Pre-Christmas Cleaning Ideas for Every Household

A deep cleaning of your kitchen by yourself or a professional cleaner is a must to make sure everything is neat and tidy for the additional load of special dishes for Christmas. This is also a matter of pride to show your sense of cleanliness and smart housekeeping routine in front of your guests.

Vacuum or sweep kitchen floors daily and make sure to remove the spills and stains straight away to maintain the overall cleanliness gained by professional cleaning.

Now let’s concentrate on individual areas needing more attention- Today we’ll talk about cleaning and maintenance of kitchen cabinets.

Guide to Kitchen Cabinets Cleaning

Kitchen cabinets are exposed to dirt, bacteria and grime on a regular basis. Your cabinets become greasy primarily because of the condensation that takes place from the temperature outside, the grease accumulated from cooking and your children touching the cabinets with dirty hands. It is important for you to clean them at least weekly, if you cannot do so daily.

Kitchen cabinets come in different types. For cleaning kitchen cabinets, use lukewarm water, a diluted all-purpose kitchen cleaner and a good scrubber. However, first check the surface of your kitchen cabinet so that its surface is not affected. Given below are some guidelines on how to clean kitchen cabinets that are painted and made of wood or metal.

Painted Cabinets: Painted kitchen cabinets are more durable over wooden ones. However, they need some intense scrubbing. You may use the products described above, but ensure you buy the right scrubber so that the finish of your cupboard is not spoiled. If you have grease and very deep stains, use baking soda and water. It is best to stick to lukewarm water and always use a non-abrasive scrubber. When cleaning a painted kitchen cabinet, ensure you rub the service very gently. Intense scrubbing will result in scratches.               

Wooden Cabinets: The easiest way to neatly clean wooden cabinets is to use an oil-soap wood cleaner. Many such cleaners can be purchased relatively cheap from your local hardware store. On the other hand, you could clean your wooden cabinets using everyday materials you already have at home- you may use laundry detergent, baking soda and vinegar for this purpose. Ensure you do a cleaning check on a small spot before going over the whole cabinet to ensure the finish is not spoiled. Also ensure you do not over wet the surface of the wooden cabinet as this will spoil its finish. Baking soda is the best for removing stubborn stains; use it with water to perfectly clean sunscreen grease marks off the wooden cabinets.

Metal Cabinets: Kitchen cabinets made of metal are the easiest for you to clean. However, when you are cleaning metal kitchen cabinets, it is important for you not to use baking soda. Like wooden cabinets, you should not make the cabinet too wet. The dampness will lead to rust on its surface.

If you are too busy and cannot clean kitchen cabinets at home, you may call home cleaning experts to do the job for you. They provide daily, weekly and monthly services. You may choose a home cleaning service provider that is affordable, licensed and professional.

Select Home Cleaning – Expert Home Cleaners Just a Call Away!

We provide affordable and professional services at Hamilton, Wellington Tauranga, Auckland and Christchurch. We help you clean your home or office daily, weekly or monthly or for Christmas and other special occasions. Our cleaners are background checked and have years of valuable home cleaning experience. Visit our website to know more. You may also call us for a free quote.

DIY Home Cleaning Tips and When to Call the Pros

It’s better to do cleaning and housekeeping works daily rather than saving everything for one big cleaning task. Get into a daily house cleaning routine: making the bed, doing the dishes after every meal or at least at the end of the day, and sweeping the kitchen floor. This will ensure that your house looks fresh and cleaner every day! 

Make Your Own Window Cleaner

You need not to use fancy window and mirror cleaning sprays- they are not only costly, but also inefficient for cleaning stubborn stains. Take one and a half cup of water, and one and half teaspoon each of white vinegar and rubbing alcohol in a mug. Put three drops of peppermint essential oil into the mixture and fill it in a spray bottle. Your homemade cleaner is ready – now spray it on windows and wipe with a lint-free cloth such as a microfiber cloth.

To permanently remove the menace of water spots from glass shower door, rub it with lemon oil twice or thrice a month. The presence of lemon oil will cause the water to bead up and roll off, thereby keeping glass doors clear and shining.

Tea-Stain Your Fabric and Get Antique Creamy Look

You need not to throw badly stained kitchen towels. You can tea-dye them to get a new creamy brown colour and nice look. Take a metal bucket with boiled water and put five black tea bags in it for 10 minutes. Now take out the tea bags and put the stained linen in the tea mixture and stir gently.  Let it soak for 10 minutes or until you get the desired shade.

Now remove the fabric from the tea mixture and rinse well with warm water and dish soap. The approximate volume of water and the cloth size: 4 cups of water and 4 single cup tea bags will dye roughly 1 yard of fabric.

Wooden Furniture and Kitchen Cabinets

Use natural oils like lemon oil (Old English or Milsek) to revitalize the wood and continue to nourish and protect the wooden furniture and kitchen cabinets. The lemon oil will also help to remove wax build up along with water marks on the wood. Use a plain cloth to rub the oil into the wood and let it dry for 10 minutes or so.

