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Repercussions of Hiring Inexperienced/Untrained Cleaning Companies

Repercussions of Hiring Inexperienced/Untrained Cleaning Companies

In a recent article posted in Australia, a world class budget hotel chain received several complaints in one of their Sydney branch which was turned into a quarantine facility. The complaints were about  their rooms being obviously not cleaned and not disinfected properly.

A hotel may employ in-house housekeeping staff or they may outsource it from a commercial cleaning company or agency, so what exactly happened and why a hotel of this caliber reached this kind of predicament?

How does this affect us here in the Philippines where cleaning and disinfection companies sprout like mushrooms all over the Metro and services are just a-dime-a-dozen?

“Untrained, unmanaged cleaners are being sent out there to deep clean COVID-positive buildings and nobody’s checking on us.”

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This pandemic has brought high demand on cleaning, sanitation, and disinfection services which led to new cleaning service companies opening almost every week – hiring cheap labor, using cheap materials and following unorthodoxed procedures, coupled with the rise of unemployment, opening this type of business is easy peasy. 

Some hotels turned quarantine facility have laid off most of their regular employees and hired demand based workers to save costs in paying benefits. Most of which are inexperienced cleaners and worst, inexperienced and untrained facility disinfection workers.

Remember that these are all cleaners sent into battle as reserved troops with little to no training on how to combat the unseen enemy – the Coronavirus. The said article agreed that it is indeed easy to open a cleaning company now, but all the text materials and resources available are based on standards made years ago, where appearance matter, where missing a spot was okay as long as the overall feel and presenation was great, rather than actually “cleaning” the space.

  • Anybody can become a cleaning company tomorrow.
  • Literally you need a mop and a bucket and you’re a cleaning company.
  • Maybe a year ago the requirements weren’t that important because of the fact that people were more interested in the appearance of the property than what they couldn’t see.

So in its essence, learning from the mistake of this big budget hotel chain’s mistake, you cannot simply get the services of untrained/inexperienced cleaning service company for cheaps, because missing a spot to clean or disinfect would mean compromise on you or your occupant’s health.

 

It’s easy for any cleaning company to come out today and say, ‘I will come and clean and disinfect your space’

But can they? How would you know their processes are OK?

Basically what clients require is someone who has a broom or vacuum, a mop, a “chemical” to clean and disinfect their place. Apart from that, some building require medical certificates and a negative rapid test result, but other than those, that’s it. No questions about their training, what are the principles behind their cleaning process and the devices they use. No questions about FDA approvals and ratings of their “chemicals”, nor asking for their Safety Data Sheets (SDS). We’re not even talking about proper employee compensation, protection, housing, and training. All these require significant investments of time and money. 

Cleaning also involves science, it’s a meticulous process and has to be stud

Does the Department of Health (DOH) accredit and regulate cleaning service companies?

 

No, the Department of Health does not.

In their latest Licensing/Accreditation/Regulatory Policies and Requirements page, cleaning service companies and housekeeping service providers are not part of what DOH control and regulate. What a “new” cleaning service company need, and hopefully comply with, are your usual business permits (DTI/SEC, City permits, BIR, SSS, Philhealth, PagIbig and the likes). So what do you need to ask everytime you request for a cleaning or disinfection service?

  1. Business permits and length of service
  2. Safety Data Sheet of the chemicals they use
  3. FDA approval of the chemicals they use
  4. A summary of the processes they use
  5. An overview of the disinfection equipment they use

Based on these items, you will know if your place will be cleaned or disinfected well. 

 

Do you want to learn more on how CMDA Cleaning Services can help you, your family, or your office fight against COVID-19? Send us an email at inquiry@cmdacleaning.com, or call/text us on any number mentioned above.

Let’s all be well and healthy, wear a face mask, wash our hands frequently, maintain a 1-2 meter physical distance to non-family members, and stay at home if we can. Stay covid-free!

Toilet Bowl Cleaning

Toilet Bowl Cleaning

Learn how to clean toilet bowls from the pros! Cleaning toilet bowls, whether it is in your home or office, can be very challenging. No matter how much you scrub it and pour acid on it or what-not, stains seem to stick so hard, you are tempted to replace it instead. Toilet bowls that were not tended or weren’t given enough cleaning attention can be more challenging, especially if the last cleaning made was a couple of weeks ago already.

