Tag: calgary professional cleaners

7 Ways to Professionally Clean Your House Like the Pros
Disney’s Classic, Cinderella, gave us all certain expectations about how cleaning happens. It involves singing, friendly mice, and helpful birds. We’ve since learned that we were way off base.

Not a single member of Clean Club Calgary has yet to see one mouse, one bird, one critter helps us with cleaning – even when we sing a lovely little song. Personally, we believe it’s because these creatures merely have a misunderstanding of what cleaning a house entails.

So, if the neighbourhood chickadees aren’t yet sweeping your home, we thought it best to provide some insight into how we professionally clean a house just in case you need to clean…without the help that Cinderella had.

1. Your Home; Your Cleaning Schedule

Some families complete chores one day a week. Others, complete smaller chores each day. The best schedule for your home is the one that works best for you.

What we do recommend at Clean Club Calgary is that if you have a busy household, tidy up every day or two so the build-up of “stuff” doesn’t start to overwhelm you. For example, do not leave dirty dishes and food on the kitchen counters, especially if you have pets. Pets will jump up with ease if there’s any hint of food on the counter. I personally have seen a dog eating a full birthday cake, knife and all, without even a second thought! Don’t worry, they survived.

2. Bust the Bathroom Fear.

Bathrooms are not as challenging as many of us think. It’s knowing what techniques and tools are available to you that make it easier. For instance, if you have hard water and glass shower doors (not the best combination if you ask me) make sure to take 10-seconds after each shower and squeegee the glass. This helps to reduce/prevent scum and hard water stains on the shower. Our personal method for cleaning this type of surface is starting at the top corner and working your way down to the bottom right. Go through and wipe down surfaces. If you stay on top of this, a scrub down of the surface will not be required each time you clean, but a simple wipe down. Another bathroom buster that reduces the heavy bathroom cleaning lifting is ensuring you clean your toilet the right way. Yes – there’s a right way! Here’s an article that gives you the step-by-step details to sparkling up that toilet (and freshening your whole bathroom) with ease!
3. Let the Bedsheets Breath.

Clean bedding should not be an afterthought when it comes to cleaning. There are often hidden, itty bitty dust mites, sweat, dead skin cells, hair, and fur (for pet families) and sometimes even bugs. A few things you can do to reduce these yucks are:
1. Make your bed every day,
2. Wash your bedding weekly and at least every second week.
Super simple! This is the first place I typically recommend people start with cleaning their house. Once the bedsheets are changed, dusting will be a breeze too, as you shook all the dust around and it can now be wiped with ease. 😊
4. Kitchen Nightmares Become Dreams.

Our kitchen can seem overwhelming to clean at first. There are all these corners, random spills and splotches, and food burnt onto the stove that seems to have made its home there. This nightmarish feeling doesn’t have to be. Begin building “every day tidying up” into your schedule (5-10 mins/day max). Since you clean or wipe down your kitchen after each meal, the more in-depth cleaning will be easier later. There are, of course, a few cleaning hacks we have to help along the way:
1. Microfibre cloths are the best to wipe down surfaces, both when wet and dry.
2. Soap and water are all you really need. Although, if you want a little extra kick, we recommend Bar Keeper’s Friend.
3. Make your stainless steel appliances, glasses, and faucets sparkle with an amazing cleaning cloth.
4. Remove pet and kid prints from cabinets with a damp, soapy microfiber cloth. Wipe down the cabinets with the damp cloth, then use a dry microfiber cloth to dry and polish up the cabinets again.
5. A Dust is an Absolute Must!

A quick once around the house with your dusting materials is all you need once a week. If you want to do a deeper dusting, we recommend dusting the baseboards and vacuuming the vents. Realize that dusting can also become quite cumbersome, particularly if you have lots of knick-knacks and other items that collect dust. However, dusting is one of the things that will immediately improve the air quality of your home, along with how “fresh” a space feels. To learn more about the ins and outs of how to properly dust, read this post on dusting tools and techniques .

6. Vroom Vroom Vacuum.

Our floors have so much more on them than we can ever imagine. Whether wood, cork, tile, or carpet, there’s dirt, dust mites, grit, and so many other hidden ickies that it’s best not to mention them further. Vacuuming is always required if you want a clean home. If you have pets, we recommend vacuuming a minimum of once a week. Every couple of months run the vacuum along the edges of your carpet as dust just loves it in these groves. And don’t forget under the bed! These areas are the biggest dust and dirt collectors. If you find yourself regularly waking up all stuffy and sneezy, ask yourself when the last time you vacuumed under the best was. To learn the ins and outs of vacuuming and on different floor types, read this post .

7. Mopping the Good Ol’ Way.

Mopping is not fancy. All it takes is a bucket of water with a mop and microfibre cloth. A good wash and wipe down of the floor is always the best. If you really want, you can add some essential oils to the soap and water to give a little extra zest to the smell. Start in one corner and work your way to the other. Take our advice though and be careful not to mop yourself into a corner where you can’t move until the floor is dry. It gets tricky trying to leap over the wet floor.