Use flour-sack tea towels made of pure cotton in your kitchen for general cleaning. They are better than paper towels to dry glasses lint-free and to wipe down the stove.

Kitchen Sink

Sprinkle baking soda on the stains or on a damp rag and gently scrub to remove stains in sinks or to buff scuffs off floors. Another method is: make a paste of 1 cup borax and 1/4 cup lemon; apply it on a damp sponge to clean floor tiles and porcelain sinks.

You may not believe, but it's a fact that your dirty kitchen sink sometimes accommodates more bacteria than your toilet seat. That’s why we emphasise to call a quality house cleaner to thoroughly clean your kitchen and bathroom every weekly or fortnightly.

To disinfect the kitchen sink, first clean it with soap and water. Next, spray a mist of vinegar and hydrogen peroxide one after the other. Allow the sink to air-dry. Apply a few drops of mineral oil on a soft cloth and buff the stainless steel sink to avoid water build-up and mould growth. This will also make the sink looking clean and sparkling.

Calendar and Checklist for Yearly Special Cleaning

Ensure that you do the following cleaning tasks at least once a year: wash the windows inside and out; flip and vacuum your mattresses; deep-clean toilets, tub/shower, carpets, and the floors; change the furnace filter- it is better if you can do it twice a year.

These sophisticated cleaning tasks require expertise and hard work. It’s always good to get professional home cleaners to do the tough house cleaning chores. They will be doing it perfectly and so you need not to worry about hygiene and quality housekeeping. Also check with well known house cleaning companies for available cleaning packages that could save you some bucks too.

For your information, Select Home Cleaning provides dependable and affordable domestic house cleaning service that will leave your home looking great every time. This award winning home cleaner services Auckland, Hamilton, Tauranga, Wellington & Christchurch. Call them on 0800 000 907 for a free quote. 

How to Make Your Home Smell Amazing and Look Fresh

Standard house cleaning companies normally bring quality products and cleaning equipment, including vacuum cleaner, mops, brooms etc., when they come for your home cleaning task.

Pick up the best house cleaning offer that suits you well- it should be time saving, flexible, and affordable cleaning service with great customer care.

While selecting cleaning products and procedures, ask your home cleaning professionals to reduce the negative impact on our environment by keeping in mind the characteristics of petrochemicals and solvents. Nobody uses 100% natural cleaning products, but it’s good to be nature-friendly as far as possible.

It’s a fact that a clean home imparts very comfortable and wonderful feelings without you directly noticing it. It’ll enlighten the spirits of all family members when everything is neat and tidy. For this you need to give your home cleaning task to somebody who is an expert in the detailed, customized housekeeping services.

Find below some of the most germ-prone areas in your house:

1. Kitchen sponges and dish rags that you use to clean countertops, dishes etc. are found to be very dirty in most homes, carrying illness-causing bacteria, and other germs. They also contain colonies of mould. So, ensure to rinse the sponge or cloth in hot water, squeeze out the water, and keep it dry. Occasionally sterilize a wet sponge by drying it in the microwave for one minute. Daily wash the rags. When cleaning countertops, use a disinfecting spray and change sponge every two weeks.

2. Another area that harbours germs is the kitchen sink. Knives and cutting boards that have traces of raw meat, and fruits and food particles left in the sink basin encourage heavy germ growth! Ensure to daily scour the area with a scrub brush and a cleaning product as advised by your home cleaner to remove bacteria.

3. Your TV remote controls, and computer keyboards & mouse are often used by members of the family and contain large colonies of bacteria if you don’t give particular attention. Swab them with a well-wrung-out disinfecting wipe at least once in a week.

Another important point to keep in mind: you’ll get guaranteed results only if you call insured and police verified house cleaners. Enjoy hygienically clean toilets, dining area, kitchen, and so on with a trusted house cleaning company in Auckland, Hamilton, Tauranga, Wellington & Christchurch in New Zealand, and also several places across Australia. Yes, you guessed it right, the Select Home Cleaning service!

Select Cleaning services provide you cent percent satisfaction guarantee and great peace of mind. This is evident from testimonials written by people of all walks of life regarding their home cleaning service. Check it out today on the Select Cleaning website.

Select your home cleaning needs and call the dedicated professionals at Select Cleaning service on a weekly, alternate weekly or monthly basis. Our cleaning professionals are franchisees and as they are owners themselves, it’s natural that they have great attitudes and honesty and they take pride in providing quality cleaning.

Need some help with your home cleaning? Get your free quote now from the most well-known and trusted name in the home cleaning service sector in New Zealand! Phone:1800-153-483.

Picture courtesy:freedigitalphotos.net

Easy Kitchen Cleaning Tips from Select Home Cleaning, NZ- Removing Kitchen Oil Stains at Home

When you are cooking in the kitchen, it is normal for you to have oil splatters here and there. It is important to address these stains immediately or else there will be a thick layer of oil or gunk impossible to remove without professional help. Prevention is better than cure but when you are cooking, it is obvious you will have oil splattering everywhere especially when you are frying or tossing cooking ingredients.

