As one of Ottawa’s premier house cleaning and house keeping services, we’re committed to creating awareness about the realities of commercial cleaning products and their dangers. You can clean your home without the use of bleach, and taking the environment into consideration is easier than you think. Contact us to schedule a booking for your house cleaning or request a quote.

Many people think their dishwashers are not prone to bacteria. Why would they be? The environment utilizes strong dishwasher detergent and hot water. The misconception is that it can be one of the least likely places to find anything.

Not true.

The U.K. Daily Mail reports that researchers found 62 per cent of dishwashers contained the fungi Exophiala dermatitidis and E. phaeomuriformis on the rubber band in the door. Both of the black yeasts are known to be dangerous to human health. Both bacterias displayed stronger than normal resistances to heat (hot water), active corrosives, detergents, and both acid and alkaline water. This sudden education on the characteristics of certain bacteria was surprising as these are a series of resistances not previously observed. One of the bacterias (Exophiala dermatitidis) is known as an agent of human disease and can affect the lining of lungs of patients with cystic fibrosis.

You can read the article at the U.K. Daily Mail here: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2006329/Dishwasher-fungi-Dr-Polona-Zalar-finds-deadly-bacteria-household-appliances.html

Many people will run white vinegar through their dishwashers once a month. We recommend this practice, and even increasing the number of times you do this to twice.

As one of Ottawa’s premier house cleaning and house keeping services, we’re committed to sharing information about house hold appliance cleaning and general residential cleaning practices. Contact us to schedule a booking for your house cleaning or request a quote.

• Water – regular everyday tapwater – is drawn through something called a Water Cell. The water cell applies a negative and positive charge to the water as it moves through a membrane. As the electricity is applied to the water, it causes the water molecule to break down, and allows gas bubbles to form between the molecules.
• These gas bubbles are mainly made up of hydrogen and oxygen. These bubbles also take on a positive or negative independent charge. This is called “water activation”.
• These bubbles are what attach to the dirt – which can have either a positive or negative charge themselves. Opposites attract.
• Like charged molecules repel from one another. The positive or negative charged molecules literally grab dirt off of surfaces. The bubbles trap the dirt in the activated water.
• While the water is leaving the nozzle of the Ionator – there is a small electrical field which is applied to the mist.
• This electrical field bombards germs and bacteria with enough electrical stimulation to destroy them – sanitizing any surface or area with the same, if not a better effect than ANY commercially available cleaner.
• Simply wiping the surface down removes dirt and bacteria that the activated water been applied to.

As one of Ottawa’s premier house cleaning and house keeping services, we’re committed to creating awareness about the realities of commercial cleaning products and their dangers. You can clean your home without the use of bleach, and taking the environment into consideration is easier than you think. Contact us to schedule a booking for your house cleaning or request a quote.

We were on A Channel yesterday morning with Kurt Stoodley, talking about Cleaning Because We Care, the program we’ve launched with the Ottawa Regional Cancer Foundation. You can see the interview in it’s entirety with the link above.

As one of Ottawa’s premier house cleaning and house keeping services, we’re committed to creating awareness about the realities of commercial cleaning products and their dangers. You can clean your home without the use of bleach, and taking the environment into consideration is easier than you think. Contact us to schedule a booking for your house cleaning or request a quote.

We’re pleased and proud to announce our partnership with the Ottawa Regional Cancer Foundation on a new program called Cleaning Because We Care

We reached out to the Ottawa Regional Cancer Foundation early in the year, and offered to clean the homes of cancer patients while they endure what is often the tiring treatments and therapies that follow a diagnosis.  As a result, we put together a program to have Greenapple dispatched to the homes of those who need the service while the ORCF administrates the deployments. For every fan or “like” we receive at our Facebook page, we will donate $5 in free cleaning. You can find Greenapple on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Greenapple-House-Cleaning-Inc/182013505156489

You can find the press release here -  Cleaning Because We Care – Press Release – April 27th, 2011

Contact us to find out more about the program.

