(632) 7527 2669 | +63 917-144-CMDA (2632) | +63 908 812 9503 inquiry@cmdacleaning.com

How to Remove the Smell of Smoke in a Room

How to Remove the Smell of Smoke in a Room

We have received several inquiries on how to get rid of cigarette smell in any room and so we thought a blog post should be written.

Here are some easy steps to follow to remove cigarette smell in your home.

Need something cleaned?

 1. Regularly clean out ashtrays.

Believe it or not, the ashes and the cigarette butts are emitting smell long after you’ve made the last puff.

2. Deep clean any upholstery and carpet in your home because these materials easily absorb smoke and its smell stays for long.

A normal pat and vacuum cannot remove the smell entirely, you need to have a steam cleaner at least and then shampoo and conditioner specific for the upholstery fabric. This is why it’s better to call on a professional cleaning service to do this part for you.

 

3. Wipe the rest of the furniture in the room with a disinfectant or an odor eliminator solution.

Make sure you do not ruin the furniture with the solution you’re using.

 

4. Wipe the walls and the ceiling with a disinfectant or odor eliminator solution.

Mirrors and glass windows should be wiped clean too.

 

5. If you’re still planning on smoking in the room, make it a habit to open the windows to lessen the accumulation of the smoke.

Air out the room after smoking too. Proper ventilation is key.

 

6. Place charcoal on inconspicuous areas of the room.

Charcoal absorb any smell really well.

 

7. Spray room freshener, burn an incense, light a candle or put on air purifier to cleanse the air.

These could all work depending on the degree of odor you want to rid of.

 

 

What are the best homemade cleaning solution to use?

1. Vinegar works really well with proper amount of water added of course. I like using bleach with water too.

2. Store bought bleach and all purpose cleaning solutions should work too but you should be mindful of the surface area you are cleaning as it can damage wood or other surface.

3. For glasses and mirrors, you can use dishwashing liquid and water.

 

Here’s a bonus tip!

After washing/wiping your walls, floors and furniture with bleach or vinegar, do another set of wiping using the following: water plus your favorite fabric conditioner. This will leave the room smelling so nice and fresh without breaking the bank (and damaging anything!).

So there you go, I hope this post will help you in removing those pesky cigarette smell. If not, just call us we’ll make things easier (and smelling great!)

 

Hard Headed Stains: Hard Water Dilemmas

Hard Headed Stains: Hard Water Dilemmas

Dear CMDA,

I just want to ask, how do you clean the stain droplets that appear on our glass windows and faucets? Even some of our bathroom tiles have that dried circles that can’t seem to be removed no matter how much I brush it, or dry it. I’ve tried using the strong toilet and bath cleaning solutions you mentioned, but they don’t seem to get away. Please help!

Sincerely,
Raine

Need something cleaned?

Hi Raine,

Thank you for your question, and for being a loyal visitor on our site.

Those droplets and circular stains that you are mentioning are called “Hard Water Stains”, and are caused by the tap water that comes out of our faucet. Unfortunately, all our water supply provider delivers hard water through our pipelines. Hard water contains small amounts of metals and minerals, which when they accumulate and dry up, would cause those hard to remove stains. Simply put, regardless of what commercial cleaning solution you use, as long as you rinse using hard water, those marks will always appear. An immediate solution to this would be cleaning with the same cleaning solutions, soak it for 15 minutes, but rinsing with distilled water. On your next home deep cleaning, you can also try rinsing the glass windows or faucets with vinegar, squeezed calamansi or lemon.

Thank you so much and we look forward to your next message to us!

Reena Alcantara

Reena Alcantara

President

Reena, or “Renz”, is the owner and president of CMDA Cleaning Services. A work from home mom, loving wife and a mother of 2 girls, 2 cats and a dog. She is passionate about all things related to cleaning. She is a strong advocate of “Mompreneur” which enables mothers to be successful businesswomen. On her spare time, she looks for local suppliers and retailers to also help support small local businesses.

Reena is a Registered Medical Technologist, and also a graduate of BS Nursing. She knows the real deal about germs and the importance of health. Though she does not practice her field for 15 years, she believes that she could help more people be healthy in providing clean homes and offices.

So really, Where is the Dirtiest Place in your Home?

So really, Where is the Dirtiest Place in your Home?

We’ve cleaned thousands of homes and almost from all walks of life, and we continuously get this question from our friends and acquaintances: What part of the house is usually the dirtiest?

We’ve looked back on all the home cleaning and condo cleaning services that we provided, and did a detailed research on which area of the house is indeed the dirtiest for the most, and you might be in for a surprise! The verdict? See below:

Need something cleaned?

 The Kitchen

Thought it would be the toilet? Well, we are all so conscious how dirty or clean our toilet and bath is, so we regularly clean them or at least give it a routine weekly deep cleaning. Plus the fact that the bathroom is generally a smaller space than that of a kitchen (for most homes), so cleaning is easier in the toilet. It really is a different case for the kitchen, and the worst part of it, we do all the cooking there.

