5 Ways To Do Spring Cleaning Right In Oakland County, MI | Deep Cleaning Services, Lake Orion, MI

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February 2014

The winter season of 2013-2014 has put everyone living and working in Oakland County, MI through the wringer.  Before you let eternal doubt sink in on whether or not the warmer temps of Spring 2014 will actually get here, it would be best to take proactive spring cleaning action now even while there's snow on the ground.

The official onset of Spring brings a lot of activity to the inside and outside areas your home.  It helps to stay on top of the latest news and tips from experts specializing in home care and maintenance.  While Carpet Cleaning Excellence doesn't know much about lawns, gardens, flowers, or trees, we can offer a helping hand on how to strategize a productive deep cleaning plan that will get the inside of your Oakland County, MI home in great Springtime shape.  We consulted with our friends at A Clean Dream Home & Lifestyle Services in White Lake, MI (a top-rated local house cleaning & organizing service) and the owner, Luna Martin, gave us some great tips to share with you.  Her background in extreme cleaning of hoarder homes makes her an authority in this area.  She advised on taking these 5 baby steps to get your spring cleaning campaign underway:

Baby Step #1:  Forget spring cleaning the whole house

Carve out 1-4 hours (and no more) in a day to get some serious work done.  Depending on your home's current conditions, aim to spring clean 1-2 rooms at a time and THAT'S IT.  Yes, the American way is to go big or go home, but cut yourself some slack here.  If you aim to get your spring cleaning done on your own, you've really got to eeeeease in it.  Particularly if you hate cleaning to begin with.  Don't be a hero, soldier!  You need steady energy and motivation to fight the whole house cleaning war here.
Baby Step #2:  Trash, Donate, Give Away, Sell, Keep/Store
 
Write these words separately in large marker print separately on 5 pieces of paper.  Beg, borrow, or buy some boxes or plastic storage containers in varying sizes.  Gather up extra blank paper, tape, Ziploc bags, and garbage bags.  Keep the marker handy.  Some caffeine, water, some snacks, and a radio will help you stick to and continue the job at hand (outside of bathroom breaks) with no deviation.  Gather up basic cleaning supplies as well.  Now shut your phone off and clear a spot somewhere in the room where you can lay those 5 sheets of paper down.
 
 
Baby Step #2:  Ready, Aim...Declutter! "Pull And Pile" Style
 
Begin your cleaning adventure to the left or right of the room's door or entry way.  Now start to identify the extra things you don't need, want, or plain old use anymore.  This would mean any household item, appliance, piece of clothing, dust collecting decorations, etc. hasn't had any real functional use or visual appeal for you in the last 6-12 months.  If you have duplicates of things, do the same. These things that just need TO GO in piles by category by those pieces of paper on the floor.  Make sure you do a thorough "high-low" inspection of counters, tabletops, drawers, cabinets, closets and under furniture.  Separate important papers or mail from piles of circulars, old newspapers, junk mail, and magazine piles.  Once you have your piles complete, sort the items into bags or boxes for the appropriate dissemination according to said categories.  Get these out of your room and house AS SOON AS YOU CAN or do the appropriate things with them according to their paper sign designation.  If you're the kind of person that has the best intentions of scheduling a garage sale that never seems to happen, or have had ancient dreams of setting up an Ebay store that you just know will make you millions, let's just go ahead and rip up the 'Sell' sign now.  Move all that stuff into the 'Donate' or 'Give Away' piles and get on with your life. We're aiming for REAL progress and REAL esults here, after all.  
 
 
Baby Step #3:  Clean.  At least some.
 
After you're done decluttering you start, at the very least, a light overall dusting of the room and basic sweeping or vacuuming.  A basic room cleaning will take about 15-30 minutes depending on its size and what you've got going on in there.  You can also go full force with a deep cleaning which you may or may not want to do on the same day.  If you want to make your deep cleaning efforts go easier consider gathering up highly recommended and the most effective cleaning products and tools. Professional cleaning tips, in combination with the best cleaning supplies, will also make your work go faster and cause less physical strain on your body.  Who needs THAT?
 
