Author: Juned Saiyed

Best Cleaning Routine that Works on Daily, Weekly, and Monthly Schedule

Post author By Juned Saiyed
Post date September 9, 2024

A lot of people know what to clean but don’t know when and how to go about cleaning, leading to dirty and untidy spaces. This situation gets even more complicated with a busy and full life.

Considering, however, the benefits to maintaining a clean space, it’s worth taking some time to learn and implement realistic house cleaning routines.

This article discusses the best daily, weekly, and monthly cleaning routines. Feel free to adjust the suggestions to suit your unique needs.

Daily House Cleaning Routines

Some cleaning chores and tasks are meant to be handled every day. Otherwise, it becomes difficult to handle all of them on the weekend.

Little drops of water make the mighty ocean. This old saying sums up how small cleaning tasks whether handled or not can become significant in the grand scheme of things.

Here are the areas to touch daily.

Make the bed: Making your bed each morning before leaving the house encourages cleanliness. When you take 2 to 3 minutes to remake your bed, it activates and increases your awareness of other sections of your home needing attention. Also, experts have linked early bedmaking to improved focus, feeling of accomplishment, a sense of calm, and other health benefits.
Do a load of laundry: Many wonder if there are people who do laundry every single day. Yes, many have developed this habit. If you have a big family, you may have to do at least a load of laundry daily. A good way to manage the constant influx of dirty clothes in big households is the everyday bit-by-bit washing. Letting items of clothing sit until the weekend could make it difficult to catch up on other routines scheduled for the weekend.
Keep counters clear: Ensure to keep your kitchen and bathroom counters clear and clean as much as possible. A kitchen counter, for example, has this inherent nature of allowing messes to be made during its use. Instead of putting stuff away in cupboards, shelves, and drawers, many leave kitchen utensils, appliances, and other items on the countertop. Before you know it, the place becomes crowded with items that do not belong. So always remember to store items in their appropriate storage spaces.
Check the floors: Of course, you don’t have to deep clean or vacuum the floor every day. But especially if you have little kids, you need to address spills and food crumbs as soon as possible. Some spills when allowed to sit for a long time, penetrate deep into the surface, leading to discoloration.
Run the dishwasher: Run the dishwasher every day preferably at night. Overnight washing lets dishes have enough time to air dry. This can lead to energy savings as you don’t have to use the dryer function.

Weekly Routine Schedule

Just like daily cleaning routines, a weekly cleaning schedule prevents your home from building up with dust and general mess. The focus of weekly home cleaning chores is the commonly used rooms and high foot traffic areas.

Kitchen: Once a week, do thorough kitchen cleaning. This includes cleaning the counters, cleaning inside out the microwave, scrubbing out the sink, and sweeping up crumbs.
Bathrooms: Bathrooms are one area for many that take the longest to clean on a weekly house cleaning schedule. This is because of the many sections to be handled. Wash the floor, clean the toilet, rid of soap scum, clean the bathroom mirror, scrub and rinse the shower or bathtub, and clean the counter. If you keep your bathroom free of clutters daily, all left to be handled will be cleaning.
Other rooms: First sweep or vacuum the living room, dining room, home office space, and other high-foot traffic areas before washing the floors. Washing can also incorporate disinfection.
Do the laundry: Daily laundry means little to no weekend laundry. However, washing items such as bed sheets and blankets is typically done on a weekly.
Catch-Up/ Organize: No matter how disciplined you are with your cleaning routines, life happens. It’s fine if you can’t attend to some cleaning chores scheduled for the previous day. You can always organize something for the coming week. This way, you catch up with those pending tasks.

Monthly Cleaning Schedule

If you’re able to stick to your daily and weekly cleaning schedule, then your monthly schedule would just be for typical monthly and tune-up tasks. Here are some cleaning tasks to do on a monthly basis.

Vacuum the couch: Regular cleaning helps your couch or sofa last long. Use a vacuum to rid of food crumbs, pet hair, and dirt from the sofa surface. Clean also the metal or wood areas. You may have to use a neutralizer if your upholstery has an odor.
Clean out the kitchen cabinets: Clean the cabinets and other parts of the interior.
Clean the fridge: Areas of attention include drawers, shelves, and interior walls.

