There’s no question that Salt Lake City residents like to get around—people in Utah move, on average, once every five to seven years. But, as exciting as the prospect of moving to a new home or apartment is, the whole process can quickly turn into a nightmare if not organised properly. To ensure a hassle-free moving experience, make sure you do the following ten things before you move out:

1. Round up all the keys you had cut for your home or apartment, including those you gave to family, friends, or neighbours—you really don’t want to leave any spare sets floating around!

2. Have a garage sale. The absolute worst thing about moving is having to take box after box of items from one house or apartment to the next. Packing hundreds of items, unpacking them, trying to make sure they don’t get lost or broken, arranging and rearranging them, storing those you’re not using… It will soon become obvious to you that there’s a reason nomadic people owned so few things.

To cut down on this massive headache, get rid of much as you possibly can before you move. (A good rule of thumb is that if you’ve been saving an item because you might use it “one day”, it can generally go, as long as it can be replaced.)

If you don’t want the work of hauling everything you don’t need to the dump or to donate somewhere, and want to make a bit of extra cash for your move while you’re at it, the most logical thing to do is hold a big garage sale. Your neighbours will love the bargains, and you will love having a lighter load to take to your new home.

3. If you’re leaving appliances behind, make sure to clean them all out. Your oven, fridge, washer, and drier should be left in like-new condition as a courtesy to the next people who will be using them.

4. If you’re renting, be sure to read through your entire lease at least 60 days before moving out. Leases sometimes have very odd exiting conditions; it’s best to be aware of them before you get started trying to move everything.

5. Hire a professional housecleaner if you can. If you’re renting, a messy house or apartment may cost you getting your security deposit back, and some landlords are very picky. It’s best to hire a professional housecleaning service to get into all those nooks and crannies you find hard to completely clean out, just in case. No landlord will be able to argue with the spotless cleaning job left by a professional with industrial-grade equipment and win.

6. If you’re doing some or all of your own cleaning, schedule your moving and cleaning to take place on different days. It’s generally impossible to pull off doing both at once, not to mention simply exhausting. Move everything first, then come back on another day to clean out the empty spaces left behind (or have a housecleaning service come in and do it).

7. Make a list of all the institutions and companies that will need your new address. This includes everywhere you bank and shop online, your Paypal account, and so much more—you’ll likely need to devote a few hours to this task.

8. Once you’ve updated your address with everyone, make sure you head to your local post office and set up mail forwarding so you don’t miss out on bills and other important mail once you get settled at your new address.

9. Make sure to leave out enough necessities when you’re packing to last you until you move. Organise what you need on a day to day basis (things like curling irons, hair driers, toilet paper) and make sure they’re set aside and don’t get packed in a box somewhere—There is nothing more frustrating than having to unpack (and then repack) ten boxes just to find a hairbrush or some similar such necessity.

10. Patch up holes and repaint the walls. Remove your artwork from the walls along with any nails and screws, then patch up the holes left over with spackling paste. Once the paste is dry, sand it down so that it lies flat against the wall, and repaint the walls (if you’re a renter, you may want to leave this part for your landlord—check with him or her before doing any painting).

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Ecologically Sustainable Cleaning is the way of the future for home cleaning. With increasing concern for the environment and an ever growing ecologically sustainable mindset in Utah. Green cleaning is pushing all the boundaries in both commercial and home cleaning.

You may ask, why the push for green cleans? Cleaning products are often released into the environment upon manufacturing and use of. Cleaning products are released to the environment during normal use through evaporation of volatile components and rinsing down the drain of residual product from cleaned surfaces and sponges. Janitorial staff and others who perform cleaning can be exposed to concentrated cleaning products. However use of green cleaning products can prevent complications that may come about to those who come into contact with excessive cleaning products.

Certain ingredients in cleaning products can present hazard concerns to exposed populations (e.g., skin and eye irritation in workers) or toxicity to aquatic species in waters receiving inadequately treated wastes (note that standard sewage treatment effectively reduces or removes most cleaning product constituents). The use of green cleaning products in the home can prevent such hazards to both people and our Australian wildlife.

