Do you know what this is? This is one very wet polishing cloth. If I squeeze
this, drips would fall on the floor. Now polishing cloths should be used dry. So
why is it wet, you might ask? It's wet because the cleaner who used this
equipment had everything chucked in together. All the cloths and all the
products just in the bottom of one bucket. Of course a bucket is a very
efficient way of carrying your equipment but you need to be organized within
that bucket. Now Active Domestics is not just the name of my You Tube channel. I've
actually had a cleaning agency in Brisbane Australia for 15 years now and
so I've seen many new cleaners and I see these common really rookie errors.
Because I'm old and experienced with cleaning I sort of see a lot of these
things as common sense but given that I'm seeing the same I'm seeing people
over and over make similar mistakes I thought I'd make a few videos about
really basic cleaning skills. Things that you know, skills that other more
experienced cleaners may just take for granted or that might not be as obvious
to do as what what I would think. Now so one of the things that you can do when
you are carrying your cloths is keep a couple of plastic bags or something with
you. Like I'll actually keep all my cloths in a separate bag or a separate
bucket for my clean ones and then as soon as I've used a cloth I'll put it like in
a plastic bag or in a separate bucket that way I'm keeping my clean cloths and
my dirty cloths (which were just used to clean the toilet or the bathroom or
wherever) separated. Now of course this is something that's going to prevent any
cross contamination of germs and that's important
when you're a professional cleaner. You need to be thinking about these things.
If all your cloths are sitting at the bottom of the bucket, not only are they
going to spread moisture but they're also spreading germs -- so be thoughtful
Be prepared. Think about what you're going to do with those dirty cloths. I often
see people put damp cloths on the surface, on a client's surface! Now if that
surface is wood or marble or some kind of natural stone it could actually
discolor really really quickly based on just moisture alone, or because of the
cleaning products that you were using in that cloth. It doesn't matter if your
cloth is rinsed out. It's still going to contain some of that product and
everything still in it, so you never ever put a dirty or damp cloth on the client's
surface. You need to always have a bag with you so that you are putting your
dirty cloths into it. I'll sometimes have a bag that I'll just hang on a doorway
if I don't want to carry a bucket with me and that way every room I go into I
can just take that bag with me and you know it's nice and organized. So yeah,
there's all these different things you need to think of as a cleaner because
the last thing you want to do is cause damage and you have to just be
thoughtful and come prepared. The other thing I see some cleaners do is not turn
up with any gear. Now picture this... imagine if you called an electrician or
a plumber and they turned up and they didn't have any tools with them. You
would not have any confidence in their professional skills or abilities and
you'd probably just want them to leave so you can call someone else! So you
don't want to turn up to a cleaning job without any
cleaning gear. Even if you have made arrangements to use the clients vacuum
cleaner and mop you still actually have to come prepared with clean fresh cloths,
multiple clean fresh cloths and also you need to have some basic cleaning
products that you're really familiar with. You need to have taken the time
before you get to the job to read the backs of the bottles and actually know what
surfaces those products are useful for and what surfaces they might damage.
You're also going to want to know how much to use. I often see people just
putting in a little bit of floor cleaner without looking at the back and knowing
how much they need to use. Unless you're using the right amount of product then
you're not, your products are not then helping you to do the job because after
all your cleaning cloths and your cleaning products are the two key things
as your tools to do the job as a professional cleaner. It also helps us be
efficient and save time. So the other thing that I find people don't think of,
is that if they have made an arrangement to use the client's mop, that they don't
actually-- I often see people just leave the mop sitting in the bucket. Now the
only thing that's going to do is make the mop smelly and moldy. No one wants a
stinky, moldy mop. So it needs to be dried. I mean before you think about drying it
of course, after you've finished mopping the clients house you'll then take the
water out, refill it with hot water, rinse the mop really really well. Sometimes you
might need to do that twice and then squeeze it out very well and either
leave it in such a way that the mop is sort of hanging over the bucket like
that so that the mop strands can dry or put it outside somewhere in an
appropriate place so that the mop can dry. You need to look after these tools
and of course when you're turning up to a job, you when you do bring all your
equipment, make sure your own mop and equipment is clean and tidy and ready to
be used in someone else's house. All these things are really important. The
other big rookie error I see people do is they tell me they know how to clean and
I know I've said this before, but you've got no idea how often I see, this is
where they go to use a vacuum cleaner and they haven't extended the pole
properly so they're using the vacuum cleaner all bent over like this. Now
that's such a bad look. Not only is it bad for your own back, it's actually a
really bad look. Don't do that! Some of the vacuum cleaners have got
buttons to press and then extend, sometimes you have to turn something,
sometimes they're two separate pieces and you've got to put them together. it's
up to you to figure it out and you know we're pretty lucky these days because if
you can't figure something out google it or type it up on the YouTube
search thing and you'll often find that particular model and might be able to
watch a quick 2 minute video or something of someone demonstrating about
that particular vacuum cleaner Just find out how to use it properly so that you,
you know, you maintain your look of professionalism and you look like you
know how to use a vacuum cleaner because when I see people doing that my
immediate thing is is oh my god they've barely used a vacuum cleaner if they
think that's you know okay to do that. What's another thing that I notice? Let
me see. There's always so many different things...
