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Fall cleaning tips for businesses in the Portland area.

Fall is a beautiful time of year as the vibrant colors of Spring and Summer begin to fade into the brilliant shades of leafy sunset shades. It is also when loose leaves begin to fall and litter the lawns and walkways of homes and businesses. Aside from being a time to focus on keeping outer areas swept clean, it is also a time of year that is good for keeping up with organization and starting new projects.

Turn the infamous “Spring Cleaning” into a biannual event.

Who says that cleaning out the old and getting to that list of projects for around the office is just a once a year event? Taking time in the fall season to clear out excess around the office is a great way to keep things from cluttering store rooms and file cabinets. A good time to tackle it is from mid to late fall. While the leaves are being kept cleared off the walks and ledges outside, the same sort of fastidious cleaning can be done indoors.

Take time to have the out of sight areas tended to.

One important task to get to during the fall season is cleaning out air ducts and getting to the out of way areas for top to bottom dusting. Hiring a commercial cleaning company can help get your business in good shape for the winter months and beyond. Dust, dirt, and other undesirable particulates, sometimes including mold, can accumulate in air ducts. When colder weather begins to set in and heaters are turned on, the warm air can really rile up and distribute these settled health hazards. Itchy, watery eyes, sneezing and many other sinus issues can be created or made worse by working in a building with an unclean air duct system. This is especially true for the colder months when less fresh air is taken in and people tend to remain in doors more. Having a good in depth dusting from top to bottom and the ducts cleaned can dramatically improve the air quality inside buildings and reduce the number of sick days throughout the year.

Use a commercial cleaning company to help.

If your business does not already use one, hiring a commercial cleaning company, for at least an assessment, can help you find potential trouble areas. Trained janitorial professionals can spot areas that may be neglected or overlooked by your current cleaning staff, or can tend to jobs that are out of your company’s liability comfort zone. Dusting and touching up areas over head height that require a ladder, outside surfaces, and other such areas that are either hard to access or pose potential hazards to less accustomed workers can often be handled with great ease by the staff of a reputable commercial cleaning company. There are several in the Portland, Oregon area that offer free evaluations and most will give you a comprehensive assessment of what it would take to reach your janitorial goals. For all the benefits, which include more efficient work flow and less sick leave, there is no reason to not have good “Fall Cleaning.”

Why is pays to invest in a professional janitorial service

There may be a lot of options when it comes to finding a commercial cleaning company in the Portland, Oregon area, so much so that it may be asked if using a janitorial service even worth the hassle of finding a good one. For business of all sizes and industry, using a reliable janitorial service can not only be beneficial to your budget, it can mean the difference between repeat business and not. When your store or office is disorganized or messy, it tends to generate negative feedback from customers and can tarnish a business’s reputation.

The difference between using a commercial cleaning company and on staff workers.

When you employ a janitorial staff, like other members of the crew, there is an issue of training, insurance, and benefits that can make the cost to maintain an in house department much more costly than hiring a service. With the abundance of available choices, finding a reliable commercial cleaning company in the Portland area is easy and affordable. You can find a single company to handle all of your cleaning needs. From windows to basements, commercial cleaning companies can offer you the services you need, and within a set budget that works for you. Additionally, hiring an outside company means you are getting people with proper training from a company the specializes in janitorial needs. This also means that not only will the job be done well, it will be done to the best standards and with the best techniques your company may not be aware of. Letting someone else worry about proper cleaning allows your business to focus on what really matters, your business.

Accountability and insurance.

 One of biggest benefits to hiring a commercial cleaning service, aside from getting an important job done well, is their accountability practices. While reputation makes or breaks a business, for cleaning companies, it is particularly important for them to maintain a good reputation. They have to not only prove they are capable cleaners, they have to prove they can be trusted. A lot of businesses look to hire cleaning to be done after hours so it will not interrupt daily affairs. Trying to mop, vacuum and other types of cleaning, such as dusting, can get in the way of workers or customers ,and end up making a bad impression. Unless you normally have an after hours crew, hiring a company means you are allowing people into your establishment with only their own supervision and any surveillance system that you use.

