For millions of dog and cat owners, Fido and Fluffy aren’t just pets – they’re part of the family.
But as much as we love our four-legged friends, they sure can make a mess of things: shedding fur, tracking mud and dirt into the house, and occasionally having an accident on that freshly-cleaned carpet. That’s why we’ve put together some simple tips to help make your pet clean-up easier and more effective.
Prevention
While it’s impossible to stop some pets from shedding, there are a few tricks you can use to keep pet hair from rolling freely across your home like tumbleweeds in a Western movie.
Brushing your cat or dog regularly will help to minimize shedding, which makes your job easier. You can also limit the areas where your pets travel, by keeping closet doors closed. This will greatly reduce the time you spend cleaning up after your pet.
Hairy Business
Regular vacuuming will help the minimize the spread of pet hair and pet odor. For best results, use a vacuum with HEPA filters and motorized brushes on your carpet. You can also use your vacuum hose to clean furniture and pet beds.
If pet smells have seeped into your carpet, sprinkle some baking soda on the carpet and let it sit for 20 to 30 minutes before vacuuming.
Don’t forget a pet owner’s best friend: the lint roller! Keep one of these handy to quickly clean up pet hair on clothes and furniture.
Oops, I did it again!
Speed is your friend when it comes to cleaning up after your pet’s accidents. Start by blotting the affected area with a dry towel (never scrub a wet stain; this will only push the stain deeper into the carpet). Keep changing towels and continue soaking up the stain until the area is dry.
For more stubborn stains, mix up a solution of equal parts water and white vinegar into a spray bottle. Spray the solution on the stain and let it sit for five minutes, then blot the area dry the area with some clean towels.
Finally, cover the area in baking soda and let it sit for a few minutes. The baking soda will soak up any leftover moisture, and will also help neutralize the smell. Vacuum up the baking soda once you’re done.
If you have hardwood flooring, linoleum or tile, cleaning up accidents can be a little easier. Just make sure to use an antibacterial product, which will help disinfect the area and neutralize potential odors.
Choosing the right office space for your company can pay dividends in the form of increased productivity, better workplace morale and more customers. (istockphoto)
It’s not a stretch to say that choosing an office is one of the most important decisions your company will ever make.
It’s easy to see why; even in an age of telecommuting and e-work, day-to-day productivity at most companies is still heavily influenced by how employees interact with their working environment. Does the space make workers feel energized, or fatigued? Does the layout of the office encourage productivity, or stifle it?
When searching for an office to rent or lease, it’s important to ask the right questions. Here are some things to consider before your company sets down roots.
How much space do I need (and how much will I need in the future)? This is a bit of balancing act. On the one hand, you don’t want pay for more space than you need. On the other hand, you don’t want to feel trapped in a confined space as your company grows. An industry standard to provide between 150 and 250 square feet of office space per employee. Expansion options in your lease agreement can help your company address the need for additional space down the road.
Is the location right for my customers and employees? For some businesses, setting up shop in an out-of-the-way location is perfectly fine, while other businesses will want to be easily accessible to their clients. Leasing an office in a bustling downtown neighbourhood may bring in more customers, but is also likely to cost more than an office in the suburbs. You should also make sure your employees can easily get to the office, whether that means being accessible by public transit or ensuring there’s adequate parking.
What are the hidden costs? Moving is an expensive proposition. Costs like utilities, renovations, cleaning services and loss of productivity during the move should all be factored in to your rental budget. Down the road, a landlord might increase your rate when re-negotiating your rental agreement. A real estate broker can provide advice and help you plan for the transition.
Is the space flexible enough to my company’s needs? With the ability to work wirelessly, many companies are eschewing walled-off offices and cubicles in favour of multi-purpose workstations, shared common areas and glass dividers (or no dividers at all). The benefit of an open-concept office is that it encourages collaboration among employees and can be easily re-arranged to suit the changing needs of your company. Of course, an office stills need to have some private spaces to host meetings, or for when a worker just needs some quiet time to focus.
Does the space promote the health and well-being of my employees? Nothing saps the energy out of an office faster than bad lighting, poor air circulation or unhygienic conditions. Make sure your office is well-lit, has good ventilation and is scent-free (potted plants are one cheap way of improving air quality in a building). If your lease doesn’t come with a cleaning services contract, get one. The decision will pay dividends down the road with clean floors, squeaky clean bathrooms and happy workers.