Wrapping Up

The feeling of stepping into or walking around a clean and organized home is priceless. You not only feel clear-headed but also increase your chances of healthy living.

These suggestions in this article are meant to guide you on what, when, and how to clean. Let the recommendations serve as guides or inspiration for how to create an easy-to-follow and effective daily, weekly, and monthly cleaning schedule.

Because we are creatures of habit, it may take some time for some or many of your cleaning routines to become second nature. That is fine, so don’t beat yourself up if it takes longer to stick to a routine.

If you still need help with the big stuff or you’d like to have a weekly or monthly cleaning done by the pros, know that Soji Cleaners has service technicians who can help keep your home in tip-top shape.

We use nature-friendly and family-safe products and practices. The size of your space is also not a problem. We’ve been for years providing services to different residential properties. So you can trust the expertise of our service techs to get the job done right.

See the locations we serve to see if we’re close to you. Our cleaning technicians will be more than happy to make your home sparkling clean and organized.

Tags Best Cleaning Routine

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Spring House Cleaning Tips & Tricks 2024 – Best Checklist to Follow

Post author By Juned Saiyed
Post date August 29, 2024

If you have the blues because you know your Spring Cleaning needs to happen and you’re not looking forward to it, we understand. The reason most people dread Spring Cleaning include the following reasons:

They’re not prepared
They don’t know where to start
They hate using their free time

The good news is when you have a clear plan of what needs to be done and how you’re going to do it, Spring Cleaning is much more manageable. In this article, we’re going to provide you with our ultimate Spring Cleaning checklist to help conquer your cleaning this year. By the time you’re done reading, you should feel much less stressed out. So without further delay, let’s jump into our Spring Cleaning tips!

1. Determine which rooms and areas you want to clean

This is the most important step before you start cleaning. While some people think they need to clean every room and area, this isn’t always true. You want to focus on the areas that both haven’t been cleaned in a while, and get the dirtiest.

Areas you probably want to clean will include the kitchen, main bathroom and living room. Areas you might hold off on, or at least do a minimal cleaning in, include guest rooms, offices that don’t get used a lot, or a powder room.

One you’ve determined which rooms you want to focus on, write them down as a list in a notepad and move on to step 2:

2. Prioritize your rooms from critical to less critical

The easiest way to do this is by considering the following questions and then adding a number between 1 and 10 to it (1 being lowest priority and 10 being highest priority)

My family spends a lot of time in this area (1 to 10)
This area has been neglected in cleaning (1 to 10)
This area has more items not cleaned than have been cleaned (1 to 10)
This area is more dirty (1 to 10)

Next, add up the scores for each room. Whichever room received the highest score, start with that one.

Some people might think this is a waste of time. They prefer just jumping in, focusing on every room and not looking back. This might work for a select few, but we’ve found that for most people, prioritizing your rooms and starting with the most critical works better. In the long run, you will feel more paced, more motivated and more accomplished.

3. Decide on the list of tasks you want cleaned in each area

What tasks you decide to work on is completely up to you. Normally you want to tackle items that are the most dust, dirty, scummy and greasy. Don’t feel like you have to clean EVERY item down.

One client that hired us for her spring cleaning asked if we thought it was worth wiping down all the china in her dining room credenza. But after we inspected a few plates, it was obvious her credenza did a great job of protecting her dishes from accumulating dust so we recommended against it.

On the other hand, some items or tasks will need to be addressed differently from each other. For example, your oven’s bottom storage drawer is probably a hot spot for crumbs and will need to be wiped out. On the other hand, your pots and pans cabinet probably won’t have a lot of crumbs to clean, but it might need some organizing. Don’t be afraid to spend a few minutes evaluating what tasks you want to address, and how you’re going to do it.