Ah another key thing that I noticed people do is they use, they get their
cleaning cloth, now here's a wet dirty one I'll show you-- so the cleaning cloths
more look like this. They've got sort of a high fiber or a high pile if you like.
They're the actual cleaning cloths. Now I can't think of an instance where I would
use it dry --Oh actually I can-- The only time I ever use a completely
dry cleaning cloth is if I have one that I've kept separate like for office jobs
where I'm just going to give the (computer) screens a quick wipe over with a dry cloth that
has zero products on it. That is about the only time I'll use a dry cleaning
cloth. Many times I have seen people get a dry microfiber cloth and their
cleaning product and they just prepare to spray the multi-purpose spray and
wipe it with a dry cleaning cloth. No! If you look at the backs of the bottle it
always says that you need to have a damp cloth. Now and I don't just mean running
it under the water for a couple of seconds which I've also seen many people
do. One of the things you'll notice about a really good quality microfiber cloth is
that it actually, they're highly absorbent and they can actually take
quite a while to get wet. If you just give it a quick splash and you hold it
up you'll see that it's mostly still dry. But if you actually hold it under the
tap, get it completely wet with warm water (is what I would normally use) then
squeeze it out really well and then go about your cleaning... Now how wet should
your cloth be? That's obvious that's another problem I find people don't know.
If you're cleaning something really dirty then your cloth should be quite
wet. You're using the products, you're using a quite a wet cloth and the
products and the cloth are working together to collect the dirt or to move
the dirt and you can then remove it with the dirt. Rinse your cloth out. Now if
you're at a final rinsing stage or if you're doing damp dusting or wiping
bench tops or anything like that you want to have quite a well squeeze out
cloth. You don't want a lot of moisture in that cloth because you don't want to
leave water marks. So in that instance it's not
actually dirty, like it's not um thick dirt that you're trying to remove, or your
in a shower, in your initial clean, you want the to have the well squeezed out
cloth when you've already rinsed and you're just polishing things up a little
bit more or if you're just wiping surfaces that really aren't that dirty eg
you're just giving them a hygiene wipe. So consider these things because they
may be really little things but they are the subtle little skills of cleaners
that I I notice that people commonly do and and they're just the real very very
basic components of being a cleaner... um.. the other thing that I'd like to
remind you all, is that you have to, when you're on a job, think to yourself,when
you think, should I do this? Or should I do that? Like just say you're at an
office job and you you see rubbish around.. we don't think to yourself, well
if it's not the cleaners job, whose job would it be to do this? We often, people
will do the obvious things but they don't always do the you know the little
extended bits where they're looking out for a little bit of rubbish here or
tidying something up here, you know it's a bit like when you finish vacuum cleaning
or mopping, you're putting all the chairs neatly back into place and they're not
all crooked. Or you're replacing mats and and making sure that you just putting
things back. Now it takes a little time to get to know the place, but as you do get
to know a place, you want to make sure you put things back. So anyway there's my
number of points for new cleaners. New cleaners, take the time to learn. Cleaning
is not just easy. It's easy to cause damage if you don't know what you're
doing but that is about the only thing that's easy about
cleaning. You want to do a good job then find out some information. Read the backs
of the bottles. Learn to use your tools properly and safely and yeah then it
makes your life a lot easier. So thank you so much for watching and please
subscribe if you haven't already done so. Thank you. See you later.
Please Subscribe