The kitchen sink and the counter tops or kitchen tables- that’s where it all starts. These are the usual areas we place our raw meats, vegetables and all other ingredients for thawing, cutting and other primary food processing. And no matter how clean you might think your source is, these raw food products have contaminants, like bacteria and viruses, that are too small to see and too few to be harmful.

It’s a good thing that we cook our food to kill these contaminants and prevent us from making sick, but, the problem is, no matter how much we clean the kitchen counter top and skin, there are hard to reach corners, small spaces or cracks in your chopping board and small holes in the sealant on your kitchen sink, which where these contaminants can hide to. These areas are also most of the time moist, which is a very good environment for them to multiply. A deep cleaning with a very good disinfecting solution should be done in order to thoroughly clean them and must be done in a regular, if not, daily schedule. Just imagine how restaurants should do an intensive restaurant cleaning regularly.

 

Cabinet under the kitchen sink

This is like Hogwarts for germs, where bacteria can go to a hidden place, do their best in multiplying, without being constantly threatened of being wiped out of existence. This area is hardly cleaned thoroughly because it puts the cleaner in a difficult position, and no natural light can get through it. This area is also always moist, thanks to humidity, leaking pipes perhaps and your grease trap (if you have one).

 

Top area of kitchen cabinets

Some modern home designs have cabinets extended as far as ceiling, but if you do have a cabinet with a space on top of it, chances are, it is rarely cleaned. This area would most likely contain dust accumulating over time. The good news is, it is not always moist in this part so it may not contain bacteria. The bad news: Fungi spores can withstand dry environment and can come back to life as soon as they are blown away to a wet area, like your food.

 

Back of the Refrigerator or Freezer

Another area which puts the cleaner in a difficult position, hence, hardly cleaned. Because of the weight of the refrigerator, the back is hardly cleaned, which makes dust accumulate, or pushed over dirt hide. But we are not just pointing out the space in between the “back” of the refrigerator and the wall it is leaning to, we are also pertaining to the section near the refrigerator motor. This area is a blank space where water can accumulate because of condensation, and where some bits of food can go to. This would be a problem area after a couple of years if you are using the regular type of refrigerators, not the no-frost or induction type. If you still have odor problems despite cleaning the inside of your ref, or despite placing blocks of charcoal or boxes of deodorizers, it would mean that the back of your refrigerator is really dirty.

 

Plenum or Party Area

No, this is not the place in your house where you hold your parties or events, this is the space between your ceiling and roof, especially if you don’t have an attic. This space is a bit small, usually 2 to 3 feet high, where your ventilation and electrical lines go through. This is well hidden space and inaccessible, unless you have a dwarf go through it to clean the space. Luckily, there are no holes that would let dusts fall through except for a square service entrance discreetly placed by your contractor for future access in case you will be doing some home improvements. This area can pose a little to no concern for you, unless there are leaks in your roof that would require you to replace your entire ceiling, which would mean you would be needing a post-renovation cleaning afterwards.

 

There’s nothing wrong on scheduled cleaning because let’s admit it, not all of us has the time to clean all these things. But missing out thoroughly cleaning these areas we mentioned, can pose persistent health problems in the future. So don’t just concentrate on your rooms or toilets, give your kitchen some TLC too, Top Level Cleaning. If this is a big task for you or if you need some assistance, you can always give us a call! And hey, we do a per area cleaning too where we can simply concentrate on a particular place in your home and give you TOP LEVEL CLEANING.

Budget Home Improvement Tips For Your Pinoy Home

Budget Home Improvement Tips For Your Pinoy Home

When it comes to home improvements and home renovations, the first thing we will think of (and worry about) is the price. But it doesn’t have to be that way, and home improvement should be “life improvement”.

If your space doesn’t “spark some joy” into your heart, you don’t have to overhaul your home, nor throw away everything and buy some new stuff.

 

Here are some tips to level up your home without breaking the wallet:

Need something cleaned?

 

LIGHT ‘EM UP

Sometimes it’s not the furniture, items or space that doesn’t give a spark in you, but it’s because of poor lighting in the area. And what better (and cheaper) way to do that than using natural lights. Check your drapes if they are out of place. You might have mixed up the drapes and instead of using block out curtains in your bedroom, you might have it in your living room. Play with your existing drapes to ensure that you can manage the sunlight coming in to your home where you want, when you want it.

On a same note, updating your light bulbs to get the best illumination and energy efficiency would help lighten up your mood (and your wallet in the long run). They may be pricey compared to your regular fluorescent and incandescent bulbs, but they last longer and use less electricity.

