Preparing Your Office for the New Normal

The pandemic has already made things hard for everybody, getting back and transitioning to the “new normal” at work should be made easy, but can it? Depending on how prepared your office is, going back to work under the “new normal” would easy or difficult. This is why planning how to return to work under the new normal is important.

In our latest COVID-19 update, we have elaborated the steps we did before and during the time we transitioned to the General Community Quarantine (GCQ). Though this is us, and the approach we did may not apply to other businesses, we are going to share below common and helpful tips to help your business bounce back to the new normal. These are based on the InterAgency Task Force (IATF) guidelines and the good practices we observed during the time we did office cleaning to our clients.

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Audit what you have

Check what you have, in terms of available health related equipment and facilities, and which employees are willing to report back to work. This will help you sort out what else you need to buy and would be cost efficient eventually. The number of foot disinfection pad would depend on the number of entrance and the number of people reporting to work. Thermal scanner or infrared thermometers and alcohol dispensers as well would depend on the number of foot traffic.

There will be consumables like alcohol/sanitizers and disinfectant wipes you will need to consider. You might want to add batteries for the thermal scanner in the list as well

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Send out info

It is in the human nature that we take change very hard, but it can be less hard if we are informed at an earlier time. Send out an email (or a chat message) to all concerned regarding all the changes that are being made under the “new normal”. Let them know what they need to expect when they arrive at the office, from the door to their table.

The information may include steps like accomplishing the visitor’s checklist honestly (very important!), wearing their face mask (and face shield if needed) inside the office premises at all times, observing physical distancing, and reporting areas or instances that can pose as a health hazard to everyone in the office. If you are going to implement one-way traffic directions within the office premises, this would be a good time to orient them so they will be able to follow.

Requiring your employees to secure a health certificate from their respective barangay or city health office is also good, and you may opt to schedule a monthly rapid test if your office budget permits – including these details would be great in your email.

Do a general cleaning of your office

Your office may have been empty for at least 3 to 6 months, and may or may not have any coronavirus in it, but surely, there are already dust and other nasty things in there that could pose as other health risks like allergies and other forms of infection. Get your office cleaned thoroughly before returning back to normal or partial operations.

If you need a walk through or a checklist on what you need for your office general cleaning, check out our ultimate office cleaning checklist, or, if you find it very difficult to do, you can always outsource your office cleaning.

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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!

DIY: Clorox Disinfecting Wipes

The Clorox company has already announced that there will be global shortage of Clorox Wipes until next year, prompting some consumers to DIY: Clorox disinfecting wipes. If you are one of those living in the area where there is little to no supply of the said wipes, or its alternatives, and plan to DIY the wipes yourself, check out our step-by-step guide below:

What you need for your DIY: Clorox disinfecting wipes

Kitchen roll / Tissue roll
Used wipes container or zip lock bag
2 Spoonful Clorox bleach
Water
Cutter/Knife
Rubber Gloves
(Optional) Fabric conditioner / Essential Oil

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Some notes on the materials:

Get the kitchen roll tissue paper that is 2-ply or 3-ply because single ply will break easily – we got ours at a local Japan store.
If you happen to have thrown away your old wipes tube/container, you can use a zip lock bag instead or any container that can make it air tight. Chlorine diffuses in time and making your DIY: Clorox disinfecting wipes ineffective.
Steak knives make cutting tissue rolls easier.
If you don’t like the smell of chlorine, add fabric conditioner or essential oils, but never alcohol or alcohol based perfumes.

Step 1

Measure your tissue roll and cut it. Make sure to have half inch allowance at the bottom and and inch allowance at the top. If you are using a regular tissue roll, you can skip this step. After cutting it, do not place it in just yet. Set it aside for a moment.

Step 2

Add water in your container. The volume actually may differ depending on the size of your kitchen towel or tissue roll. You can start off with just a cup and check later if your wipes are just moist enough and not too damp. Too much water will make your wipes break easily.

Step 3

Add 2 spoonful of clorox bleach and a spoonful of your favorite fabric conditioner (or a couple drops of your favorite essential oil). It may seem too much based on recommended dillution, but you are mixing this with water and as we mentioned above, Cholorine diffuses in the air, so your chlorine cocktail will not be as potent as it was, a week from now.

Step 4

Mix all liquid evenly inside your container. This will ensure that the chlorine and scents will be distributed evenly throughout the kitchen roll when you place it in.

Step 5

Place the kitchen roll inside the container and cover it. Let it sit and absorb the mixture. This may take some time (5-10 minutes) depending on how much tissue you placed inside.

Step 6

After checking if your wipes are already moist up to the top, remove the spine or cardboard in the middle of the roll. The moisture will help loosen it and even give you the tongue of your wipes (piece of tissue that will help you pull wipes in the future). You can leave it be if you are using a ziplock bag.