4. Develop a strategy for how you’ll tackle cleaning

The good news is you already have a pretty good strategy of what areas you’re going to clean and how. Next, you need to organize all of this onto a separate checklist and call it your Game Plan. The best cleaning Game Plan includes providing answers to the following questions:

What rooms will I start in first?
Which tasks in each room needs cleaning?
What’s the estimated time I want to spend in this room?
What’s the estimated time I want to spend on each task?
What day this month do I want to start?

A good cleaning strategy also includes thinking through what supplies you’ll need, which leads us to point 5:

5. Make sure you have the correct supplies and equipment

Below is our list of products and supplies that will help assist you in cleaning:

Magic erasers
Krud Kutter Grease Remover
Multi-purpose disinfectant
BORAX or AJAX
Scour pads
Lots of microfiber or cotton cloths
Swiffer Duster for high up fixtures and furniture
Dusting Mitt for lower furniture
Wood polish and cotton rags
Vacuum with hose and attachments
Swivel head microfiber mop
A grout brush for getting into cracks and crevices

You can also visit Speed Cleaning, which provides an exhaustive list of products and supplies in case you need help thinking of more products you’ll need.

6. Use a “Grid” system for cleaning particularly cluttered surfaces

One of the most dreaded parts of cleaning is lifting up clutter from bookshelves, desks or other furniture. To help make this process easier, pretend that the surface has a grid overlaying it. Then, focus on cleaning one part of the grid at a time.

The reason this is so effective is because you can remove items from their surface one at a time, clean that area of the grid, then put the items back. For some people this is so much more effective and less stressful than removing ALL of the items from a bookshelf at once and then trying to remember where everything goes again.

If you find that this system makes cleaning more complicated, no worries. Find the groove that works best for you!

7. Work in a clockwise pattern around each room

To help you keep pace as you clean, we recommend cleaning a room clockwise by cleaning all the areas on the outer parts of the room first, then working your way inward.

This will make cleaning much more easier than if you were to randomly jump from one task to another.

It’s also helpful to keep pace because you can gauge your progress better. If you finished cleaning one entire side of the living room, you can tell yourself you’ve already accomplished 20% of the cleaning. When you can measure your progress, it helps reduce stress and increase motivation.

BONUS TIPS!
We wanted to throw in a few extra tips to help making your spring cleaning even more successful!

8. Start cleaning from top to bottom

Whether you’re wiping surfaces or dusting, dirt and dust will always make their way downward. One big mistake people make is they start with a lower area like cleaning the kitchen counter tops, then they begin dusting light fixtures or cleaning out the upper cabinets.

This will make your previously cleaned areas dirty again, and create double work.

If you start from top to bottom though, you ensure all the crumbs and dust make their way downward, allowing you to follow them gradually with your rag or duster without creating more work for yourself.

9. Life saver tips to make cleaning less detestable

Below is a short list of just a few things you can do to make the cleaning process less of a headache:

1. Wear a face mask
  Especially if you’re spending a lot of time dusting. Airborne dust can cause respiratory irritation so having a mask will help you breathe easier.
2. Wear knee pads
  This is especially helpful if you’re cleaning our lower cabinets, wiping down baseboards or scrubbing a tub or shower.
3. Keep a water bottle with you
  Without even realizing it, your body burns a lot of liquid when you clean. Keep a water bottle near you so you can easily replenish fluids and keep your strength up.
4. Listen to your favorite music
  Listening to your favorite jams not only helps keep your attitude positive, it also helps keep you paced.
5. Take breaks to eat healthy snack
  Don’t wait for lunch to munch on something. Try to eat a healthy snack at least every hour. Apples, baby carrots, cheese sticks, nuts or granola bars are all fast, easy snacks to help keep your strength up.

10. Put fans in windows to control airborne dust

Chances are if you’re doing a lot of dusting, you will have a much higher level of dust floating around the air. To help reduce the level of airborne dust, consider taking a few box fans, propping them up in different windows in your house, and pointing the air toward the outside.

Many home builders point powerful fans outward to help reduce the level of sawdust and building materials in the air, and using box fans in your windows will help improve your air quality too!