Any commercial cleaning company worth their salt will not only prove that they are trustworthy, but they will also have impeccable accountability for their work. They will also carry insurance to ensure that if anything goes wrong that it will be covered.  Aside from being insured and trustworthy, a good commercial cleaning company will also be able to provide previous and current customer recommendations for future clients. Their reputation will precede them, and it will be well earned for how well they perform and reliable they are.

How to Find a Great Commercial Cleaning Company in Portland

Things get dirty. It is a way of life. Even when you do the best to keep things tidy, things get dusty, and eventually office detritus and paperwork just piles up. Before you know it, your office looks really bad, and your employee’s productivity is suffering because of it. That’s when you know it is time to call a Portland commercial cleaning company. Today we’re going to look at how to find a great commercial cleaning company.

Look at Your Options

The first thing we suggest doing is looking what Portland commercial cleaning companies are available in your area. You’ll have a few companies to choose from. This step is relatively easy, just Google for companies near you, and make a list of the ones that look legit and meet your requirements.

Look for Reviews

Your next step is to look at the reputations of the companies you’ve added to your list. You do this by going online and looking for reviews of their services. There are many sites online that specialize in reviews of companies like this, including sites like AngiesList.

This is probably the most important part of your search, because it will help you narrow the list down to the most reputable company. Remember that every company will have a negative review or two online, even the best ones do because no company is perfect. Your goal here is to look at the big picture. Is the overall review of most of the customers positive or negative? If most people find the company respectable and reliable, then they should give you the same level of service. If, on the other hand, there are a lot of negative reviews (especially reviews that all site the same problems), then you should steer clear.

Contact the Companies for Quotes

The next step is to focus on price, as that is often the second piece of the puzzle that you’ll use to narrow down your list. You alone know what your company’s budget is for this service. You’ll need to use that information to figure out what combination of reputation, services, and price you need to meet. The company you choose should provide you value. The best option is almost always the most expensive, but that doesn’t mean the ones that compete on price are bad services. So look for the best combination of price and reputation, as well as services.

Bottom Line

At the end of the day, your job is to choose the best Portland commercial cleaning company you can afford. It’s all about getting the best service for the best value. You can use the tips above to help find the company that meets your needs.  Always Quality Cleanings has been providing expert janitorial and cleaning solutions to businesses throughout the Portland OR area and can help you with your commercial cleaning too!

3 Steps to Keeping Your Office Clutter Free

There have been many studies that say that the cleaner your office is, the more productive your employees are. People tend to like working in clean conditions, so it isn’t surprising that their productivity is impacted when they work in cluttered spaces. Today we’re going to look at three ways you can keep your office clutter free, and why you should consider hiring a Portland commercial cleaning company to help you keep them that way.

Get Rid of the Unnecessary Clutter

The first step is to get rid of the things that you don’t need. Every office has piles of papers and folders lying around that aren’t really needed. These things should be placed in file cabinets or in file storage. Removing the things you don’t need on a daily basis is the first step, because otherwise you just end up moving things around, and nothing actually improves. Keeping that sort of stuff around is the equivalent of sweeping the dust under the rug. It might look cleaner in the end, but it really isn’t.

Clean it Up

Once you’ve decluttered, it’s time to actually clean the offices. This means dusting, washing the windows, removing dead plants, cleaning the bathrooms, and vacuuming the floors. This is the first place where a Portland commercial cleaning company could come in handy. The larger your office, the harder it will be for you to do this on your own. A company can help you not only maintain the cleanliness of your office (more on this later), but can help get to clean in the first place.

Hire a Cleaning Company to Maintain It

Once you’ve cleaned your office, the last thing you want to do is redo it all again in a few months. You’re always telling people to work smarter, not harder, right? Why should you spend time and money to continuously declutter your office, when you can clean it right the first time, and then just maintain it in that clean state?

Hiring a commercial cleaning company might sound like a way to just spend some money, but it can have a huge impact on the productivity of your office. Your office will stay clean, and it won’t even take that much effort on your part. The cleaner the office, the happier your workforce.

