The best Tucson house cleaning tips come from the experts at The Maids of Tucson. We’ve been cleaning Tucson homes since 1985 and know exactly what it takes to keep your home healthy and clean. Steal these eleven tips for cleaning success the next time you feel overwhelmed by the state of your home.

Clear clutter first

Give yourself a good staging ground to get everything done. Trying to maneuver around laundry piles and tripping over stray items is no way to get anything done. Make your bed and clear clutter out of your way before you tackle the bigger tasks.

Everything in its Place

If you don’t have dedicated places for your belongings to “live”, then those items are doomed to be perpetual clutter. Even a “miscellaneous items” bin or a junk drawer can help cut down the clutter(or help you ignore it for now). Don’t stick yourself in a loop where you’re just moving a few items from place to place in your home. If you are having a difficult time finding a good spot for several items, it may be time to do some serious decluttering.

Work in Bursts

Unless you’re a professional team of four, it’s unlikely that your Tucson home cleaning will go as efficiently as a maid service. Be kind to yourself and work in small, half hour bursts with breaks in between. Cleaning is hard on your body and you don’t want to breathe in your cleaning fumes and hunch into small spaces for hours on end. Just don’t get too distracted on your break and forget to finish the job!

Use Microfiber Cloths

Microfiber cloths will give you a more satisfying clean and are less likely to leave dust and residue. In a pinch, use a rag or scrap that is 100% cotton. Make sure to switch out cloths as you go, instead of trying to use one for the whole house.

Sweep Before You Vacuum

Go over your floors with a broom – even if they don’t seem dirty at first. You don’t want to finish vacuuming your carpet just to push bits of dirt and food back into it as you sweep. Also, make sure your broom is doing its job. Some old brooms aren’t helpful at all for sweeping and end up making you waste your time.

Finish With the Bathroom

You don’t want to track bacteria from the bathroom across the rest of your house. Clean the other areas of your home first and then tackle the bathroom to prevent that from happening.

Clean Your Dishes Immediately

Stagnant, dirty dishes are a breeding ground for bacteria and a buffet for bugs. Unless you’re a huge fan of mold, ants, and staph infections, rinse and clean your dishes as soon as you are done with them instead of piling them in the sink.

Disinfect your Sponges

Sponges are disgusting. They are the most germ-ridden object in your home. Take care of them by running them through the dishwasher or tossing them in the microwave for 1-2 minutes regularly.

Keep Your Pets Brushed

Pet fur likes to fly, especially around summer time as your furry friends shed their heavy coats. Keep a handle on the dander and the fluff by regularly brushing your animals. It helps keep them groomed and cuts down on the amount of fur that coats your couches and floors. Your friends with pet allergies will thank you.

Disinfect High Traffic Items

How often do you wipe down your door handles, faucets, and light switches? What about your remote controls. We use these things every day, but they often get overlooked when the house is getting cleaned. Get rid of high germ zones by wiping these areas down every other day or at least weekly.

Dedicate a Few Hours to Cleaning

Keeping your home truly clean can be a herculean task and shouldn’t be one that you’ll “get around to”. Make sure that you are scheduling time that you can spend wiping down your surfaces, vacuuming, doing laundry, disinfecting the bathroom, cleaning up clutter, and more. Otherwise, these chores will begin to pile up and stress you out.

You Can Count On Us

Give your home a deep clean without all the hassle and elbow grease by calling The Maids of Tucson today! Our professional teams are exactly what you need to keep a beautiful, healthy home. Relax and let us take care of your Tucson home cleaning. Your time is better spent doing things you love instead of scrubbing away at a toilet bowl.

You won’t be disappointed with our rigorous 22-step healthy touch cleaning system. Our green cleaning supplies and processes will make you wish you had called us ages ago. Contact The Maids of Tucson today at (520)795-7977

The average home in the U.S. hosts over 2,000 species of fungus and 7,000 species of bacteria. Our Tucson maid service is ready offer a complete breakdown of just how dirty your home could be.

