To do so, I am scrambling in the office, trying to get things ready to leave. I am scrambling to make it to the work out -I just joined a 9 week challenge. I didn't make it tonight. I am scrambling to get the house ready to leave 2 standard poodles in, and write up a 4 times a day dog chart for the lovely people who are caring for them though out the day while we are gone. I am scrambling to find clothes that fit, I have to run to the mall when I'm done here in the office, everyone else is gone. I am scrambling to help my husband who is short staffed in his office. I am scrambling to get someone hired before I leave so my staff has a place to put new homes we clean. I am scrambling to eat well, I meant to have super planned tonight so we can all eat together. HA!
People keep asking me if I am ready to go and excited. Am I excited? NO! Will I be? YES! When? When I am on an airplane pointed South!
Tulum Beach
PS, I am going to Tulum Mexico with my little family, so yes, I will have a great relaxing do nothing beach time and I PRAY that I don't worry about things while I am gone. Is'nt that what all this scrambling ahead of time is for?
These are the things we deal with day in and day out at Professional Home Ames. We ARE Ames' residential cleaning service. We provide GOOD solid jobs to 18 people in the Ames area. (as of Dec 2011) As many hours as they want, as much as they want to work. We work our "rear ends" off in the the office to keep schedules full, to provide moms with enough work to pay for the dentist, to buy new tires, for groceries, to Live.
And we work hard to make sure that that job, is something they can be proud of. Just as we are proud of the work our cleaning techs do, the work that goes into creating a clean home...we want them to be proud of the job they have, the company they work for.
I want them to be proud of me.
The longer I own this business the more I know it is not about cleaning. Anyone can clean (relatively speaking). Anyone can open a cleaning business. Anyone can have a spiffy facebook page and get lots of hype. No, this is about people. The staff we have, the staff that earns their place at Professional Home Ames, deserves to be here. Deserves to be proud of their job, deserves to be acknowledged for their hard work and great care for people. Our clients trust in us, and we continue to earn that trust at every cleaning we do.
We are not tricky. We are not fancy. We are steady, and reliable. Trustworthy and local. This is my family base, my town. This is where our staff is from, where they are proud to call home, and where they are raising their families. I want to be the business that creates jobs. Ames Jobs. That people trust. Most importantly, that our staff trusts and has pride in.
I am feeling the weight of 18 families on my shoulders tonight, and feeling grateful for the jobs we can provide, because Ames trusts us to be their residential cleaning service.
As summer ends, pets will spend more time indoors which means more of everything – hair, dander, dumped water bowls and the occasional “accident.” Even the best-behaved dog or cat will create some extra work which is why we put together a list of tricks to minimize the mess.
Clare, our old cat, is Queen of the home!
Place mats under animal food dishes and water bowls to keep food spills and water drips easier to clean.
Damp wipe painted walls to help remove sticky cat dander.
Use washable slipcovers over the furniture pets prefer. Make sure to wash in hot water to kill allergens and other bacteria.
If you allow pets on beds, bedding must be washed at the same high temperature at least every two weeks. Always wash sheets and slipcovers separately to keep hair from migrating to other fabrics.
When removing pet hair from draperies, carpets and upholstery, don’t automatically reach for the vacuum. Use a rubber latex glove, wet or dry, to do the job because hair will cling to it.
For a dog or cat that sheds like crazy, check out vacuum attachments with rubber strips that have the same effect as the glove. Use them for vacuuming around the house, not vacuuming your pet.
To clean urine stains, blot thoroughly to remove as much moisture as possible then rinse the affected area with a mild solution of dish-washing liquid and water; dry thoroughly. Next, sprinkle baking soda over the area; let sit to absorb any remaining moisture, then vacuum.
Vomit is a combination stain that requires a two-step approach: First scrape as much of the solid bits with the back of a knife into a plastic dustpan. Then blot and treat the remaining stain with an enzymatic product to remove the odor.
Deodorize pet bedding with baking soda. Sprinkle heavily, wait 15 minutes then vacuum.
We love pets as much as you do. We want your home looking like humans are in charge – even if they’re not!
This article first appeared in TheMaids informational blog.
