Christmas in Savannah, GA

Christmas in Savannah is beautiful! It is the perfect place to be for a sub-tropical Christmas holiday. Our cleaners are especially busy during this time helping people get prepared for parties and celebrations. Here are some photos that capture what Christmas time is like in the south and in our lovely city of Savannah.

 

Cleaning furniture with household items found under the sink

This is an old chest from the Rachel Ashwell Shabby Chic line from Target. It's still cute & in great shape but had crusty old tape residue on the front faces of the drawers that needed to be removed.

As one can see it had a lot of sticky residue on the wood veneer and it was going to need a cleaning agent that could dissolve the remains of the tape without damaging the wood.

I started first with the top drawer and the cleaning results were dramatic compared to the bottom drawers that had not been addressed.

 

What I used were simple items that can be found in any home and I used items specifically that are found under the kitchen sink to remove the tape residue from the chest. For this project I utilized dish soap and vinegar.





 

Then I mixed together about a half cup of vinegar and a tablespoon of dish soap.

This simple solution was powerful enough with just a little bit of pressure from my finger tips applied to a cleaning cloth that had been saturated in the dish soap/vinegar to gently rub off the tape without damaging any of the surface of the chest. This is the results below.

 

 

 

Summer in Savannah

Not sure how you address children out of school during the summer time work week in Savannah but this is our conference room at Hubbard's Maid Service in June.

Handy Hairspray

I've got beautiful sheets that were purchased from Kohl's. I don't think they are the highest thread count but they've become quite soft by alternating washing in fabric softener and then vinegar. The other day I saw an old ink stain on the fitted sheet. I applied hairspray and it came to the surface and rinsed off! I've heard you can do the same thing with hand sanitizer. The two products have the same ingredient, alcohol, so probably you could use vodka to remove ink stains as well!

The other great thing about hairspray that I've noticed is that you can use it as a setting spray for make-up if your in a pinch. Wouldn't recommend doing it all the time as it might cause irritation for sensitive or acne prone skin but I've used it like that before and it worked, keeping my make-up from melting through out the day and here in Savannah, Georgia, that can be an issue!

Hydrogen Peroxide

Most people prefer a natural alternative to regular cleaning products. Hydrogen peroxide is a great sanitizer that doesn't have a strong scent and is safe for the environment. Hydrogen peroxide is a great way to sanitize your dishwasher, simply add a capful or 2 to your regular dish washer detergent and run it through the cycle.

And speaking of sanitizing in the kitchen, wiping hydrogen peroxide on your countertops, especially wooden ones, helps keep bacteria at bay and provides a fresh scent to the area.

A little Paris in Savannah, Georgia.

Shannon Williams is Hubbard's Maid Services senior training manager. She is a phenomenal employee and is the first point of contact for all incoming team members. She trains incoming technicians in our Perfect Maintenance Cleaning system & approves them in a week long training session before they are eligible to be admitted to full time status. She also helps out in the office on Fridays as a customer service representative fielding incoming calls and giving quotes for cleaning jobs. Shannon has been employed with Hubbard's three years and we are so happy to have her with us and to show our appreciation we took Shannon out to lunch at delicious Café M in downtown historic Savannah which is also the number 3 restaurant on Trip Advisor for Savannah, Georgia.

New Year, New Clean Undies!

Just wondering if anyone has experience with this: I had been wearing just one bra for 5 years. It was from Wal-Mart. I wore it everyday and I umm....didn't wash it enough. I had lost some weight since giving birth and the bra had become so saggy I don't think it was holding up my girls at all for probably the last three years which is not good for the fight against gravity. Below is the picture of my bra that needed some serious cleaning.

Going into the New Year I felt it was time for a lingerie update. I went to Belk's and purchased two bras, one from Spanx & the other by Wacoal. A sales associate measured me as I knew my size had changed after losing weight and I was able to find what was needed to lift & smooth. I also purchased 6 more drawers from Spanx. They are the thongs with the control top waist band. I love them as they keep my tummy snug and after you've had a baby, you really value that. I love the Spanx brand! It's worth the money as it lives up to the advertising. The Spanx bra is incredibly comfortable, especially if you have a larger cup size!

All of the above cost $238 and some change from Belk's, and it's going to get some serious use. I needed to protect my investment so I purchased a lingerie bag from Dollar General to clean my unmentionables in. I know it's a little bit more work to separate the lingerie and put into the lingerie bag to go through the washer but to have nice underwear last is worth it. Also, instead of washing my bras constantly in the machine, wearing down the fabric, I'm wearing them in the shower instead and cleaning them as if they were part of my body. I then take off the bra when I'm done in the shower and let it air dry of course. This is a great way to get the most use out of the workhorses of your wardrobe. Happy cleaning!



Great tips for shoe clean-up!

Often budgets are tight going into the new year. Here is a great website for prolonging the life of your shoes. Neat & tidy shoes.