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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.

Why we should use green cleaning products?

Marzena Ziembicka — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 05:05:15 +0000

I love NYC. This city never sleeps; here always happens something interesting. I even dare to say that everything starts here in New York City. Ok, maybe not everything but at least majority of things.

Recently, I have occasion to hear a live comment spoken by Erin Brockovich who alongside with Safer Chemicals Healthy Families and Dr Greene are leading partners in the Seven Generation’s campaign called “Crawl to Action”.

What do they want to achieve? They want to change the US law in order to get rid of hazardous chemicals in the cleaning products.

I am coming from Poland, and a few days ago I have talked with my friend Monika about the report which I am about to publish. This report tries to convince people why we should use green cleaning products. Each time Monika has visited us, she was surprised how good the local cleaning products are.

In the European Union the standards about permitting chemical products into the market are much higher than in the United States. It is estimated that about 80,000 types of chemicals are used in the production of shampoos, washing powders and other cleaning products whereas only 200 are really safe for people. Of course, the cleaning here is a lot easier at the cost of safety.

As a cleaning expert, I have changed my regular cleaning products into natural ones a long time ago. I am too busy to make my own natural cleaning products. However, thanks to Seven Generation I know that when I clean I don’t harm environment and myself.

And what cleaning products do You like to use?

Buying a vacuum cleaner? You have to hear this!

Marzena Ziembicka — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 19:33:19 +0000

Very often customers ask me questions which vacuum cleaner will be most helpful for their families. They ask constantly which is the most helpful in cleaning fur of their bellowed pets, how can they decrease allergy of their child, or they just want to have clean floors.

Most department stores, which I know, recommend upright vacuum cleaners. Why? I am not sure. Maybe because most of us believe that we don’t have to bend down, or maybe, it is safer for walls in our apartment.

So what is the advice? As a cleaning expert, I will be honest with you. I always recommend canister vacuum cleaners. First of all, you can clean under your bed, wardrobe, commode and so on. In order to vacuum your sofa, you just have to disconnect your pipe from the vacuum cleaner and you are ready to work. A coat of dust on your night lamp, no problem, change end and decrease power of your vacuum cleaner and that’s it. The vacuum is light so is excellent when you have to clean your stairs. Moreover, you will easily vacuum under your furniture where mostly gather all the mess.

And one more thing, always remember to clean vacuum ends from the dust and other dirt after cleaning.

I would love to hear your feedback about today’s post. So TalkBack to me… I’m listening!

How Does Your Cleaning Service Deliver Additional service Which You Certainly Don’t Want In Your House?

Marzena Ziembicka — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 00:54:16 +0000

Does your cleaning service, which you actually hire, use regular cleaning products? If yes, read carefully. If not, your service is cleaning green, you are happy, and you don’t have to worry anymore.

Do you know what is the quality of air in your home? According to EPA, the air, which you are breathing right now, is four to five times worse than outside the building.

Now imagine that your cleaning service or housekeeper has been cleaning your apartment for couple of hours or days or even weeks. It is easy to guess that all the toxins included in the cleaning products penetrate into your home environment. If you are using several cleaning detergents at once, you can be sure that in your home occur chemical reactions which are very similar like the ones in a laboratory; however, you are not using any mask which could protect you from hazardous toxins.

Remember that you are coming home in order to rest and relax yourself. Unfortunately, in the meantime, you are breathing in toxins which are left by your actual cleaning service or housekeeper after their work.

Is this the way you want to spend your money for services which are more harmful then helpful to you?

How Did I Change My Approach Towards Cleaning?

Marzena Ziembicka — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 03:01:16 +0000

Very often customers ask me questions about differences between traditional cleaning products, which everyone can get in every shop, and natural ones.
It is true that when we are using regular cleaning products the results are much quicker. However, natural products, even though are a little bit less effective at first sight, have much longer list of positive effects than regular detergents.
A few years ago I have started working for a family with an eight-year-old boy. Unfortunately, after a few weeks the boy has got a skin rush. As you can guess the reason was cleaning products which we used at that time.
In our everyday work we use tons of cleaning detergents. Our job is about reaching every spot, every corner and every hole in an apartment. Remember that using traditional cleaning products leave unnecessary toxins in your home. These toxins are invisible for your eyes; however, you are breathing them every time you cross a threshold of your apartment.
A pediatrician doctor ordered to change regular detergents to natural ones. Since then, I have been interested in green cleaning. It was a breakthrough in my understanding of cleaning methods. From that time, I have really seriously started to think about green cleaning. Soon, I will tell you more.