Miraclean – 803.984.9383 | Tag Archives: smell

There is NO time!

Posted on August 28, 2013 by Kristin Posted in Cleaning Tips .

You are one person. How are you supposed to keep up with your job, being a wife, being a mom, laundry, and housekeeping?!

The easiest way…put it on a schedule. Get it in your calendar and get it done.

I’ve got my house on a rotation schedule. Sundays are my cleaning day. One week I will wipe down countertops in the kitchen and bathroom, clean the toilet and dust the living room. The next week is for bathtubs, floors, and vacuuming.

While I’m cleaning, I’m also doing laundry. It’s easy to keep everything moving once you get started. Are your weekends busy? Break up the chores. Try loading the dishwasher at night and unloading it in the morning. Throw a load of laundry in the washer in the morning. When you come home from work or running errands, move it to the dryer.

Another idea when dealing with kids and laundry is to assign each child their own laundry basket and their own day to wash clothes. Once the clothes are finished in the dryer have them fold and put away their laundry.

Need a cleaning schedule? Check out a few ideas we found to help you:

Share your tips and tricks on www.facebook.com/Miraclean

My favorite cleaning product

Posted on August 21, 2013 by Kristin Posted in General Announcement .

Do you ever get something new and try it on everything? Maybe it’s a new tool or maybe, if you’re like me, it’s a new cleaning product. Being the skeptic I am, maybe I want to see if it can really do everything!

As most of you know, I buy all of my all-natural cleaning supplies from a wonderful wellness company that use scientifically-proven natural ingredients to keep your home safe and clean. I recently decided to get the Value Pack, a gift basket of sorts with various top selling products.

One of those products was a heavy duty cleaner called Melamagic and a degreaser called Sol-U-Mel. Both products are made using tea tree oil, a natural disinfectant, deodorizer, and essential oil.

I googled a few recipes to get me started and I was on a roll. I decided to try a capful, yes a small capful, in a load of laundry. My towels came out smelling so fresh! I mixed up an all-purpose mixture of the two, again using a couple of capfuls each and filling the rest of the spray bottle with water.

I sprayed everything in the bathroom and wrapped the showerhead in a mixture I poured in a plastic sandwich bag and tied to the showerhead with a hairbow. I sprayed my countertops in the kitchen, then I got to my stovetop. A degreaser. Let’s try it.

So, I went a little crazy. I started with the top, then I opened it (my mistake there!), then I took the coils off and soaked the drip pans in a mixture I made, again with just a couple capfuls of each.

And it worked! With very little elbow grease, I might add. I couldn’t believe it. The stove is older than I am, so there are a few spots where you can tell I need to go back, but for the most part I sprayed, let it sit, and wiped it up with no problem. It even worked on the control panel, leaving this beautiful shine!

Want to play with all-natural products? Sign up with this fabulous company that produces over 300 products including a men’s line, kid’s line, gluten-free foods, laundry and more! Think of it as an all-natural Sam’s Club or Costco. Join me and millions of others who have made the switch!

Want to join in on a short 30-minute webinar to learn more about the products? Click here!

Eliminate that ‘boy smell’ in the bathroom

Posted on July 31, 2013 by Kristin Posted in Cleaning Tips .

Last week, I posted a blog about how to keep your tile and grout clean. (Check it out here if you missed it!)

That stemmed a lot of bathroom questions from you, so I decided to answer those questions this week.

The most popular question was how to keep the ‘boy smell’ out of the bathroom. You know what I mean, right? It’s probably the main reason you avoid going into the kids’ bathroom. 😉 Well, let’s help solve that problem.

First, you guessed it; it starts with a deep cleaning.

Step 1: Mix a paste of baking soda and lemon juice. If you don’t have lemon juice you can use water but lemon juice is a great disinfectant and great for removing odors. The consistency of the paste should be about that of pancake mix.

Step 2: Spread the paste all along the bottom of the toilet {where it meets the floor}, the toilet seat, and any other area that gets a lot of over spray.

Let it set for about 10-15 minutes.

