As most people who are familiar with my company know, we have always made the majority of the products we use in our client’s homes ourselves. As of this week, that will no longer be the case.
I am excited to introduce Queen of the Meadow, our new product line. Queen of the Meadow is a small local company run by Daniela Butrick and her family, and they have mixed up a heavenly custom-blended signature scent just for All Star! Here is some information about Daniela’s company from her website (www.queenofthemeadow.com):
…your exclusive source of pure and natural beauty care!
We are a family business, located in Fort Collins, CO, that creates all natural, herbal hair & body care, and household products.
Our ingredients are wild gathered, or organically grown and we appreciate the renewable resources our earth is giving us.
Our products do not contain any petrochemicals like aggressive detergents or petroleum based preservatives that could harm you and our environment and do not belong at all in your hair or on your skin.
We are crafters and our products are handmade, in small batches – and get to you always fresh!
Nor do we put synthetic fragrances, colors, emulsifiers, thickeners or alcohols in our products.
The oils we add, are when ever possible cold pressed, unrefined, and organic. We only use raw butters – simply, we create our recipes with only ingredients that are kept in their most natural, authentic way, so nothing harmful gets into your bloodstream!
We care about human beings, animals, plants…just simply about our environment and planet we are living on.
Our wonderful products are filled in recycled glass jars, recycled paper bags, and recyclable plastic bottles, we offer
refill – instead of landfill!
In the office, we only use recycled papers.
For mail orders, we reuse boxes and newspaper.
You can feel and enjoy our products’ natural origin!
In addition to her cleaning products, I have personally used Daniela’s solid lotion bar for a couple of years now, and love it. Look for her in local farmer’s markets and check out the goodies for yourself!
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For a limited time, you can purchase an Oreck upright Commercial RHB vacuum cleaners at the dealer cost of $209 including shipping! $45 of each vacuum sold goes directly to the Cleaning for a Reason foundation!
Extremely lightweight and easy to maintain, these are the ONLY upright vacuums the All Stars use in our client’s homes.
Call our office today to place your order! This special offer won’t last long!
We can be reached by phone at 970.215.2224
or by Email at laura@cleaningallstars.com
Cleaning for a Reason is a wonderful program that I am very proud to be a part of. All Star Cleaning Services was the first chapter of C4R in Colorado 2 1/2 years ago, and is still the only chapter serving the Northern Colorado area.
As of today:
Cleaning for a Reason has 415 maid service partners in 43 states plus Canada
1,918 women have been served
Over $275,000 in services have been donated by C4R partner maid services
Since partnering with cleaning for a reason in late 2006, All Star Cleaning Services has helped 25 women, including 6 active patients as of today.
Hear what one of our patients had to say about the program:
If you know someone who could use some help, locally or in another area, Cleaning for a Reason can be contacted through their website at:
www.cleaningforareason.org
Or Toll Free at (877) 337-3348.
For the month of June only:
Current clients get your carpets cleaned in June and we will donate 20% of the cost of the cleaning to the C4R foundation in your name.
To donate to the Cleaning for a Reason Foundation in memory of a friend or loved one, click here
I have just returned from a wonderful trip to Hilo, Hawaii. My younger sister lives there, and I flew out for a week to see her graduate from college with a degree in business. Having fallen in love with the island, she has decided to stay and open Aloha All Natural, and natural cleaning service servicing the big island of Hawaii. Having worked for me off and on for years, she knows the industry well and I am sure she will do great things. While there, I spent some time helping her with startup, since I have been there, done that and know the ropes.
The first thing I noticed upon arrival was the abundance of hand written signs tacked to phone poles: CLEANING LADY, $8 an hour call 555-5555. You could hardly pass a phone pole without at least 2-3 of these signs.
My sister scheduled an estimate for my final day that we had planned for me to do for her while she watched, so she could learn the sales process first hand. It was quite clear to me within the first few minutes that this woman clearly was looking for one of these $8 an hour housekeepers. My sister did not get the job.
The industry refers to these under-the-table workers as trunkslammers, and they frustrate me to no end. What do you get when you hire a trunkslammer? Cheap labor for sure. But what happens when this worker uses the wrong product and ruins all of your granite countertops? You will be the one footing the bill, as insurance would be far out of reach for such a low income worker.
What happens when that worker falls and breaks their ankle in your home? Contrary to popular belief, homeowners insurance will NOT cover such injuries. If the person was performing work in your home for money, that makes them your employee and workman’s comp insurance is the only thing that would cover them (I pay an average of $1000 a month for workman’s comp – not something individual homeowners are likely to consider for their cash employees.)
An $8-15 an hour cash worker is virtually guaranteed to not have health insurance of their own (although once again, even if they did they would not be covered) and they are not likely to have savings to cover their expenses during their recovery period while they are unable to work.
