The new MN shelter-in-place order changes the rules for house cleaning services. Residential cleaning is no longer permitted except for the homes of people with disabilities. 

However, common areas in apartment areas and office areas of critical businesses can be cleaned by house cleaning services. I suspect that move out and move in cleanings are also allowable but I'm seeking clarification on that.

During the month, I will be providing all services that are permitted. 

More posts to come with advice on how to best clean and disinfect your own place.

I've made two kinds of changes to my cleaning regimen to do more effective cleaning during the pandemic. First is a thorough disinfection process. Second is to wear protection to keep from importing germs into my clients' homes from the outside. Here I'm wearing my disposable apron, mask, two sets of gloves and, not seen, disposable covers on my shoes. (Kind of a fashion statement too, don't you think?)

Turnover cleaning is one area that I cover. I'm effective and I'm efficient. Of course I tailor each job to what the person wants but here are typical tasks I do in turnover cleaning:

Kitchen: oven, fridge, inside cabinets, counter tops and fronts, sinks, floors
Bathroom: inside medicine cabinet, bath and shower, sink, commode, floor
Other rooms: closets, built-ins, baseboards, cobwebs, floors, dirty areas of doors and walls, windows 

And these days, I'm also disinfecting, which includes applying disinfectant on kitchen and bathroom surfaces after cleaning them and getting all the high touch areas throughout the home (light switches, doorknobs, etc.).

If you need turnover cleaning, give me a call!

According to Gov. Walz's shelter-in-place order, which goes into effect Friday 3/27 night at midnight and lasts two weeks, house cleaning services are considered an essential business. 

I will be deciding over the weekend whether I will continue providing cleaning services for the next two weeks during the shutdown and will post new information then.

Over the past two weeks I have been following CDC guidelines to review and perfect my disinfecting routine. My current routine greatly helps reduce the virus exposure potentially brought into homes from residents' activities outside the home.

At the same time, I have been tightening up my protections in terms of not bringing in dirt and germs from outside the house. I do this through using rubber gloves and shoe covers, washing my hands frequently, disinfecting my tools and the tools of the clients that I use, and using either the client's vacuum cleaner (when possible) or my own vacuum with a fresh vacuum bag with each home I clean.

I am attempting to make my service as safe and as useful as possible in this stressful time.

In response to the coronavirus outbreak, I am following the CDC's guidelines and adopting a disinfecting regimen on top of my usual cleaning procedures. I'm hoping to have everything I need to start doing this by the end of the week. I'll be using disinfecting cleaners to clean surfaces and touch points (light switches and knobs mainly) in the bathrooms and kitchen and major touch points throughout the other areas of the homes that I clean.

I'm also adopting methods to minimize the dirt I bring in from the outside. Some of this I already do--for instance, using clean cloths and mop-heads in each home--but in addition, I'll be wearing disposable shoe covers, washing my hands frequently, wearing rubber gloves the whole time I'm cleaning, and disinfecting, between jobs, my brushes and tools used. 

To help minimize the dirt brought in, I would also like to start using the vacuum cleaner you have at your home, where I'm not already using it, so that I'm not bringing other people's dust and dirt through my own vacuum cleaner. If that's hard to arrange, please let me know. And I would ask that you make sure you have a toilet brush at each toilet if you don't already.

Finally, because I don't feel qualified and I don't want the extra risk or to pass along the risk to others, I have decided not to clean for those who have entered quarantine.

These are recommended preventative measures but it's also helpful to have some perspective on the risk. This is from the CDC website:

"The virus is thought to spread mainly from person-to-person--between people who are in close contact with one another (within about 6 feet) [and] through respiratory droplets produced when an infected person coughs or sneezes...

"It may be possible that a person can get COVID-19 by touching a surface or object that has the virus on it and then touching their own mouth, nose, or possibly their eyes, but this is not thought to be the main way the virus spreads."

So, fortunately, the scenario of my picking up a virus from one home and transporting it to another is apparently not the main way the virus spreads.

The CDC also says, "Some spread might be possible before people show symptoms; there have been reports of this occurring with this new coronavirus, but this is not thought to be the main way the virus spreads." 

Though I won't be cleaning for clients in quarantine some clients I clean for could have the virus without knowing it. I take encouragement from this statement from the CDC that those in this group don't present me with a high risk of picking up the infection from them and passing it along.

Given these prevention measures I'll be adopting and assessing the mildness of the risk, I feel good about continuing to service my clients' homes. Nonetheless, experience from other regions that have seen much greater spread of the virus (I've looked into Italy and Los Angeles) shows that there may well come a time where either the authorities declare it unlawful for cleaners to continue or common sense requires that I temporarily stop providing my service. I will keep monitoring local changes and let you know when that time has come. ​

So nice to say that (the spring part!). Welcome spring with some spring cleaning. Here are a few items to get you started:

Clean out that funky fridge!
Clean the oven.
Get inside light fixtures and vacuum lamp shades.
Replace or clean filters.
Clean the windows

Here is an easy and effective way to keep down the clutter that often accumulates. If you're in the habit of collecting unopened mail, unread magazines, and unlooked-through miscellaneous papers that pile up around the house, get yourself a couple boxes--you can get decorative ones at Target--and set them up in the spot where these unread items tend to most accumulate. One box is for things that need to be dealt with in the next few weeks. The second box is for things that you're interested in but just not right now. 

At the very end of the year, go through the second box and see what you want to save and what you're now willing to throw out. After months out of sight, chances are most of that content you'll simply want to toss. This will keep things out of the way through the year and also cut down on the effort of mulling over whether you have time to deal with things each time they arrive in your home.

Besides playing tennis, of course! You can use them to get up heel marks off of wood and linoleum floors. Just rub the tennis ball on the marks and you're good to go!

One of the great things about certain hardware stores is that they will do little hacks for you with things that need fixing. My vacuum cleaner wand popped a rivet. That simple problem could have required a pricey repair. But a visit to my hardware store solved the problem. The manager deliberated with me on several possible solutions and we decided on reinstalling a rivet. In the back, they keep a rivet gun and, presto!, the vacuum cleaner was back in action. 

Stove tops often get burnt on residue that is really hard to clean. Short of spraying it with some toxic cleaner like Easy Off, it's tempting to just let it sit and become a permanent feature of the stove top. But an easy solution is: steel wool soap pads! Test it on a small area first, of course, but have I found that soap pads can be used for that burn on crud anywhere on the stove top without scratching the finish--and they are effective! (Do not use them on brushed steel though!)