Cleaning Tip: Choose the Right Vacuum for the Job
Anybody who works with tools will tell you that having the right tool for the job makes a huge difference. This applies to house cleaning, too!
The Upright Vacuum
The upright vacuum sits on the floor and works when you push it. It uses suction to remove dirt and debris from carpet and area rugs.
A word of caution: because of the strong suction created by a good upright vacuum, you must make sure that area rugs are sturdy enough to hold up to being vacuumed with this type of vacuum.
As a professional house cleaning company, Mini Mops, Inc. uses commercial Sanitaire vacuums like the one pictured here. However, there are a wide variety of upright vacuums for homeowners to choose from.
The Canister Vacuum
Unlike the upright, the canister vacuum has different attachments that are used for different jobs.
For example, the canister vacuum that Mini Mops uses is the Hoover Portapower. It has a floor brush, an upholstery brush, a crevice tool, and a soft brush for delicate jobs.
The canister vacuum is used to vacuum upholstered furniture, drapes, blinds, lamp shades, the corners and edges of a room, and much more.
The canister vacuum also can be used to vacuum delicate area rugs that can’t stand up to the more powerful upright vacuum.
What’s Best for You?
Homeowners have a wide array of makes, models and features available to choose from, and it’s easy to become overwhelmed by the number of choices.
That’s why our best advice is this: visit a vacuum shop and talk to an expert. Your best bet is to find a shop that both sells and services many brands. Talk to the professionals about your needs and your budget, and they will be able to find the perfect vacuum for you.
If you need help finding a vacuum shop, we suggest calling a local house cleaning company and asking them where they purchase and get their vacuums serviced. Mini Mops is happy to give referrals for the Fresno-Clovis CA area.
Mini Mops, Inc. is a professional house cleaning company serving residential and commercial clients in the Fresno-Clovis CA area since 1975. They are currently accepting new clients. Please visit their website for more information:
www.Mini-Mops.com
Housework: The Reason Women Go to the Office?
A quote about house cleaning:
“I think housework is the reason most women go to the office.”
~Heloise Cruse
Mini Mops periodically shares quotes about house cleaning. If you have a quote that you’d like to share, please leave us a comment!
Mini Mops, Inc. is a professional house cleaning company serving residential and commercial clients in the Fresno-Clovis CA area since 1975. They are currently accepting new clients. Please visit their website for more information:
www.Mini-Mops.com
Time to Keep Those Resolutions
How are you doing on those New Year’s Resolutions?
At the beginning of the year, many of us resolve to do things differently. We’ll eat better, exercise more, be more organized, whatever…
The common thread behind most resolutions is that they take TIME to keep. It takes time to shop for and then prepare healthy food. It takes time to go to the gym and exercise. It takes time to keep things properly organized.
So the question isn’t really whether you’re committed to keeping those resolutions; the question is how to find the TIME to keep them!
OK, so how do you create extra time?
One way is to delegate some of the things that take up your time to others. Can someone else do the shopping? The yard work? The house cleaning? Maybe you can hire someone to pay the bills and keep your finances in order.
Businesses call this outsourcing. The busy homeowner calls it extra time!
Getting professional help makes sense on many levels. The tasks are done well, sometimes even better than you could do yourself. AND you have the extra time to do the other things that are important to you!
Of course, you want to thoroughly check out the person or company you hire to help you. Ask for references, and make sure they are qualified to do what you are asking them to do. If it’s a company, make sure they are insured so that you aren’t liable if something were to happen. If it’s an individual, check with your own insurance company to make sure you’re covered if something were to happen.
Once you’ve crossed all the t’s and dotted all the i’s, enjoy the extra time you’ve created for yourself … and keep those resolutions!
Mini Mops, Inc. is a professional house cleaning company serving residential and commercial clients in the Fresno-Clovis CA area since 1975. They are currently accepting new clients. Please visit their website for more information:
www.Mini-Mops.com
Solution to the Housework Problem, and I quote:
We found this quote at www.quotegarden.com/housework and thought it was fun:
“The obvious and fair solution to the housework problem is to let men do the housework for, say, the next six thousand years, to even things up. The trouble is that men, over the years, have developed an inflated notion of the importance of everything they do, so that before long they would turn housework into just as much of a charade as business is now. They would hire secretaries and buy computers and fly off to housework conferences in Bermuda, but they’d never clean anything.” ~Dave Barry
By the way, we have known many men who are very good at cleaning and doing housework! Sharing this quote was purely for entertainment value! 