Step 3: When the timer expires spray the dried paste with white vinegar and let it fizzle. Once it is done fizzing wipe it up with a damp cloth.

It’s very important that you don’t forget about the walls and/or cupboards on either side of the toilet. It’s easy to remember to wipe the floor and the toilet but the walls and cupboards will also get sprayed and they will need to be wiped down regularly too. Spray them down with vinegar, let it for a few minutes and wipe them down.

Cleaning the toilet, floor and walls at least once a week, with these steps, will keep the smell at bay.

Another trick is making mini air fresheners and discreetly placing them in the bathroom cabinets, behind the toilet bowl, or on the top lip of the shower.

Use old baby food jars or small canning jars. Pour baking soda into jar until 1/4 to 1/2 full. Add 8 to 10 drops of your favorite essential oil(s). Poke holes in jar lid with an awl or ice pick. Decorate the jars with ribbon, fabric, or however you like. If you’ve lost the lid, cover top with several layers of nylon net, tie with ribbon, and voila! You’ve got DIY room freshener! (Add more essential oil as needed). Shake or stir it every now and then to freshen.

Another freshener trick is to place a few drops of your favorite essential oil in the toilet paper roll, as seen here. Your bathroom will smell pleasant with every roll.

As mentioned in last week’s article, keep antibacterial wipes under your bathroom sink for easy access when messes arrive. These are perfect for quickly wiping the toilet seat, cleaning globs of toothpaste, or a quick countertop wipe down before guests arrive.

Here’s a great recipe for making your own antibacterial wipes!

Use any type of old towel, rag, tshirt, etc. to cut into rags and finish the edges to make them wipe sized.

Next, fold the wipes and placed them in an old wipes container.

Mix:

1/2 cup water
1/2 cup vinegar
10 drops Peppermint Essential Oil

Finally, just pour the water/vinegar/essential oil mixture into the tub, completely saturating the wipes. It might help to flip the pile over one time so that the wipes on the bottom get completely soaked.

There you have it. A few tricks to getting rid of that ‘boy smell’. Did we forget something? What’s your trick? Talk to us about it on Facebook www.facebook.com/Miraclean

Is your kid the smelly kid in class?

Posted on April 28, 2013 by Kristin Posted in Cleaning Tips .

Do you smell?

I mean, do your clothes smell?

You may not notice, but washing machines have a tendency to smell bad due to their design. Water sits in certain components, which then become a breeding ground for mold and mildew causing unpleasant odors.

If you live in a humid climate, constant moisture in the air prevents the water from completely evaporating.

So, how do you fix it?

By cleaning your washing machine.

It makes sense. You use your washing machine to get your dirty clothes clean, so let’s talk about ways to make your washer more efficient.

TOP LOADING:

1.) Set washer to run on the hottest water and largest load setting. Do not add clothes or detergent. Once the wash bin is full, add 4 cups of vinegar to the water and allow the machine to agitate for one minute.

2.) Add ½ cup baking soda and agitate washer for one minute.

3.) Stop washer and allow it to sit for 30 minutes to one hour. Take this time to wipe the top of the washer, the knobs, and any dispensers.

4.) Allow washing cycle to resume until the water begins draining.

5.) Use a clean cloth to wipe the inside of the wash bin, the lid, and any other parts you did not get during the initial clean.

Remember to leave the lid open after each load, so the washing machine can dry completely.

FRONT LOADING:

1.) Set washer to run on the hottest water and largest load setting. Do not add clothes or detergent. Once the wash bin is full, add 1 cup white vinegar to the water (via the dispenser) and allow the machine to agitate for one minute.

2.) Wipe down door gaskets, seals and door interior with a soft cloth soaked in a separate 50/50 vinegar and water solution after the wash cycle finishes.

3.) Rinse the door gaskets and seals after cleaning them with the vinegar solution to prevent deterioration and damage of the seal.

4.) Make sure doors, gaskets and seals are completely dry. Leave the door slightly open to allow the wash bin to air out.

