Illinois Valley Clean Team, Author at Illinois Valley House Cleaning Services

Best Home Cleaning Gifts To Give At Christmas

December 10, 2019 by Illinois Valley Clean Team

Who says a Christmas gift has to be something to play with, wear, or watch? Sure, those things are nice but sometimes what we really want is a practical gift; a useful gift. Sometimes what we wish Santa would bring is a shiny, home cleaning gift for Christmas! Maybe we’re too afraid or embarrassed to ask. Fear not, the Illinois Valley Clean Team understands your passion for a clean home and is here to offer you several Christmas gift ideas for house cleaning.

Illinois Valley Clean Team Gift Card

As last year’s host for Christmas, you remember the mess left by your friends and family. Oh, sure they didn’t mean to trash the living room, downstairs bathroom, upstairs bathroom, the guest room, the kids’ rooms, the office, the kitchen, the dining room, the family room, the basement…AAH! You remember how long it took to clean your home and don’t wish that horror on your worst enemy, especially not this year’s host for Christmas. A maid service gift card is the perfect gift idea for that special host in your life. Moreover, the Illinois Valley Clean Team is the largest residential cleaning company in the Illinois Valley with a valuable reputation. You can’t go wrong!

Angry Mama Microwave Cleaner

Whether you have a large family or a spouse who refuses to use a cover, the microwave is a playground for caked-on spills and messes—a cleaning disaster waiting to happen. Sometimes the simplest solutions are all the answers you need. With the power of steam, the Angry Mama Microwave Cleaner effortlessly loosens grime in seconds. These little wonders not only save your back but make excellent little stocking stuffers for that special someone in need of a helping hand.

Cordless Shower Scrubber

After a long week of work, the last thing you want to do is spend the weekend bent over the tub scrubbing tile and breaking your back. The Cordless Shower Scrubber, weighing less than 4lbs., is a wonder at getting laborious work done. Not only is this a great Christmas gift idea for the avid house cleaner, but the Cordless Shower Scrubber would also be an asset for car collectors, lawn lovers, and more. This is truly a versatile machine.

Ecovacs Deebot Robotic Vacuum

The trend these days is trying to find the time to get the essential things in life done. Things like general health care, car maintenance, lawn maintenance, and house cleaning. We no longer have enough time. One solution to this problem is the Ecovacs Deebot Robotic Vacuum. Able to clean both hard floors and carpet with ease, this little beauty moves about the house silently keeping your home clean while you tend to more important things in life. With such a time-saving solution, why not add this gem to the top of your Christmas list ideas!

The Amazing Whip-It Cleaning Solution

Here comes a one-hit-wonder cleaning solution that does it all! The Amazing Whip-It is an eco-friendly, plant-based, pet and child safe, biodegradable, non-toxic, power cleaner/stain remover that does it all. Seriously! It’s even safe for clothes. This wonder product is safe to clean all surfaces. So, whether you’re in the kitchen, bathroom, living room, kid’s room, laundry room, or garage make sure the Amazing Whip-It is on your Christmas wish list for you and your family.

Universal Cleaning Gel

Nothing is worse than getting food stuck between the keys of your keyboard or in anything with small buttons. Now, cleaning those little annoying areas is no longer a problem with the reusable Universal Cleaning Gel. This glob of putty-like substance has a nice lemony scent and when pressed into a surface will adhere to the shape and pick up dirt and other small particles. This is a great Christmas gift idea for office workers, car enthusiasts, techies, and just about anyone who carries a device.

Woolzies Pure Wool Dryer Balls

With inflation growing by the minute, we’re always looking for ways to cut expenses at home. A simple and effective solution is Woolzies Pure Wool Dryer Balls. These energy-saving wool balls bounce around your dryer without harsh chemicals or artificial materials. Moreover, the gentle pounding in the dryer reduces the amount of time for your clothes to dry and eliminates wrinkles. Drop a set of these in Christmas stockings and see the joy you bring this holiday season!

No longer are the days where cleaning gifts are a taboo Christmas present. We live in a society where new generations are learning to abandon old stereotypes. It’s becoming vastly acceptable to give gifts of practicality and thought versus popularity and commercialism. Therefore, with this helpful list go bravely forward as you adventure into the wonderful Christmas season of giving.

5-step Guide For Hosting A Thanksgiving Dinner

November 28, 2019 by Illinois Valley Clean Team

There is no secret to have a perfect holiday dinner, but there are some tricks and tips you can apply to avoid setbacks and unnecessary stress.

6 Basic Tips for Holiday Travel with the Whole Family

November 11, 2019 by Illinois Valley Clean Team

The holidays are about to start! If you’re reading these, surely you’re planning your next family vacation. Perhaps you’re taking a plane to visit relatives or road-tripping to a far city. Anything you’ll do, if it involves traveling more than 2 hours or staying in a hotel, you better read the following holiday travel hacks.

Keep it slow

You’re not traveling alone. With each kid, the possibilities of delays and setbacks increase. Try to keep a loose schedule to avoid regrets and grumpy faces. It’s better to keep yours and the whole family expectation as true to reality as it can. For example, instead of visiting three museums in one day, make it one and leave plenty of spare time to do fun things near the location.

Don’t overpack

It’s tempting to pack everything a kid uses at home that way you make sure to not forget something and the homely routines will remain uninterrupted (which can assure the good mood of the children) but traveling with lots of packages, especially during the Holidays when visiting family, can be self-defeating. Just image loading all that luggage after a busy day, with your right hand holding your kid and the other giving directions to your exhausted spouse.