Mini Mops, Inc. is a professional house cleaning company serving residential and commercial clients in the Fresno-Clovis CA area since 1975. They are currently accepting new clients. Please visit their website for more information:
www.Mini-Mops.com
A Clean Start to the New Year
Happy New Year!
As you’re putting holiday decor away and getting your home back to “normal,” you may be finding an increased amount of cleaning that needs to be done.
Don’t worry … this is common! It’s the same phenomenon that occurs when you move out and find lots of hidden dirt in the corners and around the edges of the rooms of your home.
This is actually a great time to do some of the extra cleaning that may not be part of your normal routine.
As you’re moving things around, dust the walls floor to ceiling with a dust mop. Clean the baseboards and other woodwork. Clean the faceplates of light switches and electrical outlets.
Dust and clean the items that you’re putting back into storage, and do the same with the items you’re bringing back out.
Of course, if you find you just don’t want to do this yourself, you can seek the professional help of a house cleaning company.
The new year is naturally a time of new beginnings and fresh starts. This year, why not make yours a CLEAN start as well?
“The Rose Bowl is the only bowl I’ve ever seen that I didn’t have to clean.” ~Erma Bombeck
Mini Mops, Inc. is a professional house cleaning company serving residential and commercial clients in the Fresno-Clovis CA area since 1975. They are currently accepting new clients. Please visit their website for more information:
www.Mini-Mops.com
A Mini Mops Christmas Tradition
What says “Christmas” to you and your family? Fruitcake? Prime rib? Tamales?
One long-standing Christmas tradition for the Mini Mops family is Suzette’s Fudge.
Mini Mops, Inc. founder and owner, Suzette Peterson, started making fudge to give to family and friends at Christmas many years — decades — ago. It was always a special treat when you received your tin of chocolatey goodness.
Since we can’t send fudge across the internet to our web friends, we are doing the next best thing. We’re sharing the recipe for Suzette’s Fudge. We hope you enjoy!
SUZETTE’S FUDGE
Melt together over low heat, then set aside:
1/2 c. butter
1 package (12 oz.) semi-sweet chocolate chips
In a large bowl, beat 2 eggs until light.
Add 1 t. vanilla, and mix well.
Add melted chocolate mixture and chopped nuts as desired (about 1 c.). Mix well.
Pour into buttered 8×8 pan. Chill until set.
We’d love to hear about your Christmas traditions! Leave us a comment to share what says “Christmas” to you.
MERRY CHRISTMAS!
Mini Mops, Inc. is a professional house cleaning company serving residential and commercial clients in the Fresno-Clovis CA area since 1975. They are currently accepting new clients. Please visit their website for more information:
www.Mini-Mops.com
Beat Holiday Stress by Outsourcing
We all love the holidays … or at least, we all love the idea of the holidays. We may have an image in our minds of what the perfect holiday looks like, tastes like, feels like. But how often does reality match this mental ideal?
Too often, we get stressed out because reality doesn’t match the ideal. We keep trying and pushing ourselves to make the holiday perfect, and, yet, this can become a self-defeating predicament. We keep trying harder, yet we just end up being more stressed, and the holiday becomes less and less perfect.
When you’re overwhelmed with a To-Do list that keeps growing instead of shrinking, one of the best things to do is delegate. Of course, you can delegate some things to your children, your spouse, and to other family members. You also can delegate — outsource — to a professional.
There are many professional services that can help you redirect your time and efforts to the things that you most enjoy and that are most valuable to you.
For example, let’s say you are hosting an open house for family and friends. You love to decorate, but baking may not be your thing. So you can outsource by getting a professionally-made dessert from a local bakery. Or you love to bake, but need help with a meal — outsource by getting the meal from a local restaurant or caterer.
You can save your own time and efforts by outsourcing your house cleaning, yard maintenance, decorating, dog walking … the list goes on and on!
The trick is to figure out which task, when outsourced, provides the maximum benefit to you by reducing the most stress. Once you do some soul-searching and have that figured out, you can move forward to find the best person/company/service professional to help you with that task.
Good luck, and be sure to post a comment about how outsourcing some part of your To-Do list has helped you this holiday season.
Wishing you a joyous holiday season!