Below, you can find an extensive way of cleaning toilet bowls and how you could do it like a pro. All steps are detailed and all cleaning materials are commercially available. 

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Getting Ready for your Toilet Bowl Cleaning

You will need the following:

  1. Rubber gloves – those that you use for laundry and cleaning other parts of the bathroom or house.
  2. Face mask – safety first! We don’t want anything splashing toward your mouth or inhaling any fumes from the cleaning chemicals.
  3. Toilet bowl brush – Nylon or plastic, as long as it has bristles or rough surface that can scrub your toilet bowl, and have a long handle so you don’t get elbow deep in cleaning.
  4. Commercial Toilet Bowl Cleaner – Anything that is off the shelf from your grocery store that says “Toilet Bowl Cleaner”.
  5. Sponge Scrubber – Commercially known as “Scotch Brite”.
  6. Pail and basin/water sprinkler – anything that you can use to rinse your toilet bowl.

 

Cleaning your Toilet Bowl

As soon as you have them all, here are the step by step process on how to clean your toilet bowl like a pro:

  1. Wear your safety gear – mask, goggles, rubber gloves.
  2. Remove the cover of your toilet bowl water tank/reservoir.
  3. Using your pail or water sprinkler, wet your toilet bowl – this will loosen up the dirt a little bit and prepare the surface for easier chemical interaction.
  4. Using your toilet bowl brush, lightly scrub your toilet bowl, especially on surfaces with stain – this is so that the chemicals can interact with the stain faster.
  5. Pour in some toilet bowl cleaner – check the instructions on exactly how much you need to pour, but generally, you should have the whole toilet bowl surface thinly covered with the chemical. Alternatively, you can pour 2 caps (the cap that came with the toilet bowl cleaner) in your toilet bowl where the water is, and also 2 caps in the water tank/reservoir. scrub it to lather and use the foam to cover the whole surface.
  6. Let it soak and stand for 10-15 minutes – you can do some other light chores while waiting for this step to end.
  7. Splash a little water on your toilet bowl.
  8. Start scrubbing using your toilet bowl brush – most of the stain are easy to remove by now with just a few brush strokes. If there are still hard to remove stains, use your sponge scrubber. If the stain still persist, repeat steps 3-6.
  9. Scrub the inside of your toilet bowl tank/reservoir – Since this part was soaked longer and came into contact with the cleaning chemicals more without drying up, this would be easier to scrub and clean.
  10. Flush your toilet – this would flush down and replace the water present in the bowl. By this time you should be able to see an improvement in your toilet bowl. There could be some random stains here and there which you may have missed due to the suds/foam, you can simply scrub it off or repeat steps 3-6 if you need to.
  11. Rinse your whole toilet bowl – get rid of the extra suds around your toilet bowl.
  12. Establish a regular cleaning schedule for your toilet bowl – this way, you can ensure that the next cleaning would be much lighter than what you have just did. Ideally, cleaning should be done at 3 to 7 days interval.

 

What is the best commercial toilet bowl cleaner?

We have found that Mr. Muscle Toilet Cleaner is the strongest in terms of cleaning power, as we have discussed in our Toilet and Bath Challenge article. Although, since it is the strongest in our experience, it is to be used with most care as it sends off an offensive smell due to some of its ingredients – Hydrochloric Acid and Hypochloric Acid.

What is the difference between a toilet bowl cleaner, an all-purpose cleaner, and a disinfectant cleaner?

Chemical composition. They all contain surfactants but they contain different levels of acids or chlorine compound derivatives. All-purpose cleaners mainly contain surfactants only, and disinfectants mainly contain chlorine compound derivatives, while toilet bowl cleaners contain a mixture of both.

 

What makes this diferent from any other ways of cleaning toilet bowls?

Soaking – we usually just splash, scrub, rinse away any surface we clean, and when the stain doesn’t go away after a rigorous scrubbing, we give up. Almost all chemicals we use for cleaning requires some soaking time, this will give the stain and the chemicals more time to react with each other. Each chemicals interact with different stains, either they dissolve the stain or loosen it up, but either way, it needs some time to do its job.