Your Kitchen

32% of countertops are home to fecal bacteria.

Your kitchen sink contains 100,000x more germs than your bathroom.

Your cutting board has 200x the fecal bacteria found on your toilet seat.

Your Bathroom

When you flush, bacteria splashes out from the toilet and floats around the room for ~ 2 hours.

A recent study found Staph bacteria in 26% of the tubs tested.

Your Living Areas

Carpets are the largest reservoir of dust. They are teeming with hair, skin, food, insects, and dirt.

Resting your feet on the table could spread salmonella and fecal bacteria from outside.

Ready  For a Clean, Healthy Home?

Keep the dirt, grime, and bacteria away with regular visits from our Tucson maid service.  The Maids of Tucson are here to help with our 22-step healthy touch cleaning program. Give us a call today at (520) 795-7977 . You’ll wish you had called us years ago!

Common cleaning mistakes waste your time and leave your home just as dirty as it was before. Our Tucson cleaning service professionals have some great advice for how you can avoid making blunders when trying to clean your home.

1. Stop Using More Product Than You Have To

This mistake costs you time and money. On top of that, using excessive cleaners can actually hurt whatever it is you are trying to clean. Even if you feel like a particular spot or stain will require more than the product instructions list, start with that amount and work your way upwards slowly if you aren’t seeing any results. Too much cleaner can damage certain materials or cause build-up that otherwise wouldn’t happen.

2. Make Sure You’re Reading All Instruction On Your Cleaning Products

In addition to using more product than necessary, not reading the instructions for a product could be harmful to your home and your health. Make sure you understand which surfaces are ok to spritz your cleaners on and be sure you are using those products safely.

3. Cleaning Quickly

Other than a quick pick-up of your clutter, you should expect cleaning your home to take some time. Many cleaning products need to sit for a set amount of time before being wiped away. On top of that, quick, distracted cleaning is a good way to just move dirt and bacteria around your household surfaces. There’s no easier way to “miss a spot” and chances are that you are missing some of the most important areas.

Running your vacuum quickly through your home means that it’s not picking up nearly as much dirt and dust as it should be – leaving you vulnerable to allergies and discomfort. Quickly cleaning glass leads to streaks and residue. If you really value a clean home, invest the right amount or hire a Tucson cleaning service so that you don’t have to worry about it.

4. Not Testing Your Products

Many products- particularly stain removers- instruct you to test them on a small patch of the surface or item you are trying to clean. Ignoring this step could lead to abrasions on the surfaces and discoloration of your fabrics.

5. Window Cleaning When it’s Sunny

This mistake is particularly hard for Tucsonans to avoid. Cleaning your window while the sun bears down on it means that your product is going to dry much faster and will lead to streaks. The best way to avoid this is to clean your windows in the evening or to be very diligent while you clean.

6. Going Overboard With Natural Remedies

Going green with your cleaning is a great idea. In fact, The Maids of Tucson use environmentally-preferable supplies and state-of-the-art equipment to get the job done. However, as useful as vinegar and lemon can be in cleaning your home, dousing your surfaces with it is a bad idea. Many times – particularly with stone surfaces- straight vinegar or lemon can damage and dull. A quick fix for this is to dilute the vinegar. A mix of 1 TBSP vinegar with a half-gallon of water should do the trick.

7. You’re Using The Wrong Tool

Old brooms, vacuums with full filters, and paper towels are just a few things you should avoid when you go to clean your home. That dirty rag that you grab for everything isn’t helping, either. If you’re going to spend your valuable time cleaning- why do it with tools that make it harder or that cancel out your efforts all together? Use clean microfiber cloths to wipe down your surfaces and always check the quality of your tools.

