Cleaning A Bath Tub

5 Steps To Cleaning A Bathtub

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The build up of dirt and grime at the surface of our bathtubs and showers is a slow yet steady process that we sometimes forget about as were seeing it everyday without much change in coloration. As the grimy stuff accumulates, it makes it harder and harder for us to scrub it clean through the layers; so once we finally realize and act on our now discolored bathtub we may have a mess on our hands! In this article we’ll go over 5 helpful steps to cleaning a bathtub for a like-new shine!

1. Rinse the bathtub

To play it safe, skip running for our cleaning solution and scrub materials right away and give the tub a good rinse. We’ll want to get rid of any loose debris such as tiny pebbles from dirt, sand and anything else that could potentially scratch the surface of our tubs if they get in between it and our scrubbing. Rinse twice to be extra careful!

2. Spray bathtub cleaner

You may want to seek out a certain type of cleaner depending on the surface material or your bathtub. Take whichever bathtub cleaner you chose, whether it’s liquid or powder, and spray it on the tub or apply it according to the instructions. Cover the entire area that is in need of cleaning!

3. Wait for ten minutes

Once the cleaner is covering the entire surface, it’s important to let it sit in the tub for around ten minutes so the cleaner can eat away at and soften the elements in the tub. This will not only make for an easier scrubbing experience but it will also disinfect so sit back and give it some time!

4. Scrub well

The cleaner that you chose to soak your tub with in preparation for scrubbing should have some information in the instructions as to what type of scrubber you should use with it for best results. If not, use a kitchen sponge or a soft cloth. Scrub the surface until it shines! Pay special attention to the faucet and drain areas, as this is where build up tends to occur. Give your fixtures a shine while you’re at it!

5. Rinse properly

Take a bucket of water or a mobile shower head and rinse all over the bathtub properly. You may want to rinse once or twice in the process of scrubbing and reapplying the cleaner if your bathtub is extra dirty. With the conclusion of your final rinse, start to enjoy your clean, like-new bathtub and don’t let it go too long before you give it it’s next clean!

Fall Cleaning Tips: How To Get Your House Ready For The Winter

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Fall is officially here and we wont be seeing anymore warm, musky days so it’s time to open up the windows to let the breeze roll through and dig in to the last major cleaning before winter comes! Lets go over some basic yet important cleanup and home maintenance tips.

If you haven’t turned your mattress over and washed all of your bedding, now is a good time before breaking out the thicker sheets for a cozier nights sleep, this includes comforters, pillows, linens and blankets.

Next, think of all the grass and dirt tracked throughout the house if shoes or sandals were worn inside over the summer, it’s the best time of year to perform a professional carpet cleaning. The same goes for window cleaning, inside and out before the cold comes, keeping everyone indoors.

Aside from these basic and important tasks, if you don’t already get professional cleanings regularly, it’s time for a deep clean throughout the whole house – top to bottom!

Moving on to home maintenance, it’s time to check if the furnace is ready for the cold weather so make sure the filter is changed and everyone can enjoy clean, crisp air! Homeowners with the pleasure of having fire places should check the flue, which is inside the chimney where all the smoke rises to come out of the roof, and have a professional fireplace cleaner take care of it if it’s wood burning.

On to the outside of the home! Leaves! Check all of your gutters, or hire a professional to do so, and then get rid of all of the leaves by bringing them out to the street before the leave trucks come to take them away.

That does it for a simple inside and outside the home tips list for fall cleaning and home maintenance. Enjoy the fall colors for a little while before the excitement of snow showers arises!

Back to School Organizing

10 Tips For Back To School Organization

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We at QC Cleaning would like to share some our best tips for back to school organization as Professional Organizers! Here are our top ten tips that will make the transition back to school as smooth as can be for everyone in the house:

10. Make sure the clothes are washed, laid out and ready for the kids to select their back to school outfits without going foraging through drawers when it’s a school morning and show time!

9. Get the bathrooms organized and ready for the kids to prepare for their day or for you to assist them through the morning routine.

8. Get the alarm clocks out and set them for the appropriate time! Make sure there is no clutter in the area where it is kept and is used daily.

7. If you received information from the school on what school supplies each child should have then make sure that their book bag is all packed up and ready to be strapped on.

6. Find out what the school bus schedule is before the first day so everyone can be prepared for the expected pick-up time. If you drive the children to school, plan your route and estimate your arrival time at school to see if they will be both safe and on time. It’s best to have this information in the area of the home you always visit before leaving the house such as the kitchen.

5. Organize the snacks and tupperware areas of your kitchen making it easy to pack lunches when the time comes on the morning of a school day or the night prior.

4. If you have the luxury of designating space in your home as a learning center, supply it with everything you think the kids will need to get their homework done after school.

