***FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE***
Local Maid Service Helps Disabled Heroes
Local Fire, Police and US Military Benefit Through Non-Profit Organization
(Fort Collins, CO) 06/28/10 – Giving honor to veterans and service members can
happen every day of the year if you really put your mind to it. While many people enjoy long
weekends and holidays like Memorial Day, Independence Day, or Veteran’s Day, one company
decided that every day was worth giving honor, and decided to do something about it.
All Star Cleaning Services, a local maid service provider serving the Fort Collins,
Loveland, Windsor, and surrounding areas is dedicated to serving local heroes all year long by
providing free house cleaning services through Cleaning for Heroes. Cleaning for Heroes is a
non-profit organization that connects maid services across the nation to deserving individuals
who have been injured or disabled in the line of duty. Cleaning for Heroes is dedicated to
providing house cleaning services, at no cost, to disabled and elderly members of the United
States military.
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Here is an interesting article from Re-Nest – Clean Your Bathtub with a Grapefruit and Some Salt.
I have often used lemon juice in my homemade cleaning products, but this is an interesting use for produce that I don’t think I would have thought of.
See the full article with recipe HERE.
The discussion in the comments is interesting too – which is the lesser of the two evils for the eco-friendly – to “waste” food to clean your home, or to use manufactured products (a.k.a chemicals?)
Enjoy!
Before becoming an ALL STAR: I worked a lot of customer service jobs, Sam’s Club being the most recent. I held many positions at Sam’s including cashier, grocery department, clothing, and hardlines.
Career Ambitions: One day I would like to own my own cleaning company!
Why she wanted to be an ALL STAR: I wanted to be an All Star because I love to clean and I love getting to know people.
Favorite part of the job: My favorite part of the job is getting to do the Cleaning for a Reasons. It makes me feel so good being able to help people out who really need it.
Something you may not know about Christine: My favorite thing is cleaning the most absolutely dirtiest houses, because it is so awesome to see how clean it can look in the end!
Quality Assurance Manager Laura!
Before becoming an ALL STAR: I was working retail while going to school to become a physical therapist.
Career Ambitions: I plan to become a physical therapist, and hopes to someday work for a professional sports team as a trainer.
Why she wanted to be an ALL STAR: I had been very interested in the green movement. Working for a green company seemed to be a good career- before-my-career/ job change!
Favorite part of the job: My favorite part of the job is getting to know our clients. It is like becoming a part of many families all at once.
Something you may not know about Laura: I grew up on a beach and enjoy surfing and scuba diving.
Good contractors are really, really hard to find. When I find a great one, I want to scream it from the rooftops!
I bought my first house in February. I was over the moon – it is everything I’ve ever wanted in a house – huge yard, mature fruit trees, large garden, enough bedrooms for the whole family - it was perfect! So we bought it.
Fast forward to three weeks ago – I woke up one morning to water gushing out of the cracks in my driveway. Uh-oh. Welcome to the joys of home ownership, right? I was beside myself though. We had barely been in this house for 6 months, and I could tell right away this was going to be a budget buster.
Luckily for me, a co-woorker was quick to recommend Dano with Independent Plumbing Solutionsbefore I had a chance to hit the phonebook. I could not have been more blessed to have found him. Dano and his crew responded quickly, diagnosed the problem, and very patiently explained what had caused this nightmare and what all of my options were for moving forward.
I have to tell you – I am a very anxious person. Dano not only took the time to explain things to me in plain english (I’ve rarely found a contractor who will,) but he calmed me down. He reassured me. And he never, ever, made me feel like I was over-reacting or slowing him down with my game of 20-questions.
In the end, he came in early and under-budget. Dano has found himself a customer for life in me, and I hope that next time you have plumbing needs of your own (hopefully not of the emergency variety) that you will consider giving him a call too. After all, good contractors are extremely hard to find.
Dano can be reached through his website:
Or by phone at 970.556.1377
A new study from the international scientific journal Environmental Health has found a correlation between house cleaning products and breast cancer in women.
To the All Star Crew, this is not news, but just another confirmation of our mission as a company. From the summary article:
The use of cleaners including air fresheners and mold removers doubled the risk of breast cancer in women who used them most often … because they contain “endocrine disrupting chemicals” or “mammary gland carcinogens.” (emphasis added)
Endocrine disrupting chemicals, such as triclosan, are a personal vendetta of mine. The worst offenders, as the article noted, are air fresheners. Modern air fresheners are full of chemicals that are properly considered neurotoxins, because they actually affect the olfactory centers of the nervous system.