Step 7

You now have your DIY: Clorox Disinfecting Wipes ready to use. Make sure to keep it covered and air tight, keep it in a cool, dry space and away from sunlight.

Bonus! Best uses of Clorox wipes

1. Removing grimes and tile stains fast – use a couple of wipes and place it over hard to remove grimes and stains in your bathroom tiles and let it sit for 10-15 minutes. Remove and brush lightly.

2. Polishing bathroom fixtures and kitchen faucets – place a couple of wipes over fixtures, faucets, kitchen sink drains and let it sit for 10-15 minutes. Remove, scrub with sponge a little and rinse.

3. Restore chopping board – spread a clorox wipe on the chopping board, let it sit for 10-15 minutes. Scrub a little and rinse.

4. Make cut flowers last longer in a vase – wrap clorox wipes at the end of the stems of your flowers, place them in the vase and add water. This will prevent grime from forming at the bottom. No need to change water daily and keeps your flowers fresh longer.

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!

Electrostatic Disinfection: Global Trend in Disinfection and Fighting COVID-19

Companies and organizations across the globe are shifting from regular spray disinfection to Electrostatic Disinfection. You can see this trend from Google’s search trend, increasing demand in purchase of the electrostatic disinfection machines, and increasing demand of the process in home and office spaces. A cleaning service company in Canada is bombarded with this service request since the start of the pandemic, this is the method of choice for schools in South Carolina, USA, even the Airlines and hotels implement ‘electrostatic spraying’ to fight the coronovirus. So why do top companies now prefer this more than the regular spray disinfection? Is there any difference between this process and the rest?

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What is Electrostatic Disinfection?

This is a disinfection process using a machine that sprays disinfectant in microdroplet form (fine mist) that are also statically charged. This would mean that the disinfectant will stick on anything, like viruses, including surfaces. The droplets are so fine and the process is very fast that people can breath in already even just minutes after the application.

The electrostatic charge is so strong that it will look for other surfaces near it that are not yet covered. Manufacturers claim that the particles are charged for up to 30 days, but even if it would just last for a 2 weeks, it would mean that the disinfectant can continue to kill the coronavirus dropping on surfaces longer.

One of the great feature of the machine is that the user can fill in any disinfectant, but of course the manufacturer recommend using disinfectant solutions that are approved by agencies like FDA, CDC and WHO, and has a worldclass track record of killing viruses like Quaternary Ammonium Chlorides.

Delta Airlines staff disinfecting the cabin using a handheld electrostatic sprayer – photo from Delta Airlines / sfgate.com

Why Electrostatic Disinfection?

One of the main features of electrostatic disinfection is coverage. It can cover a wider areas and hard to reach areas thanks to the charge. Gravity nor surface shape does not dictate where the disinfectant will land, so this ensures that there are no surface missed. When you want to disinfect an area, you want to make sure that your disinfectant covers all surfaces, and this could prove quite difficult if the liquid is colorless upon application.

Another feature is called “ultra low volume” dispersion. This allows the dispersal of the disinfectant without making the surface “too wet” which could be a cause for short circuit of appliances or damage to paintings and furniture. There are already other non-electrostatic devices that utilizes this feature.

“Basically, when you want to disinfect an area, you would want to ensure that the disinfectant kills the virus, and there are still enough disinfectant in the surface to kill potential viruses that might drop. You are protecting not just the people but also the assets.”

In the Philippines, only a handful offers Electrostatic Disinfection, and we, CMDA Cleaning Services, are one of the few that offers this type of disinfection service. We also offer pat down, fogging (bac2zero), UVC sterilization and wet disinfection but we always recommend that more and more people use electrostatic disinfection to utilize its benefits.

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!

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?

Business permits and length of service
Safety Data Sheet of the chemicals they use
FDA approval of the chemicals they use
A summary of the processes they use
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

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:

Rubber gloves – those that you use for laundry and cleaning other parts of the bathroom or house.
Face mask – safety first! We don’t want anything splashing toward your mouth or inhaling any fumes from the cleaning chemicals.
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.
Commercial Toilet Bowl Cleaner – Anything that is off the shelf from your grocery store that says “Toilet Bowl Cleaner”.
Sponge Scrubber – Commercially known as “Scotch Brite”.
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:

Wear your safety gear – mask, goggles, rubber gloves.
Remove the cover of your toilet bowl water tank/reservoir.
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.
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.
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.
Let it soak and stand for 10-15 minutes – you can do some other light chores while waiting for this step to end.
Splash a little water on your toilet bowl.
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.
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.
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.
Rinse your whole toilet bowl – get rid of the extra suds around your toilet bowl.
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

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.