FastKlean Blog

Specialist cleaning teams are to be brought in on the London Underground this summer in a bid to rid the transport network of a range of bacteria and dirt.

The move is part of a new air quality action plan launched by Mayor Sadiq Khan following the publication of a study last month that suggested the Tube could be putting people’s health at risk.

Research carried out by London Metropolitan University in collaboration with Staveley Head discovered that there could be a shocking level of bacteria present on the trains commuters and tourists use every day, including some that could be classed as superbugs.

Indeed, a staggering 121 types of bacteria and mould were shown to be present, eight of which were the most threatening to human health.

Among the bugs the researchers found were Staphylococcus Aureus, E. Coli, Klebsiella Pneumoniae and Serratia that can cause illnesses from throat infections and toxic shock syndrome to urine infections.

The news was no doubt as shocking to transport bosses as it was to regular users of the London Underground and the new action plan will see industrial strength vacuum cleaners and magnetic wands brought in to combat the problem.

Cleaning is to be stepped up across all 50 stations over the summer and will be carried out at night to minimise disruption and ensure dust, oil and grease can also be removed.

To keep tabs on how well the cleaning is going, frequent tests are to be carried out at stations to monitor dust levels and ensure they are going down. The results will be published on the Transport for London (TfL) website.

“Tube staff and the millions of passengers who use the underground regularly deserve to breathe the cleanest air possible. TfL’s new underground air quality programme will help ensure dust and particles are kept to an absolute minimum,” said Mr Khan.

How to avoid germs on public transport

It’s important not to panic too much about bacteria and superbugs on trains and buses, as your risk of catching anything when you travel is really still quite low. However, there are some measures you can take to ensure you avoid germs.

These include:

· Try to touch surfaces as little as you can – don’t hold handrails or rest your hands on seats if you can avoid it
· Don’t touch your face if possible – germs are transmitted via your mouth, nose and eyes from your hands, so keep them away
· Sit at the end of the train or bus – most people congregate in the middle
· Wash your hands as soon as you reach your destination

How to avoid germs and bacteria in the home

Again, the chances of transmitting superbugs into your home from public transport or anywhere else are minimal – and even less likely for antibiotic-resistant strains.

But you can lower the chances of getting ill from bacterial infections by being stringent with your cleaning and following a bit of simple advice:

· Wash your hands really thoroughly – at least 15 seconds with warm, soapy water, covering the backs of your hands and in between your fingers and drying them properly
· Reduce use of antibacterial soap – this might sound counterintuitive, but they are more drying and can reduce the skin’s natural barriers
· Moisturise – this will prevent cracks and sore skin that bacteria can get into
· Sanitise surfaces regularly – concentrate on door handles, bedside tables, taps, computer keyboards and obviously everywhere in the bathroom
· Keep cloths, mops and sponges clean and dry – wash them on a hot wash or throw them away regularly

Hopefully, our public transport might soon be getting a little cleaner – and you have more advice in your arsenal to fight the bacteria at home, too.

© FastKlean

How much money would you be willing to part with if you knew it would mean you’d never have to clean your house again? £1,000? £5,000? £10,000?

None of these three options comes close to the £50,000 that more than half of respondents to a recent survey said they would be happy to pay if they never had to clean their toilet or vacuum their floor ever again.

But just how important is paid domestic help becoming to households in the UK?

What other domestic help do Brits want?

TopCashback.co.uk conducted a poll that found 52 per cent of Brits would pay up to £50,000 to say goodbye to domestic chores for good if money was no object to them. More than one-third (38 per cent) of respondents said they would be willing to pay this much to never vacuum ever again, suggesting this is one of the most despised household tasks of all.

More than one-quarter (26 per cent) of those questioned said they felt a professional cleaner was an essential household investment due to their intense hatred of domestic chores. Some 22 per cent felt the same way about a gardener, while 18 per cent felt they needed a handyman. Altogether, 43 per cent of UK homeowners now believe that outside help is a necessity.

Others are turning to artificial intelligence to help around the home, with 13 per cent investing in gadgets such as the Amazon Echo to help with some chores.