3. For parents with children who participate in afterschool activities or sports, get the schedule for practices and meets then get to know the afterschool bus schedule or the time you can expect to pick them up from school.

2. Plan dinners and organize your kitchen well before the time to cook comes so the kids get a healthy meal!

1. Schedule both your home cleaning and organizing dates to keep up with the new busy back to school schedule!

Lemon Juice Cleaner

10 Household Cleaning Uses For Lemon Juice

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For most of us our only familiarity with using lemons is to add some splendid flavor to a recipe we’ve been working on, or perhaps in adding it to some freshly brewed iced tea, but the majority of us probably don’t know how beneficial lemons can be to household cleaning! Lemons are full of citric acid and with their low pH and antibacterial elements they can be a great alternative for regular household cleaners. In this article we’ll cover 10 household cleaning uses for lemon juice incase you run out of cleaner and you haven’t called a professional cleaner yet!

1. Cleaning Copper

Have you ever wondered how you can clean up your pesky copper bathroom fixtures and the pots and pans on display from when you were gifted them at your wedding! Well, you can use salt and lemon juice to clean copper items and make them spotless!

2. Cleaning the Microwave

Cleaning your microwave and getting it lemon-fresh is easier than you think! Place a bowl of lemon juice in your microwave and set it for three minutes. After ten minutes has gone by, wipe down the inside of microwave and enjoy the cleanliness!

3. Laminate Counter Tops

To clean your counter tops with lemon juice you’ll first need to dilute it with some water then you can spray the counters as you would a kitchen cleaner. Once you’ve cleaned them to your satisfaction, rinse the surface with water and dry it for best results.

4. Grout

All too often our kitchen and bathroom tiles are forgotten about and the grout gets discolored but luckily with just a brush for scrubbing and our lemon juice we can restore their appearance!

5. Plastic Containers

To get our handy plastic containers and tupper wear back to new after leftovers have stained them, soak them in lemon-diluted water and let them sit to loosen up the grimy stuff.

6. Refresh Your Freezer

To get rid of odors in your freezer as well as stains from spills and leaks, first scrub it with a water mix then place a cup with lemon juice in your freezer. This will protect it from bad odor, especially if you keep and replace the lemon juice!

7. Hard Water Stains

Lemon works as a magic solution for getting rid of hard water stains. Cut a lemon in half, rub it on hard water stain, wash it off with water then towel it dry for a magic show before your eyes!

8. Mineral Build Up Solution

All too often our tea and coffee cups get mineral build up from repeated use overtime but our lemon juice or lemon slices can help in combination with boiling water in your coffee pot or tea cattle. Boil for a few minutes then check on their status. Once you think they’re ready, rinse, dry, and enjoy!

9. Glass Windows and Doors

Just as you would use Windex to remove dirt from windows and doors, you can spray lemon juice on them and wipe them down for a clear view!

10. Dish Washer Cleaner

The last but not least use for lemon juice when cleaning is adding a little to your regular dish washing cleaner for a zesty clean smell and added antibacterial power! Hope you’ve enjoyed our latest top ten list!

Cleaning A House of Pet Hair

The Best Ways To Remove Pet Hair From Your Home

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Nowadays our pets aren’t just considered our best friends as we often call them our children and babies! As much as we enjoy their company, at times we need to remove pet hair from our homes. Even with regular bathing, grooming, and care, our pets leave hair all over our homes! In this house cleaning guild for your home, we’ll take a look at the best ways to manage and remove pet hair!

So where do we start? As pet owners we find their hair on our cloths, upholstery, carpet, floor and other surfaces. Having a designated play area with pet toys, like the dog & cat toys at our local Phoenixville Pet Supplies Plus, can help keep pet hair more consolidated in our area of our home.  You can train them to enjoy these spaces of your home with treats and chewable toys found at nearby Maddie’s Castle Pet Boutique on Bridge Street in Phoenixville.  

Normal dusting will be near impossible to do the trick anymore with a pet in the house! Consider buying a special “pet hair magnet” or “stick lint/hair removal” device to help in addition to vacuum regularly with a pet hair attachment or setting if you’re lucky enough to have one. Run it on floors, walls, windows, doors and furniture! Don’t forget the hidden places like corners, under and behind furniture, behind curtains etc. Specialty products such as the “FurMaster” sold on places such as Amazon might be worth checking out if you don’t have a professional cleaner!

Let’s say after all this you still can’t seem to get the hair in your house under control; you can try moping with sponge after vacuuming. Lightly dampen a clean, regular sponge and mop the place where the hair is accumulating, on your carpet for example, with your new homemade hair tool. A damp sponge will help the hair get moisturized and when the hair gets wet, it will be heavier and easy to pick up. Once the hair is removed, wipe the surface down until it’s dry or air-dry it.

