Archive for August, 2009

A survey conducted by Bradley Corporation indicates the spread of the H1N1 (swine flu) virus isn’t changing the way most people wash their hands in public. Increased hand-washing, use of alcohol-based hand sanitizers (ie Purell), and proper hand hygiene are recommended by the Environmental Protection Agency as an effective way to stop the spread of the virus.

The current H1N1 pandemic began in April 2009 in Mexico, but has spread rapidly throughout the world. Experts are warning of increased danger due to the back-to-school season in the U.S. – a presidential advisory panel warns that an expected resurgence of the illness could cause up to 90,000 deaths in the United States alone, with a projected infection rate of up to 50% of the population. An H1N1 vaccine is not expected to be widely available until October 2009.

Some tips to decrease your chances of contracting H1N1:

1. Avoid close contact with people who are ill
2. Avoid crowded public settings
3. Promote good airflow in personal spaces by opening windows, etc.
4. Clean hands with soap and water, especially after touching potentially contaminated surfaces
5. Always carry an alcohol based hand sanitizer, such as Purell, with you at all times.  Then, when soap & water are not available, you are still able to practice good hand hygiene.

For more information on H1N1 (swine flu) virus, visit the Flu Control section of CleaningProductsWorld.com for updates on the virus, what you can do to stay healthy, and a list of relevant products to help you remain safe & healthy.

The quirky, Amy Adams-led indie dramedy Sunshine Cleaning hits DVD this week.  Since I’m always interested in anything that has to do with cleaning, I figured it was worth mentioning. The film stars Adams and Emily Blunt (The Devil Wears Prada) as sisters who go into business cleaning up crime scenes. The movie is loosely based on a true story of two Seattle women who started their own biohazard removal service.

The charming optimism and oddball family drama you’ll have to provide on your own, but a in honor of this DVD release, here are a few surefire tips for removing blood stains:

1.  Wash items affected immediately in cold water. Soak out the remaining stains in a solution of warm water (1 quart), laundry detergent (about a teaspoon), and ammonia (1 tablespoon). Tamp the fabric after soaking, and make sure to rinse well when finished, then launder again.

2.  For hard surfaces, wipe up with a sponge soaked in a warm water/soap solution, and then dry with a clean cloth.

3.  For non-washable fibers like burlap, fiberglass, wool, rope or silk, use a sponge in cold water and stroke out from the center of the stain. If that doesn’t work, spot clean with a stain remover pen, then cover with a moist absorbent pad and flush the area with cold water.

As with any other stain, the key to getting out those pesky blood stains is quick action. Act quickly before the stain sets and it will be much easier to get out.

For 100 years now, customers have relied on Good Housekeeping’s trusted “Seal of Approval” to guide them in their product choices.  The company stands behind their unbiased reviews so much, they guarantee if any product that bears their seal becomes defective, Good Housekeeping will actually refund the money to the consumer – so we know they mean business in their reviews!

In honor of their 100th Anniversary, the Good Housekeeping Research Institute recently released their most updated list of “Seal-Approved” products.   Not surprisingly to us, Glad 13-Gallon Drawstring Kitchen Bags have earned the coveted seal this year.

According to Good Housekeeping’s strength, puncture, and drop tests, Glad 13-Gallon Trash Bags are the strongest, most cost effective bags on the market.  For as little as 17 cents a bag (CleaningProductsWorld.com price), you’ll never have to worry about cleaning up a broken garbage bag again.  This specific bag is made of .90 mils (most kitchen bags are either .60 or .90 mils), so its cheaper AND stronger than its competition.

Order your Glad 13-Gallon Drawstring Kitchen bags now – they have the Good Housekeeping AND CleaningProductsWorld.com Seal of Approval!

The seal we have known & loved for the past 100 years

Happy 100th Birthday Good Houskeeping – thank you for 100 years of trusted and unbiased recommendations!  Looking for more information on choosing the right trash bag?  Check out our recent post What to Know WHen Purchasing Trash Bags which contains everything about choosing the proper mils, densities, strengths, and sizes.

With summer slowly (and sadly) dwindling to an end, there’s just enough time to get in a few more summer barbecues before the cold starts rolling in for the winter.  Whether you’re grilling in your backyard, celebrating the end of a summer camp, having a lunch break BBQ at the office for your employees, or catering a special event, there are several supplies no BBQ or picnic should be without.  Below are some of our favorite BBQ necessities, which are all on sale up until Labor Day.

