There is no doubt that littering is a constant problem around the streets of Britain and that one of the reasons for this could be because a parents tend to clean up for their children.

This is the normal thing to do, but not making our kids clean up for themselves could lead to them littering in the future.

But the question is how do we get children to clean for themselves without seeing it as a chore? Well below I have suggested two games that could help make cleaning seem more fun.

Pacman cleaning game – The child is challenged to collect all the rubbish in the park or environment they are in including papers, plastics, cans and bottles. They then throw them on the right rubbish bins separating biodegradable from non-biodegradable and then teach their friend or sibling to recycle. This is a simple game but teaches your child to dispose of rubbish properly.

Cleaning marathon game – There are two teams involved in this game, each member of the team must is to accomplish a certain chore while running around a pole, like a mop or brush – this can help to see cleaning objects as something fun.

Cleaning games can help introduce children to cleaning in a positive way rather than just a chore they have to do. They are then able to see it as fun as well as rewarding.

However, when you are not able to get the children helping out with all the cleaning duties or simply need a contract cleaning service, you’ll need to contact Total Clean Services Ltd.

We offer bespoke cleaning services from office cleaning London to waste removal. 

Cleaning Tips for Reducing Allergies

Chemical fumes from cleaning products are among the most common allergens in the home, according to the Asthma Society of Canada.

Here are a some cleaning tips for reducing asthma and allergies, using natural products:

Avoid using commercial air fresheners, as they release chemicals into the air. To create your own natural air freshener, add 10 drops of your favourite essential oil to water in a spray bottle.

Toilet cleaners contain strong chemicals, so for a safer cleaner, use undiluted vinegar. Or even pour a can of fizz into your toilet to bubble away grunge and dirt.

Vinegar is a great cleaning product and a natural disinfectant. You can dull down the strong smell using a few squeezes of lemon or a few drops of essential oil.

Baking soda is a natural odour-absorber. To scrub dirt and clean away stains, use a microfibre cloth with a mixture of baking soda and water.

Vacuum all carpets and even curtains and your bath mat regularly. If someone in your household has allergies or asthma.

For more details about our services, please visit our office cleaning page.

A Clean Office Boosts Worker’s Productivity

It has been proved many times over that a clean and well organised office helps boost your employee’s productivity. Maintaining a clean office should be left to a professional office cleaning company, but to get the office really clean the cleaners require access to the surfaces, this requires a clutter-free office which is not always easy, but there are a few things that can be done to maintain a clean, clutter free and organised workplace on a daily basis.

Here at Total Clean Office Cleaning Services, our professional office cleaners created a list of ideas for employees to maintain an efficient, clean and well organised office.

1 – Send all Unwanted Paper to the Recycle Bin

Once a week, organise a paper recycle day. First find or buy a big bin to dump all the unwanted paper and start the paper-hunting spree, get everybody to eliminate all the unwanted paper from their drawers, cabinets and files.

Nominate a person to go through the office’s main files and cabinets and get rid of all unnecessary or duplicate paper work. Collect newspapers, junk mail and outdated documents and send them to recycle bin.

You will be amazed how much paper can be accumulated in just one week.

2 – Incite all workers to keep their desks clean and well organised at all times, put files away at the end of the day, a well organised work place is a productive workplace. It also gives a good impression to clients or perspective clients.

3 – Organise a rubbish recycling system and encourage everyone to use it, put different bins for different types of re-cycling, e.g.: Plastic, Aluminium, Organic, etc. At the end of the week or at the end of each day, depending on the size of your office, have a rota or nominate one person to take the recyclable material to the local neighbourhood recycle centre.

4 – Ensure the offices and common areas have a Deep Clean at least once a year and that can be left to the professionals; carpet cleaning, washrooms, janitorial supplies and floor treatment services require specialist cleaning tools and chemicals, so employ a professional office cleaning company to manage and make sure cleaning is undertaken thoroughly, with knowledgeable, competent staff.