With each of these steps for professional cleaning, we created this simple cleaning tool list, outlining the top 10 cleaning items you need to get your home all sparkly clean . Have these tools, follow the above insights, and your home will look as though the professional did it!

Of course, there is an eighth way to clean your house, especially if the above simply leaves you saying, “no thank you!” Hire a professional cleaning company. We’d be happy to help 😉. Request a quote today.
June 17, 2022
How to Create Physically and Psychologically Safe Spaces for Employees
Will I be safe going back to work? Can I do my job without fear of getting sick? Can I touch things? Am I just being silly or am I going to be safe?

I’m seeing a huge shift in how businesses view cleaning, particularly as Alberta further reopens. This shift is in how businesses are viewing cleaning as it relates to the overall wellness of their company.

It’s funny as we used to take cleanliness for granted and hope that it would ‘somehow’ happen. But now, because we associate the word ‘clean’ with something that is virus-free, it has become much more than what it used to be.

No longer is commercial cleaning about first impressions and simple cleanliness. It is about reassurance. Reassurance that you and your space are safe, helping to ease anxieties about viruses that may be innocently lurking on every surface.

In conversation with clients, cleaning has now become part of their everyday safety protocols. This ensures their safety beyond the surfaces they touch, including:
- Improving the actual environment for your team’s physical health,
- Building better psychologically safe environments for your team’s mental wellness, and
- Turning cleaning as an expense into an investment to properly support both of the above.
It’s so important that we employers take the time to understand the full impact that COVID-19 had on employees from a mental standpoint, as much as it the physical toll it took.
IMPORTANCE OF PHYSICAL AND PSYCHOLOGICAL SAFETY

Your team cannot be in your office as you once were able to. The Alberta Government has done a good job of highlighting what you need to do to ensure you properly reopen, however, there is one crucial piece missing. That’s how to support your people with the physical AND the mental impact of COVID on them.

There is plenty of research done on how cleaning can improve your team’s productivity. Specifically, by focusing on sanitization, along with implementing specific rules for sick colleagues (e.g. do not come into work if you have the sniffles), you help your team remain healthy by:
- Minimizing the potential for germs and cross-contamination,
- Improving the overall air quality for your team, and
- Supporting/building a culture of true physical safety.
Where more research is being done today is on how cleaning can improve the overall psychological health of your team, especially as fear and anxieties have been heightened since COVID. Focusing on psychological safety and resilience helps you to:
- Support your team to remove/reduce any fear they may be feeling,
- Build a culture of diversity, inclusion, and open communication, and
- Encourage more creativity, resilience, and efficiencies in your team members.
SMALL DETAILS MAKE HUGE IMPACT

There are big things that you can do to let your team know they are safe such as putting up signs indicating what cleaning/sanitizing will be done and when; clearly marking hand sanitation stations; changing your doors to automatic/motion censored, and so forth.

However, it’s the small details that make a deeper impact on the overall mental health and safety of your team. The small details are what allow us, as individuals, to understand what we can and cannot control. This helps us to bring a sense of order for ourselves. These small details can include:
- Scheduling daily or weekly 1:1 check-ins with your individual team members to encourage them to share where they’re at from a mental standpoint. Sometimes, your team needs to feel seen, be heard, and encouraged to focus on their individual mental wellness; and
- Provide welcome back packages, filled with small items that support both the psychological and physical needs of your team, allowing them to do their work safely.
It’s when you start engaging in these small behaviours that you encourage resiliency, communication, and improved performance because you are demonstrating that you CARE about your team as individual people.
CLEANING IS AN INVESTMENT LINE ITEM

The truth is, your people are not safe if you only have professional commercial cleaning done once or twice a month. There is a reason why hotels are having to revamp their cleaning policies and realities of how much they can do simply because of the increase in sanitization standards. Same with restaurants, grocery stores, yoga studios, chiropractic offices and so many more! It is because proper cleaning and sanitizing are crucial to keeping people safe.

My own conversations with clients have been about shifting their cleaning budget from an expense to a non-negotiable operational line item. The key here in supporting them is to ensure all our professional cleaners have the proper training and certification to follow the guidelines as set out by the province…and our own standards as well.

The long and the short of it is that cleaning is transitioning to become a key operation for businesses to thrive in our new business reality. It’s no longer merely about keeping the space clean but keeping your people confident and comfortable in your space.

Looking for a special touch in supporting your team as you all come back together? Have a look at our individual Clean Club Calgary Welcome Back Bags, containing hand sanitizer, disinfectant spray, a roll of wipes, and a face mask (made by a local Calgary company!). To inquire about multiple packages, inquire with the number of packages you’re interested in here: https://www.cleanclubcalgary.com/products.
June 18, 2020
The Future of Cleaning Services in a Post-COVID World
How life was lived prior to March 2020 will never be the same. Nor should it.