5 Watt bulb: P99 – P250 per piece (mall price, could be cheaper in your local hardware store!)

UPDATE THE PAINT

When was the last time you had your walls (re) painted, by you or a professional wall painter? Our best bet is, since you got your place (which could be a year or more already). Your wall paint gives the overall mood of your home, and as the years pass and the paint fade, it might as well display “boring” all over it. So updating, or at least, retouching your paint would be a big help in improving the overall mood of your place.

The good news is, you can have this as your next family project. All you need would be some sand paper (to remove old paint or at least even out the surface), lots of old newspaper, paint brush, roller brush with pan, paint thinner, and of course, paint! You can find some videos on how to paint walls all over the internet, and you can even add a design. You don’t even have to be very artistic when doing this.

  • Wall Painting Materials: P2,500 – P5,000 (depending on how big your wall surface area is and the damage that needs to be “covered up”)
  • Professional Wall Painting Service: P15,000 and up (depending on how big your wall surface area is)

FANTASTIC FLOORING

The floor is the most overlooked surface in the house when it comes to home improvement, but is as significant as placing a chandelier on your ceiling.

Marble flooring and ceramic floor tiles are expensive and covers only a little versus its cost (tiles + tile adhesive + grout + labor cost). Updating your flooring in the future could be hard labor too and could take some time to complete. The best solution for this is to make use of DIY floor stickers. There are great floor stickers available on online stores, and so many designs to choose from, which you could easily place on your floor by yourself in a day.

  • For a 20 square meter floor area: DIY Floor Stickers: P13,500 to P15,500
  • Ceramic Tiles: P18,000 – P22,000 (all materials with labor)

MAXIMIZE VERTICAL SPACE

We love to keep stuff that have sentimental value for us, and most of the time they can be found under our beds, big boxes around the house or taking up space inside a cabinet.

Take advantage of unused vertical space by using the space on top of your cupboards/kitchen cabinets or installing racks or shelves on walls where you don’t have anything on it yet. This will help provide you more space where you walk on to, or to open up space for new stuff. This is very helpful in the shower (for towel rack storage) and in storage rooms in keeping important documents dry from possible flooding.

Stainless racks: P300 – P650 per piece

Don’t hesitate in improving your home, after all, this is where your heart (and family) is. After doing some renovations, don’t forget to do a post-renovation cleaning to ensure that your home is totally clean and safe for your family.

FUNKY FUR: Case of the Stinky Carpet After Cleaning

FUNKY FUR: Case of the Stinky Carpet After Cleaning

Dear CMDA,

I have just had my carpet in our living room cleaned. It was all good the first day, but things got smelly the following day and even smellier the succeeding days. I don’t have pets and I am very careful not to spill food or drinks on it. What should I do? The carpet cleaners wouldn’t re-do their work and they will charge us again if we wanted it cleaned “just to remove the smell”. We don’t want it cleaned, we just want the smell to go away. It’s now embarrassing to accept guests because of the stinky smell. Please help! Thanks in advance.

Sincerely,
Fanny

Need something cleaned?

Thank you Fanny for messaging us! We appreciate questions like these.

Carpet cleaning is not just all about how cleaning and reconditioning your rug or carpet floors, but also in the drying. A lot of fancy carpet cleaning professionals and carpet extractors sales agent boast of fantastic and excellent cleaning service when in truth, they miss another important part of the process – drying. The usual process of shampooing or cleaning a carpet is either sucking all the dirt first or go right ahead with the carpet extractor, which sucks the dirt, at the same time sends a jet of water with shampoo cleaning solutions. That is all well and good, but after that process, it leaves the carpet wet (or worse, soaking wet). The crew might place a blower to dry the carpet, but it will only dry up the surface, giving it an impression that “it is already dry”. The water that accumulated beneath the fabric will become breeding grounds for molds and bacteria, causing the funky smell.

The best thing that you can do Fanny is either you vacuum your carpet thoroughly again and spray deodorizers with antibacterial components, or, you could get the service of a truly professional carpet cleaning service company that uses foam wash only, like we do! It is indeed important to be very particular with the equipment being used when we avail of services, but we also need to be very particular with the process and skills applied so we will not be frustrated, and wasting money, in the end.

Because to be honest, an expensive vacuum or carpet extractor is no match to a skilled cleaner.

We hope we were able to answer your question. Good luck!

Reena Alcantara

Reena Alcantara

President

Reena, or “Renz”, is the owner and president of CMDA Cleaning Services. A work from home mom, loving wife and a mother of 2 girls, 2 cats and a dog. She is passionate about all things related to cleaning. She is a strong advocate of “Mompreneur” which enables mothers to be successful businesswomen. On her spare time, she looks for local suppliers and retailers to also help support small local businesses.

Reena is a Registered Medical Technologist, and also a graduate of BS Nursing. She knows the real deal about germs and the importance of health. Though she does not practice her field for 15 years, she believes that she could help more people be healthy in providing clean homes and offices.