Home Sweet Home

Home Sweet Home is glad to be able to offer you the convenience of gift certificates!

If you’re still looking for the perfect gift to give a loved one for Valentine’s Day, we hope that you’ll consider a gift certificate from Home Sweet Home.

Our gift certificates are for a certain amount of time. They are available in any time-increment that you desire, starting with 2 cleaners for 2 hours. We are able to advise you as to the amount of time that would be necessary for a “full house” cleaning, if that is what you are hoping to buy.

Our gift certificates are very attractive and can be mailed or emailed (whichever you prefer) either to you or to your intended recipient.

For more information, see our gift certificate section under “Specials & Discounts”.

Home Sweet Home as begun a new program that we call “Compassionate Cleanings“.

We will provide up to 18 hours of cleaning free of charge to a person who is undergoing treatment for cancer, as well as other severe ailments that make cleaning difficult or impossible for the person to accomplish alone.  This would include the later stages of most terminal diseases, as well as serious injuries that immobilized the person.

18 hours of cleaning will typically cover about five “maintenance” house cleanings, or one “initial” cleaning and two or three maintenance cleanings.  We will meet with the client and discuss what their priorities are in terms of cleaning, so that we can give them the most benefit for the 18 hours.

This is our small way of giving back to our community, and we are proud to do it.

Please contact us if you have any questions about this service.

Dust is the bane of an otherwise-clean home.  Does it seem like the very second after you’ve observed clean, dust-free countertops, a thin layer has already appeared?

Home Sweet Home has 5 tips for you for making your home nearly dust-free (even days after we’ve visited!).

1. Change your bedding often
   In addition to how nice it feels to snuggle up in fresh, crisp sheets, it is also an effective way to reduce the amount of dust in your bedroom!

   The majority of visible dust in our homes is dust mites.  They subsist on skin cells (yuck!), and we shed a lot of skin cells in our sleep.  This collects on sheets and pillowcases, making them a prime source of dust mites!

   So how often should you change your bedding? Experts suggest weekly, particularly in winter when the air is drier.

   Home Sweet Home will gladly change your linens for you.  Simply leave a fresh set on your dresser (or on the bed), and we will know what to do! We can also run a load of laundry for you at a minimal cost.

2. Clear off the floor of your closets and include them in your vacuuming
   Closets are another hot spot for dust.  Contributing factors for the dust problem here are the fibers of the clothing (picture little tiny wool fibers), and also the way that opening and closing the closet doors forces air into the space quickly.

   To reduce the accumulation of clothing fibers in your closets, consider getting garment bags for clothing that you do not frequently wear.  In addition to containing shedding from these articles of clothing, this solution will also keep dust from gathering on top of the clothes!

   Avoid the temptation to use the closet floor as storage space; this creates many little crevices for dust to gather, and is very difficult to vacuum.

   If you would like us to begin vacuuming your closet floors as part of your service, just leave your closet doors open, or ask us to include this step.  We will not open a closet door unless we are asked to, out of respect for your privacy.

3. Do not neglect your couches and chairs while vacuuming
   As with bedding, couches and chairs accumulate skin cells, and thus dust mites.  To combat this, you should ensure that your furniture is regularly vacuumed, including all cushions and underneath.

   Home Sweet Home includes this vacuuming as a regular part of your service.

4. Have your carpet professionally cleaned yearly
   It is obvious that you should vacuum regularly to cut down on dust in your home.  However, even daily vacuuming would not be enough to get rid of all the dust in carpets.  Unfortunately, carpets trap an astounding amount of dust and dirt, which makes them another hotspot for dust mites.

   In addition to a frequent, thorough vacuuming routine, you should have your carpets professionally cleaned at least once a year.  The method employed by professional carpet cleaners is hot water extraction, which is colloquially referred to as “steam cleaning”.  This process kills dust mites, as well as giving your carpets an amazing cleaning that is just not possible with a vacuum alone!

   Our friends at All Star Total Floor Care (not in our local area, unfortunately) have an amazing amount of information on professional carpet and upholstery cleaning if you would like to learn more about what a professional carpet cleaning could do for your home and your health.

5. Have your air ducts cleaned, and filters replaced!
   This is the very best tip, and will make the most difference in the dust level in your home.

   Have a HVAC professional thoroughly clean out your duct system, and seal off any leaks.  If they do this well, it may need to be done only one time ever! (Or at least very rarely)

   Then, you will want to install filters on every vent in your home.  These come in many different varieties.  Our personal favorites are HEPA filters, like our vacuums have.  HEPA filters can catch even tiny particles, and they are very efficient at catching many different types of allergens.  Depending on what type of filter you decide on, every filter will need to be changed between monthly and yearly.