 
Baby Step #4:  Don't Lose Momentum
 
Don't stop now, you just got started!  If you designate just 1-2 days a week to decluttering and light cleaning, you will probably get most, if not all, of the NON-labor intensive rooms spring cleaned by time the warm weather actually gets here.  Keep things flexible for yourself.  A target date for full spring cleaning completion by Easter 2014 is quite reasonable if you start now.  Leave the more labor intensive rooms such as kitchens and baths last on your list.  Even if these are not cluttered up or just moderately dirty, they are still a bit more physically grueling to get properly deep cleaned.
 
 
Baby Step #5:  Bring In The Big Guns
 
If you still need a few final touches to get your Oakland County, Michigan home completely spring cleaned, you may want to think about calling in a professional service to get the harder slog of tasks DONE and out of your life.  You may have had enough tackling every room in your home in the above manner or perhaps you are just too busy or overwhelmed to even start the decluttering process.  In this case, it will be a good idea to bring in a professional maid, house cleaning or organizing service.  They can also take care of those other involved spring cleaning tasks such as blind cleaning, inside oven, or fridge cleaning.   Getting your home ready for spring will also not be complete without a thorough cleaning of your floors.  If you have hard flooring such as laminate, hard tile, or wood, getting them deep cleaned is usually done one of two ways.  The first consists of a good "old school" floor scrubbing that starts on your hands and knees with a strong terry or microfiber cloth.  This technique really allows for a good detailed clean.  However, since this method is really hard on the body, and we're lucky enough to live in the 21st century, there are other modern options to choose from to get your hard floors super clean and shiny.  Technologically-advanced flat mop microfiber systems and home hard flooring steam cleaners will give your hard floors a better cleaning than, say, a rope / string mop or a Swiffer Wet-Jet could any day of the week.  Contemporary microfiber and steam mops also have a 'sanitizing' effect.  When used properly, the microfiber material picks up dirt and bacteria beautifully and the high heat of a flat steam mop (which usually involves the use of a microfiber cleaning pad) can kill germs and bacteria.  There are also professional services that deep clean wood and hard tile and grout flooring.  If you have specialty hard flooring such as slate, marble, or travertine that is looking dull despite regular maintenance and deep cleanings, you may need to have them rejuvenated by an expert with the training and background in floors covered with high-end, specialty materials.
 
 
Bonus Baby Step:  Spring Cleaning Your Carpet The Right Way
 
Since carpet is OUR specialty, one thing we love to do at Carpet Cleaning Excellence is educate our clients about carpet and cleaning.  Most people don't tend to think about the maintenance of their carpet much outside of vacuuming and maybe dealing with accidental spot and stains as they happen.  When it comes time for a deep cleaning, it can go one of either 2 ways:  hire a professional service or take it upon yourself to do the job with a rented or home steam cleaning machine. But in order to achieve the goal of getting your carpet deep down clean, one has to consider the many different features and functions of carpet.  This is why we've dedicated this bonus Baby Step to the spring cleaning of your carpeted floors.
 
Carpet comes in an incredible amount of colors, styles, and materials (natural and synthetic) to complement an interior space.  When a carpet needs a deep cleaning it is important to be able to identify what kind of fiber, stains, and any possible build-up you may be dealing with.  In the case of this enduring 2013-2014 winter season, not only do you have the usual dirt and dried mud being tracked in day after day, but also excess salt residue, white staining, and salt granules that will grind and damage the carpet's fibers.  If you're dealing with pet stains, you need a different approach with a specialized enzymatic pet urine removal process.  Sure, you can take a rented or home unit to your carpeting, but only a professionally trained carpet cleaning technician will really be able to make sure that the proper cleaning process and stain treatment for the type of carpet you have.  This is particularly important if you have newer carpet that is still under warranty.  New carpet is a big financial investment that should last you a long time.f it's properly cared for with the right cleaning methods and products.  It would be a disappoint prospect to find yourself living with carpet that doesn't look as good or functions as it should.
 
Carpet acts as an extra layer of insulation in your home which can positively enhance its thermal environment and provides savings by reducing heating and cooling-related energy costs.  In fact, carpet's insulation value can be up to 10x higher than that of hard flooring according to the Carpet Institute.  Carpet can also act as an effective soundproofing material, particularly if you purchase premium or specialty padding.  There has been some concern about the VOC off-gassing of brand new carpet and padding, but you can now purchase more eco and health-friendly alternatives.  Carpet can offer some very real health benefits such as improved indoor air quality since it acts as a filter by trapping airborne pollutants, allergens, pet dander, and more.  
 
