Spring Cleaning, Seattle House Cleaning

There seems to be an interest in the subject of hoarding. It’s become a term for most any one with a messy house. Hoarding is actually where you keep everything. It accumulates so eventually it takes over the house. Hoarders can actually be very meticulous about the way things are organized. Most eventually get overwhelmed so the house goes into disrepair.

We assume going in that there is a method to the madness. Most people who accumulate a lot of stuff have a degree of reasoning. They have a mental process for everything. I’ve asked for things that the person of the house knew exactly where it was. We are talking about true hoarders. Being messy is something different. 

What we get a lot is a family member who calls, or the land lord is coming, or in some cases a social worker is visiting. In other cases people call us at some one else’s insistence, or some one is insisting on visiting. In these cases there may be some resentment, but the point is that some outside influence is driving the call for help.

We try to figure out the patterns. We take out garbage first, clear as much space as possible, then start sorting. I start in the kitchen sink, because we need water. Some times, or many times we move things from one side of the room to the other. Moving stuff causes a lot of anxiety, so we clean, and put back.

If we are allowed to come back on more than just a one time cleaning we can get a rhythm. We had one person almost completely organized. She took over, and called us occasionally. Her daughter also helps, so it’s kind of a friends, and family thing.

We will beat any written bid you have from a National Franchise House Cleaning company!

We are by far the most experienced at one time cleanings. We have a system that works extremely well. There is a catch that, like them, these cleanings need to be scheduled in advance. We can, on some occasions, accommodate a rush job.

The other thing is that we do limit our service area to Seattle.

We are considered a bargain by many of the top Real Estate professionals, and we still have a niche for preparing properties for sale. 

You can call most any time, and find me answering the phone. It is one of the little things that sets us apart.  

We have a site called Kill Mildew. There isn’t a lot to be said about mildew other than the formula of one part house hold bleach, and three parts water, with a very little amount of detergent as a wetting agent. The solution needs about thirty minutes to be effective.

You can put the solution in a spray bottle, but we also use cloth that is saturated. We wipe down windows, and sliding door tracks. Bathrooms can get a complete wipe down. For some reason kitchens aren’t as bad, but there are areas where the bleach can help kill bacteria.

This time of year when the house is closed up, and the heat may be on is the time we notice mildew the most. You can get started cleaning it up now, but keep in mind that as the spring, and summer come around it would be a better time to open windows, and doors for ventilation, and really kill the places mildew spores may grow.

The Holidays start the Spring Cleaning Season! You’ve moved all you furniture around, there are pine needles, leaves, dust balls, and dirt from walking in, and out putting up lights, or other decorations.

You have a beautiful home that once a year turns into a festival. No matter who you are or what you believe the dead of winter gets a face lift by the Holiday Spirit.

We take some of that enthusiasm, and use it for cleaning. Once the tree is down, once we get into the New Year, it’s a great time to get a fresh start. We wash a lot of floors this time of year. It’s an excellent time to get to corners you don’t normally see.

You are also probably digging through a bunch of stuff you don’t need that could go to charity. Cleaning out closets, or storage areas while you are shifting things around can give you another feeling of satisfaction.

This year is special. We are very grateful to have weathered a storm that came, and for us, went in the past three years. We want to thank you all for your support, and remind you we are here to serve.

This coming year we have some programs that will fit every budget. We know that cleaning is a boost to our emotional spirit.

We here in Seattle have the luxury of many choices of carpet cleaning. There are hundreds of local steam cleaning companies to choose from along with Stanley Steamers, Coit, and Serv-Pro.

D.A. Burns, and Emmanuel’s are the high end shops, that include your fine specialty carpets.

You can also choose Chem Dri which is a carbonated cleaner that is worked into the nap of your carpet to be vacuumed up. We especially recommend this for homes that may have had pets. Steam cleaning can encourage bacterial growth below the pad.

You don’t want to over wet your carpeting, and you want to do carpet cleaning sparingly. For all the removal of dirt that cleaning can do the moisture can also cause damage.

Truck mounted systems are preferred because they extract more moisture. The cost difference is slight considering how much more you get from the process. The stand up carpet cleaning machine is fine. We run into them a lot in high rises, but you have to be able to trust the operator knows what they are doing. There should be less spray, and more suction.

We of course encourage you to vacuum your carpets more. That will add more life over a longer period of time. Once every couple of years a good quality carpet cleaning is worth the expense.

Some one e-mailed me this morning from this site to ask if they could have the same cleaners each time because they have dogs. The idea was to introduce the cleaners to the dogs one time, and establish that relationship. This is a common request.

