Top tips for a clean and safe kitchen

The kitchen can be a very hazardous area, one where a multitude of sins can easy happen. There's a lot going on in here, with cooking, eating and laundry. The kitchen is the heart of the home, so don't give it a coronary!

1. Remove unnecessary clutter from surfaces. Discard or store appliances and gadgets that you don't use anymore.
2. Follow food storage tips.
3. Keep you fridge clean and tidy. Before you do your weekly shop remove the contents, discarding old food and cleaning shelves and racks.
4. Wipe your hob each time you use it. Wipe down the surfaces of the oven after each use. It will be much easier to keep it clean that way.
5. Wipe up spillages in your microwave whenever they occur.
6. Use a bin with a lid to keep smells at bay and flies out. Empty it as soon as it smells, even if it's not full. Wash and disinfect once a week.
7. Wipe surfaces down before and after preparing food.
8. Change the dishcloth you wipe surfaces with every day.
9. Use two chopping boards, one for raw meat, a separate once for vegetables.
10. Don't leave dirty crockery and pans to fester where they can attract harmful bacteria.
11. Keep sink and drainer clean and tidy.
12. Keep kitchen floors free from debris and grease by sweeping and washing regularly.
13. If you have pets, don't leave their dirt food dishes out of meals as they will attract flies and, potentially, rodents.
14. Cat-litter trays should not be kept in the kitchen. If possible a bathroom, hall or lobby is a better spot.
15. Don't leave damp or dirty laundry festering in the washing machine or drier, and avoid sorting dirty laundry on food preparation surfaces.

Food storage

Don't buy too much food - why buy food you can't eat? It's not cheap, you know. Don't over-stock on fruit and vegetables either, they will rapidly ripen and attract flies. Flies love to lay their eggs in rotting vegetables and fruit, so keep a regular eye on your vegetable rack and fruit bowl too. Be fastidious in your cupboards - you've got eyes, you know when you cupboards are dirty, dear. You don't want to larder beetles and moths moving in to devour your food. Keeping dried foods in those super stack-able heavy plastic containers is a wonderful way to keeping them out. Here are some handy tips to avoid sharing your meals with a whole host of unwanted guests.

1. Don't allow fruit kept in bowls to become over-ripe. It will attract fruit flies.
2. Keep an eye on your vegetables. Discard rotten ones, as they will cause others to rot quickly too.
3. Check the contents of the fridge every couple of days. You're always popping in for milk, so have a nose round. Discard foods that are past their best.
4. Keep raw meats on the bottom shelf as that they can't drip and contaminate foods below.
5. Cooked meats should always be stored above raw meats.
6. Know your cupboards. Go through food cupboards every couple of months, wiping the shelves and discarding food that has passed its best-before date. Dry the shelves thoroughly before bringing the older stocks to the front, putting newer to the back.
7. Keep flour, nuts, biscuits, rice, past and other dries foods in tightly sealed glass or heavy plastic containers to stop pantry-pest beetles and moths getting inside.
8. Don't leave foodstuffs out on work surfaces after preparing meals.

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The most important skill in having a smooth, efficient, cost effective move from one home to another is to take time to prioritize organization of three things...your time, your stuff, and your paperwork. 

Most of us do not live in an orderly, minimalistic dwelling with everything in its place. We lead very busy lives and our possessions, debris and papers begin to hold us hostage inside our homes. We feel we can never sell our homes because we can never find time to sort through everything that needs to done to move on. New Zealand Van Lines can give your systems, resources and checklists and other suggestions to help make your move to Australia as stress-free as possible. It is not easy to maintain this level of orderliness.

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Monthly Cleaning Routines

Now don't go thinking we've gone all obsessive here, dear. This isn't about getting down the calendar and marking off great lists of tasks on the first of each month. These are just the little extra things. It would be daft to do them every day or week, why waste your time? But every now and then again your home will be cleaner if you tick off some of these extra things. Do you know what I do? I love watching television, but some nights I have a look and I think 'Well, there's nothing on'. So I think to myself, 'I'll just go and clean a room I haven't done for a while.' Try it - come the end of the evening you feel so good you haven't wasted your time watching a load of rubbish - and you've got a lovely clean room.

1. Clean windows, inside and out.
2. Launder under bedding, mattress covers and pillow protectors.
3. Turn mattresses (at least every other month)
4. Sort through cupboards and drawers regularly, discarding things you don't use.
5. Vacuum areas you normally neglect - under the bed, curtains, cobwebs in high corners.
6. Clean lamps and lampshades.
7. Polish wooden furniture. 
8. Polish mirrors, including frames.
9. Wax floors after washing them.
10. Thoroughly clean inside the oven.
11. Dust blinds, door tops and picture rails. 

