Minimum Wage and London Living Wage

The yearly increases on the minimum wage always come with an air of confrontation. As announced by the Low Pay Commission, 2011 will see an increase of 15p, raising the minimum wage to £6.08 per hour.

As stated on their report, “particular groups of workers (women, disabled people, ethnic minorities, migrants and those with no qualifications) are more likely to be in minimum wage jobs”. It is clear how this affects the cleaning industry directly, with 23% of its jobs in 2010 getting paid at the minimum rate (at that time £5.93), where most of their workers come from these particular groups.

London is another story. Although minimum wage jobs account for 2% of all jobs in London, the London Living Wage has been increased this year 45%, leaving it at £8.30 per hour. The Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, considered this a positive move to reduce poverty levels in the capital. There are already more than 100 employers in London that have signed up to the London Living wage, a payment that it is consider the minimum to cover all needs of a worker.

The Living Wage Foundation, which has been battling to extend the London Living Wage to all employers across the capital, welcome this increase although considers there are still hundreds of thousands of Londoners in what it is called “working poverty”.

It is a delicate matter, specially on this current climate of uncertainty that our economy is going through. If you are interested in getting more information, here is the link to the Low Pay Commission report http://www.lowpay.gov.uk/lowpay/report/pdf/Revised_Report_PDF_with_April_date.PDF

Let us know your thoughts.

Cleaning products for your bathroom

Following the series of  “basic cleaning products” posts, find on this one the cleaning products that you will need to leave your bathroom shining like a diamond!

Bathroom cleaner

For general areas such as bath tube, sink, wall tiles,..

Lime scale remover

Use it on those hard to clean surfaces like your glass shower door or even your toilet bowl. You need to get rid of lime scale with a proper chemical!

Toilet cleaner

For your daily cleaning of the toilet bowl.

Would you like some extra bits? Try vinegar! It is well known that lime scale can “invade” your bathroom very easily and vinegar is an excellent green product that will help you tackle it quickly.

Do not think about using bleach on your toilet bowl! Here at https://www.amycleaning.co.uk/ we recommend our clients and cleaners to use an alternative product. Apart from the dangers of using such a strong product as bleach, with time your toilet will look dull and yellowish, which is not very nice. Stick to a good lime scale remover to ensure you are pleased with the results.

If you missed our last post on “basic cleaning products” for your kitchen check on here https://www.amycleaning.co.uk/blog/?p=976

Mastering the art of organising your home

1260926_beach_house_indoorsThe day of the moving is getting closer and, honestly, I am dreading it. You know that you throw away thousands of silly and useless stuff when you move house, but it is always difficult to get rid of that teeny weeny porcelain toy from your trip to Italy or that jumper you got as a present last Christmas and never wore.

When you decide it is time to organise your home and give it a good clean up you have to be brave and get on with it as soon as possible. Ask yourself these 3 simple questions and your life (and home) can change for ever!

– Do I use it? You have to be honest on this one. If it has been more than one year without using that item, the chances are you will never use it.

– Do you like it? Well, if you don’t use the item but you love it, there’s not a lot we can do… but you have to find a place it to keep it; if there is no place at your home, it may be better to throw it away.

– Does anyone like it? This could be an option if you find problems space wise. Think about a family member or a friend that would be happy to have that old jacket or that repeated copy of “Cooking for dummies”.

Be strict when cleaning up your house and don’t faint! sooner or later your home will become a paradise of organization and cleanliness!

Cleaning products for your kitchen

Here you will find the basic cleaning products you will need to keep your kitchen up to standard.

Multipurpose cleaner

For the daily cleaning. There are eco friendly cleaners with lovely smells that you can use safely on any kitchen surface.

Vinegar

You may find this useful to get rid of the grease on cupboards, worktops, walls and any other kitchen surface. Mix one part of white vinegar with two parts of water on a spray bottle and use it regularly.

Disinfectant chemical

This is specially formulated to clean kitchen worktops after preparing raw meat or fish. It will kill most of the germs, thus avoiding the spread of illnesses.