Hopefully these pet hair removal tricks and tips help make for a cleaner house but just remember there are always professional house cleaners like us at QC Cleaning standing by to take these types of messes off of your hands!

5 Tips for Living Clutter Free in the Summer

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Summer is almost here and the kids will be home from school all day! Here in the Phoenixville School District, kids are typically let out of school for summer around June 10th. Most of us who work during the week, or stay at home, feel we need a vacation too! Summer is the perfect time to work on some new household habits when it comes to cleaning and organizing to give yourself more time to enjoy your free time! So let’s go over 5 quick yet powerful tips to help us live clutter free during the summer!

1. Everything has its own place! We’ve all heard of this before but what does it really mean? It means that not only do you know where everything goes around the house but the kids also have a good idea and can put things back where they belong!  It’s great to take the kids to toy stores in the area like Generations Toy Store on Main Street here in Phoenixville for a fun afternoon, but remember to have the kids put them away in the right place.

2. Entrance Spaces! In the summer our doors are always opened and the shoes and sandals are less likely to be put away with such inviting weather outside! Continuing on the ‘everything has a place’ mentality, have somewhere specific to store all of the shoes where it’s easy accessible! We should be able to find enough storage around our house with the use of bins in the basement and garage, but for some folks using a Self Storage Service like Sterling nearby could be a good strategy for extra belongings until you are well organized.

3. Toy and Electronics! iPads, iPods, Kindles, and even Legos all are items that we never want lost and we know the kids and adults want readily available! Get some small baskets or table arrangements that can add to the décor of the house and do away with clutter. Many pieces of furniture these days have great sections for storage conveniently built into them!

4. Clear the floor! This may just be the easiest clutter rule out there but one of the hardest to follow. Having a floor clear of any items can make your living space seem much larger and roomier with a minimal-feel that most of us are looking for. If you don’t set stuff down on the floor, you won’t need to remove it so be sure to have everyone in the house place things in their designated spot!  If you need help with a house cleaning or deep clean then you can always reach out to up for an free cleaning quote with an appointment.

5. Don’t forget the Outdoor areas! With all of the lawn work going on and the lawn toys of the kids that may be scattered around the outdoor spaces, pick up some bins or outdoor furniture with build in storage to tend to any clutter! Whether it’s the an outdoor kitchen, a patio area, the driveway or a pool area, there are a bunch of creative ways to make for hiding away anything worthy of clutter!

Those are our 5 Tips for Living Clutter Free in the Summer!

Kids Rooms Home Organizing

Great Tips To Organize Kids Rooms

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Have you ever said these three words to the kids: “Clean Your Room!”? Can we keep ourselves from ever having to say this? We sure can try with some great organizing ideas for the kids’ rooms!

Think like they do! First off, before we get started with our organizing, lets try to put ourselves in the mindset of our kids by looking at the spaces we have to work with from their vantage point! This may include having toys or games on shelves or bins that are low enough for them to put back into their normal areas on their own.

Organize top to bottom! Start organizing from the bottom of the room, and work to the top. Most used toys and belongings should be kept on lower shelves, in lower drawers, or on the floor. Keep the less-used toys on high levels so there is always room to put back the more frequently used ones.

Make sure you simplify categorizing items the best you can so they don’t have to think to put items back. Using a computer printer, you can print out simple little labels to make up categories around the room that can be turned into a fun game of “matching the item to the label”!

Devise a simple checklist to make sure each section of the room is accounted for when it comes to things getting back in their place! Building small routines like this will make doing the tasks at hand seem much less stressful and it will keep disorder from becoming overwhelming! Try these simple tips today for a more organized home in between regularly scheduled cleanings or a complete organizing by professionals!

10 Easy Spring Cleaning Tips For A Fast Clean Up

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When it’s the time of year that we start to use our screen windows and doors spring is just around the corner and our house is calling for it’s clean up before summer comes! In this post we’ll go over ten easy cleaning tips for a fast clean up around the house!

1. Get the Fabrics in Order: Wash the pillow covers, mattress pad and pillows (that can be washed) from everyone’s bed as well as any from couches! After this do a separate load of laundry with kitchen, doorway and bathroom mats!

2. Sanitize the Work Areas: Whether it’s you desk, where your children do their homework or the computer of your significant other, take a lightly dampened microfiber cloth and wipe down commonly used surfaces.

3. The Microwave: Our microwaves can get quite grimy if you don’t have regularly scheduled cleanings or keep up with it on your own. Give the microwave a good cleaning and if there are any unwanted smells you can slice a lemon in half and let it sit on high for a few minutes for a nice citrus scent!

4. Area Rugs: Any area rugs that are easily moved and carried around should be taken outside and shaken thoroughly! Hang them outside for an hour or so before bringing them back in to minimize dust.