Now let's get down to what it's going to take to keep your carpet clean.  Regular vacuuming is super important.  At BARE minimum, once every 2 weeks for homeowners don't have any pets and have just 1 or 2 people in the home.  If you are militant about not allowing shoes inside, and have diligently placed doormats at all inside and outside entry points of the home, then you're ahead of the game.  However, if there is a lot of traffic in the household due to many family members and/or pets, you allow shoes to be worn inside home, have light-colored carpet, and/or if there is a long season or spell of bad weather, then vacuuming daily, or every other day at least, is STRONGLY recommmended to stay ahead of the dirt, allergens, and creepy-crawly dust mites.  If you want accomplish a thorough vacuuming, a high-quality vacuum that uses advanced HEPA filter technology is a must.  You've also got to make sure to empty your vacuum canister regularly.  If your vacuum uses bags, put a new bags in when the one is your vacuum is just over half-full.   
 
Next, we will cover the deep down (spring) cleaning that will keep your carpet in terrific shape.  Once again, lifestyle, occupants (pet & humans), house rules, inclement weather, a light color, and overall traffic will account for how often you should deep clean your carpet.  The secondary factor would be the type and availability of the appropriate deep cleaning equipment.  If you have a home steam cleaning machine you will need to use that at least a few times a year or up to once a month to experience the benefits of what a professional truckmounted hot water extraction cleaning system can offer you.  You can expect about the same minimum cleaning requirements from an upright rental steam cleaning units from your local home and grocery store retail outlets.  With rental units you also have the transport factor, time limitations for use, additional solutions purchase, and consider the fact that it's been used by many different people on many different types of carpet that has had who-knows-what pulled out of it.  Both of these type of units will also require constant water changes and mixing of solutions.  If you decide to clean your carpet yourself we strongly advise to use the manufacturer recommended cleaning product and follow the amounts for use on the bottle explicitly.  More is never better.  If you are using a soap-based solution, using too much will leave behind dirt-attracting residue.  Also, please avoid overwetting the carpet and be sure to do extra extraction passes. Carpet that stays damp for more than a day has the potential to breed harmful mold and mildew.  
 
So what if you don't have the time or inclination to deep clean the carpet in your home yourself this spring?  Well, then you MUST consider a professional carpet cleaning...
 
THE beauty, life, and functionality OF carpet all depends on the care and maintenance it receives.  Well-cared for carpet should last a solid 10-15 years.  It is imperative to clean before traffic lanes start to show to avoid irreversible damage to carpet fibers.  Keep in mind that one square foot of carpet can hold up to 1 pound of dirt BEFORE it even starts to look dirty.  This is why, in order for carpet to maintain its health benefits and good looks, it must be vacuumed regularly and deep cleaned down to the pad using a professional hot water extraction method AT LEAST once every 12 months.  This is in accordance to the recommended guidelines set by the major carpet manufacturers and organizations that monitor and set the carpet care standards for the industry as a whole. If these basic maintenance guidelines are not met, your home or business will not be as healthy as it should be.  If you have a lot of traffic in your household, pets that are accident prone, and/or have bad allergies, you may need to consider a professional cleaning once every 6 months. 
 
A proper evaluation done a highly-trained and experienced technician is the first step to gauging the true state of your carpet and what results you can expect to receive based on your carpet's current condition.  A company that uses the hot water extraction method is, bar none, the best type of cleaning you can give your carpet, but there are different methods of carpet cleaning and a trained professional will be able to honestly explain the pros and cons of all of them and how they will affect your carpet based on the shape it's in.  However, not all pros are cut from the same cloth, nor do all offer their clients the level of features, benefits, and high-level service that comes standard with every superior carpet cleaning that Carpet Cleaning Excellence provides each and every client.  So why choose Carpet Cleaning Excellence?  We're happy to tell you at least 10 reasons why you will want you to try us and, once you do, we're sure you'll stick with us forever...
 
1)   You will get a free, no-pressure, no-obligation, written estimate that includes a complete pre-inspection of your carpet and our prescription to get it the cleanest it's ever been.  We'll even let you know if we can't help your carpet and that you may want to think about replacement instead.  We have no interest in taking your money if our service won't be of benefit to you.
 