Ingredients containing phosphorus or nitrogen can contribute to nutrient-loading in water bodies, leading to adverse effects on water quality. These contributions, however, are typically small compared to other point and non-point sources. Vinegar and Bi Carbonate soda are effective means of cleaning small stubborn spots within the home, without having to resort to hazardous chemicals.

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Tips For Cleaning Your Home in a Hurry

The number one reason our residences are often less than tidy is time—notably, our perpetual lack thereof. Working mothers and fathers often leave housecleaning to the weekends, just to find themselves too exhausted to do it and sorely tempted to hire a housekeeper despite the cost. College students, already overwhelmed with work and all-night study sessions, are unlikely to make apartment cleaning a priority… And who can blame them?

Alas, justifiable or not, the failure to keep a clean home or apartment can have serious repercussions, such as pest outbreaks, illness, and injury as a result of too much clutter. Not to mention, the mess only gets bigger the longer it is left to fester.

So, how do we keep up? According to April Knox, a professional housecleaner based in Sandy, Utah, with Custom Cleaning Services, the key lies in mastering the art of “speed cleaning”. Ms. Knox offers the following tips for getting the better of mess before it gets the better of you:

• April recommends that you form a simple plan, multi-task, and don’t return to rooms—one round of cleaning is generally enough, as long as one does so regularly.

• Treat cleaning like a fine-tuned military operation—organised perfectly beforehand. “Organisation is the key,” says Ms. Knox, “Set yourself a time limit, have your products ready, and move from room to room swiftly.”

• Eschew perfectionism. April advises us to not get caught up in gleaming porcelain and flawless floors—the aim is simply to get the situation manageable.

• Avoid distractions. Yes, it may occur to you while working that the microwave could use a clean, or that the entire fridge needs emptying out—save it for another day. Cover the areas that really need to be cleaned, rather than jumping around trying to clean everything you would like to see cleaned.

• Use a timer. Giving yourself, for example, ten minutes per room, is a wonderful way to make sure your housecleaning activities stay within the amount of time you have to do them.

• Clear spaces prior to cleaning. Linen, towels, dishes, piles of dirty clothes—all these things will get in your way and slow you down while you are cleaning. Toss them in the wash immediately and work while they are being cleaned.

• Carry all the products you need with you. Designate a special bucket or basket for all your cleaning tools and products, and tote it with you from room to room—this will save you making unnecessary trips.

• Dust and vacuum everything. Don’t bother with the broom, recommends Ms. Knox; it leaves behind a great deal of material the vacuum will pick up. Simply dust and vacuum the entire house for an effective, speedy, refreshing clean.

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It seems that no matter how hard we try we cannot avoid the formation of mould in the bathroom. Even the pleasant climate in Salt Lake City cannot serve as a protection from mould. The unpleasant black specks mainly occur at the joints between the tiles and the edges of the tub. They are certainly one unpleasant aesthetic and hygienic problem which is potentially dangerous to health, especially if it spreads to other parts of our home. So, what exactly can we do in order to get rid of this unpleasant mould?

The bathroom is a hotbed of mould because this room is constantly humid, warm and it doesn’t support normal air flow. In order to prevent the formation of mould, we need to find a way to alter these conditions. For example, leave some of the windows in the bathroom or the door slightly opened when you are showering (in case this is possible).

In case you don’t have a window, use a dehumidifier or a ventilator that is beneficial to be turned on even when the mirror in the bathroom is not blurred because even then the moisture in the bathroom is present. Even if we can’t see the moisture this doesn’t mean that it is not there.

Many people believe that they can successfully protect their home from mould if they polish the tiles in the bathroom on a daily basis. These tiles should be polished only when it is necessary. However, there are certain measures of precaution that can be performed every day in order to prevent and fight these ugly dark layers.

Keep all the surfaces in the bathroom clean from dirt and especially from things like remains of shampoo, cream and oil for the body. Keep the wet towels out of the bathroom and the bathroom curtains should be made of synthetic materials that have low water absorption power.

Keep in mind that the way you fight against mould depends on how much and how long it has been present. If there is much work ahead of you, you should definitely choose cleaning products that don’t contain much hazardous chemicals in order to avoid respiratory problems. Many experts can confirm that water and microfiber cloth that has great power of absorbency can be the most efficient tools in this procedure. In order to clean the corners in the best way use some old toothbrush or special cleaning sponges.

