Spring Cleaning Time!

Spring is here! It’s finally warm up. Now is the traditional season for fresh starts. For many, that means putting away winter clothes and giving your house a good spring cleaning. Here are a few tips for making the annual ritual less stressful.

Start with a plan. Make a list of the tasks that you want to accomplish. Assess which parts of the house you need to cover and figure out where you want to start. Review the plan with family members and get their input on the cleaning goals too.

Do a little bit at a time. You don’t have to do it all at once. Tackle one task from your list each day. Seeing results helps motivate you and makes spring cleaning feel less overwhelming.

Tackle the clutter first. Getting rid of items you no longer need or want will help to free up space. Freeing up space also makes it easier to clean so the rest of the job goes smoothly. Tackling the clutter can also help reduce feelings of stress or anxiety. Spring cleaning is a good time to organize things and to get rid of unused clothing, furniture, and appliances.

Always dry clean your winter clothes before you put them away for the season. Particles left on your winter clothes can stain and set in after months of storage. During that time, moths may feast on the dirty fabric as well. You can also use a laundry delivery service for the heavier bed linens and comforters to save time and effort.

Don’t forget the medicine cabinet. Gather up any medications that have expired or are no longer needed, including both prescriptions and over-the-counter drugs. Having expired medication around not only clutters your cabinets, but can also be dangerous. You don’t want to risk yourself or a loved one taking the wrong medication. Your local pharmacy can help you refill prescriptions and restock over the counter medications as well as dispose of the expired ones properly.

Check the fridge and pantry for expired food items and throw them out. Again, freeing up space allows you to organize your food items and become a more efficient cook.

Spring cleaning is a great tradition. Make it a fun activity for the family and everyone can enjoy a cleaner and more organized home afterwards.

Personal Hygiene During COVID-19

Everyday household tasks can become a source of anxiety in these times. Do you start worrying about how to get the basics done while keeping yourself and loved ones safe and healthy? Simple hygiene measures can help.

Personal Hygiene

A piece of advice that is repeatedly stated by the authorities as a top precaution is to wash our hands frequently with soap and water or use hand sanitizer. Make sure the soap or sanitizer fully covers your hands, then rub hands together for 20-30 seconds. For hand sanitizers, use those that contain at least 60 per cent alcohol. Having trouble finding hand sanitizers in the grocery store? Try your community pharmacy. If they have the ability to provide compounded medications, they may be able to produce sanitizers themselves.

Remember to avoid touching your face because the virus is spread through droplets that may cling to surfaces that you touched.

Cleaning Clothes

There’s no research as yet on how long the COVID-19 virus can survive on clothes or other fabrics, but it’s still a good idea to change and wash your clothes regularly — especially if you’ve just come home from the grocery store (or the office if you aren’t working from home). If you are doing the laundry at home, wash your clothes using the warmest appropriate water setting in accordance with the manufacturer’s instructions. Make sure you dry the items completely.

Consider using a laundry delivery service instead of making trips to the laundromat to avoid too much people contact and save time for other chores. Dry cleaning can help to disinfect clothing and other household items like towels and bedding because it uses high heat. Some Boston dry cleaners provide germ-free laundry services, too.

When handling dirty laundry from a person who has symptoms, wear disposable gloves. If you are using a drycleaning pickup service, you should tell the dry cleaner that the laundry may be infected.

Housecleaning

It is also important to clean and disinfect frequently touched surfaces or objects including tables, doorknobs, light switches, countertops, desks, phones, keyboards, sinks, and faucets at least daily. Clean dirty surfaces with a regular household detergent first, then disinfect with any EPA-registered household disinfectant.

Let’s all stay safe and healthy during these unusual times!

Photo by Irina Ba on Unsplash

Helping Your Aging Parent Stay At Home

Newton has the fifth largest senior population in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and older people are known to be at higher risk from COVID-19. Although the city is working to make sure seniors are safe, you may be wondering if your parent or senior loved one who lives alone needs extra support during this pandemic. The best thing you can do is encourage them to stay home and practice social distancing to avoid exposure. Here are a few things to make staying home easier.

old woman on a phone call with a loved one

Before you talk with your loved one about the need for COVID-19 precautions, get up to speed on facts and information from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) or from the state or local health department. This will help you be better able to correct any misinformation they may have. If there is a home health aide, some precautions are needed. Discuss with the home care agency what protocols they have in place to reduce risk. In addition to helping with activities of daily living, the home caregiver can help your loved one follow the CDC’s risk-reducing recommendations and also monitor for symptoms so they can alert you.

