5 Steps To Cleaning A Bathtub

November 1, 2023/in Blog/by QC Cleaning

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!

10 Tips For Back To School Organization

September 1, 2023/in Blog/by QC Cleaning

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!

10 Household Cleaning Uses For Lemon Juice

August 1, 2023/in Blog/by QC Cleaning

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!

The Best Ways To Remove Pet Hair From Your Home

July 1, 2023/in Blog/by QC Cleaning

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!

Great Tips To Organize Kids Rooms

May 4, 2023/in Blog/by QC Cleaning

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

April 11, 2023/in Blog/by QC Cleaning

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!

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Home Organizing Tips To Sell Your House Faster

October 15, 2021/in Blog/by QC Cleaning

Home organizing and decluttering your home can do wonders for preparing to put your house on the market for sale. In this article we’ll cover ten professional home organizer tips for decluttering to help you sell your house quicker!

1. Home Organizing with a touch of “Depersonalizing”.

When a potential buyer enters your home, it’s important for them to feel as if they can imagine their own belongings in it. Home stagers know all too well that creating the “home and decor” style magazine feel without personalizations is what sells. In order to give them this feel, pack all the family heirlooms and personal photos up and put them in a safe place. Remove all of your fridge magnets and hide the tooth brushes. Free up wall space to brighten up the room and let buyers imagine their own photos or paintings on your walls.

2. Declutter Your Closets and Storage.

De-clutter your closets and storage areas so potential buyers see room for their belongings. Renting a storage space could be helpful. This will also make your move easier, sorting out any closet items you don’t want to take with you.

3. Arrange the Kitchen like a Top Chef.

Any realtor or home organizer will tell you that the number one selling point in a home is the kitchen. Minimize, organize, and prioritize. Shining all of the appliances, organize the pantry, and sort the silverware like a showroom. Think home organizing magazine worthy!

4. Stage Your Furniture

Keeping to the plan to declutter and organize your house, move some of the miscellaneous furniture to your storage space to make your home feel more spacious. This could include fetching staging furniture like the pros depending on your needs.

5. “Safe Keeping’ Your Favorite Items

To save ourselves from being at risk of our favorite pieces of furniture or anything that is precious to us getting manipulated in any way while home organizing or staging, remove them and store them in a safe place.

6. Make Small Repairs

Do a thorough walk through the house looking for any minor repairs that may stick out to buyers and repair them. This could mean fixing leaky faucets, patching small holes in walls, or touch up paint. Take a look at the light fixtures to see if any bulbs need to be replaced as well to brighten up your home

7. Neutralize the Colors

Keeping with the theme of making potential buyers feel at home, if you have any colorful rooms, consider making them neutral. Whether you need to remove decor or do some painting, attention to detail sells.

8. Make the House Feel Welcoming

One of the best home organizing tips to sell your home or apartment is to lighten up the house and make it feel welcoming and cozy. Thia can be achieved by adding a few selectively placed plants and candles. Remember to “wow” buyers when they first enter your home.

9. Clean and Decorate the Outside

First impressions are everything when selling a home. It starts with the outside before walking in the front door. One of the easiest ways to spiff up the outside is to take extra time in landscaping the property, if it applies, and add some colorful flowers. but not too many! We don’t want them to think they can’t keep up with the property depending on the sale price.

10. Make Your House Sparkling Clean!

Last but certainly not least, make your house as clean as can be! One of the best ways to present a house is after it’s had a deep cleaning. As a professional house cleaning service and home organizer, our move out cleaning’s are meant to sell!

Holiday Cleaning Tips From QC Cleaning – Maid Service Pros

November 7, 2016/in Blog/by QC Cleaning

Holiday Cleaning can be hectic and time consuming if you don’t plan ahead! Our already busy schedule are in overdrive for the holidays s0 cleaning becomes more and more difficult to fit in. Divide your holiday cleaning tasks up into small segments that can be accomplished in a short amount of time and won’t overwhelm. The goal would be to have all the heavy lifting done before the day of your event and then the day before or the day of the event, you would just have a few items to touch up.

