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Is there black mold in your washing machine?

Marzena Ziembicka — Fri, 18 May 2012 17:00:56 +0000

I have to admit I have a problem, as I am a cosmetic and cleaning product junkie. I love to try every new product on the market.

When I was in college, I lived with two of my girlfriends. We shared one bathroom, so space was limited. Cosmetics, shampoos, conditioners, antiperspirants and other things were everywhere.

Then I met my future husband, Michal, and we decided to move in together.
After I had packed all of my things (including my bathroom products), Michael went into the bathroom.

He called me into the bathroom and had a scared look on his face. He asked if my roommates are moving out too. “No, they’re not,” I responded. Then he asks where all my things were going to go. “To my suitcase,” I said. He couldn’t believe that one person used all these products. He always thought that everything was for the three of us, but they weren’t. After nine years of marriage, Michal has realized that his space in the bathroom is limited to one little shelf.

After I opened a cleaning service in Manhattan, I had the same problem with cleaning products. I love to check out what is new, how it works, and if it works. I love organic products, so I don’t have to breathe in chemicals. That’s why I decided to review products that my team and I use every day.

Recently, I discovered a fabulous product for washing machines. If you have a front load washing machine in your NYC apartment, read on.

After a while, most machines have a moldy smell. Especially if you use it a lot and it doesn’t dry in min-time. If you can see black spots, it means mold is growing.

It is toxic, so you don’t want to have this in your home. If it grows too much, your clothes will have moldy smell as well. It is not fun to wear clothes like this.

The product I discovered is called “Smelly Washer Cleaner”. We tested it in five apartments. All of the washers had some kind of mold growing in it or had very bad smell.

The results were:

Great! I was VERY happy with the results in four apartments and satisfied with the fifth. (The last one needed pre-soaking as per the manufacturer’s recommendation.)

I recommend this product to everyone, especially to those who don’t want a lot of chemicals in their lives.

If you have any ideas to prevent mold in washing machines, let me know!

How to keep your bathroom mold free in your NYC apartment?

How do you make whites whiter?

Marzena Ziembicka — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 15:53:13 +0000

This is a question I get from my clients often. I’ve tried a lot of products to clean whites, but only one was pretty good. My concern was it contained chemicals and using it made it very easy to ruin clothes or things around the laundry room. We all know about bleach stains.

As a maid service in NYC, we do laundry as one of our services. I wasn’t happy using bleach while a baby was sleeping in the next room. The smell is awful. Plus, it is not healthy to breathe in bleach fumes This is especially true for babies.
So I was looking for something that would keep whites white and be safe to use around children.

One day, I tried a natural product. I wanted to boost my laundry while washing sheets at home. It said on the package that this product helps to soften hard water and, therefore, your laundry is cleaned better.

I was blown away when I saw my sheets much whiter than they were before. Wow! What happened?

The product was Borax. I am sure most of you are aware of this product, but we don’t see it advertised, so we buy what we think is better. Totally forgetting about it.

I am calling all of my clients to tell them to get rid of the bleach and replace it with Borax. When used regularly, it works wonders for mold issues in your washing machine as well.
One more thing. My towels come out soft like I was using fabric softener, which I don’t. My husband is allergic to it, so I am happy that I can have soft towels again.

What do you use to keep your laundry white and fresh?

Go Green With Your Laundry

Cleaning for Heroes!

Marzena Ziembicka — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 22:08:06 +0000

New Year, new resolutions. That’s how I start every year.
My personal goal is to learn Spanish this year. It was my dream for the past few years and I finally decided it is time now to do it.

On the other hand are my company’s goals. Besides the obvious to grow my cleaning company, have a bunch new clients, hire more amazing people for my crew. There is my new goal for 2012 to get back to the community.
I did research, what would be the best volunteer job, my company can do. I found the great organization called Cleaning For Heroes. I am very proud to announce that I became a part of this organization.