There are many office cleaning companies to choose from but not all offer rigorous quality control, health and safety, full training for their employees and operate an environmental policy so you know your company is doing all it can to reduce its carbon foot print.

Here at Total Clean Office Cleaning Services, we offer all of the above with the peace of mind that you are provided with the best office cleaning services in London and surrounding areas.

Lemons!! The All Purpose Natural Cleaner

Lemons are a great natural and cheap choice of cleaning product! Here are some ways you can use them to freshen up your household:

- Lemon peels are fantastic for getting rid of odours. Just stuff small pieces of peel down the drain, run some water, turn on your disposal, and let it run for a few minutes and wait for that lovely lemon scent.

- If you would like to polish up your copper pots you can clean the spots off with lemon juice. Cut a lemon in half and dip it in salt. Rub the fixtures with the lemon, then rinse thoroughly.

- If you have got messy in the microwave and food has splattered everywhere, boil lemon juice inside of it. The food will wipe away easily.

- To remove odours from your cutting boards, rub a lemon across them. It will deodorise and disinfect the boards.

- To freshen up the air in a room, mix some lemon juice and baking soda on a small dish and let it sit.

- You can add lemon juice to the dishwasher for cleaner and shinier dishes. If your dishwasher is smelly, pour 1/4 cup of lemon juice into the soap dispenser and run the washer without dishes. It will deodorise and disinfect your dishwasher.

- Squeeze lemon juice onto a stain on your countertop, let it sit for a few minutes, and then use the lemon to scrub the stain.

And if you don’t fancy cleaning with them, lemons are great in food and for your hair. Their uses really are endless!!

Old Fashioned Cleaning Methods

Sometimes the ideal cleaning products are lying about your house, so here are a few natural ingredients that you might not have condsidered using:

Baking soda – is a wonder product that is underused in the modern household.

Baking soda’s most famous property is its deodorising action –it has an incredible ability to absorb odours and can neutralise them as well, which makes it a great cleaner for the refrigerator and deodoriser for the dishwasher.

Lemon Juice – contains citric acid, which is a mild acid – this results in a bleaching and deodorising effect and also helps to dissolve grease. Lemon juice diluted in hot water is a great gentle cleaner for the kitchen.

When choosing a lemon for cleaning, go for one which is firm and heavy, with a fine-grained skin as these tend to have more juice.

White Vinegar – A cheap product, easily available, and harmless to use – and again, a fantastic all-purpose cleaner. It is especially good as a natural glass cleaner, leaving glass sparkling, clean and streak-free.

Sunlight – Natural sunlight is a good alternative to the harsh bleaches used in many commercial cleaning products, which can be very damaging to the environment. To get rid of a stain, wet the area and leave it outside in direct sunlight, when it dries – wet it again and keep repeating this, until the stain has disappeared.

Leaving objects in direct sunlight will also help reduce mould and mildew and all bedding and upholstery should ideally be put outside to be aired under direct sunlight periodically.

Office Cleaning Tips to Keep your Work Place Clean

Working from home can be very pleasant and most of the time relaxing, due to the fact that there is no need to get up hours before work, no need to drive to work, the benefits are numerous, but some times people tend to get a bit lazy with the organization of their working place.

For those of you that have the pleasure of working from home, here are 4 office cleaning tips to help you keep your work place tidy and clean.

First lets start with your desk, you don’t need nothing more than your computer and your note pad on it, remove all the stuff that has been sitting there for weeks, throw away all the papers that have no use and file the important ones.

Organize you contacts, get all the bits and pieces of paper with phone numbers, emails, business card and add them to your mobile phone or to your phone book if you prefer, the emails you can add them to your contacts on your email account and for the business cards there are neat good folders that you can put all your business cards there and organize them by category.

All right now that you have organized your desk its time to tackle the shelves, the tip here is to get rid of all the stuff that has been sitting on them for more than a month without been used, and reorganize what is left.

And last but not least, lets clean your home office, remove everything from your desk and shelves dust it off and wipe it with a wet cloth and vacuum the floor do that at least once a week and viola your work place is nice and clean.

