Water damage can be extremely difficult to repair and restore. If your home has suffered from water damage you will need to hire a certified professional to ensure your home does not have any health or structural dangers. Water damage can cause mould which can be difficult to remove as well. To ensure the mould is properly terminated you should hire a professional mould removal professional. Not only will this decrease your stress and efforts when trying to eliminate mould, but you can rest assured that the mould will not pose a threat to you and your family or coworkers when taken care of by professionals.
Professional water restoration technicians can quickly evaluate the items in your home that have been harmed by water damage. Items in your home that you may have to get rid of include mattresses, box springs, pillows, and other items that trap moisture easily. This may also include furniture, rugs, carpeting and bedding. If you are getting rid of these items prior to your water damage restoration service, ensure you record each item you discard for insurance reasons.
Steamatic has been helping property owners with water damage restoration services for over forty years. With their professional restoration or mould removal service you can rest easy knowing when you return to your home it will be in a safe condition for you and your family. Steamatic’s technicians use innovative techniques to recover and restore your personal belongings in order to revitalize as many of your important belongings as possible. Leave your water damage restoration to the experts, call us at 1 888-767-7616!
How to Organize the Play Room
Using laundry bins to organize the play room is a great way to divide and conquer. This technique is especially useful if you’ve got climbers in the family. Without lids, laundry baskets will deter your child from climbing on stacked bins. Another benefit of laundry bins is that since they don’t have lids your little one won’t pinch their fingers trying to get to something.
Separate your child’s toys into categories. Use one bin for colouring and crafts, stuffed animals, books, lego, barbies, and so forth! While you’re sorting with your kids decide if there are any toys that can be donated. If there are things your kids have outgrown make room for new things!
Keep a box and label it “donate.” Explain to your kids that if they don’t play with a certain toy anymore another little boy or girl might enjoy having it!
When it comes to decorations in the play room they should be placed high. If they’re within arms reach of your child they will end up being knocked or pulled down.
If you have toys that contain small pieces such as lego, puzzles, or barbie accessories, you can keep these in a smaller bin like a ziploc container or bag.
Depending on the size of the playroom you may decide to create sections. Set up a cozy reading corner with a bean bag and blanket, or set up their art supplies for an art section.
Remember to encourage your child to clean up after themselves so they can find their toys easily! Happy organizing!
Clean up After the Cold!
While you are sick your bedroom is most likely going to be where you are quarantined. During this time you should keep a garbage beside the bed rather than throwing kleenex on your night stand or floor.
When you’re on the verge of health get rid of all the garbage you’ve accumulated. Throw out used kleenex, popsicle wrappers, halls wrappers, and take the spoons you’ve been collecting for cough syrup to the dishwasher.
The next task you need to tackle is washing all of the bedding. This means everything. Pillow cases, sheets, your comforter, and throw blankets. If you were cuddling up on the couch with a cozy blanket it also needs to be thrown in the wash! Side note: If you are cleaning up after your child who’s been ill their stuffed animals should be washed as well!
Once your bedding is clean it’s time to surface clean. Use lysol disinfecting wipes to clean door knobs, light switches, taps, counters, and your night stand. Other surfaces you should consider giving a quick clean are your steering wheel and door handles in the car.
Sick clothes need to be washed. Whatever pair of sweat pants and comfy t-shirt you were in for two days straight needs to be washed! This includes socks, hats, and slippers if they are machine washable.
Other things you may not think to clean are hand towels from your bathrooms and bath robes. Wash these on the hottest cycle to kill bacteria and germs. The bathroom will definitely need disinfecting. Clean the counters with disinfecting wipes to kill remaining germs and bacteria. Give the faucets in the shower a quick wipe and enjoy your clean bathroom.
Tricks for an Organized Garage
To start you need to de-clutter. This means getting rid of things you no longer need or use! Use two large garbage bags and mark one as donate and one as trash. Donate old sporting goods you no longer use, footwear, toys, and so on! Get rid of junk that is not worth donating and put those things in the trash bag.
Once you have eliminated all of the excess junk from your garage it’s time to organize. Start by creating sections in the garage. For instance, tools, sporting goods, camping gear, seasonal accessories, and cleaning supplies should all have their own area. This makes it easier to find any given item at any time.
For your tools section a great organization trick is pegboards. You can hang your tools so you can easily see them. You can hang a hammer, saws, scissors, brushes, screwdrivers, a level, wrenches, and more. This can conveniently go above your tool box.