Currently, cleaners are the second most popular form of outside help that Brits pay for, coming in behind paying someone else to wash the car, which 50 per cent admitted to.

Some 17 per cent pay their own accountant, 11 per cent pay for their laundry to be done by someone else and eight per cent don’t even walk their own dog.

Would you really need to pay £50,000 to never clean again?

Natasha Rachel Smith, consumer affairs editor at TopCashback.co.uk, commented: “Who wouldn’t want to make life a little easier if they could? Especially if you’re short on time, looking for a little help can be extremely tempting.

“Despite these services becoming a lot more accessible, with most available at the click of an app, they can still be expensive. Our research shows it’s important to live within your means, but that doesn’t mean having to go without.”

However, with the research finding that the majority of households in the UK would be willing to part with as much as £50,000 if they never had to clean their home again, many may be surprised by just how affordable professional cleaning services can be.

They do mean you never have to perform many domestic chores ever again, such as the vacuuming, dusting, mopping, wiping down kitchen surfaces, scrubbing the bathroom and cleaning the windows, meaning you’ll only need to do everyday tasks for yourself like loading the dishwasher and doing the laundry.

If you’re one of the 43 per cent that believes employing a professional cleaner is a necessity, the FastKlean team wants to make sure we’re doing everything we can to make your life easier, showing you that our experienced cleaners provide a spotless service that’s great value for money.

Contact the FastKlean team today if you’d like to find out more.

Source: http://www.headlinemoney.co.uk/Releases/Read/131851
Photo credit: Fotolia

In the run-up to Mother’s Day each year, the shops are full of cards telling mum to put her feet up and spend the day relaxing, alongside gifts designed to help her unwind.

But with many traditional gender stereotypes now outdated and men taking on more of the housework and childcare responsibilities, why don’t we see the same kind of messages ahead of Father’s Day?

This year, Father’s Day will be taking place on Sunday June 18th, providing people with a chance to celebrate their dad, grandfather or another male role model in their life.

However, a quick look in any card shop this week will show you that the majority of cards for dads are telling him to have a great day out in the garden or playing his favourite sport; very few acknowledge the fact that many do just as much work – if not more in some cases – than mums, and we aren’t giving them a chance to relax on their one special day a year.

Why we should recognise dads’ work around the house

Department store Debenhams recently carried out a survey that looked at what dads really want for Father’s Day, finding that many just want to relax and spend time with their families, as they work hard – both in their jobs and around the house – the rest of the year.

Speaking to Glasgow Live, manager of the city’s Debenhams branch Craig Barker commented: “Dads across the country spend a lot of time multi-tasking a career, family and a social life – they are pulled in a number of different directions.”

Women often expect their male partners to do just as much housework as them, so there shouldn’t be a double standard when it comes to giving them a rest on Father’s Day. Mums might dream of having help from a professional cleaner for a treat on Mother’s Day, so why shouldn’t the same presents be considered for dads?

We know that rest and relaxation are an important part of self-care and safeguarding mental wellbeing, so are power tools, sports gear and gardening equipment really the best gift options for dads who are already extremely busy and often overworked?

What do dads really want for Father’s Day?

Debenhams looked at what men would really like to receive on Father’s Day and Glasgow Live reported on the survey results.

It was found that over two-thirds (67 per cent) would like to go for a meal out with their family, giving both them and their partner a night off from cooking, while 65 per cent simply wanted to spend some quality time with their loved ones.

In contrast, just one-tenth wanted tickets to a football match, demonstrating that it’s wrong to assume men want traditional ‘bloke-y’ gifts for Father’s Day. Instead, 36 per cent said they would prefer a visit to a spa, while 23 per cent wanted to receive grooming products.

The poll found that men in Glasgow spend an average of five hours each day cleaning the house or looking after the kids, hence why they are more likely to want some relaxation similar to that offered to mums as standard on Mother’s Day.

What’s more, giving dads some time off from the housework, either by doing it yourself or paying for a professional cleaner to come in as a treat, will provide them with even more time to enjoy a well-deserved rest once Father’s Day is over.