In order for this process to work, you need to train your employees to keep the unnecessary items where they belong: in storage. Even the best cleaning company won’t be able to file away your papers. Keep the files where they belong, in the cabinets, and then make sure your employees know that they need to keep their work items organized. Do that, and with the addition of a commercial cleaning company, your office will always look its best.

7 Tricks to Spring Clean Your Office

Like it or not, your office is where you spend a big portion of your day. A recent study found that there is a correlation between how clean your office is and the amount of work you can get done each day. If you’re not lucky enough to have a commercial cleaning company on hand to do the cleaning for you, we’re going to show you 7 simple tricks you can use to make spring-cleaning your office a little easier.

#1 Start Small

No matter the size of your office, the best way to get started is to start small. Don’t think about the amount of work you have to do in order to clean the whole office; instead think about how little time it’ll take to clean that one bookshelf or that one corner. Each little bit you do will contribute to getting the larger job done.

#2 Avoid Clean Clutter

We all need our stuff, and we like it close by. However it is important that you actually have room to work. Only keep what is absolutely necessary within arm’s reach. Obviously this will include you computer, your writing utensils, and your pad of paper.

#3 Find a Place to Put Your Paper

The floor is not a filing system, no matter how hard you might try to make it one. Obtain file cabinets and desk baskets to store needed paperwork so that it doesn’t end up strewn all over your office.

#4 Get Rid of Unnecessary Stuff

Stuff is great, but you don’t need it all in your office. If you don’t use it or don’t need it, get rid of it. If you can’t stand to part with it, take it home or put it into office storage.

#5 The Drawers of Catch All

Office drawers are the equivalent of a closet. You shove stuff in there to keep it out of sight and out of mind. But that’s a messy system, and it’s inefficient. Go through your drawers and organize. Get rid of detritus and unnecessary items. This way, even if the rest of your office is a mess, your drawers will be clean.

#6 Your Computer Office Needs Cleaning Too

If you’re your own IT department, then you’ll need to take care of things like virus scans, defragmentation of the hard drives, and organizing electronic files. Our best tip for this, is to simply remember that the Windows desktop area is not a folder to store everything on your computer.

#7 Find Your Zen

What is clean to one person is a mess to another. It’s a deep thought, but extremely true. Know what is the right amount of clean for you, and then shoot for that goal. Not every person functions the same, and if a little bit of organized clutter actually makes you more productive, then that’s what you should aim for.

Always remember that if it gets too out of control and self-organized spring cleaning is out of the question, you can always look for a commercial cleaning company to come help, such as Always Quality Cleanings in Portland OR. Let us help make your office “spring fresh” all the time!

4 Outdoor Summer Cleaning Tips | Portland Cleaning Company

Summer is here! That means you are spending more time outdoors under the sun. To enjoy the most of your summer time, you need to get the outside of your home looking utterly neat – by cleaning the exteriors of your windows, your grill, your patio or deck, and even your outdoor light fixtures. But here is a refreshing thought: You do not have to break into a sweat to keep your outdoors looking vibrant. You only need these 4 simple tips to help ease your work.

Simple Summer Cleaning Tips To Help Ease Your Work

Exterior Windows: To clean windows you need a cleaning solution. In the summer, this might prove a bit tasking as the solution tends to dry too quickly leaving your windows with streaks, which always look unsightly from a distance. So, to get the best results clean your windows on a cloudy day during the summer. This will ensure your windows are looking sparkling clean and neat. While wiping windows is easy, it might be risky when cleaning windows above ground level.

The Grill: This is perhaps the easiest thing to clean that is outside of your home. You need only two basic household items to turn the grill from ho hum to eye-catching in minutes. Think white distilled vinegar and tin foil. Yes, these two items will effortlessly do the magic on your grill. Here is how: Make the tin foil into a ball that pretty much fits into your hand, and then gently apply the distilled vinegar on the foil before scrubbing the grate of your grill with it, and voila!

The Deck or Patio: It is tasking even to think about cleaning the whole patio or deck alone. Most people find it a laborious, challenging, and time-consuming venture. To make things easier for yourself, firstly break down the entire project – depending on the size of your outdoor area of course – into separate and manageable areas. This helps create a plan of how to thoroughly clean the entire patio or deck area without breaking into a sweat. Be simply creative while at it.