Mini Mops, Inc. is a professional house cleaning company serving residential and commercial clients in the Fresno-Clovis CA area since 1975. They are currently accepting new clients. Please visit their website for more information:
www.Mini-Mops.com
Carpet Cleaning: Spots and Stains 101
Carpets take a lot of use and abuse in many homes. Think about it: where have your feet and shoes been all day before they come home and walk all over your carpet? Do you ever lounge around and lie on your carpet? Do you have children who do? Do you really want you or your loved ones exposed to whatever your shoes have come in contact with throughout the day?
We at Mini Mops, Inc. frequently get asked if we clean carpets. The answer is, “No, that is not our specialty. But we can refer you to an excellent carpet cleaning company.”
Our carpet cleaning referral partner is John Schmidt at The Floor Show (559-225-6300), and he has graciously allowed us to post the following article that he wrote on the subject:
SPOTS AND STAINS 101
WHAT’S THE DIFFERENCE?
We need to begin with basic definitions for good understanding. Spots are what you have when some foreign substance is either spilled or tracked onto your carpet or upholstery. Stains are what you have when there is a permanent change in color on specific areas of your carpet or upholstery. Everything begins as a spot, but only becomes a stain once we have exhausted all cleaning possibilities, and a permanent color change remains.
The true definition of clean is to be free of foreign substances and bacteria (sanitary) but most people judge “clean” by visual appearance. Therefore, it is important for us to remove every spot possible, while making the carpet sanitary as well.
WHAT CAUSES SPOTS?
Most spills and tracks contain either oil or sugar or both. Most spots are visible not because of what was spilled on the yarn, but what it later attracts. Most spots are just plain old dirt that has been attracted by the foreign substance on the yarn. These are relatively easy to deal with.
Other spots can be caused by an endless variety of substances spilled or tracked. Many can be removed while some cannot be fully corrected and therefore remain as stains. A stain is from a spot that had a dye or discoloration component to it.
All things “show” on a carpet or fabric because of the differences in the way that light is reflected. You should understand that abrasion areas also appear to be soiled for this same reason, even though they are fully clean. The individual fibers are rough and pitted, which makes them reflect much less light and appear just like they are “dirty”. This is why abrasion areas show much sooner on light colored carpet.
The best defense against this is to clean regularly to remove damaging dirt and grit!
RE-APPEARING SPOTS?
The dirt attracting type of spot is easy to make clean instantly, as the attracted dirt is very easy to remove, but you must be certain to remove the entire original spill or it will just attract more dirt in the future. This can be more difficult or even impossible if a large quantity was spilled and soaked down into the carpet backing or underlying pad.
No carpet cleaning – no matter how good – can clean the underlying pad through the carpet. We can remove every bit of the spill from the pile of the carpet only to have the original spill wick back up from the pad and spread back into the pile yarn. Walking on the carpet and compressing the pad also accelerates this process. The end result is that more dirt is attracted and a few days later a spot can appear to have never been removed.
In these situations, additional cleanings may be needed and it is a good idea to allow a week or two between cleanings to get as much as possible of the remaining spill to wick up to the surface before re-cleaning.
WILL OUR STATE-OF-THE-ART PROCESS ALWAYS WORK?
Usually yes…. but there can be a great variance in the degree of success. The variables beyond the cleaner’s control are the type and quantity of foreign substance, the type of yarn fiber and the color of the carpet or upholstery.
- The type of substance is obviously the most important factor. The quantity of spill can be a factor as generally, the more there is, the more difficult to completely remove. Sometimes, future cleanings will improve any remaining stains if the carpet is maintained regularly and properly.
- The yarn fiber type is a factor in that synthetic fibers are smoother and have less stain traps while natural fibers are rougher, are more absorbent and will be more likely to stain permanently.
- The yarn color is a factor in that white and light shades will show abrasion areas or small amounts of stain while darker colors will camouflage some stain remaining in the carpet or upholstery.
All stains generally fall into two categories. Permanent color additions such as dye stains – or - Permanent color reductions such as bleached-out or faded areas.
Our industry has made great strides in recent years, in the removal of some dye stains that were previously considered to be permanent. The process is time consuming, more difficult and uses expensive specialty chemicals. This means some additional cost to the customer and there is no guarantee of success, but if the carpet is worth saving, it can be the right choice.
Color reduction areas are not correctable by any stain removal techniques.
THE BEST THING YOU CAN DO FOR YOUR CARPETS AND UPHOLSTERY IS TO HAVE US CLEAN THEM REGULARLY EACH YEAR.
OUR PROCESS:
CAUSES NO WEAR, LEAVES NO RESIDUE, HAS NO DAMAGING EFFECTS.