Photo credit: iStock

© FastKlean

How much time do you have to fit in housework each day?

If you’re retired, work from home or are a stay-at-home parent, you might have a little extra time in the house during the daytime to carry out household chores such as the vacuuming, which can create a lot of noise and could be deemed anti-social if done early in the morning or late at night.

In fact, this issue recently sparked a debate on Mumsnet, which was picked up by the Daily Mail, after one user of the online forum complained that she has been woken up several times by her next-door neighbour vacuuming before 7.30am in the morning or after 10.30pm at night. She also complained that the neighbour often turns their washing machine on at midnight, which then creates noise for a few hours.

The author of the post asked other Mumsnet users whether they agreed with her about it being anti-social to do such a noisy domestic chore at these times, which threw up some varied and interesting responses.

When should you do the housework?

Respondents to the original post tended to be divided into two camps. The first agreed with the lady who started the discussion that it was indeed anti-social and not very neighbourly to carry out noisy household chores at times when most people are sleeping.

However, others argued that before 7.30am and after 10.30pm are the only times that some people have to do their housework, before they leave for work and after they’ve come home in the evening, cooked and put the kids to bed.

One respondent wrote: “I think hoovering at 7.30am and 10.30pm is fine. Presumably they have to fit it in around work? It’s a normal household noise, as is the washing machine. They are not playing loud music or anything.”

People with routines outside of the traditional nine-to-five due to shift work are also more likely to need to do their housework at unconventional times of day and night, but this can lead to tensions arising among neighbours.

Another respondent stated that noise is unavoidable when living in a block of flats, but a different user said they believed that vacuuming very early in the morning was “unreasonable”, as “there’s many people that don’t have to wake up at 7.30am”.

With every household having a different routine and getting up and going to bed at different times, can there ever be a right time for the more noisy household chores?

Is there a right time?

If you work shifts or simply have a very busy work and social life that stops you from doing jobs around the house at a conventional time, but don’t want to end up angering your neighbours, then hiring the services of a professional cleaning company could be the perfect solution.

With FastKlean, you can choose when it’s most convenient for one of our experienced cleaners to visit your home to help with tasks such as the vacuuming. This means that if you’re out at work all day, you don’t need to annoy the people next door by doing the chores late at night, as they will have been done for you while you were out.

If you think hiring a professional cleaner could help to make your life easier, contact the FastKlean team today.

Part of our work involves cleaning after building companies and transforming the site they worked on. Our aim is always to ensure that they hand over their project in pristine condition. Sometimes we are approached by building companies and other times by flooring companies in need of assistance when dealing with the job.

The site we were hired to help with was the Jaguar & Land Rover car dealership in Barnet. The refurbishment project was a rather big one, aimed at the complete makeover of the place. The place had gone through a major transformation: from a single one story building to a massive 3 story and a basement level for servicing vehicles. The basement alone is a 500 square metres area, the ground level showroom not far behind, with the capacity to house more than 30 vehicles. There is also a café and a reception area with offices located on the first floor.

All in all, it was a pretty drastic refurbishment project with a major extension involved, which needed one final touch: a sparkle clean before the final inspection of the client. This was definitely a job for us, as our cleaning service is known for being able to cover a lot of ground in minimal time.

We carried out this service overnight with 4 cleaners and a supervisor on site to oversee and inspect the work. Cleaning the area would have been difficult for other companies, but not for ours. Since we specialise in this kind of service, it is safe to say that it wasn’t much of a challenge.

As a result, we were then approached by the building company to continue with the cleaning service. One more session of sparkle clean was booked, this time with more cleaners involved. Six cleaners were allocated for the job for twelve hours. It is understandable why they needed this cleaning service carried out professionally, as they were handing over the complete refurbishment and extension project to their client the very next day. Again, our company was ready to meet the short deadline. Thanks to our efficient organisation and methods, we sparkle cleaned the area professionally and to a very high standard without any delays.

Once again our cleaners stood out as proven experts in the field and more than capable of dealing with projects like these. To be able to clean so quickly and to such a high standard without stressing over the coming deadline is no small feat. The client was more than satisfied with the service we provided and even booked one more cleaner the next day, during the handover of the building project.