My crew and I, are very exited to provide help to those who needs it. It is going to be a lot of fun, because we are going to help in something we do best. Cleaning.
We will be able to help veterans, injured soldiers, police officers and firefighters.
They deserve all the help.
They provide what is the most important to me. To be safe in this country, this city, on the streets. Thank you for that.

If you are or know someone who is elderly veteran or police officers, firefighters or soldiers who has disabling injuries call 401-732-7856 or visit www.CleaningForHeroes.org

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Is baking your thing?

Marzena Ziembicka — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 19:59:45 +0000

I love to read blogs where people talk about their lives, children, work. I always find great tips: recipes for healthy cooking, recipes for green cleaning products and many more.

Recently I found a recipe for Key Lime Pie, which both my hubby and me are big fans of. So I printed the recipe and waited for an occasion to bake it.

Running a cleaning service in NYC takes most of my time so I needed a special occasion to make this pie.

And there it was, my Birthday! I am not going to mention how old I am because I don’t want to get depressed.

Anyway I bought the ingredients and did everything or so I thought, to prepare the pie, but it was a disaster. I was going over and over again what I did wrong and I finally figured it out.

Instead of buying condensed milk I got evaporated milk. Why? I don’t know. I didn’t pay attention I just got milk in the can.

My mom saved my birthday by bringing the birthday cake with 3 candles on it (a little hint how old I am). At least we had a dessert. But I am not going to give up on Key Lime Pie and I will give it another try this weekend.

Do you enjoy baking? Please share your favorite baking recipes with me.

By the way, to clean up a messy kitchen hire experts from green cleaning company so you can enjoy baking and not worry about cleaning.

How to make your own green soft scrub.

How to make your own green soft scrub.

Marzena Ziembicka — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 19:47:52 +0000

Recently I decided that I am going to make my own cleaning products for my cleaning service in NYC. I use them at home for my cleaning, so why not use them at my clients’ homes.

I was asked to do a deep cleaning for a new client on the Upper West Side. The project was big because we had to wash the walls from top to bottom. The apartment was in good shape.

I made my own soft scrub.

It was very easy and quick to do. I mixed 1/8 cup of Castile oil plus 1/2 cup of baking soda plus 8 drops of tea tree or rosemary essential oil. It makes enough for a couple of bathroom cleanings.

It worked great and smelled great and there were no toxins in it.

After 9 hours of cleaning I didn’t have a headache , dry eyes or a nosebleed which regular store bought products have given me in the past.

By the way, thank you Kim for using my green cleaning service for deep cleaning your apartment.

I am wondering how many of you are using your own homemade products. If you know some good recipes please share them with me.

What is your favorite chore to do when cleaning your NYC apartment?

Marzena Ziembicka — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 19:36:10 +0000

In my household when my hubby and me clean we share the chores.
I like cleaning that is why I started my green cleaning service in NYC. But after a week of cleaning my lovely clients’ homes I don’t have the energy to clean my own.
It’s the weekend and all I want to do is just relax and watch TV all day long and do nothing.

But my apartment won’t clean itself, so we always clean together. My hubby vacuums the floors and wet mops them and I am responsible for cleaning the kitchen and bathroom.

What I discovered recently is that he likes to put clean dishes back in the cabinets. Up to now I always did that since it was my part of the job. But since the big discovery I have one little thing less to do and he actually enjoys this. A few things now have a new place in the kitchen but who cares;)

By the way my favorite part of cleaning is doing the laundry.
I can sit in the laundry room and watch the washer while it is doing the job. Of course I don’t do that since we share the laundry room and my neighbors would think I am crazy;)

What is your favorite cleaning chore? If you don’t have any favorite chores you know who to call. But remember not to call on Saturdays because I am doing the laundry;)

How to keep your bathroom mold free in your NYC apartment?

Marzena Ziembicka — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 18:30:38 +0000

There are a lot of old building in NYC which don’t have good ventilation or they don’t have any ventilation at all.