So what happens when your $8 an hour cleaner falls in your home and breaks their ankle? You get sued. It does not matter how nice your housekeeper is or how close you may have become, when faced with no income, no savings, and high medical bills, she will sue you and she will win. After all, you were her employer.
Add 1/2 cup vinegar to a 32 oz spray bottle
Fill the rest of the way up with warm water
Add 1 tsp of Dr. Bronners Peppermint Soap
Shake!
Voila! No more streaks!
| Here are 6 quick tips to make your home more energy efficient, and potentially save hundreds of dollars in the process.
Washing clothes in cold water saves $40 per year and 80- 90% of energy used in washing Did you know Americans pay 1 billion dollars a year to power TV and VCR while they are turned off? Install a power strip and put an end to phantom power once and for all – and save up to 10% off your power bill in the process! Switch to Compact Fluorescent Light Bulbs: Change your furnace filter every month. It will save you up to 5% on your heating bill – and cut down on those pesky dust bunnies in the process! Program your thermostat. Did you know up to 75% of people with programmable thermostats don’t use them? It only takes about 5 minutes to insure you are not heating and cooling your home unnecessarily while no one is home. Program to 78 degrees in the summer and 62 degrees in the winter – and save up to $100 a year. Get an Energy Audit. You can set them up through Xcel Energy for as little as $35. The standard audit offers a thorough examination of the home’s energy efficiency and usage and is conducted by certified energy auditors. The auditors prepare a personalized energy report detailing improvements that will make your home more comfortable and decrease your energy bill at the same time. |
I stumbled across this wonderful blog today called 365 Days of Trash.
1. If something is waste that I have generated, I’ve got to deal with it. If I buy something for myself, the packaging is mine to deal with. Hopefully this will entail figuring out what it is made of, what would happen to it if it were “thrown away” and what I will be doing with it.
2. Any waste that I generate that can be recycled, will also be saved. Recycling is better than “throwing away” but it still takes energy and creates waste so I think accounting for recycling will be an important factor.
I am excited to announce All Star Cleaning Services’ new Recycling Program! Well, it is not really new, but it recently occurred to me we have never put anything up on the website about it before!
You can now leave any recyclable material that does not qualify for curbside pickup out for your crew, and we will recycle it for you. This completely free service is available to all current All Star clients – just one more way we are making your life a little easier, and a little greener.
- Batteries
- Compact Fluorescent Light Bulbs
- Plastics types 3-7 (some waste services will pick these up now – check with your provider)
- Plastic Grocery Bags
- Electronics Recycling and Cell Phones
- Chemicals Too! Haven’t gone green yet? Ready to make the switch but don’t know what to do with all the harmful chemicals still lurking around your home? Leave them for us, and we will properly dispose of them for you.
I love my steamer. I would be lost without it. I didn’t even know what a steamer was before I got my start in the cleaning industry, and now I just can’t imagine life without one. When faced with dirty grout, a soap scummy shower, sticky baseboards or other tough messes, it is a lifesaver.
For example, just last week the grout in my kitchen was black. Fed up with looking at it, I pulled out the steamer. Here is the after pic:
No nasty chemicals, just my steamer and a grout brush.
Steamers are easy to use, melt away grease, dirt, grime, and soap scum effortlessly, and are relatively inexpensive. They clean with the power of dry steam – usually heated to between 240 and 275 degrees – sanitizing hard surfaces using only water.
We have two:
The “big steamer” for large jobs will run continuously for 45 minutes without refilling. We paid around $100 on Amazon.
The “baby steamer” is for quicker jobs, running around 15 minutes at a time. I think I picked this one up for around $30 at Walmart one day when big steamer was being repaired.
Please keep in mind steamers should not be used around small children or pets! They are safe to use on most hard surfaces, but always be sure test a small area first. Happy cleaning!
Here are two more tools no natural cleaner should be without – the pumice stone and the plastic putty knife.
Pumice Stone
Natural Pumice Stones are another well kept secret of the cleaning industry. They will remove stains and mineral deposits from toilet bowls, and scrub burnt on messes from ovens like nobody’s business. Cleaning-quality pumice stones are sold in the cleaning supply aisle of most stores, and crumble easily when wet (do not attempt to use a cosmetic-quality pumice stone in your toilet!) To avoid scratching, keep your pumice stone very wet when in use, and test a small area first. If it doesn’t scratch, go to town with it!
Plastic Putty Knife
Have you ever been cleaning your kitchen, wiping along innocently, and suddenly run into a mysterious glob of something – petrified pancake batter, or worse, dried egg - and it just won’t budge? No need to pull out the big guns (chemical cleaners) in an attempt to dissolve it. Just whip out your plastic putty knife, scrape it away easily, and move on. I recommend sticking with a plastic knife to minimize risk of scratching.