We have since provided a number of services at the site, and we are now looking at taking on another dealership while working closely with the same company.We are confident that once again we will provide top level cleaning service, without a problem.

© FastKlean

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Does the prime minister have to cook her own meals and do the washing up afterwards? Does Theresa May get let off the housework by her husband because she has the small extra responsibility of running the country? And do the Mays have to take their own rubbish out at Number 10?

These are all questions that many of us have often pondered, but were answered in part after the prime minister and her husband, Philip May, appeared on BBC’s The One Show for an interview on Tuesday May 9th.

Mr and Mrs May were interviewed by presenters Matt Baker and Alex Jones about everything from whether the UK will have to leave the Eurovision Song Contest because of Brexit – it won’t, as Brexit means leaving the European Union, not Europe itself – to how they met and what it’s like for Mr May to be married to the leader of the UK.

What the Mays revealed about housework chores

[caption id="attachment_8139" align="alignright" width="500"] Photo credit: uk.businessinsider[/caption]

The couple revealed that they live in the official home of the prime minister, Number 10 Downing Street, during the week, but go ‘home’ to their former property in the Berkshire village of Sonning at the weekends, where Mr May revealed that the PM does her fair share of the cooking and cleaning.

Mrs May has been revealed as a big fan of cooking, reportedly owning a collection of more than 100 cookery books. During the One Show interview, Mr May confirmed that she is a “very good cook”, but added that as the prime minister’s spouse he cannot expect to have his tea on the table at a set time each evening.

His wife can surely be forgiven for this, as she spends her time running the country, but this was not the only slightly outdated comment that the couple came out with.

Mr May revealed that it is him who has to take the rubbish, explaining: “There’s give and take in every marriage. I get to decide when I take the bins out. Not if I take them out.”

At this point, the PM added: “There’s boy jobs and girl jobs, you see.”

Her husband continued: “I definitely do the bins. I do the traditional boy jobs, by and large.”

But should there be a gender divide in who does the housework in any household, let alone in one where the female partner is in fact in charge of running the country?

Should there be ‘boy jobs and girl jobs’?

Women have traditionally done the majority of the housework, which is still the case in many households, according to a survey carried out several years ago by researchers at the University of Ulster.

Leader of the research Professor Gillian Robinson commented: “Gender inequalities in all areas are rooted in social structures, but also in attitudes.

“It is difficult to see how women will ever have the same opportunities in the labour market if equality at home is not achieved.”

But the Mays’ relationship is surely one of the best examples of why the housework gender divide should no longer be the case in any household in the 21st century. If both men and women can run the country, they should be able to share household chores equally too, with no outdated views about ‘boy jobs and girl jobs’ but everyone mucking in instead.

One solution to end this gender divide or any uncomfortable discussions about what should be ‘boy jobs and girl jobs’ could be resolved by hiring a professional cleaning company.

When residing at Number 10 during the week, the Mays have help from professional cleaners, meaning there is no need for gender to be considered with regard to the jobs that need doing and that Mr and Mrs can instead get on with their respective jobs of managing investment relationships and leading the country. As a result, any free time they have together is their own and doesn’t need to be taken up with domestic chores.

If you’d like to be able to enjoy more quality time with your partner instead of arguing over who should do which chores, contact FastKlean today.

© FastKlean

Sources:
BBC News
DailyMail
Inequality Wipeout

The annual spring clean used to be something that households looked forward to, as a welcome chance to dust away the winter cobwebs – both literally and figuratively – let some fresh air in and leave the house gleaming in the early spring sun.

But according to new research from Appliances Direct, Brits are finding spring cleaning less appealing than ever as their lives are becoming increasingly busy and the growing number of items in their homes makes the task bigger than ever.

So, how exactly do people feel about the traditional spring clean today?

Spring cleaning falling out of favour

Appliances Direct carried out a survey which led to the discovery that almost two-thirds (62 per cent) of UK households no longer do an annual spring clean, with nearly three-quarters (72 per cent) of respondents admitting that this is because they dislike doing housework.