We at Mini Mops, Inc. have used The Floor Show in our own personal homes, at our business, and have referred countless clients to John Schmidt over the years. We have full faith in his expertise. We hope that you have found his article helpful and remind you to call him if you have any questions: John Schmidt at The Floor Show, (559) 225-6300.
Mini Mops, Inc. is a professional house cleaning company serving residential and commercial clients in the Fresno-Clovis CA area since 1975. They are currently accepting new clients. Please visit their website for more information:
www.Mini-Mops.com
Is your home Mother-In-Law ready?
Is your home ready for a suprise, drop-in visit from your mother-in-law?
Is it ready for an impromptu “Girls Night” get-together? Or a last-minute dinner invitation issued by your spouse to his (or her) client/boss/co-worker?
If you have a professional house cleaning service, you should be able to confidently answer “YES!” to all of these questions.
Let’s face it … we are busy people these days, and cleaning the house, while necessary and important, often is not a top priority. Even a stay at home mom or retiree has multiple obligations that take time and energy, often leaving little left for those house cleaning chores.
Enter the housecleaning professionals.
A good house cleaning service will work with you to figure out just what chores you need help with. Maybe you can keep your kitchen counters clean but you need help to scrub the floors. Maybe you clean the bathroom mirrors when they get splattered but you need help with the soap scum in the shower. Maybe you want help with it all.
When obtaining estimates from a house cleaning service, be sure to communicate clearly about your priorities and expectations. You may be able to reduce the cost if you eliminate certain tasks that you are able to do yourself. (Dusting, for example, is a time-consuming task that many homeowners don’t mind doing themselves, and eliminating it can lead to a significant cost saving.) On the other hand, if you want the peace of mind of knowing that everything is done, be clear about that as well to make sure the house cleaners can meet your expectations.
Hiring a housecleaning service, once thought to be a luxury affordable only to the very well-to-do, is becoming more common for the everyday, middle class person who can become overwhelmed with the sheer amount of “stuff” there is to do. Indeed, hiring a housecleaning service could improve your quality of life. Hiring a housecleaning service could result in less stress and more impulsive social invitations.
Hiring a housecleaning service could be one of the best things you could do for yourself!
Mini Mops, Inc. is a professional house cleaning company serving residential and commercial clients in the Fresno-Clovis CA area since 1975. They are currently accepting new clients. Please visit their website for more information:
www.Mini-Mops.com
Accepting Help: Harder Than You Think
Accepting help, or getting someone else to accept your help, can be much harder than you think. Pride and ego play a role, as can the desire to not be a burden on others. In fact, it is sometimes easier to accept the help of strangers than that of family and friends.
Let’s consider a few situations that are common helping opportunities.
Perhaps you know someone who is undergoing treatment for a disease or injury. Maybe this person is scheduled for surgery, maybe it’s ongoing treatment, maybe it’s just limited activity while the body has a chance to heal itself. You and probably many other friends and family members want to help this person while he or she is going through this period of time. You might offer to prepare meals, care for the kids, walk the dogs, run errands, or clean the house.
The tasks that need to be done are generally things that your friend is used to doing herself. She likes them done a certain way, and, even if she tends to complain about doing them, she really gets a certain amount of satisfaction in knowing that she’s done them. Releasing the responsiblity for these things to another person can be extremely challenging!
Sometimes it’s easier for someone to accept the help they need if that help is coming from a stranger, especially when that stranger is a professional in their field. For example, if your friend needs help bathing or taking care of personal hygiene, it’s going to be much easier for her to accept the help of a trained in-home care provider or a nurse rather than her well-meaning neighbor. The same is true for house cleaning.
Most people do not want their friends or even family to clean their toilets or scrub the soap scum off of their showers. But what if the help is coming from a professional housecleaning service? From strangers who clean toilets and remove soap scum for a living? Usually, this type of help is easier to accept because there isn’t a personal relationship involved. The housecleaning professional is just going to get the job done without judging the person or gossiping about the condition of the home (common fears of those needing help).
Other situations where people need help can include moving (in or out), getting a new job or starting a new business, getting married, and having a baby … just to name a few. There are numerous situations that create a need for help. Some people can easily ask for the help they need, but this is really difficult for others.
Please consider enlisting the help of a professional in whatever area of care is needed. Sometimes, that can make all the difference.
Mini Mops, Inc. is a professional house cleaning company serving residential and commercial clients in the Fresno-Clovis CA area since 1975. They are currently accepting new clients. Please visit their website for more information:
www.mini-mops.com