Maintaining your home throughout the year

Reducing the amount of work required for your Spring Cleaning depends a lot on how often you stay on top of your house cleaning throughout the year. You’ll want to focus on cleaning the high traffic areas in your home and doing a maintenance cleaning at least once per week.

Don’t have time to do the spring cleaning yourself?

Some clients simply prefer to use their time and energy doing the things they love most like spending time with family, getting out of town or working on their hobbies. If you’d prefer to look into hiring a house cleaner, we’re the company to choose!

Simply contact our friendly customer service team and we would be happy to schedule a free walk through and provide you a quote!

Tags Spring House Cleaning Tips

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How to Remove Rust Stains From Bathtub – Best Tips to Follow

Post author By Juned Saiyed
Post date May 24, 2024

There is nothing better than running a hot bath after the end of a long day and relaxing. Whether you are exhausted, not feeling well or just fancy a long soak. A well-used bath, however, does run the risk of developing some rust underneath the taps.

At Soji Cleaners, we are experts at stain removal. It can be difficult to know how to remove rust stains from bathtubs, but we have some top tips to help you out. Many of these methods will not only help you get rid of the rust but will leave your bath dirt and grime-free and sparking clean.

How Do Rust Stains Happen

Rust stains are a very common problem that can impact many areas in your home. One of the most common locations is sinks and bathtubs as this is where there are metal features around water.

Moisture mixing with taps, or metal objects in the area leads the metal to oxidize and cause rust marks. Rust leaves orange stains underneath the metal which can look unsightly. Let’s take a closer look at how to get orange rust out of bathtubs:

How To Get Rust Stains Out of A Bathtub

Lemon and Salt Scrub

What You Need:

Lemon Juice
Table Salt
Sponge

If you are looking for an environmentally friendly cleaning option without the use of harsh chemicals, choose simple but effective solutions like lemon and salt.

These naturally occurring cleaners have great stain-removal power. Mix together lemon juice (from a lemon or bottle) with salt to create a thick paste. This paste can then be used on areas with rust – apply a thick coating and leave for a few hours to break down the rust. Once time has passed, scrub the area with a sponge to help remove the rust and rinse the area thoroughly with water.

Vinegar Soak

What You Need:

White Vinegar
Sponge
Water

White vinegar is great for cleaning due to its acidic levels, which help break down tricky stains including rust. With white vinegar, the bathtub will need to soak, so fill it with warm water and add a large amount of white vinegar.

Leave this solution for several hours (we recommend overnight) to let the vinegar do its magic and begin to break down the rust. After you have soaked it, the water can be drained. Use a sponge to wipe away any leftover residue. After this process has been completed, rinse your tub out with water and enjoy a rust-free soak.

Baking Soda Paste

What You Need:

Baking Soda
Water
Sponge

If you are thinking about how to remove rust from enamel tubs, another great cleaner that can be found in our kitchen cupboards is baking soda. Baking soda is a magic ingredient that has many uses and is great for cleaning rust. Like with the lemon and salt above, to use baking soda effectively you need to make a paste. Mix baking soda with water until it forms a thick paste.

The paste should be applied to the rust stains that you are trying to remove in a thick layer, ensuring all parts are covered. Leave the paste for an hour to allow it to soak. Use a sponge and a little bit of elbow grease to scrub the surface strongly, then rinse off the paste with water.

Commercial Rust Removers

What You Need:

Chemical Rust Remover
Protective Gloves
Sponge

Some rust stains may be so severe that traditional methods of removing them are not powerful enough. There are, however, several chemical commercial removers on the market. These are formulated to get rid of those tricky, rust stains but should be used carefully.

Make sure that you follow the instructions on the bottle carefully to get the best results possible. As many of these cleaners contain harsh chemicals, we recommend using gloves to ensure that your skin is protected. On top of this, open windows and doors to create ventilation in the room so that you don’t breathe in harmful chemicals.

How To Prevent Rust in your Bathtub

Now that you have a clean bathtub, or if you have purchased a new bath for your home, it is important to try and stop rust from developing in the first place. There are several different ways you can try and avoid this.