• Hiring Practices and Criminal Background Checks on Staff: Does the agency or cleaning company do background checks on its employees to determine if a criminal record exists? Service personnel are entering your home and have access to more than just your personal property. Increasingly, identity theft is becoming a common issue.  Check out this link from the Consumerist. Also, there’s something to be said for a company who compensates their employees well and treats them fairly.
• Insurance: Any agency or company should provide proof of liability insurance. Things happen. The cleaner could be vacuuming when the cord inadvertently pulls over an expensive table, or the maid could accidentally spill cleaning solution on the carpet. Does the company’s insurance provide coverage for your loss? If the maid falls down the stairs or off a stepladder, does the firm hold worker’s compensation insurance? Making sure that the hiring firm has the appropriate insurances, based on provincial law, will give you peace of mind. If you are hiring a private cleaner, he is less likely to hold this level of insurance and you will need to decide if you can accept any potential losses that occur in your home.
• Bonding: A bonded company has secured funds to cover potential losses due to theft. A bonded employee is someone who has undergone an in-depth background check and is deemed by the bonding company to be worth insuring. If that person does end up stealing from you, you can be compensated.
• Staff changes and Schedule? If you are going through a private company, the cleaners it sends may rotate and you may not get the same person each week. If consistency is important to you, then you will want to make sure to address it with whoever you’re considering for the job. Having the same staff member(s) cleaning your home creates familiarity, and facilitates meeting your expectations.
• Contractual Agreement: If you’re not happy with a cleaning, does the company or individual you work for have a guarantee in place to address this? Is a return service that guarantees your satisfaction included?

These are all important things to consider when choosing which route you’re going to go. Choosing a housekeeper or a maid is not like buying a car or other item. A level of comfort and a clear understanding of not only your expectations, but what you’re receiving for your money is essential in ensuring that a relationship is started off the right way. As one of Ottawa’s premier house cleaning and maid services, we wanted to state what we think are the considerations to be made. You can read how we address each of these items in our Why Choose Us section. Contact us to schedule a booking for your house cleaning or request a quote.

Air Fresheners – Most air fresheners interfere with your ability to smell by disabling your nasal passages with an oil film or a nerve-deadening chemical agent. Common chemicals in air fresheners include formaldehyde (a highly toxic known carcinogen) and phenol (which can cause hives, convulsions, circulatory collapse, coma, and even death).

Dishwasher Detergents – Most of them contain highly concentrated chlorine, which is the #1 cause of child poisonings.

Drain Cleaners – They commonly include lye (which can burn skin and eyes, the esophagus and the stomach if ingested), hydrochloric acid (a corrosive eye and skin irritant that damages kidneys, liver, and digestive tract), or tricholoroethane (eye and skin irritant and nervous system depressant). Drain cleaner should never be under your kitchen sink.

Oven Cleaner contains lye (sodium hydroxide). Lye is often used to dissolve roadkill dumped in landfills. This should also never be under your kitchen sink.

Furniture Polish is a highly flammable product and can cause skin and lung cancer. It often contains phenol as well as nitrobenzene, which is an extremely toxic chemical that can be very easily absorbed through the skin

Bleach is a strong corrosive that can damage the skin, eyes, and respiratory tract. NEVER mix bleach with ammonia, as the fumes can be deadly. We’ve talked about the dangers of bleach before and some of the alternatives to it.

Antibacterial Cleaners often contain triclosan (In August 2009, the Canadian Medical Association asked the Canadian government to ban triclosan use in household products under concerns of creating bacterial resistance and producing dangerous side products (chloroform), which is absorbed through the skin and linked to liver damage. Antibacterial soaps may also contribute to the development of drug-resistant bacteria.

As one of Ottawa’s premier house cleaning and house keeping services, we’re committed to creating awareness about the realities of commercial cleaning products and their dangers. Knowing what’s under your sink is an essential part of maintaining a healthy home for you and your family. Contact us to schedule a booking for your house cleaning or request a quote.

We received some questions after our post on bed bugs – mostly about other kinds of mites that can enter the home – like dust mites. We’ve decided to elaborate a little further on mites, and how they can affect your household.

There are many different kinds of mites that can affect human beings. The dust mite – domestically the most common – feeds off of the dust in your home and dead skin cells. They can trigger allergies and respiratory problems, as well as cause skin irritation. They normally enter the home via humans and pets. Common question – how can you get rid of them? We’re going to provide some tips on eliminating these pesky microscopic home invaders.

Vacuum - you can never do enough of this or have enough of it done. Vacuum as much of the carpeting and upholstery in your home as possible. Use a strong vacuum with a HEPA filter, which captures significantly more particles than the average filter. Carpeting is a haven for dust mites.

Air Purification – purchase an air purifier with HEPA filtration. You can have one in each bedroom and one in each carpeted room.

Mattress Covers - encasing your mattresses in plastic enclosures greatly reduces the settling of mites and bed bugs. Mattresses are their favorite place to dwell. Eliminating their ability to reproduce in these key places (where you shed skin cells), and separating your body from the surface of the mattress, is a key strategy in getting them out of the house.

Hot Water Washes and Laundry - Washing sheets, linens, drapes and pillow cases in hot water is an effective method for supressing dust mite reproduction.

As one of Ottawa’s premier house cleaning services, we’re committed to creating knowledge and know how with mites and their effect on the health of our families. Contact us to schedule a booking for your house cleaning or request a quote.