To make sure they have enough of the daily essentials like food and medicine, you may want to stock a couple of weeks’ worth of groceries including food, pet supplies, cleaning supplies, etc. and to gather a one to three month supply of medications. Use a prescription pharmacy in Newton that provides prescription delivery service and/or curbside pickup to keep up with the medications. For groceries, remember to check the availability of time slots for delivery. Laundry pickup service can help avoid trips to the nearest dry cleaner in Newton or laundromat where social distancing is hard to maintain.

Check in frequently by phone, FaceTime, or Zoom to stay connected. Companionship and social relationships are important to the mental health of an aging adult. Social distancing makes it difficult for us to communicate effectively and intimately with our senior loved ones, but digital communications can help quite a bit during these unprecedented times.

photo credit: Image by Sabine van Erp from Pixabay

Disinfecting Laundry at Home

With the COVID-19 outbreak surging in Boston, we are all concerned with keeping our home and family safe from germs, bacteria and viruses, especially when you have seniors living at home. You know how to keep your floors and surfaces disinfected, but what about your clothes and linens? When someone in the household becomes ill, it’s even more important to disinfect laundry to keep the rest of the family safe. Here are some easy ways to disinfect your laundry.

Tips for Easy Disinfecting

When someone in your home is sick, try to have them use 100% cotton sheets and clothes in light colors. This makes them easier to disinfectant in the washing machine using the strongest possible disinfectants. Wash all contaminated items separately from other laundry and wear gloves while handling it if possible. Wash your hands after and avoid touching your face.

Safe Laundry Disinfectants to Use at Home

Although it’s great for regular stains and soiling, regular laundry detergent isn’t strong enough to kill bacteria and viruses. Fortunately, there are several easy to find add-ins you can add to your washer to disinfect laundry.

Pine Oil Disinfectants – These are the most readily available disinfectants to use on fabric. They work best when used with warm water added at the beginning of a wash cycle. Look for 80% pine oil products for maximum efficiency.

Bleach – Bleach can be used on almost all fabrics, even colors believe it or not. Look for color-safe bleach and use the special bleach dispenser in your washer if it has one. Hot or warm water cycles work best.

In addition, innovative green dry cleaners such as Utopia Cleaners in Boston use a special environmentally-friendly soap to remove germs from your laundry. This germ-free laundry service is a good alternative to trying to disinfecting your own laundry at home.

Disinfect Your Washing Machine

After washing contaminated laundry, it’s important to disinfect your washing machine as well. Run an empty cycle with hot water and 1/2 cup bleach to kill any lingering germs and bacteria.

If you’re concerned about keeping your family safe and healthy, remember you can always take your laundry to the dry cleaners nearby to be disinfected as well. Use separate bags for contaminated items and wash or dispose of afterwards. Be sure to tell your local dry cleaner what items need disinfected and be specific about stains and damage. During this unprecedented time, it is best to use a laundry pickup service.

Using Delivery Services During the Coronavirus Outbreak

We heard from Governor Charlie Baker yesterday that the number of COVID-19 cases in Massachusetts will begin to surge sometime between April 7 and 17. With the stay-at-home advisory and social distancing guidance still in place until April 30, we’ll need to find new ways to manage our daily lives. Fortunately, we have the Internet, various online tools to help us work remotely and entertain ourselves. And for the physical stuff, we can take advantage of delivery service.

Laundry Delivery

Cleanliness is key during this time. Other than washing our hands and disinfecting frequently used surfaces, we need to keep our clothing and bed linens clean. Using a germ-free laundry service can be extra beneficial. If you usually take your laundry to a dry cleaner or a laundromat, this would be a good time to switch to a free laundry delivery service. Even though dry cleaners are considered an essential service by the state, they usually reduce hours and avoid having you in the store as much as possible.

Prescription Delivery

Medical supplies are critical too, especially prescriptions. Pharmacies are also an essential service and will stay open, but they, too, may reduce hours. In the suburbs, curbside service is often available – you drive up to the curb, call the store and they will bring the prescriptions or other medical supplies to you. Many drugstores also offer prescription delivery service within their neighborhoods. You should call your local drugstore to find out if they offer this service.

Food and Grocery Delivery

We all need food. While all the restaurants have closed, we can still order food online and then either pickup or get it delivered. Many supermarkets also offer grocery delivery service and even meals to go. These days, we may find empty shelves for certain food items. Rather than making several trips to get all the food items that you need, it is better to stay safe and order online instead.

When taking advantage of delivery service, make sure that it is contactless. Ask the driver to leave the delivery items on your doorstep and then pick them up after they left.

Let’s all be careful and stay healthy!