5. Bring Spring Inside: Now’s the perfect time of year to gather a few potted plants to strategically place around the house in the sun and watch the flowers bloom!

6. Empty the Fridge: Just before a good grocery overhaul let your fridge get near empty to make it easy for a thorough cleaning throughout!

7. Garbage Odors: Our garbage can have one of the most important jobs in the house but they are easy to forget to maintain! Just incase anything seeped through a bag, take the cans outside for a good rinse with baking soda then let them dry-out upside down!

8. Toiletries: In your bathroom, see if your toothbrush or shower sponge needs replacing, it’s a good idea to replace these every few months. Now is also a good time to throw away and old medicines that you’re unsure of the expiry on.

9. The Garage: If you don’t plan on having organizers like ourselves come out and help minimize clutter for extra space, consider an overhaul of your garage where you remove most everything and then use a strategy for the placement of everything when you put it back together again!

10. The Yard: Last but certainly not least, if you have a yard and one with tree branches that have fallen over the winter or leaves left from the fall, take a few hours to roam your grass and get rid of it so it’s ready for the first lawn mowing!

Spring Cleaning Checklist

Spring Cleaning Checklist

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Spring has finally started to fill the air with jacket-free temperatures when we step outside! Before you can open up the windows, consider cleaning them with the help of our spring cleaning checklist! Yes, we’re talking about spring cleaning. To make this daunting task seem a little more manageable, we’ve created a handy-dandy spring cleaning checklist. We’ve organized the cleaning checklist room by room!

ALL ROOMS

Clean windows and windowsills
Vacuum curtains
Dust corners for cobwebs
Steam clean carpets and rugs
Sweep and mop floors
Dust ceiling fans and light fixtures
Replace light bulbs as needed
Test batteries in smoke detectors
Disinfect door knobs, cabinet handles and light switches
KITCHENS

Clean appliances:
Oven
Microwave
Coffeemaker
Toaster / toaster oven
Refrigerator and freezer
Scrub stovetop / range
Clear out cabinets and wash shelves
Sanitize sink and clean drain
Clean behind and beneath refrigerator
BEDROOMS

Organize drawers and closets
Wash bedding and pillows
Rotate mattress
Disinfect kid’s toys
BATHROOMS

Organize cabinets and drawers
Clean backsplash and countertops
Clean sink and shine faucet
Scrub the shower and bathtub
Wash shower curtain
Clean the toilet
HOME OFFICE

Clean keyboard
Wipe down computer monitor
Disinfect computer mouse and phone
Clear away the clutter
LIVING ROOM

Wipe down television screen
Dust / vacuum furniture
Clean fireplace
LAUNDRY ROOM

Clean behind washer and dryer
Thoroughly clean lint trap in dryer and washer
OUTDOORS

Wash screens
Organize garage
Clean deck and outdoor furniture
Hose-out garbage can and recycling bins
Congratulations, you’ve reached the end of the Spring Cleaning Checklist. No sweat, right?  Give us a call for all of your house cleaning and home organizing needs as we are standing by and happy to help! 🙂

Valentines Day Cleaning

House Cleaning & Home Organizing Checklist

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House cleaning and organizing in the winter cold is never fun for our clients, but once in a while tidying up is needed in-between our professional house cleaning services.  It’s the start of February, the coldest time of the year here in Phoenixville, Pa and it’s the perfect time to catch up on indoor chores that loved ones can appreciate before Valentines day!  With that, we here at QC Cleaning are excited to share our best tips for getting cleaned up and organized in this last stretch of winter while enjoying the warmth indoors!

1. Embrace the Nesting!

Launder all your home’s bedding this month to get each room clean and ready for spring.
Clean all bed linens, including comforters, duvets, bed skirts, pillows, etc. Launder what you can; dry-clean the rest.

2. Pillow Fluffing

Fluff up down pillows with a short spin in the dryer (no or low heat).

3. Linens and Towels

This is an especially good time to clean out your linen closet. Rotate little used linens and towels to the front lines. Launder everything.

4. Flip the Mattresses

Keep your mattresses comfort level high by flipping it!

5. Tackle the Shelves

Clean bookshelves. Take everything down and dust. Now, consider very carefully what you return to the shelf. Does it really deserve to be there? Or would it be happier in a second-hand bookstore?

7. Clear the Air

Replace the filter in your heating unit, nows a good time when our heater is used most.

8. Freshen Up the Walls

Check walls for nail holes, blemishes, scuffs and do any light indoor repairs you wouldn’t want to tackle once it’s warm out.

9. Big Appliances

Get your significant other to help you move all the large appliances out from the walls so you can vacuum behind and underneath them. Change the water filter for the fridge while you’re back there!

We hope you enjoyed our top winter house cleaning tips! Reach out to us today to schedule a free quote at (484) 334-3033.