Rubbermaid 5-Gallon Water Cooler
When you need to keep a large amount of water, lemonade, Kool-Aid, or other beverages cold, this is the quickest, easiest, and most cost-effective way to the get the job done.  Thanks to Rubbermaid’s insulation technology, this beverage dispenser will keep your beverages colder, longer.

6-Piece Cutlery Set
Why waste time and effort making sure every person at your Labor Day BBQ has every piece of dinnerware they need when you can just purchase one convenient, wrapped pack that already has it all?  These plastic utensil sets contain a fork, a knife, a spoon, a napkin, a salt pack, and a pepper pack – basically everything any guest could need.  Since they’re disposable, there’s no need for a lengthy cleanup process either.

OFF! Skintastic 6 oz Spray with DEET
We all love the great outdoors, but when we are swarmed with flies and insects its hard to enjoy our time outside.  OFF! Skintastic takes that worry away, while being soft on our skin and without staining our clothes.  Not bad for one small spray bottle.

This list could go on and on, but these are three of the most commonly overlooked picnic items.  Obviously, no picnic is complete with plastic cups, paper plates, and outdoor trash bags.  Looking for other ideas? Visit the Picnic Supplies section of CleaningProductsWorld.com for all of your Labor Day Picnic essentials.  Be sure to place your order now to get the special sale prices!

There are products we love and then there are products we loooooove. Boraxo Powered Hand Soap is one of those products we looooooove. If you work in a position that requires you to get your hands dirty, the odds are very good you are quite familiar with this great natural powdered soap.

Unique Chemical Composition
Boraxo soap is a powerful hand soap due to its unique composition – It’s made by combing the powers of borax (a white, soft, colorless, salt powder that dissolves easily in water) and soap. The salt component makes it a great exfoliate and allows it to easily remove tough grease, dirt, and grime, while the softness and dissolvability aspect make the process soft and gentle on your skin. When the two meet, they serve as the perfect match for use in industrial strength hand soap.

Long Company Heritage
Gardeners, Auto mechanics, factory workers, and others have relied on Boraxo for well over 100 years now. The company can trace its roots back to 1872 when Francis Marion Smith was the first to successfully mine borax from Teel’s Marsh, Nevada. Since that time, the formula for Boraxo hasn’t changed much. Why mess with what works and what customers love? Today, Boraxo is available in Heavy-Duty Formula, Regular Formula, Lucron Pink, and TMT. (As an interesting side note, TMT actually stands for the Twenty Mule Team which pulled Smith’s Boraxo across the Mojave Desert’s Death Valley. The Twenty Mule Team became so famous they went on tour in the late 1800s and soon became the symbol of the brand).

Naturally Powerful
When it comes down to it, certain products made work great, but my not be so friendly to our environment. When you use Boraxo Powered Hand Soaps, you can rest assured the power of Boraxo comes from nature, not from harmful chemicals. Its all-natural ingredients (remember the borax?) make this hand soap environmentally conscious and eco friendly.

Whether you are changing tires or working in the garden, you’ll be happy you chose Boraxo Powered Hand Soap. Visit CleaningProductsWorld.com to add this essential to your cart now – we stand behind it 100%.

96 years ago, the Clorox Company purchased its first plant site in Oakland, California for a whopping $3,000.  Although the company has gone through much growth and expansion since then, its corporate headquarters is still located in this city about eight miles east of San Francisco.

The company initially choose this unique location for its first site due to the excess brine (water saturated with salt) in San Francisco Bay’s salt ponds.  The founders planned on turning the brine into bleach through electrolysis, which was an innovation process at the time.  Since the process involved mixing chlorine and sodium hyroxide, Abel M. Hamblet, (one of the five founders), proposed calling their product “Clorox”.  A quick sketch later and Clorox was officially born.

From our family to yours, Happy Anniversary Clorox!

In honor of Clorox’s Birthday, CleaningProductsWorld.com is offering a special sale on Clorox Disinfecting Cleaning Wipes & Clorox GreenWorks All Purpose Cleaner all month long!

Whether it’s a simple paper cut or a traumatic head trauma, one of the most important items to keep well stocked in every office is the medical first aid kits.  When any type of injury occurs, the time it takes to treat the problem is always one of the most vital steps to ensuring a speedy recovery.   Below are some tips to ensure the safety of all of your employees and visitors.