Enjoying St Patrick’s Day in Boston

Canadian stand-up comedian, Russell Peters, once joked that everyone in Boston thinks they are Irish. Indeed, St Paddy’s Day Parade is a major event in the city of Boston, which is often called the capital of Irish America. The parade has been running since 1901 in South Boston, the most Irish neighborhood in Boston. It features marching bands and pipe bands from throughout North America, as well as colorful floats, music and plenty of Irish good cheer. The parade begins at the Broadway ‘T’ Station and ends at Farragut Road, South Boston. Stake out a spot somewhere on Broadway for a good view.

Kid dressed as a leprechaun — 3D render of a leprechaun leaning on an edge.

Whether you are Irish or not, it’s certainly worth sharing in the fun. Clearly, you need to dress the part – in green, preferably with Irish luck motifs like shamrock, or a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow. You can even go all the way by dressing as a leprechaun, with green tall hat, red beard and even green hair! Be careful when you dye your hair and use other hair products. They can cause color loss to your clothing. When that happens, even your dry cleaner may not be able to save it. Kids often paint their faces, such as shamrocks on the cheeks, or a full-face Irish flag in green, white and orange.

How about Irish food? You will see these advertised on local supermarket flyers – cabbage, corned beef, soda bread and potatoes. Hop into an Irish bar for more festive beer and spirits, along with Irish music and dance! It’s easy to overeat or get drunk in big parties. If you do, you might need antacids, or gas relief and heartburn relief digestive aids from your local drug store. It’s better to control your appetite and save yourself the agony. Food spills are nearly unavoidable in parties, too. Don’t waste time trying to remove the stains yourself. Call the laundry delivery service and save your time for the more important things in your life!

Laundry and Cleaning Tips for People With Sensitive Skin

Do you have sensitive skin? Since 70% of Americans describe themselves as having sensitive skin, I’m going to guess that you do. Sensitive skin is defined as skin that gets easily irritated by the use of products with added perfumes, dyes, or chemicals. Irritation can present itself as redness, itchiness, or even rashes. So if you have sensitive skin, you should be careful, otherwise you would end up spending a lot of money on skin products or even need to see a dermatologist for compounded medicine for skin care. Fortunately, there are easy precautions you can take when it comes to doing the laundry or cleaning in your home, to avoid aggravating your skin.

woman handling clothes at home — Photo by Sarah Brown on Unsplash

Always Read Labels

Whether it’s laundry detergent, cleaning products, or face wash – I always read the labels on any product I buy to look for ingredients that may irritate my skin. Sometimes that can be tricky if you’re not sure which ingredients are causing your irritation. Thankfully, since sensitive skin is such a common thing, it’s easy to find products made especially for that very thing. Look for labels that say “hypoallergenic,” “green,” or “free from dyes and perfumes.”

Test Products First

Trying a new laundry detergent or body wash can be nerve-wracking if you’re not sure how your skin will react. For this reason, try testing first. For laundry detergent, wash just a few items and try wearing them for a few hours. If no redness or irritation occurs, you’re probably in the clear. Most stores will even allow you to return products if they end up being a problem for you skin. But to be on the safe side, I would check the store policies before buying.

Let Your Laundry Delivery Service or Dry Cleaners Know

If you use a laundry delivery service or take your clothes to a dry cleaner often, make sure you let them know about your sensitive skin. Most dry cleaning services have an alternative soap or detergent to use for people with concerns about irritants. Green dry cleaners, in particular, will usually have a “green” or “natural” option for certain items. It never hurts to ask.

Sensitive skin doesn’t have to change much in your routine. Be aware of the products you’re using and take extra precautions, and your skin will thank you.

Winter Hazards for Our Pets

If we humans find snow and ice such an inconvenience, imagine how our furry companions feel! The rock salt that we spread all over the ground to help combat the slippery ice can actually wreak havoc on the sensitive little paws of our doggy friends. The salt can also be damaging to their noses, skin and even digestive systems if ingested. So how can we be more careful in the wintertime to protect our precious puppies?

Keep Your Pup’s Feet Dry

It’s a good idea to rinse or wipe your dog’s feet off if they’ve been walking in the salt and ice. But make sure to dry them afterward. Wetness behind your dog’s toes can lead to bacterial or yeast infections, so it’s essential to keep their feet dry after spending time outdoors. Golden retrievers and labs are prone to skin infections due to wetness, as are most dogs with longer fur. If you own a long-haired breed, it’s a smart idea to keep the hair around their nails trimmed. This can cut down on bacterial growth.

Buy a Cute Dog Jacket and Booties

It’s impossible to keep your dog’s feet dry during the winter. So if you have a dog with sensitive skin, it might be worth it to buy your pal some booties. Dog booties are great to have for walks and playtime outside in the cold temps and look adorable. You might as well buy a matching jacket for those booties to complete the look. The jacket will give your dog an extra layer of warmth for those winter walks. Salt and ice melting products can easily stain fabrics, so when I don’t have time to remove the stains when I do the laundry, I would throw my dog’s outfits in with my clothes when I make my weekly trip to the dry cleaner near me.

