7 Days of Clean {Day 6}

Preparing your home for overnight guests

Weather you're lucky enough to have a designated guest bedroom or if you're like me and have to have your guest in the sofa bed in the living room. No matter what the situation is, it is necessary that you make your guests feel at home. We can do that by preparing a few simple items that will make them feel special and welcomed.

Make sure the place is clean and filled with a few handy items:

- Extra blanket

- Towels

- Toiletries

- Magazines

- Water bottles

Your guests not only will be thankful but also impressed of your hosting skills :)

How do you get ready for overnight guests?

Thanks for reading!

xo,

Marcela

PS: Due to a busy week, I had to change to only 7 Days of Clean.

7 Days of Clean! {Day 4}

How to clean your living room for the holidays

1. Dust from top to bottom, left to right (clockwise), vacuum soap, clean under sofa, fluff the pillow, straighten throws.

2. Water your Christmas tree every day to keep it fresh

3. Add festive elements. They can be as simple as a bowl of ornaments

4. Corral some gifts in pretty baskets so they are not just around under your tree

5. Lite a festive candle so your guest feel the spirit when they get home

Thanks for reading!

xo,
Marcela

PS: Due to a busy week, I had to change to only 7 Days of Clean.

7 Days of Clean! {Day 3}

How to clean your Bedroom in 5 easy steps

1. Make your bed! Yes, you'll feel more productive when you walk by and see your bed nicely made.

2. Change sheets and send laundry out. Believe me this will be a huge help. Don't stress out thinking about that gigantic amount of laundry you have to do, just send them out this time!

3. Dust always from top to bottom

4. Clean closet floors and organize shoes

5. Vacuum and mop floors. No time to vacuum? Swiffer the floors and mop.

Come back tomorrow for our fourth day of clean!

Thanks for reading!

xo,

Marcela

PS: Due to a busy week, I had to change to only 7 Days of Clean.

7 Days of Clean! {Day 2}

How to clean the Kitchen in 5 easy steps

{picture via}

It is important that you are prepared for all the cooking ahead. And as you know the kitchen is always the place where all guests end up :)

1. Clean the refrigerator. Remove items tray by tray, clean and put them back. Make sure you toss items that are expired.

2. Clean up the counters. You'll need as much space as possible so put away large items that your not using on a daily basis such as blenders!

3. Clean dishes, pots and pans as you cook and put them away immediately. Leave soaking if needed while you clean other areas. 

4. Clean up spills of stove and oven immediately before they dry and it's harder to remove.

5. Clean floors. No time to vacuum? No worries, swiffer the floors and clean up with a damp cloth

TIP: Add half cup of white vinegar on each load of dishwasher. It will leave your dishes sparkling and will remove odors from cooking

Make sure you come back tomorrow for the third day of the 7 Days of Clean series!

Thanks for reading!

xo,

Marcela

PS: Due to a busy week, I had to change to only 7 Days of Clean.

7 Days of Clean!

Day 1

How to clean your bathroom in 5 easy steps:

1. Give a quick clean to toilet, shower, sink and shine everything with #allpurposecleaner

2. Clean mirror. No smudges are allowed here! 

3. Clean floors, shake bath mats

4. Replace everyday accessories such as toothbrush, toothpaste, etc for festive ones! A candle or a bowl of ornaments are great! (The everyday items can go in the medicine cabinet or drawers these days)

5. Spray a #diy air refreshener (distill water and organic essential oils) or lite a candle

And voila! Your bathroom now looks AND feels festive!! 

Stay tuned for the next 7 days of clean tomorrow! 

Thanks for reading!

xo,

Marcela

PS: Due to a busy week, I had to change to only 7 Days of Clean.

Ready, set, clean!

As the holidays get closer it seems the days are shorter to keep up with everything!  And cleaning the house is not exactly on top of priority to spend your precious time in. You know you can always call MB Green Cleaning to go to the rescue :) 

But just in case here are a few tips to prepare your home when expecting guests.

1. Organize. Put everything where it belongs, toys, coats, work paper, shoes, etc end up all over your home so put them in the right place. Pay special attention to the entrance, first impression counts!

{via}

2. Kitchen: Clean up the kitchen countertops and leave only what you'll need while entertaining.  Run dishwasher and put away clean dishes so that way you can load dirty dishes as the dinner starts and you won't end up with a huge pile in the sink. A quick clean with vinegar and will be as shine as it is clean!

3. Give a quick clean of the spaces where guests will be dining and living room. Add a few flower vases and voila!

4. Give a quick clean of guest bathroom. No need to scrub the bathtub but the toilet bowl and sink will need to sparkle! Clean the mirror, and make faucet shine with window cleaner or all purpose cleaner.

{via}

5. A quick vacuuming or dusting the floors will help to clear up and open the space.

{via}

6. Nothing like a fresh holiday scent to welcome guests!  A nice candle or a few pine cones will do the trick!

And that's it ladies! Your home is ready to welcome your friends and family. 

Now I would love to hear what are your tips to give a quick clean up when having guests?

Thanks for reading!

xo,

Marcela

Biggest Baby Shower + Giveaway

Hello everyone!  Hope you're doing well and having a great week!

Last week MB Green Cleaning participated in a huge event here in New York. The Biggest Baby Shower NYC organized by Big City Moms.  This event takes place here in the city and also Los Angeles, Boston, Washington DC, Miami among other cities.