Many carpet cleaners in Fort Collins and around the country use artificial fragrances in their products which have the same damaging chemicals in them. At All Star, our carpet cleaning products are completely free of artificial fragrances or any other synthetic chemicals. Our customers often remark at the (lack of) scent in our products, often noting that “it just smells ‘clean,’ but I can’t put my finger on what it smells like.“
Triclosan
The FDA has finally come out with some strong words regarding Triclosan, the active ingredient of almost all consumer products labeled as “antibacterial.” Triclosan has been the target one of my personal crusades ever since I began studying the science of cleaning chemistry. Originally developed as a pre-surgery scrub for medical professionals, it is an effective anti-microbial agent and fungicide that doesn’t have the side effect of causing dry skin like alcohol- or peroxide-based hand sanitizers. It kills germs by interfering with enzymes necessary for fatty-acid synthesis.
The problem with Triclosan (and other antibiotics like Penicillin and Methicillin) is that it is also a mutagen- it actually causes germs to mutate and develop new characteristics. And every once in a while these mutations create a “Super-Bug,” a germ strain that is resistant to anti-biotics. For example, the deadly MRSA (reaistant staph), is such a super-bug.
Triclosan is most often found in anti-bacterial soaps, toothpaste, and shampoo. It is also present in many municipal water sources, odor-resistant athletic clothes and equipment, and even children’s toys. It interferes with the human body’s endocrine system (it kills our cells the same way it kills bacteria). Because it has snuck its way into nearly every corner of the consumer goods market, it is regulated by the FDA, the EPA, and the Consumer Product Safety Commission.
Luckily, the FDA has finally caught on to the problem. The Washington Post has a great article:
…the FDA said that recent scientific studies raise questions about whether triclosan disrupts the body’s endocrine system and whether it helps to create bacteria that are resistant to antibiotics. An advisory panel to the FDA said in 2005 that there was no evidence the antibacterial soaps work better than regular soap and water. (emphasis added.)
According to a recent story in The Coloradoan (article has been removed), a Fort Collins man has been accused of scamming residents of Fort Collins, Loveland, Windsor, and Greeley by agreeing to perform landscaping and other services, collecting payment, and never following through with completing the work.
“According to the victims, [the contractor] is alleged to have either collected cash in advance from homeowners for services not delivered or to have hired subcontractors and failed to pay for services rendered,” [Fort Collins Police Spokeswoman Rita] Davis said.
These stories really twist my stomach, because every one of the poor people he stole from could have avoided their situation by following a few simple steps everyone should use when hiring a residential service, carpet cleaning or otherwise.
- Always agree on a price and scope of work before the work has begun.
- Ask for a list of references- and check them.
- If possible, ask a friend who they use as their service professionals.
- Always ask for proof of insurance and bonding.
Well, I haven’t posted anything in quite awhile – it has been an amazing autumn for us! We have had record growth this year, and today we are moving into a larger office to accommodate our growing number of staff!
I just ran across this video while taking a break from moving, and had to share it with all of the amazing women we clean for through Cleaning for a Reason. Enjoy!
Tired of staring at my badly tarnished unity candle, I decided to start exploring natural methods of polishing silver. (I had never actually polished any silver before since this is the only silver piece I own!)
Here is the recipe I tried first:
Silver Tarnish Remover
Ingredients:
1 tablespoon salt
1 tablespoon baking soda
6 cups of warm water
1 sheet aluminum foil
Instructions:
Line a large bowl with aluminum foil (this is not to protect the bowl; it is part of the recipe.) Mix salt and soda with warm water in the bowl. Place silver items in mixture and soak for one hour. Dry and buff with a soft cloth.
This is the most common method I’ve come across in my years of natural cleaning research.
I didn’t have a container large enough to fit the entire candle holder in, so I used the largest baking dish I had, which submerged about half of it. Then I went to a movie.
4 hours later…
It didn’t really work. I experimented with adding more salt and soda and left it for another hour. Nothing.
I was pretty surprised by this actually, although I should know by now that not all natural cleaning recipes really work all that well (which is why I keep this blog in the first place!) This recipe is just so widely spread across the internet, I never really thought to question it. Maybe I did something wrong?
In the end, I used Tom’s of Maine Toothpaste (must be white paste not gel FYI) and it came out beautifully.
It would take quite a lot of toothpaste to polish something much larger than a candle stick though. If anyone out there in cyberspace has any other natural recipes for silver polish that could more easily handle large pieces, post them in the comments – I’d love to try them out!