What to do to prevent the mold?

While cleaning your bathroom on a regular basis always wash your tiles with green all purpose cleaner. Every other week use white distilled vinegar to treat your grout. Use a small brush or an old toothbrush would work as well, dip the brush in vinegar then scrub the grout. The most important areas are close to the shower head because it always gets wet.
Cleaning your NYC bathroom on a weekly basis is very important to prevent mold. If you don’t have time to clean on a weekly schedule, hire a green cleaning service to do this for you.

What else can you do in your NYC bathroom to prevent mold?

After taking a shower, make sure to keep your shower curtain closed but leave your bathroom door open. Plastic shower curtains are often missed while cleaning the bathroom but mold grows on them as often as on the grout.
Keep the shower curtain close to dry it faster.
If there is a vent in your NYC bathroom make sure to clean it once a month. The dust will clog them very easily and without ventilation the next thing you will see is mold.

Why is it so important to prevent mold in the bathroom?

Mold is toxic and can cause many illnesses.
To summarize, to prevent mold in your bathroom the keep door open after showering, let the air circulate the room, leave the shower curtain closed and keep the vent clean.
And most importantly hire the green cleaning experts if you don’t have time to clean your apartment by yourself.

Do you support charities?

Marzena Ziembicka — Sat, 11 Sep 2010 19:41:30 +0000

Last year my sister- in-law Martha created a team for “Light the night-NYC”. It is a walk for finding a cure for Leukemia and Lymphoma. It was the first fundraising which I did. It didn’t go very well but I am planning to have better results this year. I am a team captain this year since Martha is pregnant with her second baby.

Let me explain why I chose this charity. My nephew Philip was diagnosed with leukemia when he was 2,5 years old. It was at a very early stage when we found out. He didn’t have any serious symptoms. But Martha as a Mom knew something was wrong and asked the doctor to do a detailed blood test.

The results were shocking to all of us. I have tears in my eyes when I think about that day when my mom called me with this terrible news. I couldn’t sleep for many nights. I was laying in bed and crying. I knew that this could be a deadly disease. I was scared to death about my little nephew.

Later that week we found out that Philip has an 80% chance to recover and only 20% that the sickness can come back. The chemotherapy is a very long process and lasts 3,5 years.
Now I know that the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society are doing research to cure this illness. Thanks to them my nephew has an 80% to live a long and healthy life and have a chance to accomplish many great things.
I want to report that Philip is doing great. He takes his medicine like a candy and he is very brave every time he goes to the hospital.
He is one funny, happy 4,5 year old boy who loves animals and who is starting preschool in September.
I want to thank all the doctors and nurses who helped us on the way. Thank you!
And please help me to raise some money for The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. Let’s “create a world without cancer”. Every dollar counts.

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Does your cleaning service in NYC help you to become green?

Marzena Ziembicka — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 23:23:02 +0000

Do you often think about taking care of the environment, about being green and how you can reduce your fingerprints?
You often think about it but you are very busy with your work and kids and every day chores. You just do not have time to do research to find out the easiest way to be green.

There are a few simple tips for how you can improve your life and change from toxic to green.
First of all ask your cleaning service to switch the cleaning products. There are many companies making green cleaning products, like Seventh Generation which is my favorite.

This simple switch will help you to improve the quality of the air in your house and the green products are much better for the environment.

The studies show that children’s bodies contain many pesticides and compounds. By asking your cleaning service in NYC to use green cleaning products you are preventing your child from being exposed to toxic chemicals.

If your cleaning service will not agree to change the products to green ones you can simply change your cleaning service to one which offers organic products.
There are a few cleaning services in NYC which are green because they realize how harmful the regular products might be.

Do’s and Don’ts

Marzena Ziembicka — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 02:21:13 +0000

Today a quick tip how to keep your children safe:

Never leave hot coffee in the reach of your children.
Always use an iron stand after ironing your clothes.

Did you manage to avoid burning your child?