One of the best ways to avoid rust is to wipe down the bath with a towel after use so that it is dry. Ensure that you don’t leave any metal on or around your bathtub that could rust over time – this includes bath racks or metal shampoo bottles. Store these in a dry place and only add to your bath when in use.

Clean your bath regularly with standard cleaning products to make sure that the rust does not build up over time. Hiring a professional cleaner to do a weekly residential clean if you are busy, saves you both time and money in the long run as it stops issues such as rust from becoming a problem in your home.

Leave it to the Experts at Soji Cleaners

If cleaning your rust stains, or cleaning your home in general becomes a little too much or you don’t have the time to deal with them, that is where we come in. Here at Soji Cleaners, our expert cleaning team are on hand to help you with all your cleaning needs.

We take pride in our work and provide a unique, tailored home cleaning service to suit your needs. Whether you are looking for a regular weekly clean, one-off deep clean or specialist cleaning such as grout or carpet cleaning, we can help. If you have any questions, our friendly and experienced team are on hand to assist. Contact us today.

The Take Away

Have a go using some of our tips and tricks to create a clean bathtub. Rust can be difficult to remove but persevere – some stains may require more than one clean to remove completely.

If you want to call in the professionals, Soji Cleaners can do the hard work for you. Take a look at our website to browse the extensive range of services that we offer and contact us today to book an appointment. We can’t wait to work with you.

Tags Remove Rust Stains From Bathtub

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5 Tips That Will Make Cleaning Your Popcorn Ceilings Easier

Post author By Juned Saiyed
Post date May 21, 2024

As we meet new customers, one of the biggest questions we get is “how do you clean and dust popcorn ceilings?” Getting dust off is more simple, but if you’re trying to remove stains requires more attention. In this article, we’ll address the top concerns of cleaning popcorn ceilings as well as 5 tips on how to make the cleaning process easier.

With that, let’s jump in!

Three concerns to address first

Popcorn and even tile ceilings are different from the conventional ceilings most newer homes are made with. Before tackling them, here’s a few things you’ll need to know first:

1. Health concerns from Asbestos

Popcorn ceilings in homes built before the 1980’s might have Asbestos which causes serious health issues. According to Cancer.gov, Asbestos is known for causing cancer if inhaled, which makes it critical that you test your popcorn ceilings first if your home was built before the 1980’s. Learn more about Asbestos here.

2. Easily test your ceilings within 3 days

The good news is you can quickly test for Asbestos by purchasing a test kit on Amazon and getting the results back within three days. Sampling is easy to do. Just follow the instructions on the kit, send the kit back for testing, and get your results within three days.

3. Know the difference between dirty and damaged ceilings

When we’re conducting walk-throughs, we try defining spots from a dirty ceiling vs stains from a damaged ceiling. Because popcorn ceilings are made from vermiculite and polystyrene materials, they absorb liquid (like coffee or grease in the kitchen) and smoke within their pores, which makes it harder to use elbow grease for tougher stains.

If your ceiling is damaged, you may need to call a home improvement service that specializes in repairs and restorations on interior walls and ceilings.

5 Tips for dusting and cleaning ceilings

If the ceiling is just dirty, there are several easy steps for getting it cleaned. Below is our checklist of action items you can do yourself to help make the process easier:

Tip 1: Prep area by laying covering with sheets

Cleaning popcorn ceilings is messy. You’ll find ceiling kernels falling all over your furniture, floors and vulnerable areas like kitchen countertops. Because of this, we recommend taking a large sheet or two and covering the exposed areas of the room you’re cleaning.

Don’t worry about covering the entire room all at once. Start with a 5ft x 5ft area around where you’re cleaning and move your sheets as needed.

Tip 2: Wear a hat and face protection

Wearing a baseball cap will help prevent kernels from getting stuck in your hair, and eye goggles will allow you to focus clearly without worrying about debris falling in your eyes.