 

We hope that you learned a lot from this article. If you are still having a hard time cleaning your toilet bowls, or is in need of professional cleaning help, contact us or send us a message on Facebook. For more cleaning tips, check out our other blog articles.

 

Ghost Month Cleaning

Ghost Month Cleaning

For some believers, the Ghost month can be scary. A lot of “Do’s and Don’t’s” before, during, and after the period. Making some necessary preparations, doing big decisions and transactions, preparing for a festivities for the Ghost Festival day, and most especially – doing a deep cleaning of their homes and offices. But there are also some who have been used to it for years and automatically schedule what they need to do during this period.

Traditionally, Buddhist and Taoist believe that during the 7th month of the lunar calendar, the gates of the underworld opens and spirits can roam freely, visiting family, relatives and descendants. On it’s peak day, which falls on 15th day of the 7th month (of the lunar calendar), will be the day with the most spirit on earth, which becomes the “Ghost Day”, hence, Buddhist and Taoist celebrate the “Hungry Ghost Festival”.

 

Ghost Month Schedule until 2050

  • Ghost Month 2022: July 29- August 26 (Ghost Festival: August 12)
  • Ghost Month 2023: August 16 -September 14 (Ghost Festival: August 30)
  • Ghost Month 2024: August 4 – September 2 (Ghost Festival: August 18)
  • Ghost Month 2025: August 23 – September 20 (Ghost festival: September 6)
  • Ghost Month 2026: August 13 – September 10 (Ghost festival: August 27)
  • Ghost Month 2027: August 2 – August 30 (Ghost festival: August 16)
  • Ghost Month 2028: August 20 – September 17 (Ghost festival: September 03)
  • Ghost Month 2029: August 10 – September 7 (Ghost festival: August 24)
  • Ghost Month 2030: July 30 – August 27 (Ghost festival: August 13)
  • Ghost Month 2031: August 18 – September 15 (Ghost festival: September 01)
  • Ghost Month 2032: August 6 – September 3 (Ghost festival: August 20)
  • Ghost Month 2033: July 26 – August 23 (Ghost festival: August 09)
  • Ghost Month 2034: August 14 – September 11 (Ghost festival: August 28)
  • Ghost Month 2035: August 4 – September 1 (Ghost festival: August 18)
  • Ghost Month 2036: August 22 – September 19 (Ghost festival: September 05)
  • Ghost Month 2037: August 11 – September 8 (Ghost festival: August 25)
  • Ghost Month 2038: August 1 – August 29 (Ghost festival: August 15)
  • Ghost Month 2039: August 20 – September 17 (Ghost festival: September 03)
  • Ghost Month 2040: August 8 – September 5 (Ghost festival: August 22)
  • Ghost Month 2041: July 28 – August 25 (Ghost festival: August 11)
  • Ghost Month 2042: August 16 – September 13 (Ghost festival: August 30)
  • Ghost Month 2043: August 5 – September 2 (Ghost festival: August 19)
  • Ghost Month 2044: July 25 – August 22 (Ghost festival: August 08)
  • Ghost Month 2045: August 13 – September 10 (Ghost festival: August 27)
  • Ghost Month 2046: August 2 – August 30 (Ghost festival: August 16)
  • Ghost Month 2047: August 21 – September 18 (Ghost festival: September 04)
  • Ghost Month 2048: August 10 – September 7 (Ghost festival: August 24)
  • Ghost Month 2049: July 30 – August 27 (Ghost festival: August 13)
  • Ghost Month 2050: July 20 – August 17 (Ghost festival: August 03)

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Ghosts can give good fortune

Buddhist and Taoist revere this Hungry Ghost Day similar to our All Souls Day (November 1, each year), and so similarly, this would be the day to talk to our dearly departed relatives and ancestors to help us and bless us with good fortune. Your great-grand mother will not simply visit you on this day just to over emphasize the poor decisions you have made a long time ago. These spirits will most likely just disturb you for your underspending habits, impulsive decisions or poor cleaning habits. Your actions and decisions before and during the Ghost month will definitely affect your interaction with those spirits and your fortune. One of the best thing to do is doing a deep cleaning of your home before this month so you could give a good impression to your visitors – be it the living or the dead.