There you have it. A safe way to clean the appliances that keep you clean.

Maybe you’re wondering… “I’ve never washed my washing machine and I’m fine.”

Maybe.

But as put by University of Arizona microbiology professor Charles Gerba, “There is about a tenth of a gram of poop in the average pair of underwear.”

Fecal matter can carry different germs like E. Coli and salmonella. Underwear and towels are the worst culprits.

The acidity of the vinegar helps dissolve soap residue in the wash bin and is helpful in dissolving lime deposits in pipes. Baking soda cleans soap scum and deodorizes.

Want to see before and after pics of my washing machine? Check out our Facebook page at www.facebook.com/Miraclean

Don’t forget to ‘like’ our page while your there!

Behind the Scenes: The True Story of Miraclean

Posted on March 31, 2013 by fdsfg23441drghs433retgsd Posted in General Announcement .

If you haven’t noticed through my Facebook, LinkedIn, and blog posts, I love helping people. I love being able to share little cleaning tid-bits with you all and hearing your feedback.

That’s how Miraclean got started.

I needed a job that was flexible with my schedule while I attended college. My mom had cleaned offices when I was a kid to get some extra cash, so my dad suggested I do the same. I could make my own schedule, pick my own clients, and make some money.

“Sure, why not?” I thought.

So I got few office jobs and went to work. I must have been doing something right because my office managers loved me! They wanted me to clean their house. At the time, I turned down the work because I thought homes were too much of a liability. It was too much to worry about breaking something.

One particular office manager wore me down, so I decided to only clean her house. Honestly, I told her I would dust her house like I dusted the office. Same thing, right? I didn’t even clean her master shower because there is no master shower in the office.

I had NO idea what I was doing. Needless to say she kept me (and I started cleaning the master shower…duh, Kristin.) She started to tell her neighbors and the word spread around town.

Once I took the leap and started cleaning houses, my business took off. I started researching different products, learning the industry, ‘experimenting’ methods, and seeing what worked best.

But, all my office work wasn’t a waste because little did I know, I had built a relationship with the office managers. When they found out I also cleaned houses, they wanted aboard. It’s amazing how fast word spread.

By this time, I was getting ready to graduate from Winthrop University.

Due to a conflict in my scheduling, I had to take 25 credit hours in one semester to graduate on time. Most seniors take as few hours as possible and their first class was NOT at 8 a.m. Monday thru Thursday.

Not this senior.

Oh, and did I mention I was also planning my wedding? Yep. So, everything was happening at once. (Side note: I learned that if I could survive this semester, I could do anything!)

Miraclean was growing and my life was headed in one million different directions. I had to turn down a lot of people and I hated it. I thought Miraclean was too small to have employees. I was also worried about the liability, pay, tax deductions, and could I really afford to make that step?

Instead of worrying, I had to ignore it. I had bought a house the prior year and the mortgage wasn’t going to pay itself. I decided to keep the customers I could fit into my schedule because they paid my bills and focus on graduating.

I survived! And graduated on time. I majored in mass communication with a concentration in journalism. I minored in business.

I dabbled in newspapers, working as a freelance reporter, but Miraclean always won. As we grew, I knew I needed help!

My dad joined part-time and helped expand Miraclean. Thanks to his work, we also offer carpet, upholstery, tile and grout and pressure washing services, using all-natural products. We’ve become a one-stop cleaning shop.

I’ve hired a few amazing folks and we’ve got plenty of teams to help you clean, deodorize, sanitize and disinfect your ENTIRE home, top to bottom!

This is the true story of how Miraclean came to be what it is today. We use all-natural products that are safe to use around children and pets. We have the fastest dry-time method around! Your carpets will be 100% dry in less than one hour.

Don’t take my word on it. Check out our website for before and after pictures, referrals, and more information about us. If you would like tips on how to clean your home naturally, friend us on Facebook and LinkedIn.

If you are a customer, please know that we appreciate your business so much. If you have yet to work with us, please know that we will do everything we can to help give you peace of mind. 🙂