Now, if you take a good look at your kitchen, you will find the common oil splattered areas being kitchen cabinets, stove hoods, stove tops and the stove vent filter. You will find a nasty and stubborn coating of gunk on your kitchen and the effects of this grease is not only an eye-sore but it circulates throughout the air as well exposing you to foul smells.

The experts at professional home cleaning company in New Zealand, Select Home Cleaning, state that it is important for you to regularly remove kitchen oil stains for the health of your family and the good maintenance of your kitchen. If you cannot devote time to clean them, invest in an affordable house cleaning service in Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch, Tauranga or Hamilton who will do it professionally for you. They have the right tools, cleaning agents and home cleaning experts to remove gunk and stubborn oil stains fast. This leaves your kitchen absolutely spick and span.

However, if you are cleaning the kitchen stain alone, ensure it is done every day. Please note that grease and oil stains cannot be cleaned with wet or dry paper towels. This is merely a waste of time. There are commercial home cleaning products in the market, however most of them fail to clean the gunk, especially if it is a combination of accumulated oil and dirt. There are ammonia based cleaners available in the market but they are not considered to be safe. Now, the question is- what are the steps for cleaning kitchen oil stains?

Read the following steps listed below for effective kitchen cleaning-

• Take some mineral oil and soak a paper towel in it.
• Wipe the greasy surface of the stove hood and top with the paper towel till the gunk film dissolves.
• If the gunk is too stubborn add baking soda.
• Take another paper towel and wipe the surface all over again to remove this excess oil. When you are cleaning the surface, you should leave a minimum layer of oil on the surface to make the task easy. Moreover, you will also be able to clean the surface better in your subsequent cleaning sessions.
• Next add white vinegar and warm water together.
• Soak a kitchen cloth in it. Wring it out and wipe the surface of the kitchen cabinet clean with this cloth. This will help in the removal of light kitchen oil stains.
• In case you are dealing with stubborn stains, use vinegar directly on the spots.
• For stove hoods, use baking soda and water. The water should be warm.

Thus, with the aid of the above expert tips from Select Home Cleaning, NZ, you can ensure the kitchen oil stains are gone in no time. However, if you do not have the inclination or are busy with work or holidays, you can call in professionals from Select Home Cleaning to do the job for you. Contact them today on 0800 000 907.

Select Home Cleaning Lessons- How to Clean Kitchen Cabinets Made of Wood?

When it comes to spot cleaning your wooden kitchen cabinet after a drip or spill, this is an easy task. However, the challenge arises when you have to remove the ingrained dirt and grime from the surface of your wooden cabinet. The task gets much harder if you have to deal with a painted surface. This whole cleaning process takes up a lot of patience and skill. The dirt and grease after a meal preparation can really be hard to remove. It is here that you have to either devote a lot of time or hire a professional home cleaning specialist in Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch, Tauranga or Hamilton to do the job perfectly for you.

When it comes to cleaning kitchen cabinets, you will find that there are quality cleaning products available in the market in the form of sprays. For fresh stains, you can use them for removing the marks fast. But, for greasy wooden kitchen cabinet cleaning, you should opt for professional help because it’s a tough job.

Most of the time even multi-surface kitchen cleaners do not help you to clean the kitchen cabinets thoroughly. When you are cleaning your kitchen cabinets, external cleaning is not enough; you also have to ensure that the interiors of your cabinets are organised well and cleaned too. Surface stains can be handled with a quick spray remover and wipe with a clean cloth, however thick grease and grime calls for expert home cleaners in Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch, Tauranga and Hamilton.

When you have decided to clean wooden kitchen cabinets at least once a week, you would need a cleaner of your choice, dry and clean cloth and a toothbrush or a good quality small scrubbing brush.

It is important for you to scrub the hardware edges of your wooden kitchen cabinet. This will greatly help you to remove the build up of sediment. For the wooden surface of your cabinet, you should make use of a good wooden cleaner. The cabinet should be wiped clean. The sides and the inside of your kitchen cabinet drawers should not be ignored. The interiors of handles should also be cleaned well.

Wooden kitchen cabinets should be regularly cleaned in order to avoid the build up of oily substances. While cooking, there can be spills or drops, and the marks settle in the surface of the kitchen cabinets if you delay cleaning them. It is very important for you to maintain a frequent schedule for cleaning your cabinets. If you cannot, calling in affordable house cleaners regularly will help you maintain cleanliness and hygiene.

Select Home Cleaning for Your House Cleaning Needs

Select Home Cleaning is a trusted and reputed home cleaning company in New Zealand, available now in Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch, Tauranga and Hamilton. The cleaning experts here are dedicated to their work and they ensure that traces of dirt, even in the remotest places, are removed extensively. These cleaning professionals are also police checked and trained well in house cleaning for all rooms. The rates are affordable and the technology used is modern. To call these dedicated house cleaning service professionals for your home cleaning needs, please use this toll free number:0800 000 907.