Lime scale remover

For that hideous grime and lime on the kitchen sink. Use the vinegar solution regularly and the lime scale remover once you see the lime scale building up.

Floor cleaner

Check on the market for a specific chemical depending on which material your floor is made of; you can find cleaning products for tiles, wooden floors, laminate… This will give you a truly professional finish.

Check http://www.amycleaning.co.uk/blog  on the next few weeks for more information on essential products to keep your house clean!

House cleaning workout

With this rainy days we are having, it looks like the footing on the park and “outside gym” are already out of the equation. We are getting closer to Autumn with its dull weather… but we still need to put those biceps to work!

Do not worry! What could be better than a “cleaning workout” to burn those stubborn calories? It is amazing how many calories you can actually burn when cleaning a house; here are a few examples:

  • Fast hoovering can help you burn around 120 cal.
  • Mop the floors for about an hour and you can end up burning about 110 cal.
  • Gardening is a tough one: do it for one hour and you can burn about 200 cal.
  • Hate ironing? think about the 100 cal that you could burn in an hour.
  • Cooking (yes! cooking) will help you burn between 40 and 50 cal.

To make it work we obviously need to make an effort, so organize your house work so you are forced to go up and down the stairs; be creative in the kitchen! you won’t burn calories by heating a ready made soup on the microwave; dig and plant in the garden (cutting some flowers for a bouquet is not enough workout).

What do you think? Can you burn calories and get fitter while cleaning your house? Fancy a try?

How to remove rust stains

rustRust stains on porcelain bath tubs or toilets:

The best thing to use on these situations would be a pumice stone. First you will need to clean the tub or toilet with soap and water, just to make sure there is no grime left on the area. Then use a pumice stone (soaked in hot water) and scrub the rusted area. Rinse thoroughly afterwards.

Rust stains on stainless steel:

Stainless steel should never rust, unless it has been left dirty or wet for too long. On this case the best thing to do is to scrub the area with a sponge and soap and try to keep it dry to prevent from happening again.

London riots clean up

We have been bombarded with news about the London riots for over four days now. I think we were all shocked to see how easy it was to get these riots organized through the social media (that is, facebook and twitter) or so they claim.

Today I am amazed at how quickly people have organized themselves to counteract the effects of the riots. There is a website called www.riotcleanup.com where you can help to clean different areas that have been affected by the riots, with regular updates on their facebook and twitter pages.

Here at www.amycleaning.co.uk, we love clean up… and we love altruism. So our thumbs up for all those people that are voluntarily joining the “clean up” teams to get UK cities back to normal!

How to get the best cleaner

1293173_excellenceIt can all seem very straightforward when you decide to get domestic help. You think through a list of requirements and either write a brief add to go on your local shop window or call an agency. However your initial interview with a cleaner, whether agency sent or found through other sources, quite often can become a one way communication with clients firing out requirements and failing to listen or ask. This then very often leads to problems in future and eventually cleaner leaving. There are lots of factors that might determine your decision on which cleaner to choose such as experience, knowledge of language, general attitude and many more.

If you are going through the agency and pay an agency fee you expect to get all the factors named above taken into consideration and all the requirements met in return.

One of the most common requirements for clients will always be having a cleaner come on a specific day and time. Here at Amy cleaning we have discovered that most of the clients would like their house cleaned before the weekend. Therefore Thursdays and Fridays are our busiest days. Good cleaners get fully booked for those days very quickly. We do of course understand and follow your preferences at all times, however our aim is to offer a cleaner who will stay with you long term. Flexibility with day gives clients a much wider spectrum of cleaners to choose from and therefore possibility of getting the very best that the agency has to offer increases dramatically. Clients would often choose end of the week regardless and we are very happy to serve such clients too but we always advise to take the above into consideration before making your final decision.