8. You’re Not Using Tools At All

We know that Tucson homeowners don’t have access to HEPA filtration vacuum backpacks like The Maids of Tucson do, but your vacuum should have at least one hose attachment. Help yourself out by using those attachments for hard-to-reach areas where pet fur and dirt gather. If you’ve got hard floors, hose attachments can be much more reliable at picking up crumbs than a broom or the regular vacuum.

9. You’re Working Too Hard

Chances are, it’s not your job to clean homes. But it sure can feel like it when you’re dedicated to giving your home the cleaning service it deserves. Don’t overdo it. If you’re ready delegate your home cleaning to The Maids of Tucson. Home cleaning is our job and we’re ready to use our 22-step healthy touch cleaning system to help you get the deep cleaning you want without the hassle. Give us a call today at (520)795-7977.

The fresh feeling you get when our maids leave your home after a cleaning visit can’t be beat.  That’s why it’s so important to keep the house clean between Tucson maid visits. It’s ok, The Maids of Tucson are here to help you with your home cleaning even when we aren’t there by offering these tips to keep your home fresh and tidy!

There’s no deep cleaning necessary here- leave all of the heavy scrubbing to us! The best way to keep your house looking tidy is to manage all of the things that tend to pile up around you. Nothing gets rid of that just-cleaned feeling like clutter everywhere! Here are some potential clutter disasters that need to be taken care of before they overrun your home.

Mail

Have you ever had a mail bin in your home that quickly turned into Mail Mountain? Yikes! Get rid of this clutter before it begins by opening your mail as soon as you get it, throwing out all of those high interest credit card offers and other unwanted missives (recycling whenever you can), and keeping only the important  pieces, like the birthday card from Aunt Ruth.  Make sure that you recycle all of your circulars as soon as you are done deal hunting. (Did you know stores like Fry’s have apps you can use for that instead? Throw out the clutter!)

Laundry

If there were ever a task that felt like a never-ending chore, it’s laundry.  Where’s your designated laundry pile? A chair in the corner? On top of the washing machine? The floor? Wait, are those clean or dirty? The best tips for keeping your house clean from mysterious laundry piles are to make sure you have at least one designated dirty laundry bin and that you put your clothes away as soon as they come out of the dryer. Oh, and don’t leave them in the dryer for hours after it stops running unless you have a lot of free time for ironing.

Dishes

Dishes are the third and largest part of the triple threat to tidiness. Not only do dirty dishes tend to pile up, but bits of leftover food are very attractive to bugs and can even leave you wondering how to remove that unpleasant odor.  After a meal, make sure that you are rinsing all of your dishes and loading them into your dishwasher if they are dishwasher safe. You have more leeway than with your dryer, but don’t let your dishes sit in the dishwasher for too long after being cleaned. That’s a surefire way to start a pile up and overwhelm you before your team of Tucson maids arrive.

Miscellany

Keys on the table, jacket on the back of the chair, and loose change are all things that won’t ruin the look and feel of your home, but become overwhelming if left unattended. Not to mention the frustration that comes when things aren’t where they belong. As time permits, especially if you are already on your way to the room where it belongs pick up stray items and return them to their rightful place.  Every now and then, you may want to “spring clean” your home and de-clutter areas such as your kitchen and closets to prevent clutter before it begins.

Keeping your house clean and fresh

Now that you’ve taken care of tidying up, it’s time to make sure your home is clean. Keep you and your family safe from bacteria by spraying your sinks, toilets, and most-used surfaces with disinfectant. Make sure to keep the trash cans free from overflow and spills and sweep up loose crumbs that make their way to the floor.

A clean, fresh feeling doesn’t always have to mean cleaning your home! Let light and fresh air in through your windows and consider using an air freshener for an enjoyable atmosphere.