If these methods don’t provide any results, then it is a good idea to use bleaching. Create a mixture of three cups of water and one cup of bleaching liquid or simply buy some stain remover that contains a smaller amount of bleach. If this method doesn’t work, use a stronger concentrate. Remember not to combine two different products like bleach and ammonia for example, because they can result in toxic fumes that can seriously damage your health.

If all these methods don’t work you can use the services of a professional cleaning company!

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Despite the fact that many appliances are used for the preparation of food or for cleaning dishes and clothing—applications which demand a high standard of cleanliness—they’re often kept in a rather dirty and neglected state owing to how laborious it can feel to clean them. Likewise, many people don’t realise how to thoroughly clean them, leaving pockets of bacteria lurking in hidden spaces even when cleaning is attempted.

The best way to avoid this, and to save time when cleaning these important pieces of machinery, is to know beforehand which cleaning methods are best for each appliance. To that end, the following guide is being provided:

Coffee Maker:

Many people stick with periodically cleaning out their coffee pots (a straightforward enough process), but the entire machine should actually be cleaned out at least once a month, lest scale from hard water and rancid coffee oils build up, affecting both the taste of the coffee and the longevity of the machine.

Fortunately, cleaning a coffee maker’s internal components is much less complicated than many assume; just make a solution of 3 cups white vinegar to 6 cups water (make the solution stronger if the machine has gone a long time without being cleaned), place a filter into the machine as you would when making a new pot of coffee, add the vinegar mix to the water area, and turn the coffee maker on. Once the vinegar has run through, let the coffee maker sit for at least 15 minutes, then run plain water through it so as to remove any remnants of the vinegar. That’s all there is to it—generally there’s no need to get in there and scrub as long as you do this regularly.

Toaster:

Toasters that aren’t cleaning regularly start to smoke ominously, and may even catch on fire, so it’s important to keep them tidy. Remember to always unplug a toaster prior to cleaning it, and never use water or chemicals to clean the inside of a toaster. Instead, remove and empty the crumb tray (if your model of toaster has one), then take the main body of the toaster and shake it out forcefully over a trash bin. If there is carbon built up inside the toaster (it can sometimes cake onto the coils) very gently scrub them with a dry toothbrush.

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From barbecues to boat rides to coastal hikes, people in the Salt Lake Valley lead active lifestyles as they make the most out of the beauty their city has to offer. While there is no question that being outdoors so much is great for our bodies, it tends to wreak havoc on our carpets, as people and pets come and go, tracking in all kinds of things and leaving stains in their wake.

And of course, there’s also just normal wear and tear to contend with—heavy furniture and daily use both take a big tole on the plush pile of carpets, leaving them looking flat, worn, and overall dull and uninspiring.

As tearing up and replacing all the carpet in your home is both very costly and very intrusive, it’s best to make the most out of the carpet you have for as long as possible. There are many easy things you can do to refresh your old carpet and keep it looking newer for longer, such as the three quick tips below:

• Get rid of indentations left by furniture with ice and a stiff brush. Moving furniture can leave unsightly dents in your carpet, making it look older and more worn than it is. To remove these, grab an ice cube from the freezer and let it melt over the dent, then gently scrub the pile with a stiff brush, pulling it back into place. (Note that you shouldn’t use a hairdryer set on high to melt the ice—this can damage your carpet! If you have to speed the process along, use a hairdryer set on low heat.)

• Clean your carpet with baking soda and vinegar. Simple and inexpensive, this old-fashioned trick works wonders to revive dilapidated carpet pile. First work in the baking soda with a stiff brush (rub it in deeply, working in all directions), then let it sit overnight so that it can fully absorb odours and bacteria. The following day, vacuum it up, spritz on a water and vinegar mix, and raise the pile with your brush. Your carpet will look as good as new in a few hours, and the vinegar scent will naturally dissipate as well.

• Hire a professional housecleaner. Professional housecleaners often use industrial-grade equipment to clean carpets and other areas in the home, producing a clean that’s hard to achieve on your own; they also have the benefit of many years of experience. You’d be surprised at the strange tricks some professional housecleaners know when it comes to removing stubborn stains and reviving worn carpet pile. Talk to Custom Cleaning Services

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