the film becomes visible. This is why you might have seen mold growing on vinyl siding, plastic lawn furniture and even windows. The mold isn’t growing on the glass but on the layer of organic matter that’s built up over time. Instead of rain running off a smooth clean surface the moisture absorbed by this layer of “dirt” is held against the surface and can allow the glass to be damaged.