Tucson Maids are here for You

The Maids of Tucson can give your home the deep, healthy clean that you deserve.  We’re here to remove dirt, dust, allergens, bacteria and more from your home while also removing stress and time commitments from your life.  Our 22 Step Healthy Touch System is designed to leave your home cleaner and healthier than ever before, in fact, we offer a 100% guarantee for our work. If don’t already have a home cleaning service in Tucson, reach out to The Maids of Tucson today and see if our services are right for you and your home!

Ever have those days where your cosmetics look so good that your carpet or blouse decide they want some, too?  Make up and nail polish stains can be rough to remove, but that might not mean they’ll stay forever. Here are some great tips for removing make up and nail polish stains.

Removing Make Up Stains

• Products with oil such as lipstick can be countered by applying a small amount of grease-fighting dish soap and letting it sit before gently rubbing dry.
• You can also try rubbing the stain with castile soap and letting it sit overnight.
• Oil-free make up stains can be tackled with shaving cream and stain removal pens.

Removing Nail Polish Stains

• Clothes- Dab stain through a paper towel with acetone nail polish remover after doing a spot check to ensure it won’t damage the fabric. Launder immediately afterwards.
• Wood- Spray the stain with hair spray and then wipe clean. Do not use nail polish as it can remove the finish on the wood.
• Other hard surfaces- Try a non-acetone nail polish followed by a magic eraser to get the job done.

No one likes a mess.  Contact The Maids of Tucson today at (520) 795-7977 and we’ll keep your home spotless!

We all know that Tucson summers can be brutal for our bodies. Heat exhaustion, sun burn, and dehydration are just a few things that we need to  protect ourselves against. But did you know that there are actions you can take to make sure your home is prepared for summer, too? We’ve got some great advice from  Tucson’s best local businesses to help your house survive the heat.

WOOD’S PLUMBING ENTERPRISES, L.L.C.

When preparing to leave your house for the summer or any extended period of time, there’s a couple of things you’ll want to consider doing with regard to your plumbing.  For your water heater, you’ll want to power it down, drain and flush it.  You can also shut down your main water while still leaving water to irrigation for landscaping.  Reverse Osmosis and water softening systems should be drained and flushed.  If you have a sewer ejector system and will be gone long term, shut it down before leaving.  You also might want to put anti-freeze in all P-traps (located in sinks, toilets, tubs, showers) to keep water from evaporating.

 Up & Running Computer Services

First off we’d recommend considering a whole home surge protector from Stacey. But not everyone goes for that so we deal with two types of customers; those that stay all year (except vacay), and those that bolt outta here for extended periods of time.
So at Up & Running Computer Services, we recommend for those that live here: We know when stormy season is. And most of us have a surge protector of one sort or another in our home. But one of my philosophies has always been, “There’s nothing better than an OPEN” In electronics terms, an OPEN is when a circuit is interrupted, physically. A blown circuit breaker creates an OPEN to the living room circuit, for example, until you reset the breaker, thus reconnecting the circuit.
So, at least during the stormy seasons, turn off the computer, and unplug it from the charger or from the power plug. That creates an OPEN.
And we also strongly recommend folks use battery backups, in our lingo, UPS (Uninterrupted Power Supply). These have good surge protection, but more importantly, if your power simply goes off, as power tends to do once in awhile, these babies can power your computer and monitor for 10, 15, 30 minutes … enough time that you can get to it and shut it down properly rather than risk losing data from an unexpected shutdown.

For those going away? Unplug, pack, store, and let the gear ride out the summer and we’ll dust ’em off in September and enjoy your time away!

The Home Warranty Diva 

Getting your A/C ready:

1. Change your filter,
2. Clean out the weeds around your outside unit and make sure all shrubs and trees are at least a foot away and do not hang over the top of the unit.
3. Have a reputable HVAC contractor out to do an inspection and possibly maintenance on the unit.  If there are any little refrigerant leaks, the coil need to be cleaned, the contacts need to be replaced, the capacitor is worn.

