3 Earth-Friendly Soap Scum Hacks To Make Your Bathroom Shine

by: Stefani Hathaway | August 12, 2019

Do you struggle with soap scum in your bathroom? It’s a sad fact of housekeeping that even the most well-maintained bathroom surfaces can suffer in silence under the residue of your favorite soap. Here are three environmentally safe soap scum hacks that will make your bathroom shine.

Soap Scum 101

Soap Scum Hacks 01

Soap scum happens when you mix soap with hard water. The minerals found in the hard water mix with the soap, causing a chemical reaction that results in soap scum. Any part of your bathroom that comes into contact with the soapy water can end up with a thick layer of scum.

What’s more, soap scum often plays host to nasty things like mold and mildew. The mold and mildew buildup turns the soap scum into a moldy mess and causes that dreaded bathroom smell that is so hard to eliminate no matter how hard you clean.

Three Soap Scum Hacks

The good news is that you don’t have to live with unsightly soap scum in your bathroom. People have battled soap deposits on such surfaces as

tile
tubs
sinks
glass shower doors for decades and all of that experience means that you can count on practical solutions. Read on for three of the best scum hacks to bring the shine back to your bathroom.

1. Baking Soda with White Vinegar

An earth-friendly approach to removing soap scum from glass shower doors is to mix one cup of baking soda with one-quarter cup of distilled white vinegar to make a thick paste. Once the gooey mix stops fizzing, use a microfiber cloth to spread it across the glass door. Return to the door after fifteen minutes and rinse the door.

2. Baking Soda and Dishwasher Soap

You can also use baking soda to take care of the soap scum on your tub and shower surfaces. Mix a cup of baking soda, a squirt of your favorite dishwashing liquid, and one or two cups of water to form a potent paste. Apply the batter-like paste to the soap scum with a soft bristle brush. Come back in fifteen minutes and rinse the area thoroughly. Dry the area with a soft towel.

3. Just Plain ‘Ol Vinegar

Vinegar is also a terrific scum remover. Mix equal parts of distilled white vinegar and water with a little bit of dishwashing liquid. Spray the vinegar solution onto the scummy surface and relax for fifteen minutes. Scrub the area with a soft bristle brush and rinse the solution and soap scum off with hot water.

Note: Not all surfaces respond well to vinegar cleansers. Read here to learn when you should avoid using vinegar.

Long-term Solutions for Soap Scum

Wouldn’t it be wonderful if you didn’t have to work at removing soap scum in the first place? It’s possible to prevent scum from forming in your bathroom by

Using a squeegee each time you shower
Wiping down tile after taking a bath or shower
Switching to a gel soap
Add Epsom salt to bathwater

It takes a little planning to prevent soap scum, but the reward of a scum-free bathroom is well worth the preventative measures.

Lastly, don’t let soap scum take over your bathroom. Fight back with our three environmentally gentle soap scum hacks. Contact us at Legion of Clean for more help in eliminating soap scum from your home.

4 Housekeeping Tips For a Cat-Friendly Home

by: Stefani Hathaway | July 23, 2019

Can you imagine life without your favorite feline? Of course not, and we’ve got four housekeeping tips that make it easy to share your home with a cat. Keep reading for some tried and true ways to make everyone, including your four-footed friends, feel welcome in your home.

Perks of Pet Ownership

housekeeping tips

Pets are marvelous companions, and most pet owners can’t imagine living without them. Along with being a devoted friend, a cat might very well improve your health. Research into the connection between people and pets reveals that sharing your life with a cat can:

Lower your stress and blood pressure
Decrease anxiety
Pumps up the immune system and,
Encourages socialization.

Scientists also believe that cats and dogs can detect illness in their people. Perhaps as a result of their fantastic sense of smell, animals can alert their owners to such things as low blood sugar and an oncoming epileptic seizure. It’s also possible for your cat to sniff out cancer.

There are so many amazing life-enriching things that come from opening your home and heart up to a cat. Let’s look at four of the housekeeping tips that will help you to live happily with your cat for years into the future.

Four Housekeeping Tips When You a Cat

Cats bring joy into your home, but they also shed fur on the furniture and turn the indoor air a little stinky on occasion. Keeping an immaculate house might seem like a lost cause when you live with pets. Here are some tricks that make keeping a clean house a doable goal, no matter how many pets share your life.

1. Invest in a Tape Roller

Even a short-haired cat sheds their fur at a fantastic rate and keeping up with fur deposits on furniture and clothes can seem like an overwhelming task. We recommend that you purchase several tape rollers and make it a habit to roll the tape over upholstered furniture several times per week.