   All of the air in your entire home circulates through this system, so your best chance at eliminating dust is at this stage.

This article was written by Dave Crichton, the Co-Founder of the International Cleaners’ Association.  It discusses the reasons that you should hire a legal, insured cleaning business instead of any of the many under-the-table “cleaners” that you can find online.

WHAT THE HECK IS A TRUNK-SLAMMER?

In years past, you would often overhear conversations in places like beauty salons, community clubhouses, cocktail parties and fancy restaurants that would start something like this…

“Wow, I just found the best housecleaner and…they are really cheap!”

This conversation was usually one of the ladies (or gentlemen) boasting about the cleaning person they had just hired to clean their home and this home was usually located in a high-income neighborhood because, after all, years ago only the wealthy could afford hired helpers in the home.

Well…times have changed…kind of…

The days of only the wealthy using hired help inside the home are gone! It’s not that the wealthier don’t use housecleaners any longer, it’s the fact that today’s average homeowners (especially the two income earner households) are seeking outside help with home maintenance because of time constraints, lack of energy to clean after putting in a 40+ hour workweek, etc. The market for independent cleaning contractors has skyrocketed over the past 10-15 years!

Along with this “boom” in demand has come the “boom” in independent contractors who are working without occupational licenses, insurances and may well lack the experience needed to “safely” clean the many varied surfaces that exist in today’s homes.

The industry refers to them as…Trunk Slammers.

When a homeowner (especially those homes where both parents are working full time just to cover expenses) goes looking for help with home maintenance, “price” is always a huge part of the decision on just who will be hired and…there’s nothing wrong with that…provided the potential consumer “knows what they are paying for” and…”the possible liabilities they are exposing themselves to” when selecting a cleaning service provider based solely on price.

What liabilities?

When hiring a worker who is working for “under the table” wages that are not going to be reported to the IRS as income, you (technically) become that worker’s employer and (technically) you become responsible for income, Medicare, social security and unemployment taxes at the Federal level and, depending on the state you live in, may be responsible (technically) for some of the above…again…at the state level.

When hiring a worker who is working for “under the table” wages that are not going to be reported to the IRS as income, you (most certainly) will be paying for that worker’s retirement also. Not today but when they retire and realize that they have little or nothing in their Social Security retirement account to live on , they will go on any one of a number of public assistance programs that your hard earned tax dollars (remember them…there the one’s you worked for and paid taxes on years ago…) will be paying for.

When hiring an uninsured worker, you become responsible (technically) for any medical expenses for “your employee” should “your employee” become injured while working in your home. In most states, you “should be” paying workman’s compensation insurance for “your employee”.

When hiring an uninsured worker, you will assume all liabilities for damage, breakage or theft of anything in your home. This may not sound like much of a liability on your part but…remember we mentioned, “experienced” earlier? Inexperienced people can, and do literally thousands of dollars worth of damage to the many new surfaces in today’s homes. Things like marble, granite, hardwood flooring, fiberglass tubs…. and the list goes on and on and on.

Oh, one other thing…you are breaking the law by hiring these individuals. Unwittingly (or maybe knowingly) you have become “complicit” in tax evasion, operating (in most municipalities/states) an unlicensed business and, in some states, operating a business without adequate liability insurance or workman’s compensation insurance. Claiming ignorance of your cleaner’s business status will not help. You as the purchaser of services are responsible to investigate the legal status of “any” outside contractor who performs “any” services on your home and you should never be afraid to ask for documentation from those service providers. (Remember the old “Caveat-emptor” phrase…its true!)

“Yeah”…you’re saying…”I know all this stuff already and anyway, no one ever gets caught for this kind of stuff!”

I say…”Oh Yeah”…a little research on the subject (your Due-Diligence) will quickly reveal that people, often unsuspecting people, are being caught and fined everyday of the week on just these circumstances. Check with the IRS if you don’t believe me.

The whole matter becomes an especially “different” kettle of fish if your worker/employee is also an undocumented alien but…that’s for another letter.
Makes you wonder…is that $20/$30 difference in rates really worth the risk(s)?

Your money…your decision.

D. Crichton
Co-Founder, International Cleaners Association
http://www.Globalcleaningassociation.com
http://www.InternationalClnrs.com

We will use this blog to keep clients up to date on goings-on at Home Sweet Home.  We will also use it to post home cleaning tips, news related to cleaning, and local news & events.

We hope that you will find this useful and interesting!