The Maids of Tucson:

Summertime can also bring a lot of dust, mud, and grime into your home thanks to haboobs, monsoons, and more. On top of that, the heat will make your house more attractive to bugs and other critters.  Here’s some tips to help keep your house clean during the summer:

• Apply spray-on sunscreen outside or while standing on a towel to prevent greasy floors.
• Sweep often to keep sand under control and clear up crumbs that will attract bugs.
• Wash your bedding more often if you get sweaty at night.
• Take garbage out more frequently so the heat doesn’t exacerbate the smell.
• Wash soggy swimwear and towels often to prevent moldy smells.

Keep your home clean by counting on The Maids of Tucson! Contact us today to take the first step towards a spotless home.

Who better to clean your schedule than a Tucson cleaning service? Life can be absolutely overwhelming. Have you ever had a day where you felt like you were constantly on the go without a moment’s rest, only to find that you barely made a dent on your to-do list?  Other days, we get so focused on the tasks at hand that others fall right through the cracks – like putting dinner in the crockpot. We’ve got you covered with some time management tips that can really help to tip the scales- or the clock- in your favor.

Prioritize

This may seem like an obvious tip.  Everyone knows that the most important tasks should be done first, but that’s rarely ever how life goes.  Important tasks can often get pushed to the side by those that seem like they won’t take long or tasks that pop up unexpectedly. The basic idea behind time management is to get rid of these obstacles.

Here’s a good outline for how you should prioritize your tasks when you start your day:

1. Tasks that absolutely must be done
   1. Time-sensitive tasks
   2. Shorter Tasks
   3. Longer Tasks
2. Tasks that don’t need to be done right away
3. Tasks that are ‘wants’ and not ‘needs’

When prioritizing, make notes of deadlines for time-sensitive tasks as well as tasks that need to be done at a certain time, such as doctor’s appointments and taking kids to school. It’s also a good idea to make note of how long tasks take you to complete, especially if they are recurring tasks. This will help you to plan better in the future.

Bullet Journals

Image via BulletJournal.com

Bullet journals are one of our favorite time management tips. They offer a lot of freedom when compared to the traditional day calendar. If you find yourself needing more than just a calendar, you may want to try a bullet journal. We find that bullet journals are a great system for getting a top down look at your life as well as to help organize thoughts and reminders. There are several resources online for learning how to make and use a bullet journal, but a great place to start is the site that started it all.

The Pomodoro Technique

The Pomodoro Techique is a lifesaver for people who are interested in time management, but struggle with getting distracted or burning out after focusing on tasks for too long.  The basic idea behind this system is to  balance work and breaks. It looks like this:

• Spend 25 minutes working on a task
• Break for 5 minutes and do something rewarding
• Repeat until you’ve had 4 work sessions
• Take a break of 20-30 minutes to recharge

This may seem like you are spending a lot of time on a break, but it cuts out distractions and interrupts them and corrals them into specific timeslots.  It can also help you track how much time you are spending on a given task and protect the quality of your work  by allowing you to rest. Just remember to reset the timer and follow it! If you do a lot of your work online, you can take advantage of tools like Strict Workflow, a Chrome Extension that follows the Pomodoro Technique and blocks sites such as Facebook and Twitter during your work sessions.

Delegate

You lose a lot of time to tasks you don’t need to be doing. These are the tasks that need to be done, but don’t necessarily need to be done by you.  There are a lot of menial tasks out there that demand a great deal of your time. By delegating these tasks, you give yourself the opportunity to work on things that can really make a difference in your life.

The Maids of Tucson can help you get rid of a huge time commitment with our home cleaning service.  Our time estimate for our 3 or 4 person team to do an initial deep clean of your home is 60 minutes per every 1,000 square feet. Imagine what you could do when you save that time. In the meantime, here are some 5 minute cleaning tips!

Other tasks that you can delegate include things like grocery shopping (Have your groceries delivered), anything that can be automated ( paying bills or refilling prescriptions),  and simple work tasks that can be delegated to your team.

