Palm Harbor

Ways Of Ceramic Tile Cleaning

Some tile cleaning and grout cleaning tips for achieving clean flooringCeramic tile flooring is an extremely popular flooring alternative. This kind of flooring is durable however, similar to all types of floors it also requires cleaning and care. In this article, we will see some tile cleaning and grout cleaning tips for achieving clean flooring.

Vacuum or sweep the flooring

Vacuum or sweep the tile flooring every couple of times a week. Grit and sand are capable of scratching and dulling the surface. After you have removed all the dirt you need to do the mopping. Mix hot water with a mild detergent and apply it by using a chamois or rag rather than using a sponge mop. The sponge mop puts dirty water inside the grout and soils it. You need to keep on changing the cleaning solution within the bucket often so that there isn’t a dirty mop leaving films of dirt on the floors. But, in case you end up with a cloudy film on the flooring containing dirt, you can remove it by using all-purpose cleaners. Ensure that it is non-abrasive and will not scratch the flooring. It is also possible to prepare cleaner by yourself by mixing vinegar or lemon juice with hot water. Apply this solution to the flooring and then buff-dry it by using a clean cloth. It is possible to use a towel that may be pushed over the flooring by using your feet.

Grout Cleaning

One of the more significant things while cleaning tile flooring is, knowing how to keep dirty grout away. Dirty grout means you have dingy-looking floors. Grout is generally porous and it absorbs dirt easily along with grease and other similar material. Spray this grout by using commercially made grout cleaners. You may also use mild bleach solutions for this. But, keep in mind to wear gloves while using these kinds of products. When you have deep stains let the cleaner sit on the tile flooring for ten minutes. Then you can use a toothbrush or similar small scrub brush for scrubbing away the grout. After this mop the flooring and rinse it thoroughly and then wipe it dry.

Deeper Tile Cleaning

When you are looking for deeper tile cleaning, you need to scrub ceramic tile flooring by using a polisher scrubber or an electric floor washer. This thorough cleaning action provided by this equipment is certain to brighten up joints and tiles. You can use a solution containing 1/4th cup of low-sudsing detergent or 1/2 tablespoon of either tri-sodium phosphate or washing soda or commercial flooring cleaning powder together with one gallon of water. You need to rinse well.

Ceramic Tile Cleaning For Stains

For stains that originated from tea, coffee, or juice, you can wash the flooring surface by using a mixture of detergent and hot water. After this, blot the surface by using hydrogen peroxide. For grease stains, you may use water and club soda or even a commercial flooring cleaner. If you have ink stains, you will need to use a cloth soaked in diluted bleach and place it on top of the ink stain. Keep the cloth lying there till the stain has vanished and rinse it completely after it.

If you have stubborn stains it may be a good idea to use a paste of water and baking soda. Apply the mixture to the stains and keep it there for the night. In the morning scrub it by using a nylon brush.

Being aware of ways of cleaning tile floors correctly will help in keeping them appearing beautiful and improve in service of it last for years. If you would rather have professionals doing this for you and you live in Clearwater, St. Petersburg, or Pinellas County, FL, get in touch with European Maids Cleaning Service.

Picture Credit: Freepik

Posted in Bathroom Cleaning, Cleaning Products, Cleaning Service, Cleaning Service Clearwater, Cleaning Service Tampa, Cleaning Tips, Floor Cleaning, Home Cleaning, House Cleaning, Maid Service, Maid Service Tampa, Palm Harbor, Pinellas County, St. Petersburg, Tile Cleaning, Tips | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Useful Internet Safety Tips For Kids And Teens

How To Stay Safe OnlineWith the increased usage of computers and smartphones, more children are getting exposed to the online world. Hence online security becomes an important concern for kids and teens. Being a parent, you need to safeguard your kids from the world by implementing ideas that ensure they are safe and hacks that could help them deal with uncomfortable online situations. Below we have discussed some best ways of safeguarding teens, tweens, and in-betweens who remain online consistently.