Also, it’s a good idea to wear a facemask. Even if your ceilings aren’t tested positive for Asbestos, a face mask will help keep you from breathing in other falling dust.

Tip 3: Use a Swiffer Duster for minimal dust jobs

We recommend using the Swiffer Duster Super Extender for minimal dusting jobs. The reason we love this is because it can extend up to 6 ft, which makes it very easy to reach high areas.

The microfiber heads also do an amazing job at retaining dust and keeping it from escaping into the air. This is because of Swiffer’s microfiber static technology that acts as a magnet toward dust.

Tip 4: Use a vacuum brush attachment for thicker dust jobs

Ceilings that haven’t been cleaned for a few years will probably have thicker dust clumps. In these situations, using a vacuum brush attachment is a better option than a duster. One reason a vacuum attachment is better for stronger dust is because the air suction keeps any dust from falling into the air.

The brush tool is also effective at agitating the popcorn ceiling crevices using its bristles which helps loosen and remove more dust.

Some cleaning professionals recommend using a shop vacuum, but we’ve personally found that a shop vacuum can be harder to operate cleaning ceilings, especially if you’re having to stand on a step ladder. Our recommendation is to use a vacuum that has a good accordion hose which can extend at least 15 ft. Accordion hoses are different from rubber vacuum hoses. They’re much easier to stretch across rooms or to reach ceilings. We also recommend the hose come with a telescopic handle which will make it even easier to reach higher up spaces.

If you’re looking for a good quality vacuum that includes all these features, check out the Tandem Air upright vacuum by Riccar. It’s a little pricey, but much more affordable than a Kirby vacuum, and is by far one of the most durable and effective vacuums for dusting higher up areas.

Tip 5: Use Clorox and water for tough stains

Other spots caused by grease or beverage spills (like in the kitchen) can be treated using a mix of water and bleach in a spray bottle. Some professional cleaners say to use a 50/50 ratio of bleach and water, but this is a bit strong. We recommend starting out with a 75/25 ratio (75 = water, 25 = bleach). If the stains don’t go away, then add a little bit more bleach and keep trying.

Caution: make sure to test your water and bleach solution in a non-conspicuous part of your ceiling first to make sure it doesn’t discolor your ceiling. You also want to make sure you’re wearing your eye protection and face mask.

Spray the spots on your ceiling using the “Mist” setting on your spray bottle and leave to set.

For less difficult spots, we recommend using a bottle of Krud Kutter degreaser and a damp sponge to gently dab at the spot. Remember, popcorn ceilings are tricky because you can use a lot of elbow grease to scrub the stains off, so you’ll need to focus on saturating the spot with your degreaser and patiently dabbings the area until the spot begins to fade.

3 reasons most people avoid cleaning their popcorn ceilings

As we’ve gathered feedback from our customers over the years, we’ve learned there are several reasons people decide not to clean their popcorn ceilings:

1. It’s physical straining

While using the right tools can help easily remove dust and stains from your ceilings, ultimately the process is tiring. People find lifting their arms above their shoulders to clean higher up areas can feel draining over time. Those with back issues or vertigo may also find the physical effort challenging.

2. It’s very time consuming

Popcorn ceiling cleaning takes time. For a small 1 bedroom+1 bathroom apartment, it can take anywhere from a couple of hours to an entire morning to clean. For larger homes, you’ll definitely need to schedule multiple weekends at a time and clean the ceilings in sections.

3. It requires a lot of preparation

Everything from purchasing the supplies you need to preparing the room so dust doesn’t fall on furniture all takes extra effort, which adds to the amount of time need to accomplish the job.

What’s the best option moving forward?

What our customers realized is that hiring our company was a much better option in the long run. Not only were we able to offer them a great deal on popcorn ceiling cleaning, but they saved so much time, energy and preparation.

Hiring Soji Cleaners has given our clients back their weekends and free time to pursue recreational activities, hobbies and enjoying being with family and friends.

We encourage you to give us a call or email us to set up a time to conduct a free walk through, or you can visit our main website at https://soji.us/

Tags Popcorn Ceilings

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