You are in your house everyday, so looking at your house differently will help you clean better. Walk through your home as if you were a guest at a holiday party to look for items that you’d like to clean or put away.

Instead of trying to accomplish your holiday cleaning yourself, get some help. If your children are old enough or you have another helping hand, assign them some tasks that fit their ability levels and you can concentrate on the more involved tasks.

Some common items you’ll want to attend to:

Wash Windows and Screens
Mop or Wipe Baseboards
Clean and Press Window and Shower Curtains
Iron and Clean Bedspreads
Deep Clean Bathrooms
Straighten and Clean out Coat Closets
Wash or steam clean rugs
Clean Stove Top or Range
Wipe Kitchen Cabinets
Wipe down Small Appliances
Clean out the Refrigerator
Dust All Surfaces
Clean the Kitchen Sink and disposal

Of course many of these items are included in our cleaning packages. But, if you are doing it yourself, hopefully this list will at least get you started.

Once you have all the large items done, keep them maintained until the event. The day of the event we have a 1 hour quick cleaning list to go through.

Hang Fresh Hand Towels
Fill up Soap Dispensers
Sweep the Front Steps or Porch
Clean any Front Door Glass
Damp Mop Kitchen Floor
Wipe Down Counter Tops
Move all larger items to the back of the refrigerator
Straighten Magazines and Books
Straighten and Fluff Sofa
Vacuum High Traffic Areas

For regular cleanings or a one time clean schedule an appointment with us today!

How Much Stress Can A Messy House Cause?

August 8, 2016/in Blog/by QC Cleaning

Clutter can play a significant role in how we feel day to day with a cloud following us around reminding us of our messy house! Messy homes and places of work leave us feeling anxious, helpless, and overwhelmed. Why does mess lead to so much stress?

1. Clutter bombards our minds with extra “to-dos” and distractions causing our senses to work overtime distracting us from what’s important!

2. A messy place makes it more difficult to relax, both physically and mentally, continuously reminding us out work is never done.

3. Clutter makes us anxious because we’re never sure what it’s going to take to get through to the bottom of the pile along with feelings of guilt if we prolong tackling it!

4. Clutter inhibits creativity and productivity by invading the open spaces that allow most people to think, brain storm, and problem solve – making our actual work outside of home more difficult in time.

5. Clutter frustrates us by preventing us from locating what we need quickly (e.g. files and paperwork lost in the “pile” or keys swallowed up by the clutter).

Fortunately, unlike other more commonly recognized sources of stress (e.g., our jobs, our relationships), clutter is one of the easiest life stressors to fix! Here are a few ideas:

Make it fun! While you’re de-cluttering in between professional cleaning and organizing services schedule a time for yourself to clear your mind, put on some music and have at it! The more up-beat, the better! Not only will you enjoy the tunes, the time will pass faster and you’ll probably work faster than you would without the music! Live stress free in your home today with a solid cleaning and organizing plan!

Organizing & Cleaning Tips for Your Homes New Year’s Resolution

January 11, 2016/in Blog/by QC Cleaning

We can all breathe a sigh of relief now that the New Year has come and the craziness of the holidays has passed, allowing us to make or break resolutions we set for ourselves in 2016!

With the New Year come additions to our houses in the form of gifts and possibly new decorations that were added that we’ll be putting away if we haven’t already done so, needless to say we have more stuff around the house than any other time of the year.

Here are three quick organizing and cleaning tips your house will appreciate for your New Year resolution:

1. In with the new, out with the old. A good post holiday rule is that for every new item brought in, recycle or donate an old item that the new might be replacing to preserve space and keep from clutter.

2. Categorize and label. We recommend using a professional home organizing service like our own to straiten the home out but if this is something you try to take on yourself, label as many boxes and bins as you can for storage or easy access!

3. A cleaning schedule. Once all the clutter is taken care of after a good organizing, it’s much easier to maintain the cleanliness of a home. Hire a professional cleaning service to come every few weeks or mark on your calendar when you’d like to do touch-ups so dirt and dust doesn’t have a chance of taking over!

Keeping your home organized and clean will make the rest of your resolutions breeze by making for a stress free, enjoyable 2016!

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