Another Imperative Summer Cleaning Tip

Outdoor Lighting Fixtures: Light fixtures gather bugs, dust, and pollen. But thankfully, a water and vinegar solution can help exhaustively clean out the interior and the cover of your light fixtures. You just need to douse a microfiber cloth into the said solution, and then wipe out all pollen and dust in the interior of the lighting fixtures, as well as their plastic or glass cover, and voila! Within minutes, you are finally done. All ready to relax and enjoy the clean, lively, and vibrant outside of your home. No need to break into a sweat this summer.

About our Small Business Office Cleaning Services

AQC commercial cleaning is a specialist in providing office cleaning services. A part of the industry for years we have managed to accumulate the experience and personnel to provide the most effective cleaning services regardless of the size of your office space and its cleaning needs.

Guaranteed Security

Our highly trained professionals ensure the highest quality of work possible and surpass your expectations. To also guarantee the necessary safety and security of your office space and its assets, we only hire employees after a thorough background check and only once they pass out 90 day training period and a seven-year background check. ID badges and a uniform are also mandatory for our employees to ensure a longer relationship with our clients.

We Believe in Confidentiality

We believe that the client deserves the utmost importance when it comes to privacy. Hence, we implement proper procedures to ensure that all the aspects of the property and your business are kept confidential for your peace of mind.

Flexibility to Accommodate any Size and Frequency 

Our firm is capable of being able to take on any cleaning job easily. Furthermore, the frequency of these cleaning activities can be easily tailored to suit your needs.

Hi-Tech Cleaning Services

We are not limited to traditional methods. For effective results and improved quality, we use the latest hi-tech gadgets and equipment. With these, our cleaning process becomes quick and precise.

Proper Disinfection 

The health of your employees is equally important to us. If you are worried about the spread of infections and diseases, we will take care of this predicament for you by disinfecting the premises as well.

Billing

Rather than calling us every time you need to access our services, we offer regular billing to a location in particular to ensure accessibility and convenience.

Insurance 

We pride ourselves on offering insurance for the basic requirements of any cleaning company. We can extend our insurance to our clients. Furthermore, our employees are covered, ensuring that you are never burdened with additional costs.

The Main Benefits of Commercial Window Cleaning

In a professional environment, looks matter. This extends beyond your own appearance and all the way to that of your office. If your windows especially are stained, untidy and just plain ugly, you need to rectify this immediately and call in a commercial window cleaning service.

To make this step even more necessary, here are two benefits of this service.

Maintaining the Integrity and Appearance of Windows 

Regular cleaning will make sure that the windows do not deteriorate over time. Due to problems like acid rain and hard water, the windows may weaken and break. Before you are made to pay a hefty bill for replacing your windows, get their cleaned and ensure their longevity.

Integrity aside, the appearance of your windows makes a difference. Clean windows show that you take care of the slightest of details. This proves to both your suppliers and your clients how responsible you are and how much you care about your image in their eyes.

Ensuring Effectiveness and Improved Functionality

Cleaning the windows allows sunlight into the office. This will ensure that your cubicles and offices receive ample heat, especially during winter. In addition, sunlight will drive your employees to work harder. That aside, properly maintaining your windows ensures that they stay strong and ward off attacks from insects and other pests that can disturb your employees.

After reading these two benefits, it is quite apparent that the cleanliness of windows is not to be taken lightly. However, to really get the most value for your money, you need to make sure that your windows are cleaned by professionals. If you choose a mediocre service, chances are that the grime will be gone, but smudges on both ends and fingerprints will be visible. So if you want the best commercial window cleaning, hire the best.

One way to assess how good a service provider is through their website. Check testimonials and the list of businesses they worked with in the past. Also look for their ratings on services like Yelp as these will give you unbiased reviews most of the time. So take these measures today to get the best service provider for life.

Why Does a Clean Office Matter? | Commercial Cleaning Professionals

Millions of people spend around third of their day in an office. Living and working in a clean environment should be imperative for all these people. A clean office can definitely make those who work in it happy and more productive. On the other hand, office space that is messy and dirty can negatively affect not only the person working in such environment but the whole organization too.