Sporting goods should be hung. This means hanging bikes, tennis rackets, and a mesh bag full of your footballs, soccer balls, baseballs, and basketballs. There are many systems on the market that you can purchase to hang on the wall to make the best of your space. This beats piling it all in a corner!
Shelving units can be extremely useful in the garage. You can put all of your automotive care products including car wash, windshield wiper fluid, cleaning wipes, wax, and windex on a shelf. You can also organize all of your cleaning products on shelves as well!
If you are using bins to organize camping gear or seasonal items make sure you label them! Make the label large and easy to see. This way when it’s time for your annual camp out you know exactly where all your supplies are.
Try implementing the above tips when organizing your garage to maintain a neat and systematic space!
DIY Car Organization
The more time we spend in our cars the more likely it is to look like a disaster zone. Garbage may accumulate from take out cups, gas receipts, and empty water bottles. Shoes can get left behind, your back seat looks like a hamper, change ends up on the floor, and so on. If this is you, it’s time to organize.
Start by getting rid of all the garbage in your car. Don’t leave your take out cup in the car when you arrive to work. It takes little effort to remember to throw it out and make room for the coffee you will most likely pick up the following morning. This will prevent you from accumulating a collection of cups on the floor.
Now you need to eliminate all of the access junk you’ve collected. This means soccer cleats, clothing, heels, gym socks, and hats. Take a big bag out to the car and gather all of these things to be taken inside and organized properly.
Next organize all of the change and place it into a small cup or gum container that fits neatly into your cup holder. This keeps change contained and organized!
Vacuum out your car to eliminate all dirt and crumbs. Use auto interior wipes to clean the side panels, console, and inside the cup holders.
Keep the essentials in the car! This includes a small pack of kleenex that can be stored in the centre console, hand sanitizer, chap stick, phone charger, GPS, and whatever other items you consider to be must haves. Keep your survival kit in the back seat. If you have children their colouring books and crayons can slip in the pocket behind the drive and passenger seats.
Try these easy organization tips to keep your car clean and organized!
Organize With the New Addition
Begin by choosing a designated diaper drawer. This drawer should be in the nursery under the changing table. In this drawer you should keep the obvious, diapers, wipes, diaper rash cream, and soothers. You can get small bins at the dollar store to keep these things separate in the drawer.
Have a jar or container with clean soothers. You can keep this on a dresser or the changing table. This keeps you knowing where one is at all times!
Organize baby clothes by age. You can buy inexpensive bins and divide your child’s clothing by 0-3 months, 3-6 months, 6-9 months, and so on! This is great for storage as you don’t have to keep it all in the nursery. As your baby grows you can swap out the clothes they’ve outgrown for their new wardrobe.
Beneath the crib storage is great for extra diapers and bedding. If you buy a long crib skirt it will be hidden but conveniently located for you to access.
Bookshelves are a great accent for the nursery! They provide storage space for stuffed animals, books, pictures, and more. Shelving in the closet can also be extremely convenient for extra blankets, shoes and towels. You can also place baskets on these shelves to keep toys, headbands, hats and socks.
Hooks are great for the nursery, whether they’re mounted on the wall or in the closet. Hooks can be used to hang towels, bath robes, clothing, or accessories like head bands.
Try using any of the above organization tips to stay organized with your new bundle of joy!
Deep Clean Your Bedroom
Begin with the bed. Remove all sheets, blankets, pillow cases and mattress cover. Take these down to the laundry room immediately and throw them in the wash. Head back up to the bedroom and clean your blinds and windows using a damp cloth to remove dust from your blinds and windex to leave the glass sparkling.
Place a large sheet on the bed to protect the mattress from dust and dirt. Remove every object from every surface. Clear off the night tables, dresser stands, and tv stand. Place all these things on top of the sheet on the bed. Now it’s time for some serious dusting. Dust all the surfaces of your furniture and your ceiling fan if you have one. Grab a broom and do a thorough sweep of the entire floor and
en-suite. Next it’s time to mop the floors or vacuum if you have carpet. Once you’ve dusted and cleaned the floors you can return the items on the bed to their proper place. Take this time to get rid of old magazines, place books in a shelf, and stack DVD’s so they aren’t scattered everywhere.
By the time you’ve completed this you can head to the laundry room. Take all dirty clothes from your bedroom down to put into the wash and throw your bedding in the dryer. Head back upstairs to tackle the ensuite.
You will need cleaning wipes, bathroom cleaning spray, a toilet scrubber and gloves. Start by giving the sink a good wipe down to get rid of toothpaste marks and dirt. Give your toilet a spray and scrub to leave it looking new. Spray down the tub or shower and scrub any visible grime away! Your bathroom will look and smell fresh!