Keep Up With Regular Vet Visits

Dogs can sick in the wintertime just like us. If you notice your doggy has a cough, or is fatigued and just “off”, be sure to take him or her to the vet right away. Sometimes special compounded medications or antibiotics with different strengths or flavors may be necessary to suit your pet’s unique biochemistry, so don’t try to treat them at home without the advice of a professional pharmacist.

Dogs are special. They keep us company, keep us safe, provide companionship for elderly and those with special needs, and they’re our best friends. Be sure to take care of your furry friends this winter, just like they take care of us!

How to Remove Pet Stains and Odors

We all love our furry friends, but the truth is they can be quite messy and smelly. Unlike humans, pets keep themselves warm with their soft fuzzy fur. But that fuzzy fur can shed, collect dander and be annoying to clean. Besides the hair, even the best-trained pets have accidents or throw up, usually in the most inconvenient of places. So for my fellow animal lovers, here are some tips on how to remove pet stains and odors from your home.

Carpet Stains

Pet stains on the carpet are the most frustrating since I can’t pack up my floor and take it to the dry cleaner near me or throw it in the laundry. But before you call a professional carpet cleaner, try this method. After soaking up as much of the fresh stain as possible with a towel, mix two cups of warm water with two cups of vinegar and four tablespoons of baking soda. Pour the mixture into a clean spray bottle and saturate the stain. After letting sit for 10 minutes, blot dry with a towel. For extra odor removal, sprinkle baking soda on the spot after it has dried. Vacuum it up about 30 minutes later. The baking soda vacuum method is also excellent for musty pet smells on their favorite sleeping spots.

Fabric Stains

Has your pet ever thrown up or peed on a favorite item of clothing? You’re not alone. If you’re lucky enough to find the mess right after it happens, you may be able to treat it at home. However, for set-in stains, it’s best to leave it for the experts at dry cleaners or a local laundry delivery service. Be sure to explain the nature and specifics of the stain so they can use the best method for removal. To treat at home, use the same vinegar/water mixture mentioned above to saturate the stain. For heavily soiled items, pour some of the mixture into a shallow container and allow it to soak for at least an hour. After soaking, wash in on a normal cycle in the washing machine with warm water. If the odor remains, repeat the cycle.

Remember for heavily soiled items or set-in stains, ask the experts at a dry cleaner nearby. And don’t get too frustrated with your pets, they may be smelly, but they sure are cute.

Easy Tips to De-Clutter and Organize Your Closet

Did you know that studies have shown that decluttering your home can actually reduce anxiety and depression, and ultimately fewer trips to the drug store for medications? It’s more than just appearance, getting rid of clutter and reorganizing storage spaces in your home can make you feel more relaxed and grounded. I know for me, my closets tend to get a little out of control after time. When I begin dreading opening the closet door, I know it’s time to declutter. So here are my favorite tips for organizing closets.

Start Trying on Those Clothes

The major culprit of bedroom closet clutter is clothing. Look, we all have piles of laundry in various states of cleanliness in our homes at some point, but how much of those clothes do you actually wear? Maybe it’s time for a fashion show! Start trying on those clothes and make piles of “Keep” “Donate” and “Storage”. There’s no shame in keeping clothes that no longer fit, but there’s no point keeping them in your closet. For the clothing that needs to be put in storage, I would take them to a dry cleaner near me first – it’s always important to clean before you store your clothes. And if there is too much clothing to take to the store yourself, use a laundry delivery service.

Dig Out Those Hidden Treasures

Cleaning out your closet always reveals those long lost forgotten items waiting to be made brand new again. Maybe that vintage dress hiding behind your winter coats just needs a quick trip to the local dry cleaner. Or maybe those faded jeans can be cut into summer shorts. Cleaning out your closet is a great way to make use of the items you already have that still have a lot of life left in them. Perhaps with some clever alterations, you can wear them again with pride.

Baskets and Hanging Storage

When it comes to closets, you can never have enough storage solutions. I like to use baskets on the closet floor to separate shoes, handbags, and belts and hanging storage containers for folded items like sweaters, sweatshirts and off-season clothes. Hanging storage containers made of cloth or canvas are inexpensive and easy to find. And they’re amazing for smaller and narrower closets. When it comes to baskets, you may even have some laying around somewhere that you’re not using, or they’re super easy to come by at flea markets and garage sales.

So remember, to lower those stress levels and turn your home back into a sanctuary, start decluttering those smaller spaces like closets and pantries. You might even end up having some fun and find a few treasures in the process.