2)   We have a $50,000 newly upgraded, state-of-the-art industrial-grade truckmounted cleaning system that provides super-heated hot water extraction with such intense power that your carpet gets cleaned right down to the pad and pulls out so much moisture that it dries within 2-3 hours.  All with no assistance of floor/air movers that some companies use.
 
3)   You can choose from one of 3 full-service cleaning packages to fit your needs and budget.  We will vacuum, pre-condition traffic lanes, pre-treat stains, move (moveable) furniture, deep clean, and groom your carpet.  We are not a 'wet-and-jet' carpet cleaning company and will take the time to do all the steps properly.
 
4)   All of our cleaning packages INCLUDE carpet protection to help your carpet resist stains and resoiling in between deep, spring cleanings.  Carpet protection application also helps big time with vacuuming.  You will vacuum up 50-60% more dry particulate soil when carpet protection is applied and your carpet will stay cleaner longer.
 
5)   There are no cheap coupon, or unbelievable low price room offers, to get our foot in your door.  Way more often than not, those tactics only lead to high-pressure upsells, hidden charges you didn't expect, and a poor cleaning.  With Carpet Cleaning Excellence you'll find that you get incredible value at a realistic and reasonable price when you measure all we offer apples-to-apples.
 
6)   Our cleaning solutions are highly effective, all-natural, industry approved, and green-certified.  They pose no danger whatsoever to you, your children, your pets and the environment.  Keep in mind that we have to dispose of all that icky stuff we pull out of your carpet and don't care to add any unnecessary chemicals back into our environment.  Even our carpet and fabric protector solutions is 100% biodegradeable!
 
7)   We follow up with you after your service and guarantee our cleanings 100%.  We want to make sure you are completely happy with our service and if you aren't in ANY way, we really want you to tell us so we can make it right for you.  Our promise to you:  If we missed a spot or should a spot reappear, we will promptly return to reclean it at our cost.  If you are not satisfied with any area, we will return to clean that area.  If you are still not satisfied, we will refund your money.  We'll even come back and clean if any accidental spills or stains up to 30 days after your cleaning appointment...FOR FREE. 
 
8)   We keep our service affordable by offering every client several options to save on their carpet, area rug, upholstery, and/or tile & grout cleanings (we do those, too) throughout the year.  You will always have available to you:  exclusive monthly newsletter specials, holiday & social media discounts, a Referral Rewards program (unlimited earnings of $25.00 towards your next carpet cleanig for EACH friend or family member you refer to us, service reminder discounts, a Frequent Cleaner Program where you get every other cleaning 1/2 off, and a flexible, no-interest payment plan for those big spring cleaning jobs when you want to get everything cleaned at once.
 
9)   We've been serving an extensive list of commercial and residential clients throughout Oakland County, Michigan and the Metro Detroit area for over 25 years.  We clean small homes, large, high-end luxury homes, small mom-and-pop businesses, large-scale corporations and retail operations.  This also means we've seen and dealt with and cleaned just about every kind of carpet situation and stains known to man.  So if we can't get it clean for you, NO ONE can! 
 
10)  We can pat ourselves on our back endlessly and shout how great our services are from the rooftops all day long, but you don't have to take our word for it.  If you still have a little skeptisicm left about setting up a free, no-pressure-at-all estimate with Carpet Cleaning Excellence, take a few minutes to read and listen to what our awesome clients have to say on our Testimonials page.  All those nice words and videos can't be wrong.  We hope you pick up that phone to schedule your quote because we certainly look forward to meeting you and introducing ourselves in person! 
 
 
We hope our spring cleaning tips and information were of great value to you and that they will get you off to a roaring start in 2014.  If we can help you in any way with your carpet, area rug, furniture, tile and grout, and mattress cleaning, please give Carpet Cleaning Excellence a call at 888-688-0603.  We're happy to help with your deep cleaning carpet needs any time of year!  Based in Rochester Hills, MI , Carpet Cleaning Excellence happily services the areas in and around Clarkston, Novi, Oxford, White Lake, Lake Orion, Bloomfield Hills, West Bloomfield, Royal Oak, Troy, and Waterford in Oakland County, MI and throughout Metro Detroit.
 
 
 
 
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