Does the space allow for both work and play? Every office should make room for fun. Depending on your office environment, you could set up a coffee bar station, a games room, a relaxation space or a lounging area for co-workers to chat. Socialization encourages collaboration and the sharing of ideas, decreases stress and generally makes people feel good about coming to work.
Organizing your files can help your business clamp down on clutter (istockphoto)
The office is second only to the bedroom as the most lived-in space in our daily lives. And yet, our workplace rarely gets the kind of special attention that we commit to cleaning our homes. It’s time for that to change.
This year, consider “spring cleaning” different aspects of your business to make your company more efficient and effective year-round.
Clean your physical workspace: A clean workspace can improve employee morale, prevent office-borne illness and create a more professional working environment for workers and clients. Give your office a makeover by:
-Deep cleaning carpets or floors;
-Dusting office furniture;
-Wiping down computers and other office equipment with electronics-friendly cleaning cloths;
-Vacuuming behind your desks, making sure to unplug electronics and pull away the wiring first.
De-clutter your filing system: This applies to both paper documents and computer files. Create archives to store old data. Invest in organizers. Throw out any files that are no longer useful or necessary for record keeping purposes. Your goal should be to clear your desk (and your computer’s desktop) of extraneous files.
Finally, consider going paperless in the office; online storage systems like DropBox or Apple’s iCloud allow you store files securely and share them across a network, rather than constantly making copies.
Fix up your website: A company’s website is a direct extension of its brand. An old or outdated webpage may discourage new customers from contacting you, no matter how amazing your in-house products or services are. Take some time to perform some basic e-maintenance by:
-Repairing broken links
-Updating contact information, logos and company bios;
-Introducing new pictures and testimonials;
-Integrating features like Twitter and Facebook into your website.
If your web design skills are less than stellar, consider enlisting third-party help. Content management platforms like WordPress provide customer support services and can help you create a design practical, stylish (and affordable) website from the ground up.
Evaluate your goals: If you’ve set business goals for 2013, now is the time to check in and see how those goals are progressing. If you haven’t set goals, it’s not too late. A simple visioning exercise, like this one developed by Purdue University, can help you identify where you’d like your business to be five to ten years down the road, and develop a strategy to get there.
Organize key information: Put together an administrative manual that contains all your processes, passwords and contacts. Having the information readily available will help ensure that you and your employees follow proper procedures when performing day-to-day tasks, which in turn promotes productivity and consistency.
Thank your customers: Take the time to craft an email or a newsletter addressed to all the clients who have frequented your business in the past year. Thank them for their patronage and tell them that you’d love to work with them again. It’s a small gesture that goes a long way towards fostering positive relationships with your customers.
winner_spring_clean_challenge_Amy_Hare
For demonstrating a stubborn commitment to cleanliness by tackling a month’s worth of daily chores, Amy will receive 3 months of bi-weekly residential cleaning services from Goldstar. (That’s quite a return on investment!)
“It was just a perfect prize to win,” Amy tells Goldstar. “The 31 day challenge was definitely a good motivator to get things done.”
Amy, a travel agent who works from home, estimates that she and her husband completed three-quarters of the assigned tasks during the Spring Clean Challenge.
Amy says she also worked hard to keep the house clean, despite the best efforts of her two-and-a-half-year-old twins. “Often, they’ll get something dirty while you’re in the middle of cleaning it,” she jokes.
In her application, Amy stated that her least-favourite household chore was “dusting and cleaning the walls in my house.”
“I live in a round dome house, and my walls don’t often get dusted, ” Amy explains. We’ll be sure to tackle that unpleasant chore first!
Goldstar will begin cleaning Amy’s house later this week, so stay tuned.
Thank you to all the participants in the Spring Clean Challenge. Due to an overwhelming response, we will be hosting the challenge again next year. In the meantime, stay tuned for the 2nd Annual Goldstar Extreme Makeover: Clean Home Edition, coming this fall.
Cleaning for a Reason logo courtesy cleaningforareason.orgThis article originally appeared in the June 7, 2013 issue of The Free Press.
An estimated 91,400 Canadian women will be diagnosed with cancer this year, according to the Canadian Cancer Society.
For many women, the battle against cancer is an all-consuming one, impacting every aspect of their lives.
“A lot of your life gets put on hold. It becomes all about the cancer,” says Violet Minifie, 83, a Fernie resident who was diagnosed with ovarian and colon cancer in 2010.
Minifie, who worked as a supervisor for the clerical department at a social services agency for more than 40 years, continues to lead an active lifestyle in spite of her diagnosis. She’s an avid reader and enjoys knitting and cooking. On Saturdays, she drives her 1985 Honda Civic down the street to pick up her 89-year-old neighbour. Together, the two will head out for a night on the town, attending Mass and having dinner at the local A&W.