 

Cleaning before the Ghost Month

It is recommended that you schedule your home or office cleaning days before the Ghost month. Ghost are attracted to dark, dirty, cluttered and old items and places. These are the things we need to address to before that month start. Here are a few items you need to focus on during the cleaning:

  • Organize and declutter – throw away dirty, old items and furnitures
  • Clean light bulbs – wipe dusty bulbs to make your space brighter (remember, ghosts love dark spaces)
  • Open and clean windows – it helps natural sunlight to go in, as well as remove stale air inside your home

The paint color can also affect how bright or dim your space can be. It is also recommended to keep light colored paint inside your home. If you think you need some home improvements to to lighten up your home, it is best to do it before the Ghost Month (and you are recommended to do so).  Make sure you can maintain all these all throughout until the end of the Ghost month.

 

Cleaning during the Ghost Month

If for some reason you forgot to clean your home before this month arrived, or you’ve made a big decision like buying this very affordable home or condo unit and need to have it cleaned, don’t worry, you can still do it with the help of some salt. It is believed that salt counters bad energy. After doing a general cleaning of your place, make the final rinse of water with salt. Sprinkle some salt on your doorstep, window and corners. Also, always remember to keep your place well lit and well ventilated.

Read: Home Improvement Tips

Other Tips

For some other non-cleaning related tips, here are what some Buddhist and Taoist believe and share on things to do and not to do during the Ghost Month:

DO

  • Place offering for spirits (food), light candles or incense, and pray
  • Wear light colors 
  • Light up your house at night

 

DON’T

  • Do not make big decisions (eg. get married, buy a house or a car)
  • Do not travel (leisure trips)
  • Do not go near bodies of water
  • Do not wear red
  • Children and old people should not be out late at night
  • Do not play supernatural games (eg. spirit of the glass)
  • Do not pick up strange items on the street at night

We hope you enjoyed and learned from these tips. Visit our page again soon for more helpful tips in cleaning and housekeeping.

 

Post Construction Cleaning Tips

Post Construction Cleaning Tips

What does a newly renovated office and a newly constructed home have in common? Dusty walls and ceiling, dull floors, rooms smelling of fresh paint, powdered table tops and scattered sand in the toilet. Post construction cleaning may not be part of your contract with the contractors so when the construction workers leave, everything seems to be far from how you imagined it or from that presentation given to you by the architect, or even worse, leftover hazardous materials and debris are still either all over the place or moved to one corner of a room. Sure, it’s easy to have it cleaned by your office cleaners or helper, until you realize that it doesn’t take only one day for one person to do that task, and get the best and shining results.

When you search the web, most results will give you a simple 3-step/phase cleaning process (Rough clean, light clean and final cleaning or so) or a list of vague instructions. Today, we’re going to walk you through on some tips on how to do a post-construction cleaning for your home or office that will really give results.

  1. Set your team
  2. Suit up for safety
  3. Move large debris
  4. Vacuum dusts and small debris
  5. Ceiling and wall washing
  6. Detailed wipe down cleaning
  7. Toilet and bath cleaning
  8. Floor washing and mopping
  9. Deodorizing
  10. Waste disposal

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Post-Construction Cleaning Service

Perfect example of a post-construction cleaning done right (click to enlarge)

Read: Benefits of a Clean Home

POST CONSTRUCTION TIPS

Set your team

The number of cleaners needed will depend on the floor area to be cleaned and how soon you want it done. A post-construction cleaning, no matter how small or big it is, cannot be a one-man-show. The more cleaners you have, the faster the task will finish. By a rule of thumb in the cleaning industry, a skilled, professional cleaner can thoroughly clean 15 square meters for 2-4 hours.

 

Suit up for safety

Due to the fact that there are still dust and debris after your office or home renovations, it is best to protect your cleaning team. Wearing thick rubber gloves will ensure there will be no cuts on fingers. Face masks or respirators to ensure you won’t inhale dusts and micro-droplets that can cause respiratory diseases. Pants and long sleeved shirts are mandatory of course, to ensure that any accidental cuts or bruises will be prevented.