We have dogs, because we have kids. I always had a cat while growing up, and when I was single. The kids liked the cat, but when the cat died they wanted a dog, then another one. The dogs are now mine, and the kids now want a cat, because it’s easier to take care of.

So we get it about the pets. It’s more of a challenge to explain to some of the people who work with us. Some of the people who work with us were raised in other countries that didn’t have animals in the house.

What we have emphasized is that the family pet is a part of the family. We take extra time to make the pets comfortable. It does take time for the pets to trust us. We make a lot of noise. We move them off the furniture as we clean it.

It just makes every one more comfortable if we simply make the pet a part of our team.

We use three different kinds of cleaning rags, and there are more. It may be a small thing, but it makes a difference in how the cleaning comes out.

For cleaning we use terry cloth, kind of like a wash rag. For drying we use a bar towel, and for dusting we use a micro fiber cloth.

This post came up when I was asked about a post I made about water being your main cleaning ingredient. The terry cloth can hold a lot of moisture to do the initial passes on all surfaces to be cleaned. I do a pass on all surfaces first, then a send pass with the cleaner, like Windex, and a rinsed, damp cloth. To finish I use the bar towel to dry.

The microfiber doesn’t leave lint. We used that with the Pledge or Stainless Steel polish. Micro fiber can also be used dry for dusting if you shake the rag occasionally.

All cleaning rags need to be washed a couple of times before use. That helps to get rid of the fuzz. My best rags are about a month or two old, and we rotate those rags regularly.

I’ll mention that some people have linen, gauze, or diapers that they swear by. We’ve tried them all.

It must be the time of year because this came up twice today. There was a pile of dishes in two of our regular cleaning clients houses.

It’s more common in one time cleanings that we get a pile of dishes. We don’t mind, it’s quicker just to do the dishes, as explain that you are paying a lot to have your dishes put in the dishwasher.

Actually today it was more than that. In both houses the dish washer needed to be emptied in order for it to be reloaded. In addition there were pots, and pans that needed to be done.

We want to be as cost effective for you as possible. It helps to have the kitchen sink cleared. We all take water from that sink, and rinse our rags. So the kitchen sink is a priority. The sink also needs to be clear in order to start the kitchen cleaning process.

We are happy to do the dishes, we’re happy to be anywhere, I’m just saying that there are other things that are more cost effective for you to have us do.

There are a couple of things that people do to keep pet hair from clumping around in the corners. Some have a small vacuum that the use for the furniture, and unlikely corners. Dyson makes a great hand held vacuum.

The other thing is decorative blankets thrown over furniture, in a tasteful way. We have a client who has a light decorative blanket she got from Ross folded and draped across the back of the couch. She washes it with another light blanket she has next to the window down stairs.

These are a couple of simple things. Other tricks are to use is the Swiffer, the one where you change the throw away paper cleaner head, but you could also use a rag. Another is to vacuum the main part of the house the pets use. If it’s a part of your routine, as it is for some, you can stay ahead of accumulation of pet hair.

A new client we have today did a quick vacuum to discover the carpet upstairs was completely coated with pet hair. The hair had migrated up the stairs over time, and they hadn’t noticed the accumulation.

I’ve also seen pet hair settle onto a chandelier. Over the course of time the hair had become air born and settled, like dust, onto the chains that hold the fixture in place. We thought they were cobwebs.

This is the time of year to kill mildew outside of your home. We post this every year about this time as a reminder.

The best ratio is 25% household bleach to water, but some people go up to 50%. Be careful of your clothes and shoes. Walkways, stairs, decks, even roses (use a lower amount of bleach, maybe 10%) can be cleaned. The trick is to give the bleach time to work.

It takes 30 minutes for bleach to be effective. After the 30 minutes the composition changes, but it’s a good idea to rinse. We also add some, not a lot of laundry detergent, or Natural Orange Cleaner for the wetting agent. Laundry detergent also has a sudsing action that let’s you know where you have been over a large area.

On the flat surfaces you can use a water can. For surfaces like siding, or a fence you can use a pump up garden sprayer.

You can also use a variety of brooms for scrubbing, but you should scrub on the second, or third application. You can do this over the course of the winter. It’s just now that the weather has turned cold the mildew is weaker. You can also do this on a rainy day, but try to find a time of a light sprinkle. This will also keep the bleach solution wetter longer.

You can pressure wash after you have treated the mildew a couple of times, but it’s not necessary.