Solve Your Cleaning Challenges — By Topic
How-To
How-To
How do I clean shower and counter grout?
by Amy Sardone
on Aug 07 2024
As you've probably discovered, grout is one of the most difficult surfaces to clean. It is both rough and porous at the same time. Rough surfaces are more difficult to clean than smooth ones, and dirt sinks into porous areas out of reach of your cleaning efforts. Moreover, grout lines themselves are recessed, so most cleaning tools glide right over them. Some cleaning tools actually make the grout dirtier by pushing dirt from nearby surfaces into the grout. This is especially true when you clean a floor.
A brush, along with the appropriate cleaners (Speed Cleaning Scum Bum in showers, Speed Cleaning Red Juice on counters) is the best way to get at the grout surface and dig out embedded dirt. Use a Speed Cleaning Grout Brush in a shower and, depending on the area to be cleaned, a toothbrush or a handheld stiff-bristled brush on a counter. When cleaning vertical surfaces such as shower walls, you can really put some muscle behind a brush, but grout on horizontal surfaces like countertops can be damaged by hard scrubbing. Grease, oil, coffee, or chocolate spilled on a counter isn't moved along by gravity to a drain. Instead, the grout becomes saturated. Many household products like grease weaken grout to the point that heavy scrubbing with a stiff-bristled brush will actually remove grout rather than clean it!
When cleaning countertop grout for the first time, go gently until you learn how strong or weak the grout actually is. If the grout has been soaked with various stains and has not been maintained well for a long period of time, you may not be able to get it clean again. Clean what you can without further damaging the grout. Let the cleaner sit on the grout for a bit longer and gently use a toothbrush or other brush. Ultimately re-grouting might be the best solution.
Protect new tile-and-grout countertops by being vigilant. Wipe up spills of all types—even plain tap water!—promptly. Note: a grout sealer can save lots of time by reducing the porosity of the grout. Apply it to new grout, and then reapply it every six months or so. On old grout or when reapplying sealer, first clean the grout as well as you can. Allow the grout to dry, then apply the sealer.
Grout doesn’t have to be a nightmare! With the right tools and a little care, you can keep it looking fresh. Remember, Speed Cleaning products make the job easier, and regular maintenance goes a long way.
Ready to tackle that grout? Grab your Speed Cleaning tools and let’s get to work! ✨
How-To
A Crash Course in Speed Cleaning
by Amy Sardone
on Aug 07 2024
It all started with a book. First published in 1987, SPEED CLEANING by Jeff Campbell was the very first step-by-step set of instructions on housekeeping.
It's a proven method that provides even the most profoundly cleaning impaired the wherewithal to clean in the smartest way possible. The method was carefully curated by The Clean Team, then a preeminent house cleaning service in San Francisco.
For over 18 years, they kept records of every visit to thousands of households. They used time-and-motion analysis and an endless comparison of cleaning products and equipment to develop a method that would save every step and every moment possible. The result is a thoroughly tested system of cleaning without a wasted motion.
And now almost 40 years later, the Speed Cleaning method is used by hundreds of professional cleaning services around the world.
We've all seen the statistics. The average person spends 2 to 4 hours PER WEEK cleaning their home. Between working 40+ hours a week and hopefully sleeping at least another 40+ hours a week, do we really want to spend another 14 to 28 hours cleaning?
Cut Your House Cleaning Time In Half With Speed Cleaning
Speed Cleaning teaches you new cleaning skills designed to save you time without sacrificing the thoroughness of the cleaning. Once you master the skills and the process, you'll also grow to dislike your cleaning chores less and less - and certainly enjoy the new free time it provides.
The 13 Tenets of Speed Cleaning
Make every move count
Use the right tools
Work from top to bottom
If it isn't dirty, don't clean it
Don't rinse or wipe a surface before it's clean
Don't keep working after it's clean
If what you're doing isn't working, then shift to a heavier-duty cleaner or tool
Keep your tools in impeccable shape
Repetition makes for smoother moves
Pay attention
Keep track of your time and get a little faster every time
Use both hands
If there are more than one of you, work as a team
That's it. Like any new skill, Speed Cleaning must be learned, practiced, reviewed and perfected. But it's well worth the effort. The payoff is that you will save hours every week.
But Where Should You Start?
Start by reading the book(s).
Perhaps more than once. SPEED CLEANING is the step-by-step starter's guide that details a weekly cleaning system for areas that need attention every week or two; a thorough cleaning of the kitchen and bathrooms, including washing the floors in those rooms and dusting and vacuuming throughout the hours.
The second book, SPRING CLEANING, covers the jobs that you don't tackle every time you clean but that you shouldn't ignore forever: jobs like washing windows and waxing floors.