Weekly Cleaning Routines 

Of course there are some jobs you don't need to do every day. That doesn't mean you have to save them up all for a mammoth cleaning blitz at the end of the week. Oh please, get a system or you'll be in one heck of a mess. Do a couple of these things along with your daily routine and you'll never spend a whole day cleaning again.

1. Change the bedlinen (twice weekly is best in hot weather)
2. Change bath and shower towels two or three times weekly.
3. Vacuum carpets and floors.
4. Wash or mop all hard floors.
5. Dust the surfaces (if you're pressed for time, dusting will always wait - dust doesn't smell but toilets always do).
6. Wipe finger prints from door handles and light switches (do this as you go round, it only takes a second and keeps germs away).
7. Thoroughly clean the bathroom: toilet, sink, shower, tiles, toothbrush holders, mirrors and floor.
8. Attend to the areas of the kitchen not covered by daily routines: wipe cupboard doors, splashbacks, oven, microwave, fridge, windows, and rinse and disinfect rubbish bins.
9. Iron the laundry. 

Daily Cleaning Routine

If you try to do the following little tasks every day they will soon become second nature, and won't even notice you're doing them. A couple of minutes here, a few seconds there, and you'll soon wonder what all the fuss was about.

1. Pull back the bedcovers to air while you shower and breakfast. Open the window: this will reduce humidity and limit the number of dust mites.
2. Keep the kitchen clean and tidy. Wash up after each meal, and keep surfaces clean.
3. Change dishclothes and tea towels daily.
4. Vacuum or sweep the kitchen floor.
5. Keep sinks clean and hand towels fresh.
6. Keep toilets scrupulously clean.
7. Return things to their place so clutter doesn't build up.
8. Consider nominating days for laundry: e.g. Saturday for bedlinen, Monday for towels, Tuesday for coloureds, Thursday for whites. Hang laundry up to dry to make ironing easier. 

Are You Looking For Cleaners on the North Shore?

Welcome to cleaning services in the North Shore, Auckland. If you are looking for cleaners in the North Shore area and would like to receive free quotes from more than one cleaning company to ensure that you obtain the best value for money possible.

Cleaning Quotes can provide accredited, registered, and approved North Shore cleaners in the North Shore area. All professional cleaning service providers registered with us have gone through a rigorous approval and registration process that includes validation of relevant health and safety certification, insurance and previous client testimonials.

We allow you to compare quotes from three approval local North Shore cleaners quickly and easily.

If you are looking for a competent, reliable, and flexible cleaner for the maintenance of your home of office in North Shore you have come to the right place.

Our cleaners have established themselves in the market and satisfy their customers with a professional cleaning service and employ only the most dedicated cleaning teams who take advantage of the most modern and environmentally friendly cleaning technologies.

All our cleaning partners in the North Shore area offer a comprehensive range of service in the fields of both domestic and commercial cleaning.  Every one of our cleaning partners are master craftsmen for cleaning services and of course work professionally and conscientiously.

It is important to ensure that your home or office is cleaned on a regular basis if you would like to keep it nice and tidy. Of course you can clean yourself or you can relax and let the professionals who have all of the right cleaning equipment breeze through the work for you. This can save you a lot of time and energy.

When is the right time to hire a North Shore cleaning company? Performing periodic cleaning is essential to making an environment fit for use, whether an office, warehouse, a shed or even you home. Removing dust from the spaces, rugs, carpets and furniture is also essential to prevent allergies and various diseases cause by mites, which unfortunately spread very easily, and become a nightmare to remove. In many cases it is necessary to hire cleaning companies that offer specialist services. Cleaning Quotes provides the best option when it comes to finding cleaners to clean and sanitize environments, we only work with fully qualified companies to handle the most diverse services required.

Often with the rush and stress of modern life there is simply not enough time to reconcile our professional life with the housework. With the dirt, dust and other unwanted things accumulation at home it is the perfect time to hire a cleaning company to return your house back into a home. 

Cleaning service requirements are everywhere, if you require a professional cleaning service in the North Shore please consider using our FREE service to source 3 independent quotations from cleaning companies. You don’t need to waste time ringing around trying to get hold of a cleaning company. Instead, let 3 local cleaning companies to follow you up.