 

Move large debris

Large ones are usually the heavier ones, and cannot be simply removed using a vacuum or sweeper. Move large debris like chipped off concrete, left over wood and pipes to a place where you could easily collect them later on for faster disposal. This will also lessen the risk of accidents.

 

Vacuum dusts and small debris

Get your trusty vacuum and power it on to the remaining small debris. Start from the ceiling as sometimes cobwebs start to form when the construction or renovation took weeks or months to complete. Move towards the corners and then to your floor. Vacuum the entire floor and work from room to room. This way, you will prevent the dust from moving from one place to another

 

Ceiling and wall washing

Using a swiffer with a damp cloth attached, wipe down ceiling and walls. Vacuum cleaners can’t reach and remove all the dust stuck on walls and ceiling, so a swiffer will do the trick. Diluted all-purpose cleaner will help in removing some dust stains as well and help in making this part finish faster.

 

Detailed wipe down cleaning

Using a diluted all-purpose cleaner and a wash cloth, wipe down overhead cabinets, door frames, table tops and other surfaces which your swiffer can’t go through. Don’t forget the doors, door knobs/handles and closets. Any excess dust and dirt will be removed this way.

 

Floor washing and mopping

Depending on the floor, you might need them washed to get rid of excess cement and dirt (since you have been walking all over them during the whole time already), and this may be true to concrete or tiled floors. Wooden floors or vinyl tiled floors need to be mopped with water. Adding cleaning solutions might ruin your tiles, so it is best to consult with your contracter regarding that matter. For carpet floors, usually no further cleaning is needed after going over it with a vacuum, but in case of unfortunate circumstances or accidents in your carpet, you may need to have to do a carpet shampoo cleaning.

 

Toilet and bath cleaning

Cleaning the toilet and bath can really be a challenge, but like any room, it can be cleaned to perfection, especially if it is part of the newly constructed or renovated part of your home or office. It might just need a hard rinse to get rid of excess grout or cement left over from the installation of the toilet bowl and tiles. Just make sure that the tile grouts are already dry and all the bathroom fixtures are set so that they last longer.

 

Deodorizing

Now that you are done with the cleaning, it’s time to deodorize your place. Strong odors might still be there like paint, varnish, or even the cleaning solution that you used. The ideal way is to ventilate your place for at least a day to ensure that the odors are dilluted by natural air, however, if this is impossible, using commercial air-fresheners can temporarily do this fix, or installing an air-purifier from the start of the post-construction cleaning can offer a more permanent solution.

 

Waste disposal

To ensure that no dirt or debris goes back, dispose off waste to your outdoor garbage can or have a professional garbage collector handle it. Designating a place within your home or office for garbage cans/waste baskets can also ensure to keep your place always clean and safe.

Doing a post-construction cleaning by yourself can be stressful, and sometimes more time consuming. In case you find the need to hire a professional cleaning company for your post-construction cleaning, contact us today and we will definitely make sure your place shines as you have dreamed and planned.  

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Home Improvement Tips (During A Crisis or Otherwise)

Home Improvement Tips (During A Crisis or Otherwise)

You may have been working from home a long time already, or probably you just did, and after a few months (or years) you noticed that “Hey, my house doesn’t spark joy to my heart anymore”. It could be due to outdated wall paint, need for repairs here and there, things don’t seem comfortable anymore, and probably many other reasons. You love your home, you have a budget for home improvements probably and you just want to bring the spark and feeling when you first set foot into your humble abode. Well, you’re in luck because we will be discussing here some Home Improvement Tips that will make you love your home more, without breaking your wallet.

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First things first, before we dive into the detailed tips, here’s a few things we want you to consider and keep in mind, to ensure that you are really indeed getting your money’s worth. Whether the economy is good or not, making the most out of anything you spend is the right way to go, and we don’t want you to make the same mistakes that others (including us before) did when did some renovations or home improvements.

