– Always check ladder before using it. Check steps or rungs to make sure they are tight and secure. Never use a damaged ladder.

– Place ladder feet firmly on the ground. Do not allow ladders to lean sideways.

– Always face the ladder when climbing up or down.

– Do nor overreach from a ladder, or lean too far to one side. A good rule is to always keep your belt buckle inside the rails of the ladder.

Practice these simple rules and reduce the risk of injury to yourself and others.

Thank you,

The Cleaning Crew

Is Your Office Making You Sick?
If you’ve been noticing more absences around your office, don’t be alarmed: With the long hours most of us put in at the office these days, spending more time at your desk means a greater chance of germ build-up–and illness. So, what can you do about it? In the last few years, we’ve been bombarded with messages from the media about how germy our lives have become–from Oprah’s expose on household germs, to the Today show’s testing of hotel room cleanliness. We’ve also heard plenty of antibacterial products promising to keep our homes and offices cleaner. But do they really work? Just how effective are these products in preventing the spread of germs, and ultimately, illness?
We consulted with a microbiologist from the University of Arizona at Tucson to get the truth about germs in the workplace. Dr. Charles P. Gerba, a nationally known expert on household microbes and intestinal diseases, is one of the first microbiologists to intensely study bacteria counts in the workplace. Along with The Clorox Company, Gerba and his team of researchers have tested thousands of samples in hundreds of offices throughout New York, Chicago, Florida, San Francisco, Arizona and Oregon. Gerba has learned that many factors go into creating a germy office–from office location to gender to occupation.

Getting Down to the Nitty-Gritty
From his studies, Gerba has discovered that in most work environments, offices and cubicles have higher bacteria levels than surfaces in common areas. What spot in your office space is friendliest to germs? Telephones topped the charts in most offices across the United States, followed by desks and computer keyboards. “The phone is typically the dirtiest piece of equipment in an office because it goes straight to your mouth, and you never clean or disinfect it,” Gerba says.
We decided to take matters into our own hands to see just how accurate Gerba’s studies are in relation to our own office cleanliness at Entrepreneur.com. Gerba sent us 20 swab tubes and a cooler with a frozen ice pack to our Irvine, California, offices. We tested 20 different spots in our office used by employees daily. After swabbing the different surfaces, we sent them back to the University of Arizona and waited several weeks for our results. When Gerba interpreted our data, he looked at the numbers in surprise and remarked on what a clean office we have. (Phew!) Though we ranked as one of the cleanest offices Gerba has sampled, he did point out a few items that were off the charts. “That is one of the dirtiest toilets I’ve seen,” Gerba said as he viewed the data of our men’s restroom toilet seat. Gerba explains that contrary to popular belief, most office spaces and items, like desks and phones, end up having more bacteria than the average office toilet seat. In past studies, he has found that the average desk harbors 400 times more bacteria than the average toilet seat. To give you an idea of how we compare with other offices across the country, here are a few examples (including that toilet) of where we significantly differed from the norm:
Office Item Entrepreneur.com Bacteria Numbers Per Surface Average Number of Bacteria Per Surface
Phone 60 25,127
Desk 10 20,961
Keyboard 10 3,29
Mouse 30 1,676
Fax machine 10 301
Copy machine 80 69
Men’s toilet seat 1,300 49
Aside from the men’s toilet seat, our office did have a few other extreme items. For starters, a coffee mug we sampled only had a bacteria count of 10, a number Gerba says is typically in the thousands. One employee’s water glass, on the other hand, had a count of 52,000. Most likely, this glass was being used on a regular basis and hadn’t been cleaned in quite a while. Think about how often you actually disinfect your coffee mug or water glass after using it. If visions of germ armies just danced in your head, you may want to start washing your mugs and glasses with hot, soapy water daily.

Keeping the floors in your house clean is essential. The key to making the floors streak free and clean is in the water that you use. The floors you mop will look their best , in most cases, just by using the correct ratio of floor cleaner to the mop bucket. Too much soap can leave a film or streaks on the floor. For best results, use a general “neutral” floor cleaner and always check the instructions on the container for proper mixture. The soap helps to eliminate bacteria and give a good smell to the home. It is crucial to make sure that your not using a soiled mop. A mop should be changed every so often depending on how often it is used and what you are using it for. Just don’t let it get to a point where it starts to stink because nobody likes that smell.

The key to making your mopping look go is in the water used. You want to make sure that the water is changed if it is dirty. There’s no point to mopping with dirty water, it just spreads the dirt around. You also do not want to use too much water in the mop because that will leave a wet streaky floor. It is essential to wring the mop out as much as possible before you mop. It will get rid if excess dirt in the mop and it won’t leave streaks.

Again make sure you change your water often and wring your mop out properly. Make sure to use hot water and a little bit of soap to ensure proper disinfecting. Proper mopping will keep your house looking and feeling cleaner.

Thank you,

The Cleaning Crew

This time of year in our lovely state of Michigan we all have to deal with melting snow and ice along with salt residue. It dries like concrete on your floors making it a mess to clean up, which is not what you prefer to do on your day off. After many methods of trial and error we have described the ways we find very helpful and much easier to do.

First fill a bucket with the very hot water and depending on the size of your floor use either a washrag or a mop. The key to getting the salty residue off your floor without any streaks it to really scrub the surface with the very hot water to loosen the majority of it. Then you will notice that the water is very dirty, which is the reason for streaking on the floors so rinse that bucket out and refill it with fresh hot water. If you then ring your washrag or mop out as much as possible and go over the area again you will see a major difference, but remember rinse the rag or mop often to ensure you are not spreading the dirty water.

The advantage to this is that there is no soap involved, which is extremely beneficial for hardwood floors because soap tends to dry the wood, which causes it to age quicker. It is a very simple process and we understand it is a pain in the neck. If you have any questions please feel free to contact us.

Thank you,

The Cleaning Crew

• Typical routines for the office setting:
• Bathrooms
• Lunchrooms/ Kitchens
• Garbage collection
• Dusting
• Wiping all surfaces (includes desk and tables)
• Sweeping
• Mopping
• Vacuuming
• Entryways