It was also found that Brits are paying large sums for gadgets to help them cut corners when it comes to cleaning their home, with 49 per cent of those questioned spending between £300 and £1,000 on specialist cleaning appliances. Meanwhile, nine per cent of respondents reported spending more than £1,000 on such gadgets.

Almost half (44 per cent) expressed a desire to take this one step further and have a robot that could clean their house for them, with more than one-quarter (26 per cent) of those surveyed already admitting to owning an electrical cleaning gadget such as a robotic vacuum or steam mop.

Mark Kelly, marketing manager at Appliances Direct, commented: “Whether it’s done weekly while dancing around the house to our favourite tunes or just because the house is beginning to resemble a hovel, it’s likely that everyone will have to clean or do housework at some stage in their life.

“But as Brits’ lives get busier and appliances become more advanced, the idea of spending hours cleaning the home is becoming less appealing.”

What’s the solution?

Robots are expensive and ones that can clean a house thoroughly are yet to be made available to the mainstream consumer market, so despite half of households wanting one, this isn’t exactly a realistic solution.

But professional cleaning services are available, with seven per cent of those questioned by Appliances Direct already using one to take the chore of spring cleaning off their hands. In addition, more than three-quarters (77 per cent) of the survey respondents expressed an interest in hiring a professional cleaner one day in the future.

Doing so would take the now-unappealing job of spring cleaning off householders’ hands, providing them with the reassurance that their house would be kept clean not just at the start of spring but all year round. It would also help to save them money in the long term, as they would no longer need to be investing so much in fancy cleaning gadgets that don’t get used.

Overall, hiring a professional cleaning company could be the way to make spring cleaning appealing once again.

© FastKlean

Love it or loathe it, housework simply has to be done. Some find it relaxing and good for their mental health to keep on top of domestic chores, but others dread it and put it off for as long as possible.

According to the results of a new survey carried out by Anglian Home Improvements, the average Brit is putting off six household chores at any one time, with men more likely to delay cleaning the house than women. In fact, women typically wait for four-and-a-half months for their male partners to get round to domestic duties.

With the Easter weekend approaching, just one in ten survey respondents said they would be spending the Bank Holiday spring cleaning, but around ten per cent admitted that they would if they were nagged by their partner.

However, one in 20 say they will never get round to certain jobs due to hating them so much.

A spokesman for Anglian Home Improvements commented: “We are a house proud nation, but it seems we may never learn to love certain jobs around the home.”

So, what exactly are the nation’s most-detested domestic chores?

Britain’s most-hated household chores

Anglian Home Improvements compiled a list of the 35 most-hated household chores, which saw cleaning the oven come out on top as the UK’s least-loved housework responsibility.

This was closely followed by cleaning the toilet in second place, while ironing came third. Other tasks in the top ten included defrosting the freezer (seventh place), scrubbing the barbecue clean (ninth) and cleaning out the fridge (tenth).

Other hated chores were found to include dusting (12th place), cleaning the bath (16th), vacuuming the stairs (18th) and mopping or steaming floors, which came in 20th place on the extensive list.

Cleaning garden furniture was awarded the title of 27th most-hated task, while polishing brass was only slightly more tolerable to survey respondents, taking the number 28 spot. Dusting the TV was placed in the 30th spot, with cleaning mirrors following closely behind at number 31.

Number 32 to number 35 on the list were taken up with DIY tasks such as changing light bulbs and fixing loose door handles, which suggests that Brits have less of a problem with picking up a screwdriver than a brillo pad.

Why you never have to do these jobs again

One in ten of those questioned by Anglian Home Improvements said they would be willing to hire in a professional to help with the tasks they didn’t want to do, but with nine in ten admitting to putting off chores for as long as possible, it seems that plenty more could benefit from outsourcing their cleaning.

Hiring a professional cleaning company means tasks such as cleaning the oven, bath and toilet, dusting ornaments and vacuuming hard-to-reach spots can be taken care of by someone else, leaving those who hate housework with just the easier tasks to complete such as making the bed and loading the dishwasher.

© FastKlean