Plan, Divide and Conquer

You don’t have to do your home improvements all at the same time. Start with the smallest, or perhaps the farthest part of your home (so it doesn’t get damaged when you do other home improvements). Carefully planning which part of it is your top priority can already make a huge difference in your home improvement. It is also important to add to your plan that you are doing this project so that the end result lasts for 3, 5 or 10 years or so. Utilizing one or more combination of the home improvement tips below will help you with your planning.

 

Craftsmanship and Quality over Price

We always tend to go with the “cheapest” material and labor costs, only to overlook that we need to do the same set of repairs over and over again every year. Let’s say you paid for a wall re-painting service package (labor and materials) for P10,000 and after 3 to 6 months you see paint peeling off or “bubbling” out. You’ll be paying the same amount again, when in fact you can get better results (paint lasting up to 3 to 5 years) for P15,000 only. That is already a P45,000 savings for a 3 year bi-annual wall re-painting. Like anything else, nothing is created equal, so does paint quality, paint brand and painter craftsmanship. So it is better to get the best quality even just for a simple wall re-painting job.

Choose Colors and Lighting Wisely

Colors play a huge role in our everyday living. Whether you believe in the psychology of color or not, it affects as greatly, and it immediately sets the mood the moment you wake up, every single day. So, it is better to choose your wall colors (and combinations), furniture colors, and even the color of your light bulbs! Yes! It does affect how as simple as a white wall would come out when you choose different colors of light bulbs.

 

Smart Budgeting

If you’re into DIY or have arranged for “labor only” contract, having a smart budget will help you a lot in finishing your home improvement budget. Some of the home improvement tips we will mention below will not cost you at all, and as we have mentioned earlier, choose quality materials so that you don’t have to spend more over the years because of decay or material damage. When buying paint and you need a gallon, buy a pint first, sample off a portion of a wall or cabinet and see if you already like the color. If you don’t, then it’s easy to change colors immediately and you won’t be wasting any unused paint. Once you have the right color, you can just buy half a gallon or probably 7 pints of the RIGHT paint. Also, remember that paint colors finishes differently on different materials (wood, concrete, metal) and the color will always not look exactly the same as the sample color palate at the hardware store.

Since you’re on the part of sampling off colors, check how your lights or lighting affects your new paint. That Bubblegum Pink color on your bedroom wall will come out differently on white light, much more on different wattage and color (yellow or light yellow). Just buy a bulb or two and check if the color matches to your liking, because if not, you can always have it replaced at the hardware store. As soon as you got the right bulb, you can buy the whole set already.

 

Know “Why” you want to do it, so that “How” you will do it becomes easier

Think of the reasons why you want to do the home improvements or renovations, and keep that in mind as the project progress. To “spark joy back into your home” is kind of vague, so make sure you have a specific reason or reasons in the first place. Outdated look? Your room does not feel relaxing anymore? The theme or color scheme of your house does not match your mood or lifestyle? Whatever it may be, make it the anchor of your home improvement, because trust us, half way through it, you might want to add a few of this and that, causing your budget to break and failing to achieve exactly what you really wanted in the first place.

 

Research or Consult

What you instinctively know may not be enough to cover your dream project (unless you are an architect or engineer, then, umm, hi? lol), so it is better to research some more on how to go about your DIY projects, or better yet, consult with a group of contractors. Most of them are free anyway (they should) whether you push through with anyone of them. Don’t go for the “Yes sir/mam!” group, ask for recommendations or suggestions that incorporates your “Whys” and are well within the right budget. As we have mentioned above, this is something that you want the finish product to last 3, 5, 10 years or more.

 

Prepare your Heart and Mind

It is common for home owners or people in charge of DIY projects to feel anxious. The feeling of not having control over the project after paying a sum of money can really break into anxiety, couple that with delays and unforseen instances during the course of it, and you see people shouting at contractors or people scrapping their DIY projects entirely. This can be managed by having a constant communication with the contractors or your source for the project. Go over the plan again, check the time frame, know and set what to expect at any given phase of the project and so this way, your project goes in the right direction as you have planned.

 

Now let’s check out our home improvements tips below, hand picked to be as relevant to every home owner at any time.