Never Allow Your Children to Post Personal Pictures or Information

Keeping your personal life out of the public eye is challenging with increased exposure to social media. Unknowingly kids share their images at home or other places that tell the world about the location they are at. When you take a picture using a GPS-enabled smartphone, it includes metadata along with additional information embedded in the image. Such information can be easily used to track location your location.

As per a survey by Common Sense Media, over 53% of American children aged below 11 and 84% of American teens owned smartphones. Strangers can take advantage of such information for accessing and locating minors through image tracking. To counter this, you can disable location settings for the camera to eliminate metadata. Both Android and iOS devices support disabling location settings. For computer-saved images, you can upload them to data-stripping free software for Linux, Mac, and Windows Operating Systems.

Prevent Your Kids or Young Adults From Sharing Their Password

Protecting your personal information online is important to prevent the chances of being hacked. Sharing passwords with friends online exposes your children to data breaches that can have dire consequences. Even if you share such information with a trusted family member online, everything leaves a digital trail. Information transmitted through messaging systems or emails is there to stay forever irrespective of the fact you try hard to erase them. It is possible to retrieve and use deleted data without your knowledge.

Experts also warn about another issue related to passwords. They advise you to not use the same password for multiple websites and accounts. Professionals call it password repetition and it is a common reason for identity theft. CIS (Center of Internet Security) recommends protecting passwords by securely noting in a notebook and not on any computer.

Stay Informed With Whom Your Children are Chatting Online

Although it seems impossible to track each person your child speaks with online, you need to be diligent about their involvement online. There are a number of both free and paid apps that allow you to secretly monitor your kid’s online security such as Pocket Guardian, VISR, and Bark.

You can keep your communication open and honest in case you are concerned about invading your child’s privacy. Kids surfing the web should know that not everyone they come across online saying who they are the has right intentions. You should start this vital conversation the moment you know your child has an online presence. Having a normalized conversation about online safety with your child is the best way of mitigating any possible problems that may occur.

Ensure Your Child Takes Permission Before Download Any Game or App

Internet games are a major attraction through which children usually start their online interaction. There are websites promoting ads encouraging children to download unknown programs or games based on recent searches. In case someone downloads unauthorized data, it might infect your computer with malware or malicious spyware that often makes you vulnerable to cyber-attacks.

Both Apple’s App Store and Google PlayStore offer you parental controls for better internet safety for kids allowing you to prevent unauthorized app downloads. You may also use apps like Boomerang that encourage your children to take permission before downloading.

Set-up Your System in a Central Location

Your children should be informed that both computers and the internet keep a lasting record of online activity. Ensure their online behavior is not be different from how they act in person. Like they should never walk up and hold a conversation with a stranger, they should do the same online.

If you looking for a service provider offering organizational and home cleaning services in Clearwater, FL, contact European Maids. They offer a wide range of useful services through their licensed and trained employees.

Picture Credit: Crello

Posted in Cleaning Service, Cleaning Service Clearwater, Cleaning Service Tampa, Clearwater, Home Cleaning, House Cleaning, Maid Service, Maid Service Tampa, Palm Harbor, Pinellas County | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Keeping hard floors cleaner and cleaning more efficiently

Maid Service | House CleaningWith house cleaning there are some jobs you can’t get away from and can’t really make easier, dust will always end up settling on surfaces and men will never learn to lift the toilet seat it seems. With other jobs though you can save yourself a lot of work by planning ahead and through how you clean. One of these house cleaning time saving opportunities is your hardwood floors.

Hardwood floors are a big job within anyone’s house cleaning regime and so there is a lot of potential time to be saved.

One obvious option is to have a no shoes policy, this isn’t always practical and with dogs and children especially it may have little effect, dogs especially bring in dirt on their paws normally but children aren’t perfect.

