The Steam is the Thing

So.

I started a cleaning company, Obsessively Clean, which is not yet so much a company as it is me just cleaning houses .. but, in all honesty? I'm having to taper my efforts back a bit because I'd have to hire some help to keep up with many more clients. This week is my last "slow" week for the foreseeable future (thank Jeebus!), and hopefully then we will not be living on rice and beans any more.

(Especially since I AM DYING TO GO PRIMAL since one of my online BFFs is having massive greatness from it. Go check her out!)

Ahem.

So there are two questions I get routinely asked from my friends about my newfound career.

1. OMG, have you seen, like, disgusting stuff?


2. Have you found any cleaning tricks/products that have changed your life?

1. Yes. OHMYGAH, yes. But if there's one thing that I feel very protective over, it's my clients. I won't disclose the intimacies of their homes because .. it's their homes, you know? It's the place that I'm hired to clean, so for that I'm truly grateful, and their secrets remain safe with me. Truly. And I am usually all a chatterbox.

NOW, IF THEY ARE NO LONGER MY CLIENTS, I don't mind telling you that you might want to try cleaning your house once every three years, thank you muchly, and the only way THAT soap scum is coming off is by removing the fiberglass shower shell entirely and buying a new one. Here's some Scrubbing Bubbles, have a nice life.

2. YES. I totally have. A perk of my job is that it behooves me to splurge on new cleaning products because it's what I do. Efficiency is the name of my game (quality is obviously top priority, but I'm an efficiency person), so I love trying out new "quick" products. Here are some that have seriously changed the way I work.



This? AMAZING. It's not a green product, so I don't get to use it in every home, but I wish I could. It does everything it says it does. I literally walk through a bathroom before I get to it (I'm a systematic cleaner; there's a process to everything. I'm LEAN+ certified, if that means anything to you), spray this on the toilet, the bathtub, and the sink. By the time I get to the bathroom, I just have to scrub down the hard parts (it doesn't take ALL of the work away), and wipe it clean. And it literally? DOES EXTEND THE CLEAN. We use it in my own home, and it makes a WORLD of difference.

Here's what you guys have all been asking about on Twitter, and there's new developments:



I did it. I broke down and bought a steam mop.

We had talked about it for ages, especially when the Haan informercials started running. We have MOSTLY hard floors (linoleum, tile, and hardwoods) in my house, so it makes all of the sense in the world. But we had a 20% coupon to Bed, Bath, and Beyond and this was the ONLY steamer available off-the-shelf, so we spent start-up money (ha! I say that like we have any money) to buy it.

And? AND?

Meh.

Now, I will say that it got up a LOT of gunk on our floors. We had previously sworn by the Swiffer WetJet as our go-to for hard surface cleaning, but the engineer that I'm married to actually .. yes, he actually did this.







For the record, I DIDN'T KNOW HE WAS DOING THIS. He just couldn't stand that it was still in a box ten minutes after we got home, so he went and did this. Which, DUDE, HE CLEANED ON HIS OWN. Twas awesome.

So, it was great. At first. But the more I used it, and especially in other people's homes, I noticed it streaked. First a little. THEN ALL THE TIME OH MY GOD, I CAN'T LEAVE THESE PEOPLE'S HOUSE LIKE THIS. And sure, it's just water streaks, but STILL. It's streaks. It looks half-assed. I tried every which way from Sunday .. different heads, different water levels (could it have been hard water? bought distilled. could it have been soft water? tried tap.) but nothing worked.

After I spent an extra hour "fixing" my last client's house from the streaks, I had had enough. I brought that baby back and got my money back. After reading up on some client reviews, I learned that the Shark gets 100° LESS hot than other steamers.. which is why I think it streaks. It's not steam drying; it's flat out water. So I have ordered this one instead, after reading the review on Style Lush about how great it is. Here's hoping.