Our Tucson Cleaning Service Wants to Tidy your Schedule!

We hope you’ve enjoyed our time management tips. If you’re ready to delegate your chores to a Tucson cleaning service you can depend on, give The Maids of Tucson a call today!

Organizing your closets well can not only make accessing your belongings easier; it can even free up storage space you didn’t know you had. Here are four ways to optimize the space available by using clever organizational techniques that keep your clothing, shoes, and accessories logically sorted and easy to find.

1. Maximize hanging space

Try sorting your hanging clothes by length or type. Once you have an area dedicated to shirts, jackets, or something else relatively short, you can double its usefulness by installing a closet rack extender to hang more clothes beneath that section. Other ways to save hanging space include using thinner hangers and using stackable hangers that hang from each other to store clothes vertically.

2. Use vertical strategies for floor space

If your closet is tiny, all you’ll have is the floor space under your hanging clothes. If your closet is a walk-in, you have more room to work with but also more potential for chaos. Use these strategies to optimize whatever floor space you have by capitalizing on its intersection with vertical space.

Create more floor space with vertical organization

If your closet is just four feet by six feet, you only have twenty-four square feet to work with. You can change this by converting vertical space into more theoretical  “floor space.” Add a shoe rack with three four-foot shelves, and you now have half again as much square footage. Any multi-level storage solution can increase the amount of “floor space” created this way.

Find gaps in vertical space and fill them strategically

Stand back and look at how things are positioned in your closet. Take note of any empty spaces, small gaps, and dead air, then start brainstorming ways to use that space. If you have a six-inch gap between the back wall and your hanging clothes, you have a significant amount of vertical space that’s not being used. Try storing something thin in that gap, such as:

• An under bed bag filled with wrapping paper and stored vertically
• A folding step stool to help you access your highest closet shelf
• Vacuum-sealed bed linens
• Thick winter coats hanging on hooks on the wall

Or if these ideas themselves don’t appeal to you, let the examples act as a springboard to help you brainstorm ideas for what you can fit into the small gaps in your own closet.

3. Don’t waste high shelves or wall space

If you have a small closet with one shelf just above the hanging rack, look up. You could have three or four feet of underutilized space above the shelf. Try some of these optimization strategies:

• Use the shelf to store something that will use all the available vertical space, such as suitcases stored standing up
• Install another, narrower shelf halfway up to break the vertical space into usable increments
• Hang a folding stepstool on the closet wall so you’ll always be able to access the highest shelf
• Check for space between the shelf and the hanging rack; you may have room for under-shelf storage baskets

If you have a larger closet, you’ll have even more room for creative organization. Consider using some of these strategies to make the most of it:

• Hang a pot rack from the ceiling to suspend hats, scarves, or handbags
• Squeeze corner shelves in to utilize otherwise unusable corner spaces
• Hang mirrors (to give the appearance of more space) and increase lighting to make the space easier to use

4. Don’t forget the door

A common recommendation for closet doors is the hanging shoe rack, but if you’re going for a classier look you may want to opt for a more creative approach to closet door storage. Some ideas you may be interested in include:

• Use a chain of stacked hangers down the middle of the door as a unique storage option for  bras.
• Mount an empty picture frame strung with wires as a rack to hold all your earrings neatly and artistically.
• Use a peg board to hang all your jewelry on the back of the door.
• Use a towel bar or curtain rod and s-hooks to form a convenient hanging rack for all your handbags.
• Or substitute shower curtain rings for the s-hooks and thread your scarves through them.

These are just a few of the endless possibilities for closet door organization.

Feeling inspired after organizing your closet? Why not check out our Five Simple Tips To De-Clutter Your Kitchen.

The Maids have been serving Tucson for over three decades and have plenty of other helpful cleaning and organizing tips to help you take the best possible care of your home. For more advice or to learn more about our services, call us at (520) 795-7977.