We Don’t Like Talking About It – But It’s Good To Know What To Do

Bed bugs make us uncomfortable and uneasy – but there’s been a resurgence of bed bug infestations since 1995. We wanted to create a comprehensive FYI on preventing bed bug infestations. As a leading Ottawa maid service, creating awareness with consumers on what to know and what to do to prevent bed bugs from entering your home doesn’t necessarily take care of the discomfort of thinking about these critters, but it does equip us to better deal with bed bugs if it ever happens.

Firstly – it’s essential to know how to identify bed bugs. Bed bugs are small parasitic insects that unsuspectingly feed off the blood of warm blooded animals – including humans. Bed bugs bites can lead to a variety of health problems that include allergic reactions and skin rashes. They’re typically active only at night and they have the ability to feed off of human hosts without you realizing. Although bed bugs are generally found near or around the bed, most insects that are found there are not bed bugs at all . Bed bugs are reddish-brown with an oval body that is flat, and measure approximately ¼ of an inch long.

Bed bugs can enter your home in a variety of different ways, but the most common way is through your personal belongings (clothing/luggage/computer) after you’ve been somewhere where they were present. This doesn’t necessarily just mean when you’ve gone away on vacation. Bed bugs have been found in many different kinds of places – even public transportation.

Bed bugs reside in almost all cases in the boxsprings,  headboards, the seams of mattresses, wood side tables, and in or around the frame of your bed.

What can you do to prevent bed bug infestations?

1. Inspect your mattress. If you see minute spots of blood, you may have a bed bug problem.
2. Inspect the back of your head board and box spring, and bed frame regularly.
3. Regulalry wash bedding in hot water and then dry on a high heat setting on a weekly basis. Place pillows and other non-washable items in the dryer for 20 minutes on high heat.
4. Keep your bedding from touching the floor and isolate your bed from the wall (ensure it’s not touching the wall).
5. Reduce clutter in the bedroom, especially near the bed and on the floor.
6. Caulk and seal any cracks in paint or drywall – anywhere where they can travel easily and access another part of the home.
7. If you’re dealing with a bed bug problem – the above points are moot. Call a pest control company or an exterminator with experience with bed bug removal.

As one of Ottawa’s premier house cleaning services, we’re committed to creating knowledge and know how with bed bugs and their effect on the health of our families. Contact us to schedule a booking for your house cleaning or request a quote.

As an environmentally friendly house cleaning service, we’re advocates of Ottawa’s green bin program. We advocate any effort that reduces waste and reduces toxicity in our environment. We ask our house cleaning clients to let us know where they store their green bins, their city provided compost boxes, and whether they compost organic waste because as a company, we firmly believe in the initiative. In any of our housecleaning visits, prepping and properly disposing of organic waste is part of a standard kitchen cleaning. In recent weeks, the program has been getting some negative attention as a result of the city’s 20 year commitment with Orgaworld to pay for the processing of 80,000 tonnes of organic waste a year, regardless of whatever it collects (the city collected about 53,000 tonnes in it’s first year). These kinds of projects – where the behaviors of many people are required to change over time – need time to ramp up. Education about the program is also a requirement. The entire concept was a response to another municipal problem that the city has – the increasing size of landfills. Regardless of your opinion on the green bin program or it’s implementation by city council, long term, this is a great solution for the city. We wanted to share some information on the green bin program, and why, if you’re not composting, you may want to consider doing it.

• Up to 75% of household garbage is derived from organic matter and most of it can be composted. It’s the natural way to recycle and the result is a better soil fertilizer than any store bought product.
• This natural fertilizer has multiple environmental and agricultural applications that can be used locally for farms, parks, and other areas.
• Expanding landfills affect property values with surrounding homes and communities. With a growing city, there is more garbage. More garbage means growing landfills.
• Using compost reduces the amount of fertilizer, water, and pesticides needed to produce healthy plants, and it is cheaper than artificial soils.
• Environmentally, the use of compost has been shown to remediate, or clean up, contaminated soils by reducing toxic runoffs, binding certain toxins that might otherwise escape, and it prevents erosion when used near roadways, lakes, rivers, and streams.
• Composting on a city level has long term savings. The cost associated with moving the Carp road landfill were estimated to be about $100 million dollars when the city considered moving it when surrounding residents indicated their displeasure with living near a dump.
• Composting programs have proven very successful in cities like Halifax, Vancouver, and Guelph, where they’ve curbed waste in landfills by up to 65% and introduced nationally recognized waste management efficiencies into city operations that have contributed to better environmental conditions and that have quantifiable long term city running effects.

As one of Ottawa’s premier house cleaning services, we’re committed to creating awareness about the realities of waste in you home and it’s effect on the health of our families. Taking the environment into consideration is easier than you think. Contact us to schedule a booking for your house cleaning or request a quote.