COVID-19, the changing economy, and our new way of life is not something that people should look to survive, but understand how to embrace to continue to grow beyond it.

In this new era, there are a lot of good and positive things that are going to come from this. Personally, I hope a bit more human compassion and empathy will spread. Of course, I am also on a mission to show why professional cleaning services are considered an essential service and this is only going to continue.

I’m excited about the changes the industry will see, raising the standard of professionalism as a whole. Cleaning is a very honourable career and I believe that the fall-out of COVID will be a bright future for the cleaning industry.

Commercial Cleaning Services and the Business Community

Unsurprisingly, Clean Club Calgary has had an increase in the frequency of commercial cleaning service requests since COVID-19 broke. Businesses are starting to view cleaning as an investment in both their business and the health of their employees and clients.

That said, surprisingly, a number of our commercial clients changed how they previously viewed their services. For instance, one of our corporate clients increased their cleaning package with key sanitation procedures specifically to mitigate risk for their staff. Another client, previously cost-concerned with cleaning as an expense, has now increased the frequency of cleaning from weekly to two times per week, recognizing that they are investing in the health of their people, not only cleaning and sanitizing a space.

From show homes to studios, offices and cafes full of entrepreneurs, the business community is changing their relationship with cleaning, beginning to invest in it as they do their employee benefits programs.

Residential Cleaning Services and Improved Processes

First thing’s first — residential cleaners are ALSO considered essential workers! Why? Cleaning is as much about one’s overall health as it is about removing debris and dust from their home.

To ensure both families and cleaning teams remain safe, many companies have enhanced their processes for everyone’s safety. Clean Club Calgary has developed boundaries for social distancing, invested in quality face masks for our staff, and trained on additional sanitization techniques, among other steps to limit health risks. In addition, to reduce the time that we’re in a client’s home, we’ve developed firm processes so we can proactively clean and properly disinfect. While residential clients have always expected clean in their services (as they should), they are now growing to expect quality deep cleans every single time. It’s important that we further develop processes and procedures that provide greater relaxation and peace of mind for people in their homes, while meeting their expectations of clean and sanitized.
Cleaning Regulations Implemented Industry-Wide

I have always been committed to raising the standards of the cleaning industry. In fact, I am an active member of the ISSA Canada Residential Council. As part of this counsel, we are looking to develop regulations that all professional cleaning companies must follow. I believe that this is what all cleaning business owners should be doing as we have now entered an era where simple wipe downs do not bring the peace of mind EXPECTED by our clients.

Here, we continue to:
- Educate: There are key pieces of knowledge and support that come with being a professional cleaning company, such as having properly trained staff; proper coverage in terms of insurance, WCB, and staff; and what cleaning actually does in terms of transforming a space AND an individual’s physical and mental health.
  
  It’s also important that we educate on the types of products being used in the industry, particularly those laying claim to being “natural.” I am often approached by companies selling their “natural” cleaning product that has not (yet) been approved by Health Canada, does not have a DIN attached to it, nor does it have a safety data sheet. Natural may be a worthwhile trend to follow in cleaning products, however, if there is no safety data attached, then there is no guarantee that it is actually cleaning.
  
  Finally, while many products clean, they do not SANITIZE. In our post-COVID era, sanitization is crucial for businesses to ensure the safety of their people and clients. Professional cleaners must know the difference.
- Train: Did you know that there are eight ways you can fold a cloth to re-use it WITHOUT cross-contaminating? Not many untrained cleaners — including retail employees tasked with cleaning — know this either.
  
  This is just one tiny example of how easily and innocently cross-contamination happens. This is why cleaners who invest in their training are so valuable. They understand these tiny details that are about HEALTH.
  
  I personally invested in training and received certification as an House Cleaner Technician. All of our cleaners must go through similar onboarding training that we’ve developed to ensure that they are properly cleaning. By investing in proper training, both of our leaders AND of our cleaning team, our clients receive a true quality clean that supports their lifestyle.
- Improve systems: Systems and processes are crucial to properly regulating the industry. Our customers work with us because of the processes we have developed (not to mention our fun service). Our training involves going through our systems for how to properly clean, communicate with clients, work with special client requests, communicate with team members, and so forth.
  
  For the industry to raise its standards as a whole, showing the honour and pride that comes with this career, companies must implement processes and systems that support their clients and their cleaners. Having these systems in place, such as how to cover an employee who is sick, ensures the client work still gets done. These systems provide options for both the cleaning company AND the client themselves. The professionalism behind these systems raises the reputation of a company as better service is the long-term result.
Personally, I am excited to see people and businesses changing how they view cleaning services and professionals. Cleaning is no longer a nicety, but an investment that benefits people’s overall well-being. The future of the cleaning industry is going to sparkle and shine bright as more and more people expect higher standards for their new definition of clean.

Have you started to view cleaning in a new light since COVID? How has this impacted you/your business/your home life? I would love to hear how you’re using cleaning in your post-COVID world! Contact me today!
May 21, 2020