It was a great experience and looking to all those beautiful moms-to-be being so excited with the arrival of their new baby reminded me when I had my baby almost twelve years ago (wow, twelve years)!

Below are some pictures from the event and our booth. Hope you like them!

2 / 3 / 5 / 6 / 7 via Big City Moms

1 / 4 via MB Green Cleaning

A big thank you to Big City Moms and all the mommies who stopped by our booth for this amazing event!

And last but not least, we gave away a FREE CLEANING and the lucky mom who won is….

Rebeca Lodhi from the Upper West Side. We already have scheduled a cleaning visit and she will enjoy of a freshly clean home. Congratulations!

Thanks for reading!

xo,

Marcela

How to clean your Dishwasher…

Hello everyone. Hope you all are having a great week!

Before being in the cleaning business it never occurred to me to clean some items around the house.  

After questioning myself if we should clean machines that are suppose to wash I've learned a few things, like you MUST wash your dishwasher and now it is a regular part of my cleaning routine.You see, often we take these machines for granted, thinking they do the job so why should we even bother, right? But the truth is that they build up dirt, food from dishes, minerals of water, etc, food and dirt gets stuck in every crevice of it making it not only unsafe for our health but also not performing at their best and leaving dishes dirty after each cycle.

Washing a dishwasher is a very simple process, just make a paste of baking soda and water and with the help of a sponge and a brush you can start scrubbing. Sometimes it requires a little more elbow grease depending on how dirty it is. 

I like to pour some vinegar in the detergent compartment to use while brushing.

Using a brush will help you to get to hard-to-reach places like this…

You can also use a toothpick for even harder-to reach places…

And don't forget the utensil container…

Also, the corners of door…

Add a cup of white vinegar on the bottom and run it on the hottest cycle. I also like to pour more vinegar in the detergent container to give a little extra when it opens during the cycle.

And here you go to a fresh clean dishwasher ready to to its job!

How about you… Do you have a different process to clean your dishwasher?  We all would love to hear from you!

Thanks for reading!

xo,

Marcela

Cleaning the house: {10 Essential Cleaning Tools}

A question I get a lot is What are the best tools to clean?  Over the years in the business I've got my list of essential tools every home owner (or renter) should have.

So here are my 10 Cleaning Essential tools I can't live without:

1. Spray Bottles and Shaklee Basic H2:  Making your own solutions from an organic concentrate product is not only healthy for your home but also for the planet.  Hundreds of plastic bottles are saved from going to landfills.

2. Microfiber Cloths: You can use them dry to dust or damped to clean virtually every where in your home.  You will use much less paper towels which will save you money as well!

3. Sponges:  A sponge with a hard/scrub side is great to get rid of soap scum from bath tub and bath in general.  I personally have two different sponges for the bathroom, one of them is cut on one corner to use exclusively on toilet.

4. BonAmi:  Great for scrubbing and hard work without the chemicals of traditional powder cleansers.  Best part?  It's only $1.19.- can't beat that!

5. Gloves:  Cleaning the house requires a lot of washing, which will destroy that nice manicure you just got last weekend.  Using cleaning gloves will help to protect your hands.

6. Magic Eraser: I really love what this little thing can do.  You only have to add water and will get rid of every tough dirt on wall, shower glass doors, etc.

7. Swiffer:  Get to those hard to reach places, especially where the vacuum can't get to such as under furniture, cobwebs, etc.

8. Mop:  My favorite one is this one from Bona.  It won't wet your hardwood floors as much as the old fashion style.  I like that the microfiber cloth is washable and the cartridge refillable.

9. Paper towel:  Although I like to use microfiber for general cleaning I still stick to some paper towel when cleaning the bathroom, just for hygiene reasons :)  I like Bounty Select a Size because you can choose to get just a tiny piece for small areas.

10. Vacuum:  Last but definitely not least is the most important cleaning tool of all... the Vacuum!  I always recommend my clients to get a vacuum no matter what kind of floors they have.  If you have carpets a good vacuum is key to get them properly cleaned, however if you have hard floors this is a huge help to avoid dust going on the air after using a regular broom.

My favorite one are Miele and Dyson Animal.

And there they are my 10 Essential cleaning tools I can not live without.  Do you have a favorite tool?  I would love to hear what you guys use to clean your homes!

Thanks for reading!

xo,

Marcela

Cleaning the house {Lint Roll}

Hope you all had a great weekend!

Today I'm going to reveal a little secret I like to use when I clean around my home and at our clients homes.  It is the lint roller!  We use this little guy for quick touch ups where the vacuum will be too strong.  

Tip:  Usually the one that says 'pet hair' works faster as it is more sticky...

Or if you want to go green there are some new washable options...

{via}

Here are just a few examples where we use it...

Lamp shades

Roll it around the shades and all that dust will be gone in seconds!

{west elm}

{pottery barn teen}

{pottery barn teen}

Bedding

I actually make my bed with the lint roller on hand every single time.  I know it might sound crazy, but please give it a try and you will be surprised at all the dust sheets accumulate every day.  If your duvet cover that is white or light color it will look much nicer after rolling the little trick :)

Before making a bed

After making a bed...

{west elm}

{via}

For a quick touch up...

If you had an 'accident' on your couch (like my daughter here after eating sesame crackers) and don't want to get the vacuum just for that little space...

Have you tried a lint roller around the house?  Did you like it?

Thanks for reading!

xo,

Marcela