Home Improvement Tips

1. Update your wall

No, not your Facebook wall, but the walls on your home. A simple change in color will do a lot in home improvements and starting off with white is a sure winner. By Psychology of colors, White is a more common wall color as it projects cleanliness, calmness, classy and modern feel on any wall. As you go room to room in your place, you can then change the mood by changing the colors. Always remember that no matter how plain or complex your preferred color is, give it some attention and detail, especially on its application and quality of paint. Going for cheaper paint and applying 1 to 2 coats will make the wall paint prone to fading and will have a faster wear and tear. There are also paints that are glossy, low-odor, anti-bacterial and even air-cleansing! There are already many options in just updating your wall paint color alone, so we hope you get to enjoy home improvements with this already.

 

2. Home Deep Cleaning

Sometimes you really don’t need to spend a cent for a home improvement project, because all you need to do is some good ‘ol fashion cleaning. Since you’re at it already, then go the extra mile and do a thorough home deep cleaning. Bulbs might just be a bit dusty and not giving enough light to your already wonderful wall. Walls might just be dusty making it dull, or your sofa and couch are riddled with paint, so you might need a good sofa and couch shampoo cleaning. This goes the same with your carpets if you have any. Your home design might not be overall outdated or it could have a sentimental value for you, so cleaning your place may already do the trick in reviving your once elegant home.

3. Furniture Feng Shui

Another cost-free trick for home improvement is moving your furnitures to give way to a new look on your place. You may or may not beleive in Feng Shui, but always remember this: as we have mentioned above, light gives off diferent color on different surfaces, and that includes furnitures. Moving your cabinets or sofa to specific areas in your home will already produce different ambiance. Placement of furnitures may also play in the amount of light is being thrown in a specific area of your house like tall cabinets partially blocking light source and unnoticed carpets due to chairs or tables aggregating together. Since you have the time and it is your home, you can play around the placement of furnitures to get the most enjoyable effect that you want.

 

4. Small details give big results

A total home renovation may not be necessary, unless you really see your place as very hedious. Adding small details like tile trims (tiles that close the end of your tile walls) or crown moldings that connect your wall to your ceiling, can already give a substantial improvement in how your home would look like. There are a lot of small details you can throw in, like throwpillows on the couch, a small painting, and so on. A word of advice though, too much of these small details may ruin the project as a whole. Your place might look cramped or crowded with too much variety of small items. The mood might not be pleasant because of the colors that are fighting each other for attention (you’ll know what we mean when you see it).

 

5. Cabinets and Cupboards

We love to organize – even the sloppiest and the untidiest of us will organize our stuff given the time and space. For someone who really, really loves to organize, cabinets or cupboards (hanging overhead cabinets) are their best friends. Have a lot of stuff lying around the house and collecting dust? Place it in a cabinet. Have a lot of stuff saving “for later”? Place it in a cabinet. Your trash can or laundry basket looks unsightly? Yes, you got it right – place it in a cabinet. Cabinets, constructed right, gives the impression of continuity of your wall while at the same time functional for storing items. Overhead cabinets/Cupboards also utilizes unused prime vertical spaces of your wall, so it is definitely a win-win solution. The only tricky part of an overhead cabinet is either it is too low that you might hit your head, or too high that you always get a challenge when getting things from the very top (like us!).

 

Opportunities for home improvements are endless, given the time and budget. It might be overwhelming as well and would be difficult to know where to start. We hope you learned a lot with our home improvement tips and if you are looking for consultations on how to go over your home improvements, contact us today and we will be happy to help you! About done with your current home improvements? We also do post-construction and post-renovation cleaning to make sure you’re breathing in the love and joy of your home, and not the dust and debris from the construction.

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Rise, Re-enter and Recover: CMDA Cleaning Services COVID-19 Story

Rise, Re-enter and Recover: CMDA Cleaning Services COVID-19 Story

Our management has always advocated for proper and fair business development and management. Throughout the company’s history and experiences, which included low seasons and economy inflations to name a few, our company has developed measures to ensure that all the financial, legal and workforce obligations are met during trying times. Now that the country is in a health crisis, the company’s plans and its principles are put to the test.

At the start of the pandemic

At the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic here in the Philippines and the implementation of Enhanced Community Quarantine, a lot of companies are worried about business and how to go about doing transactions in what would be the new norm of, not just the Philippine society, but the whole world. Aside from the economic impact, there is a health risk posing against all – rich or poor, employee or employer, a small business owner or a mega corporation.