CLUTTER CONTROL provides instructions on organizing cupboards, drawers, closets and much more. TALKING DIRT answers the 157 most frequently asked cleaning questions collected by the experts at the The Clean Team. GOOD AS NEW provides in depth tips for how to stop wear and tear and make expensive appliances and furnishes last longer.
Get The Right Gear
Speed Cleaning quickly evolved into more than a cleaning method. Over the last 30+ years, we've continuously developed and improved products designed specifically to help you become a master at speed cleaning. However, with over 300 products in the Speed Cleaning Catalog, it can be difficult to know where to start.
Introducing the Total Home Care Kit
Based on over 20 years of feedback from professional maid services and homeowners, Speed Cleaning has assembled THE Total Home Care Kit containing everything you need to keep homes spotless! And save 20% with the kit versus buying everything individually. The kit now includes access to the Speed Cleaning Online Certification, the online version of our training program that teaches the complete Speed Cleaning method.Learn more here: Speed Cleaning Certification
Get Cleaning
Malcolm Gladwell famously claimed that it takes 10,000 hours of deliberate practice to become a true expert at something. While there may be some truth in his statement, we've found that you can become a master at Speed Cleaning in far less time if you just commit to using it each and every time you clean.
For instance, the cleaning specialists in our house cleaning business typically become proficient in the processes in as little as a week. Yes, they clean all day, every day, but even if you just clean on weekends you'll see improvement and time-savings almost immediately.
From Debbie to Amy: Continuing the Speed Cleaning Legacy
In 2011, Debbie Sardone, one of America’s most respected cleaning industry leaders and founder of Cleaning for a Reason, acquired Speed Cleaning from its original creator, Jeff Campbell. Under her vision, the brand grew beyond products and books—it became a movement focused on efficiency, excellence, and safety. In 2023, her daughter, Dr. Amy Sardone, joined as co-owner, infusing science and innovation into every formula. Together, they continue to uphold Speed Cleaning’s legacy: delivering professional-grade products that are fast, effective, and safe for people, pets, and the planet.If you’d like to learn more about our CEO, Dr. Amy Sardone, check out this blog Meet Amy Sardone | The Vision and Leadership Behind Speed Cleaning
Some Things Never Change — And That’s a Good Thing.
This video may be from decades ago, but the principles of Speed Cleaning remain timeless.Just like the BIC pen, which has kept the same simple, effective design since 1959, the Speed Cleaning method still delivers efficiency and excellence today.
Technology evolves, tools improve, but a well-designed system never goes out of style
How-To
How to whitelist an email address
by Shopify API
on Aug 07 2024
Whitelisting an email address or domain ensures that emails from those sources are not marked as spam and are delivered to your inbox. The process for whitelisting can vary depending on the email platform you are using. Here's a list of how to whitelist an email from different email platforms:
Gmail:
Open an email from the sender you want to whitelist.
Click on the three vertical dots (More options) located on the top right of the email.
Choose "Add [sender] to Contacts list" or "Filter messages like this."
For filtering, click "create filter" then set the filter to "Never send it to Spam."
Outlook (Web):
Open an email from the sender you want to whitelist.
Right-click on the email and select "Add to safe senders."
Alternatively, click on the three horizontal dots on the top right and choose "View all Outlook settings" > "Junk email" > "Safe senders and domains" > Add the email address or domain.
Outlook (Desktop):
Open an email from the sender you want to whitelist.
Click on the three dots on the top right of the email and choose "Add sender to safe senders list."
Apple Mail:
Open an email from the sender you want to whitelist.
Click on the sender's email address or name in the "From" field.
Select "Add to Contacts" or "Add to VIPs."
How-To
How to Clean Up On (and After) a Trip to the Beach
by Amy Sardone
on Jun 25 2024
Keep beaches clean, make ocean-positive choices, and don’t forget that Speed Cleaning™ Red Juice contains seaweed!
July is a great time to head to the beach, and we hope you get a chance to visit one this summer. When you pack up your car with chairs, towels, coolers, and sunscreen, don’t forget a trash bag to pack out your own garbage. While you’re at it, why not bring along a few extra bags to carry out any other trash you see? When you get to the beach, you can help out by picking up any litter that is blowing along the edge of the water or dotting the sand. Keeping the beaches clean has a huge impact in helping to keep the ocean healthy.
Ocean health = people and planet health
Why is it important to have healthy oceans? They hold 97% of the planet’s water, regulate the earth’s climate, and produce more than half the oxygen in the atmosphere. And they’re teeming with fish that more than 1 billion people depend on for basic protein.
Oceans nourish us with food and oxygen, but we are dumping more and more plastic into the ocean than ever before. It’s estimated that 12 million metric tons of plastic ends up in the ocean each year, or the equivalent of a truckload of trash every minute.
