Sharing is Caring, Especially When It Comes to Cleaning

Fun Facts for Labor Day

Fruit | Flat Rate Carpet BlogLabor Day is celebrated every year on the first Monday of September. We usually think of Labor Day as one last excuse to throw a huge barbecue before fall weather takes over, but it’s much more than that.

Labor Day has been an official American holiday since 1894. The Labor Movement, which started the holiday, was important in installing many of the working conditions that we take for granted today. When the Labor Movement started most Americans still worked 12 hours a day, 7 days a week, and most Americans started working as early as six years old!

Now working conditions in the United States are some of the best world wide, and our children are busy learning and not working in factories. As a celebration of American worker’s and industry, it seems fitting that Labor day coincides with the start of the school year, and the end of summer.
Next week America will end the summer season with backyard barbecues, fireworks, parades and parties. It’s a great, patriotic way to celebrate the American worker.

How to Rid Your Laundry of Body Odor

Clean Laundry | Flat Rate Carpet BlogDuring the summer it’s hard to stay smelling fresh and clean all day long, but if your clothes smell of body odor before you put them on you won’t stand a chance of making it through the day. Getting stubborn body odor smells out of your laundry is easy, and with a few simple steps you won’t be stuck stinking all summer long.

If the smell is only a slight odor that lingers over your clothing, try sprinkling your laundry basket, and the clothes inside of it, with baking soda. Baking soda absorbs odors, and is great at removing body odor smells, as well as other scents.

For a strong smell in the armpit area of your shirts, coat the affected area with a paste of baking soda and water. Allow the mixture to sit for half an hour before laundering.

Adding one cup of distilled white vinegar to your load of laundry will help kill the bacteria that cause body odor on your clothing, and leave the clothes smelling fresh.

For stubborn smells, follow all of the above steps and when the washing machine has filled with water turn it off for a few hours. Allowing the clothes to soak up to four hours in the machine before starting the rinse cycle will definitely make body odor vanish. If you don’t want to dedicate four hours of your washing machine to soak clothing, just set aside the stinky clothing in a bucket or bathtub full of water and white vinegar.

Give yourself a head start in smelling fresh by getting stubborn body odor out of your clothes.

How to Keep Sand Out of Your House

Beach Sandals | Flat Rate Carpet BlogNothing is more refreshing than a weekend at the beach, but nothing is more annoying that having sand all over your home. Follow these few simple tricks and you won’t worry about bringing the beach home with you ever again.

Do your best to leave as much sand at the beach as possible. If you don’t bring it into the car, then it won’t make it back to your house. Make sure that you shake out all towels and beach clothing before heading home.

Invest in a small brush, like a paint brush, and brush off any beach toys before packing them away. Keep a dedicated bag for beach toys, and make sure you leave it in the garage or in an entryway closet.

Simply wiping sand off the body doesn’t work very well, especially on men. Instead use cornstarch or talcum powder. Rub the powder on your arms, legs, and um, other beachy areas, and watch how easily the sand slips right off.

Taking the extra time to clean up sand before you get into the home, will save you a summer of cleaning sand from every corner of the house.

Save your Carpets from Summer

Girl on Carpet | Flat Rate BlogSummer is a fun time for lots of outdoor activities, but all that outdoor fun can be hard on your indoor carpets. Follow a few simple rules this summer and keep your carpets as good as new.

It’s great when the kids are outdoors playing, but when they come inside you’ll wind up with dirty footprints all over your carpets. Prevent the spread of outdoor dirt by keeping a shoe rack by the front and back door. Make sure kids know to remove shoes before coming into the house.

Kids aren’t the only people tracking dirt into the house. Adults should also be asked to remove shoes before coming inside. If you’re entertaining friends that won’t be comfortable removing their shoes, make sure you provide a doormat where guests can wipe their shoes before coming inside.

Rainy summer days mean the whole family will be stuck inside. Keeping drinks and snacks out of the carpeted areas of the house will prevent spills and crumbs from staining your carpets.

By following a few simple household rules, you’ll be able to extend the life of your carpets while keeping them in perfect condition.

How to Clean a Cutting Board

Keeping a clean cutting board is one of the most important steps to kitchen safety. Kitchen counters have a smooth surface that’s easy to clean, but cutting boards have lots of tiny places for germs to hide.

To keep a cutting board clean, you need to do more than just rinse it with a little bit of soap. Fortunately, white vinegar is a great disinfectant and is much safer than using chlorine bleach.

Just mix a little bit of white vinegar with water, and generously cover the cutting board in the mixture. Allow it to sit for about 10 minutes before rinsing the board and washing with soap and water.

Raw meat has lots of bacteria that can make your family sick, that’s why it’s a good idea to have a separate cutting board for meat. Unlike cutting boards that are only used for vegetables, meat cutting boards need to be sanitized after every use.

The same mixture of white vinegar and water will work to sanitize a meat cutting board, but make sure you also sanitize the counter area around where you’ve been cutting meat. Any invisible splatter could spread salmonella or e-coli.

A little extra effort to sanitize and clean your cutting boards will keep your family safe and your kitchen clean.