Clients do also prefer cleaners with fluent English. Most of the agencies will not have cleaners who do not speak English, however it is important to understand that levels of their knowledge might vary greatly. Poor English may not necessary mean a bad cleaner. In fact, it is often quite the opposite. Cleaner who does not speak well, will always try her hardest and will go the extra mile for client as she will be aware that there are others with better language skills who can replace her very easily. Such cleaners are also more likely to look at cleaning as long term job rather than a temporary stop over between changing jobs therefore they will stay with clients a lot longer.

Here at Amy Cleaning we also have a very multicultural office staff that is always happy to help with passing on instructions or any specific messages to your cleaner in their own native tongue in those rare cases when you may have trouble communicating to them.

How to choose cleaning products

1193877_clean_home_2The quality of cleaning, whether done by you or a professional cleaner, depends highly on the products used. It is easy to get confused in the current market as there are so many options to choose from. Bellow you will find a list of basic cleaning products created by Amy Cleaning to help you out.

It may be very tempting to buy multipurpose products for the house, but this is not the route to take for best results. Remember that products orientated to specific target market and specific surfaces in this case, will always work better. If you have wooden surfaces, invest in a good polisher for wood; if you have marble, look out for sprays designed to clean marble. Multipurpose cleaners may even damage your surfaces in some cases so always keep an eye on something designed for sole purpose.

List of recommended cleaning products:

*Rubber gloves
*Kitchen surface cleaner and oven cleaner
*Dishwashing liquid
*Cleaner for bathtubs and sinks
*Sponges
*Window and glass cleaner
*Wood polish
*Upholstery/carpet spot remover
*Microfiber or feather duster
*Toilet bowl cleaner
*Toilet bowl brush
*Cloths and paper towels
*Mop and bucket
*Broom and dustpan
*Vacuum cleaner and vacuum cleaner bags

Here at Amy Cleaning the most common problem that cleaners come across is that they do not have enough cloths. Please make sure that you invest into cloths and sponges on a regular basis as that is something that can only be used for limited time before it has to be disposed off. Bear in mind that your cleaner will be using separate cloth for each room and each area of your house. Always discuss with her what she needs and follow her advice.

How to teach your child to clean

1331085_babyChildren bring rays of light into our lives and chaos into our household. After teaching them to crawl, walk and talk, there is one more essential task that they have to learn – clean. Generally kids like to copy what grown ups do so they will be very interested in purpose of your mop or vacuum cleaner from early days. They will also imitate you and with time and the right teacher will become great help around the house.

Letting them help from early age will even improve hand-to-eye coordination, dexterity, and develop a sense of accomplishment. They can help you sort out silverware, snap the lids on plastic containers coming out from dishwashers, help you organize laundry. They will enjoy running around your house with a feather duster or cloth initially just playing around but eventually, by following you, learning the real purpose of these things.

The problems usually come once your child is a little bit older. Once their rooms are already jammed with toys and their clever heads are already full of ideas on how to get that extra time for games rather than cleaning up. They will try it all. They will ignore you, they will shout at you, they will beg you but unless you are planning to pick up after them until they move out well into their twenties or even thirties, all this should be ignored and you must teach your child the importance of cleaning from the early age.

Their room should be their territory in all aspects. Cleaning up there should be their task too. Sometimes though you will find that they are simply confused and don’t know where to start. It will take some guidelines and lots of patience from you.

First, try to keep it simple. They should be able to open and close all the drawers and storage boxes. Do not overload your child with toys. Kids who have too many toys usually get overwhelmed and play with your umbrella instead. Lots of low shelves and baskets that they can have easy access to may be good idea. Do not expect all to be in perfect order. As long as things are back in their places and your child realizes that you will not be picking up after them each time your job is already half done.

Secondly, guide them. Tell them where to start from. For example tell them to start from making the bed, then picking up their laundry and finally organizing the toys and clutter before moving on to dusting and vacuuming. Do this together first.

Thirdly, don’t forget patience. You may have to relax your standards a bit while your child learns. The key is to assign regular responsibilities for your child’s age, teach them how to do the chore a few times, and then let them try on their own. There will be tears and tantrums along the way but the rewards will get you through these.