Summer is finally here! June has been a busy month for us at Professional Home Ames. By the end of this month, we will have reached our 150th regularly cleaned home in Ames. That means we are caring for 150 homes on a regular basis, mostly bi-weekly. That means we are cleaning over 300 homes each month, plus one time occasional and spring cleaning.
What that DOESN'T mean is that our staff is overloaded, tired or taking on too much work. Quite the contrary! We use the single cleaning staff per home model. So each of our staff has a home in the AM, one in the PM if they are full time, and that is it. When we grow, we spend lots of TIME and attention, training someone new. We add quality staff, we don't team up, or over load the staff we have.
With Summer in full swing, we are carefully making sure our staff has the support they need, that our clients are encouraged to communicate and give us feedback, that our quality checks, and our training via weekly updates and meetings continue to be our focus.
This is the years first spring rain in my book. The snow has been gone a few weeks, the buds on the lilac bushes are big and green, and the steady fat rain is dropping from the sky, washing away all the grim and stiffness of winter.
Sometimes we can forget that water is one of the best cleaners there are. Yes, soaps help, a little de-greaser in the right spot can answer prayers! But water alone, and a nice microfiber cloth, can clean over 80% of your home! Hot water vs cold does an even better job.
Letting water help you clean, whether it is soaking those dishes before you start in scrubbing them, or letting a little hot water sit on your vinyl floor a few minutes before you get out your scrub brush, will save you time and muscle power.
Let's not forget that your yard, your streams, your rivers and your children will appreciate a little less "chemical" and a little more "safe and clean" running down your drains when you ease up on the hard core cleaners, and let water work with you where appropriate. I know that after this spring rain shower ends, I will enjoy walking outside and smelling the new fresh clean.
I got a call today. A female applying for a job said, “every woman should know how to clean a home”.
Should we pause a moment right here . . . take it all in. Men, ponder. Women, deep breath.
I know what she was doing. She was trying to sell herself as a potential great staff member. Her femaleness alone has qualified her for this position. Every woman should know how to clean her home. She has not had official “paid cleaning” experience, but she cleans her home, and hey . . . Every woman knows how to clean, or should know, so it is OK. Job is half in the bag.
Are woman innately born knowing more about cleaning then men? Or is the supposition, “should”, the thorn. And if so, why? Why should we know how to clean? Why should I know how to do one thing more then another? And if we should know, then what about men? They should not know? Or is the implication that they should not know how to do it as well as we do.
Are we going to talk about changing a tire and winning the bread? No. I should be able to mix all these things together and bake a lovely croissant for you, complete with a flaky crust of reasoning, and soft layered inners which build on each other like a lawyers final argument, combineing the ideas in one scrumptious buttery bite. But I can’t. Hopefully, “every woman should” not have to possess those skills. Every lawyer, every writer, but not every woman.
My answer to her statement was: Every woman does NOT know how to clean a home. Is this an insult to our female clients who call on us every 2 weeks to keep the upheaval of life at bay, if only in the area of home care? No. These women know how to clean a home. They know what a clean home looks like to them, they know they want it, and they know that the reality of life is that they can more efficiently achieve that goal by working with us.
I have an admonition to someone who thinks they know how to clean your home, that anyone can clean homes, especially any female. I have witnessed so many kinds of cleans, that “cleaning a home” has no meaning. Can you clean a home to satisfy your own personal subjective judgment, or can you clean a home in accordance with our guidelines and policies? Who defines clean? If every woman should know how to clean their home, then why do homes vary so, in their state of cleanliness? Or perhaps, every woman should know how to clean a home, but that home is their home. Not everyone else’s. I would agree with the statement that every woman knows how to clean their own personal home. It may look clean to some people, or dirty to others, but they know what they need to do to feel like they have cleaned it. By the way, many men think they know how to clean a home too.
But please don’t call me up, and tell me that because you are a woman, you know how to clean a home. Call me up and tell me that you know how to LEARN. To LISTEN, to FOLLOW DIRECTOINS, to CARE about others wishes and opinions, to WORK HARD at doing the job at hand. This will get you hired in a flash, and will negate the subjective harangue that can follow such a statement as, “every woman should know how to clean a home.”