Natural Ingredients For Cleaning This Christmas!

With all this credit crunch business, we could all do with saving a few pennies this Christmas. That’s why I have put together a list of natural alternatives to do your festive clean with.

Lemon Juice - Lemons have a low pH level, so are able to kill most of the bacteria in your house.  If you have bottled lemon juice lying around you can use this instead of fresh lemons. Lemon juice is ideal for clean the kitchen, bathroom and polishing copper or brass. You will also be left with that lovely fresh lemony smell around the home.

Baking Soda - This substance is alkaline in nature or has a neutral pH level and its cleaning potential is endless.  It is a deodorizer, air freshener, and water softener. Cleaning with baking soda works well on water based stains and cleaning that requires scrubbing. 

Vinegar - White vinegar is slightly acidic and therefore can cut through grease, remove mildew, and clean stains. In the bathroom, vinegar can clean soap scum and hard water strains.  Don’t worry about the unpleasant smell, it goes away when it dries. But don’t use vinegar on marble surfaces.

Borax - This ingredient is most commonly used as an alternative to bleach. 

Castile Soap - As well as using in place of shampoo or body soap, castile soap can clean clothing, be used to wash pets or as a general cleaner.   

Corn Starch - Corn starch can clean windows, polish furniture, remove grease, shampoo rugs, and works well when used during ironing.

Not only are these products cheaper because you probably have them lying round the house, but they are environmentally friendly too.

Cleaning Tips for Your Many Different Floors

It is more than likely your house has at least a few different types of flooring in. So cleaning all of these can be tricky, especially when they tend to need different ways of cleaning.

Here are some tips on how how to clean the most common of flooring:

- Ceramic tiling: Don’t use harsh abrasive cleaners that might scratch the tiles. Instead use a damp-mop on the ceramic tiles with an all-purpose cleaner. Then dry the floor with a soft cloth to avoid streaks.

- Vinyl floors: To wash this type of floor, use an all-purpose cleaning solution. Test any cleaner in a corner before using it on the entire floor. 

- Wood floors: The most effective way of cleaning a wooden floor applying a liquid wood-floor cleaner with a dry wax applicator on a small area at a time. Let it soak for a few minutes, and wipe up the excess. When the floor is dry, buff with a floor polisher.

- Carpet Cleaning: The simplest way to keep your carpets clean is to vacuum regularly. But for an effective deep clean it is best to have your carpet steam cleaned. 

Here at Total Clean Services Ltd we provide bespoke floor cleaning treatments for companies in London, if you would like more information please click here.

Wood Floor Cleaning Tips!

Hardwood floors are one of the easiest types of floors to keep clean. Protect their warmth and character with simple these cleaning techniques.

- Dirt, grit and sand are your hardwood floor’s enemies.They act as sandpaper on the finish, causing scratches, dents and dulling. Place floor mats at entrances to trap dirt and prevent damage.

- Wipe up all spills as they happen, because standing water can warp a poorly finished hardwood floor and damage the finish.

- Lift the furniture to move it – avoid dragging and when vacuuming use a brush attachment, don’t use vacuums with beater bars. 

Total Clean Services Ltd provides floor cleaning treatments for all hard floor areas.  To discuss your office cleaning requirements and a no obligation quote, please contact us or telephone 020 7935 5088.

Cleaning Your Rug

- Vacuum your rugs at least once a week.

- All natural wool rugs shred and is more noticable on longer, shaggy rugs, however, longer stray fibres should be cut even with the rugs surface and never pulled. Don’t hoover fringes on traditional rugs as they may pull and unravel.

- One thing you must always do to protect your rug, is make sure you never beat it as this will damage and loosen threads.

- Act quickly when cleaning a spill or stain. Do not rub stains but gently dab and blot any excess spills with a clean white cloth or paper towel. Avoid soaking the area as this will just spread the stain. Once clean, pat excess moisture with paper towels and allow to dry.