Keep the kit well stocked
If your office’s medical kit is about as old as you are, it’s time to be updated with new supplies.  If you don’t need an entire first aid refill kit, here are basic items to include:  flexible bandages, sterile gauze, antiseptic wipes, sting relief wipes, ice pack, burn ointment, nonstick pads, tape, and some form of pain relief, such as Tylenol.

Keep it located in a central, easily accessible place
As mentioned above, time is key when any injury occurs.  If your first aid kit is located in the back corner that requires your employees to swipe their ID badges 4 times before gaining access to, then that’s not the most ideal location for your most important office item.  Mount it visibly in a central area that requires ID clearance (what if a visitor needs it?).

Make sure everyone knows where the medical kit is located
Sure, its great that you have a well stocked 1st Aid Kit, but if no one knows where it is, then it’s just about as useful as not having one at all.  When training new employees, make sure to include its location on the office or facility tour.  Also, try sending out a yearly safety memo focusing on items such as safety kit locations, fire exits, etc.

While purchasing garbage bags may seem like an easy task, there are actually many features and aspects one should consider. We all know one of the dirtiest and most annoying tasks is cleaning up a spill when a trash bag breaks and you may also be wasting additional money on high quality bags than what your needs actually require.  So the next time you’re ordering can liners, consider these important features to prevent feature mishaps:

Different Strength Levels
•    Light – crumbled paper, paper cups, etc
•    Medium – packaging waster, cardboard, wet paper, etc
•    Heavy – light wood, metal scraps, wet cardboard, etc
•    Extra Heavy – Heavy, sharp, or wet trash
•    Super Extra Heavy – Warehouse, Cafeteria, or Facility waste

High Density (HD) vs. Low Density (LD)
•    High Density Trash Bags- much thinner than low density liners, but are capable of holding greater weight; They feature better puncture resistance and load capacity.
•    Low Density Trash Bags – Recommended for sharper objects and tougher transport conditions. They feature greater tear resistance compared to high density garbage bags.

Bottom Seal Types
•   Star Seal -  This is the most common type of seal and the most reliable of the three.  It eliminates gaps along the seal line, which allows these liners to more easily take the shape of any size/style garbage can.  They are also popular because they more evenly distribute weight within the bag – maximizing load capacity and preventing leaks.
•    Gusset Seal – Used on flat-style trash bags; An economical choice recommended for light loads only (paper, etc)
•    Flat Seal – Create strong bottom seals to prevent bottom leaks, but may leak from the corners due to design.  Their flat seal also prevents them from conforming as easily to trash containers.

Cored vs. Coreless Rolls
•   Cored Rolls – Rolls which are rolled around a cardboard cylinder (similar to toilet paper/paper towels).
•    Coreless Rolls – Rolls w/o cylinder in the middles; recommended for high traffic areas

Mils vs Microns
•    Mils – generally used to denote the thickness of low density liners (convert to microns by multiplying the number of mils x 25.4)
•    Microns – generally used to denote the thickness of high density liners (convert to mils by dividing the number of microns by 25.4)

And you thought you were just buying a simple garbage bag?!  Whatever garbage can liner you decide is the best fit for your needs, remember to visit CleaningProductsWorld.com for low prices, next day shipping, and unbeatable customer service.

As a result of the success of last week’s blog post (What to Recycle in the Bathroom – The Forgotten Items), I decided to cover another overlooked area in the home, office, and restaurant – our beloved kitchens! There are countless recyclable items in the kitchen, but we may often times find ourselves saying What can I recycle? Here are a few of the most commonly forgotten kitchen items:

Flattened Food Boxers & Liners
When you finish a box of cereal or a snack crackers, both the box and the plastic liner can be recycled. Simply separate remove the plastic bag and flatten the box.

Pizza Boxes
As one of America’s favorite comfort foods, we’re thankful we can recycle this box!

Broken Glass & Plastic Dinnerware & Cups
The next time a glass or dinner plate break, instead of tossing it, recycle it! We recommend placing the broken pieces in a brown paper bag first to help protect the sanitary workers handling the collection bins.

For more details, visit your city’s local website for specific details on their recycling program. Looking for other ways to go green? Visit our special Eco-Friendly section of CleaningProductsWorld.com for low prices and fast-shipping on all of your green needs.