Pre-book everything

Same way as with flights, you better have lodging pre-booked and also other activities and places like a visit to the nearest museum or the entrance to that amusement park to which your children yearn to go. You don’t want to be without a place to sleep because of some time inconvenience, or having to explain to your kids why they couldn’t ride the roller coaster they wanted so much. Pre-book all you can!

Plan some “apart” time

A one or two-week family travel will surely leave you exhausted. It’s normal, everybody needs some apart time when you travel with the whole family for too long. Plan small separated excursions where your husband takes your kids and you can stay alone in the hotel room, just chilling, or vice-versa. That will keep the energy flowing and no one’s going to stay tired for too much.

Take entertainment with you

If you’re traveling by plane or road-tripping, charge well and pack your electronic devices with a book for you to read and lots of games for the kids. This is one of the most obvious traveling tips for holidays, we know, but there are more creative ways to keep you entertained. For example, buy a cheap camera for your kid and make it the official vacation photographer; that way your kid will explore his artistic skills and will avoid boredom.

Explain the trip

This one goes to children and adults alike. Although we’re used to explaining things to children, you and your adult family members need to agree and have clear expectations. What places do you want to go? How long will you stay? Who will you take? Some questions everyone needs to know the answers. For the kids, well, just make sure they understand the possible scenarios and the waiting times in the car or plane. Good communication is key!

We hope you have a good trip! These tips will help you have the best holiday vacation with your family. Just remember: safety first, good communication, go slow, don’t overpack, and pre-book all you can. About your house: if you’re worried about letting your house unclean during these holidays, just call us and we’ll give you the best home cleaning service your house needs.

How to Engage and Resolve Family Conflicts in 5 Steps

October 27, 2019 by Illinois Valley Clean Team

Gather the family around this infographic and show them how to stop a conflict from getting out of hand. You will be more peaceful than ever!

How to Engage and Resolve Family Conflicts in 5 Steps - Illinois Valley Clean Team

Fall & Winter Gardening 101: Keeping it Alive Through the Cold Seasons

October 13, 2019 by Illinois Valley Clean Team

It won’t be long before you start feeling that crisp chill in the air, signaling that fall has arrived once again! For us, that means warm desserts, comforting nights wrapped in a blanket, and pumpkin spice in everything. It also means a lot of work for people who love their garden, and it’s essential that if you are one of them, you remember these chores to get it ready for fall (and then winter).

We’ll give you three fall garden care tips and two for winter. It doesn’t matter if you’re a beginner trying to make your garden survive another season, or a consummate professional looking for a new perspective on things, this list will help you for sure!

Fall Tips

1. Prepare a new garden bed for spring

Garden soil care during fall is important, and it’s never too early to start thinking about the following spring and preparing a new garden bed before the cold season will bring you great results as soon as the weather is warm again. What you need to do is take laying down a thick cardboard/newspaper layer, topped off with a 5-inch thick layer of compost, then adding a layer of woodchip mulch of about 4 inches thick. The idea is letting this new bed stay sitting over the winter, so it’s ready to plant by spring.

While you can accomplish pretty much the same results applying only the mulch over the cardboard or newspaper, it’s better if you already have access to enough compost to add it to the new bed. The same goes for preparing raised beds for winter.

2. Pull out dead plants and remove diseased ones

Any plant that didn’t survive the season has to be removed, and while doing so might be sad considering you planted them only a few months ago, they can still be useful if you add them to your compost pile. It all goes back to the earth! Another critical step is to trim back your perennials that are dormant, cutting the dead stems if they still have green leaves.

On the other hand, you must remove all diseased plants from your garden before the disease can spread to other plants by overwintering, even if you think they won’t survive the cold. This is a common mistake of novice or amateur gardeners, so now you know how to avoid it! Dispose of them by burning or taking them to a landfill in a bag, because composting them might cause the disease to be passed back into your garden.

3. Protect young trees from wind and critters

Fall and winter are seasons full of dangers for recently planted young trees. Fall brings along fast winds that can knock your sapling back and forth and thus break their roots, so it’s a good idea to tie them to a strong stake firmly planted in the ground. If you’re going to use wire to tie your tree, remember to cover the wire with pieces from an old hose to prevent it from cutting into the bark.

Speaking of barks; the colder seasons also bring some critters that love to munch on the bark of your trees, like the rabbit, so using some vinyl tree wrap around your sapling will protect it from them. You can also use a special breathable fabric if you want the tree to heal an already existing wound.

Winter Tips

If you did all your fall preparations right, that means there isn’t much to do in the garden, plant-wise. However, there are a couple of things you can take care of in the meantime.

1. Repair your garden structures

The reduced foliage and trimmed shrubs mean that you now have more moving space to do some maintenance work on your tool shed, greenhouse, fences, and summer house if you have them. It’s the time to repair or replace damaged timber, or parts that are suffering from pest infestations or weather damage. That way they’ll look gorgeous once the sun shines again when spring arrives. If you have a summerhouse, you can have it cleaned as well.

2. Clean and store your gardening tools

While some of them, like clippers, are always useful to have at hand, you won’t have too much use for the rest until the next gardening season. If you already finished preparing for autumn, this an excellent time to clean, treat, and store all your tools in the shed, covering them to prevent humidity do some damage. Making some racks to hold them is also a good idea if you don’t have a proper space for each one in the shed to avoid cluttering.