In other areas, Minifie’s family stepped in to help. Her grandson moved in with her to assist with daily chores, while Minifie’s three daughters took turns driving her back and forth to Calgary for cancer treatments.
But Minifie drew the line at having her family clean up after her. “My family has been so supportive of me already, you just can’t imagine,” she says. “I didn’t want them to be responsible for cleaning my house, too.”
Last April, Minifie’s family turned to Cleaning for a Reason, a North American non-profit organization that partners with maid services to provide free cleaning for women affected by cancer. In response, Fernie-based Goldstar Cleaning Services sent their team of cleaning professionals to Minifie’s home four times over six weeks for a thorough spring cleaning.
“They did pretty much everything,” Minifie recalls. “They scrubbed the cupboards and fridge and cleaned the carpets. I’ll never forget it.”
Goldstar has been a proud supporter of Cleaning for a Reason since 2011. Barclay says her company’s support for Cleaning for a Reason is about more than keeping homes tidy. “We want to encourage women to go on with their lives, in spite of the fear and uncertainty a diagnosis of cancer can bring,” she explains.
Since it was founded in 2006, Texas-based Cleaning for a Reason has partnered with more than 1,000 maid services across Canada and the U.S. and helped more than 13,000 women affected by cancer. Talk show host Oprah Winfrey even featured the organization on a segment aired on WFAA Channel 8 in Dallas, TX, on February 13, 2009.
Any woman 19 years of age or older who is undergoing treatment for cancer is welcome to apply for support through Cleaning for a Reason’s website.
Goldstar is also committed to helping women affected by cancer outside the Cleaning for a Reason program. In November 2012, Goldstar awarded its Extreme Makeover: Clean Home Edition contest grand prize to George Torresani and Rochelle Simmons. The married couple had been living apart since last summer after their eldest daughter Brooke, 17, relocated to Vancouver to undergo treatment for lung cancer.
When Rochelle and Brooke returned home for the holidays, Goldstar made sure their house was ready for them, sending a team of nine professional cleaners to give George and Rochelle’s homean extreme makeover.
“One of the reasons we felt good about choosing this particular family is because they had been separated for so long,” Barclay explained at the time. “This way, they’ll have this time to spend together rather than worry about tedious chores. We will be starting to accept nominations for this year’s Extreme Makeover in October.”
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For millions of dog and cat owners, Fido and Fluffy aren’t just pets – they’re part of the family.
But as much as we love our four-legged friends, they sure can make a mess of things: shedding fur, tracking mud and dirt into the house, and occasionally having an accident on that freshly-cleaned carpet. That’s why we’ve put together some simple tips to help make your pet clean-up easier and more effective.
Prevention
While it’s impossible to stop some pets from shedding, there are a few tricks you can use to keep pet hair from rolling freely across your home like tumbleweeds in a Western movie.
Brushing your cat or dog regularly will help to minimize shedding, which makes your job easier. You can also limit the areas where your pets travel, by keeping closet doors closed. This will greatly reduce the time you spend cleaning up after your pet.
Hairy Business
Regular vacuuming will help the minimize the spread of pet hair and pet odor. For best results, use a vacuum with HEPA filters and motorized brushes on your carpet. You can also use your vacuum hose to clean furniture and pet beds.
If pet smells have seeped into your carpet, sprinkle some baking soda on the carpet and let it sit for 20 to 30 minutes before vacuuming.
Don’t forget a pet owner’s best friend: the lint roller! Keep one of these handy to quickly clean up pet hair on clothes and furniture.
Oops, I did it again!
Speed is your friend when it comes to cleaning up after your pet’s accidents. Start by blotting the affected area with a dry towel (never scrub a wet stain; this will only push the stain deeper into the carpet). Keep changing towels and continue soaking up the stain until the area is dry.
For more stubborn stains, mix up a solution of equal parts water and white vinegar into a spray bottle. Spray the solution on the stain and let it sit for five minutes, then blot the area dry the area with some clean towels.
Finally, cover the area in baking soda and let it sit for a few minutes. The baking soda will soak up any leftover moisture, and will also help neutralize the smell. Vacuum up the baking soda once you’re done.
If you have hardwood flooring, linoleum or tile, cleaning up accidents can be a little easier. Just make sure to use an antibacterial product, which will help disinfect the area and neutralize potential odors. 