Regardless of the type of business, the customers/clients build their first impression about the organization once they enter the office space. That’s why employees should be objective and take a look at their work space from another point of view. If customers/clients have negative image about that business, which is very probable if the office space is dirty, that business can lose those clients and lose profit. Furthermore, according to the latest researches customers prefer cleanliness over all other elements that they use to decide where they would shop. A clean office has fresher air, cleaner furniture and electronics. It looks and smells better and both employees and clients feel more comfortable and relaxed. No matter how many customers enter the office daily it always needs to be clean.

Besides that, an office that is not regularly cleaned is a perfect place for procreation of viruses and germs. There are a lot of items that we use daily in our offices like phones, computers or vending machines that are perfect ground for germs if they are not cleaned in a proper way. According to some statistics workers call 8 sick days every year on average and this absence can cost the companies a lot. Around 5% of these absences are caused by medical conditions caused by irregularly or improperly cleaned offices. This ultimately means that the productivity and sales will also drop.

Safety can also become an issue if the offices are not cleaned regularly. Hazards such as falling or slipping are increased if the office is disorganized and dirty. Hiring a professional cleaning company that knows how to deal with these things is always a good idea.

Even if the employees can take care about their office space there are some common areas like restrooms or hallways that need to be cleaned too. This is where a professional cleaning company can help. Besides that they have all the necessary equipment and experience to make sure that the office is clean and safe.

Untidy working environment can cause a lot of stress and this also means less productivity. Productivity is one of the most important factors for a successful business. With a clean office business owners can be sure that their employees are giving their maximum because they have all the necessary prerequisites to work. If the office is not clean and well organized the employees might lose motivation. The truth is that nobody wants to work in an uncomfortable environment.

Hiring a professional cleaning company is the best option for all business owners because it will save them both time and money! 🙂

How to Choose a Reputable Commercial Cleaning Company in Portland OR

Choosing a commercial cleaning company in Portland is not as easy as it seems. Maintenance managers of most facilities in Portland, Beaverton and areas around Oregon who oversee the cleanliness and healthiness of their facilities agree hiring a reputable cleaning service takes time. Commercial cleaning services are required to meet the businesses’ needs effectively and efficiently.

Many small and large business owners in Portland hire commercial cleaners from time to time to maintain a professional, clean and comfortable working environment. However some find it difficult outsourcing a good commercial cleaning company without constraining their budget. Here are some common tips to help you choose the best commercial cleaning company in the Portland OR area:

What are your needs?
First is to determine your cleaning needs. What type of commercial cleaning services do you need? Hospital cleaning, office cleaning, or even industrial cleaning? You also have to consider how frequent you need cleaning services.

What days or times do you need cleaning services?
In choosing a commercial cleaning company for your business, you will need to decide when you need cleaning services specifically. Do you need cleaning services during regular business hours or do you need your space to be cleaned at the end of the day or when your business is closed?

Are they insured?
You should find out if your preferred cleaning company is insured and if it will protect you against potential liability claims arising from the cleaning. If they do have an insurance certificate, obtain a copy of it. A reputable commercial cleaning service should gladly provide proof of insurance.

What type of equipment do they use?
Before you hire the services of a commercial cleaning company you have to go through the equipments they intend using. Many inexperienced commercial cleaners use bad or wrong equipments or even use the right equipments inappropriately which may permanently damage or leave stains on your property. A reputable cleaning company will take time to inspect your facility to know the level of work to be done, use equipments in perfect condition and even draft a schedule to always keep the place neat and attractive always.

There are many commercial cleaning companies in the Portland area, making choosing a reputable and efficient one can be a difficult job. You must make sure the commercial cleaning company offers the exact service you need, are well recognized in their field and also possess an easily accessible website with wealth of information about the company and what they do. A good commercial cleaning service will answer all questions you may have, tour your facility before a given job and possess professional knowledge about the work to be done.

Always Quality Cleaning provides expert commercial cleaning services. Learn more about Always Quality Cleaning by clicking here.