Finally, return to the laundry room to gather your bedding and make your bed. Enjoy!
Cleaning Your Furniture
Keeping leather furniture clean can be difficult. There are various leather cleaners on the market, however they can come at a hefty cost. Instead of purchasing expensive cleaner, you can make your own solution at home. It works well on leather clothing and furniture. You will need 1/4 cup of olive oil, 1/2 cup of regular vinegar and a spray bottle. Easily combine the two ingredients into your bottle and shake it thoroughly. Spray the leather and give it a wipe down. The vinegar smell does not linger. As a quick reminder, this simple recipe should only be used for leather!
When it comes to micro fibre furniture cleaning can be a bit trickier. You will need a spray bottle, white scrub brush, white sponge, and rubbing alcohol. Pour rubbing alcohol into the spray bottle and spray the couch or stains you wish to remove. Using a sponge scrub the area where the stains are. You will begin to see the stains lifting off and coming onto your sponge. If the sponge becomes very dirty swap it out for a fresh one. Once your couch is dry you can use your scrub brush with swirling motions to restore the texture and feel.
If you have couch cushion covers that are washable this is a great way to freshen up furniture. Some chair and couch cushions have covers that conveniently zip right off and are machine washable. This makes it extremely easy to give you couch a bright and clean renewal. This method can also be used for most throw pillows!
If you are worrisome about trying to clean your furniture yourself contact Steamatic today! Steamatic offers professional furniture and drapery cleaning for your home! By having your furniture professionally cleaned you maintain tidy and beautiful couches and chairs. Contact a Steamatic expert today at 1-888-767-7616!
Removing Carpet Stains
We love our pets, from the day we bring them home they’re a part of the family. When you have a dog or a cat accidents are bound to happen. If the stain is recent dry it out as much as possible. Blot the area with paper towel or a cloth to soak up the urine. Next you will need to mix water, and vinegar (of equal parts) with 4 tablespoons of baking soda. Mix the solution well. Pour the solution onto the stain and work it into the stain with a cleaning brush. Blot the area with a clean cloth or paper towel. Continue to repeat until the stain is no longer visible. The vinegar helps to remove the stain while the baking soda assists in removing the odour that may have been left behind.
Removing a red liquid stain such as kool aid, fruit punch, or wine can be a daunting task. Whether your child spilled their juice or a friend knocked over their wine glass, these red stains can be frustrating! You will need club soda, 1 teaspoon of dish soap, 1/4 cup of hydrogen peroxide, paper towel, and a vacuum. As goes for all stains the quicker you act the better. Pour a generous amount of club soda on the stain immediately to help break up the stain and prevent it from setting. Soak as much of the liquid up as possible using clean paper towels. Mix together the dish soap and hydrogen peroxide and spray it onto the stain. The soap and hydrogen peroxide will fight and remove the stain. Once you have blotted, vacuum over and enjoy a stain free carpet!
If you find that the stains in your home are not coming out completely contact Steamatic! Steamatic offers a professional carpet cleaning service that will leave your carpets looking like brand new! Give us a call today at 1-888-767-7616!
Preventing Mould In Your Home
One of the easiest ways to prevent mould in your bathroom is to ensure there is proper ventilation. The shower and bath tub cannot be left wet, they need to dry. Most people hop in and out of the shower and keep the fan on for a few minutes, however it should be left on to help the wet surfaces in your shower and tub dry. You can also take a towel and quickly dry the edges of your tub and the grout between tiles.
If you have a shower curtain and liner make sure they are completely pulled out across the rod. This way the curtain and liner can dry. If it is bunched up to one side water will become trapped and can promote mould. If you have a window in your bathroom leave it open after you have showered to help air out the moisture.
To prevent mould from forming in other parts of your home such as the basement, kitchen, or bedrooms, make sure you dry wet areas as soon as you spot them. The longer they are left, the more likely mould is to form. When you are done cooking or baking be adamant to vent your appliances, leave the fan on to provide proper ventilation.
An area of the home that requires ventilation that some individuals forget about is the laundry room. Your washer and dryer are high moisture area. A dehumidifier can help, or opening windows if you have them.
Be aware of the mould prone areas in your home in order to prevent issues from happening. By practising these easy prevention tips you are decreasing the risk of mould being a problem in your home.
If mould is unfortunately already an issue, have the professionals deal with it to ensure your health and safety. Steamatic offers professional mould removal services. To read more about what is included in Steamatic’s mould removal and remediation visit us here.