Rather than a no shoes policy a clean shoes, and paws, policy may be more practical. Make sure you have floor mats at every door, don’t forget your back door. Not all mats are the same though and some are great at soaking up moisture, others good at brushing off dried on mud and dirt. The best option is to have a brush mat outside each door on the doorstep to get the worst off shoes and then another mat to soak up moisture on the inside. Then of course you have to make sure people use both: this can be tricky with dogs though.

The moisture soaking doormat will help if your dog doesn’t just leap over it, keep a towel by the door though and try to get up the worst of the dirt and dog scented moisture as possible to make all of your house cleaning and not just the hardwood floors much cleaner.

Other ways to stop your dog bringing in as much dirt includes trimming the fur on their legs that soaks up mud, water and also grass burs and other organic matter that then gets strewned around your home. Also trim your dog’s nails often to stop getting scratches on your floors that then allow in dirt to the unprotected wood.

When it actually comes to cleaning your floors within your house cleaning routine start with sweeping and vacuuming, sweeping makes vacuuming easier and better at getting up the little bits of dust and dirt with any larger bits and pieces gone.

After vacuuming clean any remaining marks and dirt, this may seem nonsensical to do it this way round but if you try to wipe up marks when the vacuuming isn’t done you can actually make matters worse by getting dry dirt damp that would just vacuum up otherwise.

You may not even need to clean up any extra dirt after sweeping and vacuuming, if you do then a quick damp cloth may work, don’t forget though that a lot of spills will mop up much more easily if done sooner rather than later. Rather than try and clear up a mess while the rest of the floor is still dirty though if possible bring forward the hard floor part of you’re your house cleaning so you can do the job properly straight away.

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House cleaning health benefits

Home CleaningIf you suffer from allergies such as Hayfever the temptation may be to shut yourself up indoors to keep out the pollen, insects and other causes of your allergies. Sometimes though the causes of allergies can be inside your home and opening up your windows and letting in some fresh air may be the best thing for you: to make your home a safe haven you must clean and clean while thinking specifically about getting rid of causes of allergy symptoms.

Changing how you go about your house cleaning may take a little getting used to but will be worth the effort if it leaves you feeling better and lets you relax symptom free in your own home. You may well also find you sleep a lot better and if you snore this too could be caused by allergens in your home causing swelling and dryness in your mouth and throat as you sleep or excess mucus.

If you have really bad allergy problems you may even want to consider taking some really drastic actions in your house cleaning and removing those things that are difficult to clean and which attract dust and dirt. This could mean getting rid of your carpets even, perhaps only in the bedroom to begin with, even if you use rugs instead these are much easier to keep clean.

You may though get away with simply hovering though, when you clean any rooms start by dusting from the top down so dust eventually ends up on the floor, now afterwards you should of course vacuum but leave the room for a half hour to an hour before doing this: it lets the dust that is swept up into the air when you dust float down on to the floor ready to be vacuumed up.

Some dust gets deep down into your carpet as do spores and pollen from outside and also other dirt such as bits of food, which give off a nasty odor and mold spores. A steam clean should be done at least every six months as part of your house cleaning to keep your carpets clean of allergens and other nasties that may cause you problems.

Another thing that you may not have thought of is the furnace in your home if you have one, this will usually have a filter House Cleaningto collect the soot and dirt created but after a short time this won’t work as efficiently. If you have no allergies you can change this less frequently and not notice anything but if you or your family do have allergies you should change this filter much more often than recommended: maybe every six months or less if you start having problems again.

We can tell you to dust and vacuum every day and have a regular regime for your house cleaning but that is not always possible and especially hard to get to surfaces may have to be done less often. In that case though you should try this tip for your house cleaning to stop dust ever settling: use either alcohol, mixed 50:50 with water, or diluted fabric conditioner on glass surfaces to actually repel rather than attract dust: the alcohol option can even be used on your TV screen and can get off any dirty marks in the process.

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