Thankfully, the full brunt of these fears and implications did not totally impact our company (though still affected with the decrease in inquiries and sales). There were measures already in place for something like this prior to the crisis, however, not meant for this length of time:

  • Emergency Savings Fund
  • SOP for Human Resource coordinator

When news arrived that the Enhance Community Quarantine was to be imposed in the entire nation, internal measures were arranged:

  • “Work from Home” set up for administrators
  • “Stand-by for transport” for custodians
  • Provided full salary at the end of March
  • Provided pro-rated 13th month pay plus cash assistance on April 15th payroll
  • Provided comprehensive Salary loan on the start of May
  • All health monitoring was based through communications via sms and chat

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The financial assistance from concerned government agencies haven’t arrived yet as of this posting, but the company knew that compassion is also part of growing a business, especially in a service industry that relies on manpower. Thankfully, the government released some memorandum that enables CMDA Cleaning Services to do a unique and rising type of service – Disinfection. Our Disinfection officers were still able to work but operates on special and strict guidelines:

  • Wear Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), gloves, masks and face shield (provided by CMDA)
  • Operate and transport 1:1 disinfection officer to vehicle

 

ECQ to MECQ

At the beginning of May, thankfully, government agencies has relaxed some measures to recover the economy, and so we slowly restored our other services like office cleaning and home sanitation. However, certain guidelines were needed to follow and so we used appropriate and recommended measures to slowly return to work:

  • We picked up each employee from their homes to staff house
  • The company provided board and lodging for employees through a rented unit near the office (one for male employees, one for female employees)
  • Provided a dedicated transport vehicle when servicing clients to avoid contamination
  • Imposing strict health measures such as always wearing face masks and observing proper physical distancing
  • Provided vitamins and ensuring they get 6-8 hours of sleep
  • Direct approach of health monitoring by visually and directly checking for symptoms by the health officer
  • Provided PPEs for each custodian to protect them and the clients every time there are projects
  • Comprehensive training and seminar on our company’s recovery plan to identify the role of each team member
  • Testings will be done twice a month on all CMDA employees to ensure their safety considering the line of work we do

Prior to the pandemic, safety of everyone has always been the company’s top priority, and it has emphasized it more now by further augmenting it with the additional protocols placed in our Standard Operating Procedures. With the government slowly modifying the community quarantine guidelines on each regions, CMDA Cleaning Services will surely be there to help everyone to rise and recover through a cleaner and safer place. As a start, we offer our recovery plan template on all companies that we are in partnership with to help them kick start their back to work program and place a robust health protocol for all of their employees.

GCQ and the “New Normal”

Finally on June 01, 2020, the government has declared that the National Capital Region be placed on General Community Quarantine (GCQ). Althought we have been operating already at a limited capacity, this gave our clients more flexibility in terms of getting our services before they resume back to office. Since the pandemic has affected life and business, our services has been in demand for the “new normal” as more and more require disinfection.

Though not mandated by the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), Department of Health (DoH), nor the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE), we opted to test all our staff for the Rapid Anti-Body COVID-19 test, and last June 12, 2020, we all had our test made and thankfully, from the transport team, to the custodians and up to our admin team are all COVID-19 NEGATIVE. This gave us, including our families, especially our clients, peace of mind. We know we can always be true to our virtue on “providing a clean and safe place for everyone”.

Back to MECQ and the fight for COVID-19 goes on

As the metro and surrounding provinces return back to MECQ, we have already gone through our 3rd monthly Rapid Anti-Body COVID-19 test for all our employees. Knowing that we are all still negative for covid, it goes to show that our safety measures are working, but still, we remain vigilant and continue our efforts in ensuring we, and our clients are free from infection. We have had a lot of occassions as well that we have come to rescue our clients from their cancelled cleaning service because our competitors were limited and challenged by the MECQ guidelines. Our training has always involved quick response to our customers, with safety as the priority, to make sure their place is clean and disinfected immediately.

COVID-19 Check Up and Test Results

First Posted on: May 16, 2020
Updated: August 15 2020

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