2: Use an Enzyme Cleaner for Stains and Odors

Buy a big bottle of an enzymatic cleaner like Nature’s Miracle to tackle urine and vomit accidents. Every cat owner knows that kitty pee has a terrible and long-lasting smell. Modern pet stain removers are very effective at destroying horrible odors and stains.

3. Bring the Outdoors Into Your Home

There isn’t a more pleasant way to bring the outdoors into your home than by adding live plants to your indoor spaces. Make sure that any plant you choose is safe for a nibbling feline. Read here for a list of pet-safe plants to liven up your home.

4. Keep the Litter box Pristine

It’s impossible to maintain a pleasant environment if you slack on litter box upkeep. Not only will your home have an underlying foul odor, but there’s also an excellent chance that your kitty might boycott a dirty litter box.

Consider adopting a new friend

Now that you know a few housekeeping tips that make sharing rooms with a fluffy friend a less time-consuming chore, we hope that you’ll consider adopting a new friend. There are homeless animals ready for adoption throughout the Dallas-Fort Worth area. You can also help to improve the lives of animals by volunteering your time and talents to an animal rescue organization.

Lastly, life with a cat does require more housecleaning, but the rewards of pet ownership far outweigh the extra work. Our housekeeping tips are a great way to begin creating indoor spaces that work for both you and your pets.

We have extensive experience caring for homes that include all types of pets. Contact us at Legion of Clean for help with all of your house cleaning needs.

Green, Eco-Friendly Cleaning Supplies

by: Stefani Hathaway | July 31, 2018

Whether you’re doing day-to-day cleaning to keep your home or business looking its best, or you’re looking at doing some deep disinfecting on a less frequent basis, you want to put some thought into the chemicals you use around your family and pets – especially since those harsh chemicals aren’t too friendly to our mother earth. We’ve put together a guide to green, eco-friendly cleaning supplies you will want to keep on hand so you can feel good about how you dust, mop, polish and shine your home or business.

Store-Bought Green Cleaning Products

Several companies offer eco-friendly cleaning products. Some of the trustworthy brands you’ll likely find online or at the store include:

Seventh Generation
Meyer’s Clean Day
Caldrea
Common Good
Green Works

Before buying a cleaner that claims to be eco-friendly, make sure you read the label and check to see that wipes are compostable, the packaging is environmentally sustainable, and chemicals and solvents are naturally based. An added bonus is that many of these green products are either fragrance- and dye-free or use natural scents and colors.

Shop Locally

Another option for eco-friendly cleaning is to shop locally. Check at local farmers’ markets or co-ops for locally produced cleaning products. This will require some research and effort on your part; not all of these products will meet your strict standards for environmental friendliness. If the artesian is on sight, don’t be afraid to ask questions and find out everything you can about the products. Not only will you be helping our environment, but you’ll support local commerce too.

Look in Your Pantry

One of the best ways to be eco-friendly in your cleaning is to use products you may already have in your home. Consider using one of these items that you likely already own:

Baking Soda – While it’s often used for baking bread, it also scours, softens water, and deodorizes. Baking soda is a must-have green cleaning tool.
Vinegar – Use it in place of window cleaner, but also to cut grease, remove odors, prevent wax build-up and even cut through mildew and mold. Mixing vinegar and baking soda creates a strong reaction that can be used to clean out a clogged drain as well.
Unscented Soap – Plain soap flakes (or castile soap) is a good choice for cleaning just about anything. Mix an appropriate amount with water and make sure you rinse well. You may be surprised to learn that regular soap is biodegradable.
Alcohol – Alcohol is a great disinfectant. Rubbing alcohol isn’t very eco-friendly, but mixing a bit of vodka with water is a good green solution to use for cleaning many surfaces.
Vegetable Oil – Vegetable oil or olive oil is a good polish for wood. If you have access to cottonseed or hemp oil, these can be wonderful too.
Hydrogen Peroxide – Use caution when using peroxide as it can bleach many fabrics, but peroxide is a good stain remover for floors, grout, and fabrics where bleaching isn’t a concern.
Lemon Juice – Lemon juice is a good option for mild household cleaning. One of its strong suits is its smell. It can be a good choice for cleaning drains to make your kitchen smell fresh.

While these ideas are certainly excellent eco-friendly tools to help you in your cleaning, sometimes it’s best to turn the task over to a pro. If you’re looking for residential or commercial cleaning assistance in the Arlington area, contact Legion of Clean today. They are proud to use only the highest quality eco-friendly products that will make your home or office look its best. They look forward to hearing from you and helping you with your cleaning tasks soon!

Blog