This is everything from plastic bottles and bags to microbeads in shampoos and toothpastes. Once the plastic is in the ocean, currents carry it to every corner of the planet, from uninhabited islands in the Pacific to Florida beaches. What can you do to help, besides cleaning up the beach when you visit? Here are a few areas you can make a difference.
Just say no to single-use plastics
This includes things like straws, plastic forks, the lids on coffee cups, disposable water bottles, plastic shopping bags, balloons, produce wrapped in plastic, and takeout containers. It’s easy to bring along your own reusable shopping bag when you buy groceries, your water bottle when you’re out hiking, and a travel coffee mug when you hit up your favorite coffee shop in the morning.
Use plastic-free alternatives
Many products in your home have plastic microbeads that you might not be aware of. This includes shampoos, soaps, even your toothpaste! Check the ingredient list for polyethylene, polypropylene, polyethylene terephthalate, polymethyl methacrylate, polylactic acid, or nylon; these are the most common plastics that make up microbeads.
You can feel comfortable purchasing any of our eco-friendly cleaners, like Speed Cleaning™ Red Juice—the degreaser in Red Juice is made from environmentally-friendly seaweed! We also offer all of our cleaners in concentrate so that you can reuse your spray bottle and reduce the amount of plastic you consume.
Don’t buy any ocean-harming products
This sounds like a no-brainer, but there are many products directly linked to harming endangered species, pollution, and unsustainable fishing. Certain cosmetics contain shark squalene, for example. Avoid buying jewelry made from coral or sea turtle shells, or buying souvenir conch shells. And avoid those single-use plastics that we warned you about earlier.
Choose sustainable seafood
Choose to eat seafood that is healthy for you AND for the oceans by supporting well-managed, wild fisheries. Seafood Watch has a guide to help you with these choices. Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry.
Take only pictures, leave only footprints
When you’re having your day of fun on the beach, try not to load up on shell souvenirs that you’ll only dump into the garbage in a few months or years. And more importantly, don’t leave any trash behind to get blown into the ocean. Be a good citizen and pack out your garbage, and clean up any litter that might not be yours but that you spot along the way.
Cleaning up after a trip to the beach
Managing moisture is the key to keeping sand off your clothes and shoes, and ultimately out of your house. Wear flip flops or sandals you can kick the sand out of. Keep your gear as dry as possible so sand doesn’t adhere to it. And at the end of the day, give all your items a hard shake once you’re back in the parking lot.
Pro-tips:
Bring some baby powder or talc to sprinkle on your hands and feet. It soaks up the moisture, making the sand easy to brush off.
Bring a bristly welcome mat for everyone to wipe their feet on before they get into your car.
Line your car trunk with an old blanket or towel, and do the same for your car seats.
Place wet items in a mesh bag before putting them into the car, then put on top of that old blanket which you’ll shake out when you get home.
Once home, hang up wet clothes and towels outside and let them dry completely. Then shake well before bringing inside to wash.
If all of this preparation failed to prevent sand from creeping into your house, a vacuum with a deep brush can pull out sand from your carpet. For moveable rugs, you can hang them outside and beat the sand out of them. Have fun at the beach! Thank you for doing your part to keep the beach and ocean clean. Don’t forget to wear sunscreen!
How-To
How to Super Clean Your Toilet
by Amy Sardone
on Jun 24 2024
Follow these steps when it’s time for a deep clean Periodically, it’s important to do a much more detailed cleaning of your toilet. Here’s how:
Remove the tank lid and pour white vinegar to about an inch from the top of the tank. Turn the water off at the valve and put the tank lid back on – you’ll be coming back to this later.
Spray or squirt the bowl cleaner of your choice in the toilet bowl, being generous under the rim. Don’t scrub yet.
Using cloths or paper towels, an old toothbrush, and the cleaner of your choice, wipe down the top and bottom of the seat lid and the seat, and scrub the hinges and the bumpers (the raised parts that create a gap). A great green cleaner for this is Speed Cleaning’s Red Juice.
4. Now remove the entire toilet seat – it’s easier to clean while it’s still attached to the toilet – and clean the bottom of the hinges.
5. Wipe down the entire outside of the tank, bowl, and base, using the toothbrush around the screw holes where the seat attaches.
6. Remove the bolt caps from the base; clean the caps and around the bolts. Using a cloth wet with cleaner over something thin like a screw driver or scraper, wipe between the tank and the bowl. Remember, this is a deep clean so be sure to hit every nook and cranny of the base.
7. Clean the inside of the toilet bowl with a good-quality brush like Speed Cleaning’s Large Angled Toilet Brush. The angle helps to really get under the rim. Now flush, keeping in mind you turned the water off so the tank won’t refill.
Showing 105/113
