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Cleaning is for everyone, humans.  Including you, dude with a dirty apartment.

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Oh, home.  I do love you so.  And I love helping folks keep up their own home. And all the folks working for my company get it as well.  “It” being mindfulness and a self-starting approach to helping others with housework.  Or commercial cleaning work as well.  It’s such a true, unalloyed pleasure to come home to a clean home, pick up a book and sit about in the peaceful atmosphere order naturally creates.  It’s a warm order, really, as someone has taken the time to tidy and dust the space, themselves.  Their radiance lingers.  At least that’s what I think!  Oh, home.  I do love you so.  Even if it’s not my home.  Helping others is the name of the TC game. x 

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Dust Mites: Invisible Flesh Eaters

Dust mites exist wherever humans do, eating our shed skin and making our eyes itchy. Read on for more about these tiny garbage disposals.

Dust mites are permanent houseguests, freeloading off of our dead skin cells and making themselves comfortable in our beds. Unlike a distant relative or a persistent vacuum salesman, they’re hard to kick out since they’re nearly impossible to see. Each mite measures about 1/80th of an inch, visible only under the lens of a microscope. Close up, they echo back to something prehistoric. Their eight legs are equipped with suckers and hooks, and their thick bodies seem to be covered in armored plates. In fact, fossil evidence suggests that mites have been on Earth for 400 million years, predating dinosaurs by more than 100 million years. And since that time, they’ve made themselves at home inside damp, dark spaces brimming with dead skin cells, their current favorite homes being carpets, duvets, and pillowcases. Humans make it easy for mites to find food, since we shed about 1.5 million skin flakes every hour.

Although our relationship with mites is partially symbiotic—they do dispose of our biological waste—mites also pose a health threat, especially to children. Their droppings can trigger asthmatic reactions in those with mite allergies, and their terrifying appearance can give any kid with a microscope a new reason to fear the boogeyman under the bed.

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TEAM CLEAN

We take care of hidden surprises in your bathroom.

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xo*TC

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Ciao, clutter.

“Clutter is caused by a failure to return things to where they belong. Therefore, storage should reduce the effort needed to put things away, not the effort needed to get them out.” ― Marie Kondō, The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing

I can’t get enough of Marie Kondo’s book, The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up.  It’s an excellent read, and not just for cleaning.  Ms. Kondo studied psychology, astrology, blood types, family history, all to form her KonMari method.  Must type, it can work!  She writes of habits only being able to change once our ways of thinking changes.  Truth!  We do have the power to change, help others with change, if they allow us in.  And tidying is only a tool to the end result, which is having a home that reflects the way we want to live.  Making change takes time and effort, and a game plan.  Those visible messes distract from the true source of the disorder.  Is there a way for us, as cleaners on a regular frequency, to help our clients in this manner?  Yes, but we must be informed, and truly living, the clean that we want to bring into their lives.  It’s nearly impossible to fake.  This is also the main reason I am so picky about whom I hire.  It’s important to feel that the cleaner gets the deal.  Is WOKE, if you will.  And cleaning should be considered a special event.  It is! I mean, isn’t it really satisfying to be working and living in a clean and organized space?  You bet it is.  Inspiring, with space to breathe.  Delving into a space for hours at a time is where the magic happens.  Every Team Clean job is a cleaning party.  Yeah!  Andrew W.K. may agree.  Party!  

Tidying is a tool, just like a scrub brush.  As cleaners, we have a set amount of time in a client’s space.  And, hopefully, if time and budgets allow, we have sorted out the space to a manageable state with an initial larger cleaning.  Upkeep and delving deeper into specific projects becomes the cleaning job plan.  This is possible, but only through communication and clear goals.  

Tidying is a form of meditation.  Or can be, if you’re open to it.  It’s an inner dialogue with oneself, even if it is someone else’s stuff!  I feel so much joy from a freshly cleaned space, especially if I’m the one that organized and cleaned it. It’s all about not being distracted when you’re in a space, too.  Are you lost in a podcast, or music?  Did your mind wander, making you miss something very obvious? Be mindful of distractions.  Our job is all about the mindfulness, so why would we want to risk losing it to something that can wait?  

So, the gist of my message today is to stay present and live the joy you want to live and give.  We have the power to bring sparkles of joy to our clients’ homes.  It happens all the time.  And you’re already doing it.  So tap in, tune in and clean it out!  

x Candace 

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We don’t clean attics but here’s a poem about cleaning an attic.  xoTC

Cleaning an Attic 

BY BRENT PALLAS

The day had finally come when everything there seemed misplaced or out of place as an ex's box of things. The unused beside the irreplaceable, the easy- to-assemble uncomplicated now by disuse. Some hand of randomness leaving behind its lampshades stained like ancient maps, its ladders still climbing upward, and enough old tools to restart a world. Every drawer filled with the other half of things. Everything care embraced, and held once as new, left too ragged for another winter to wear. Its ring of keys dangling by a nail for rooms left long ago. And whatever I said I'd never forget found, just as it seemed completely forgot—all its letters beginning with Dear....

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It’s April, NYC!

Hello, 

Good day, New Yorkers.  And Team Clean NYC fans.  It’s a fave month.  Oh, April.  This month warms the cockles of my heart.  It’s time to get out there and enjoy the weather, fall in love, take a trip, be good to yourself in all the ways you fancy.  There is something special about being able to open all the windows and hear folks playing music and chatting away outside.  Those NYC sidewalks vibrate with life and history.  I promise to write more here, folks.  The past year has been full of changes taking me up and down, topsy turvy and curving through the days.  Team Clean NYC makes me so very happy.  The days were worth the work when I could come back and help folks with keeping their home.  That helping helped me too.  Hooray for mindful work and beautiful folks representing my sweet biz.  They make my heart sing.  Anywhoo, more later.  If you or you know of someone in your life who could use a housekeeping break, get in touch.  Life breathers are necessary.  We care.  xoCandace 

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Happy Monday, folks.  Team Clean NYC is Team The Clean as well.  You know this fantabulous band from New Zealand?  Give a listen.  

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Ah.  Team Clean NYC’s first flyer hit the streets six years ago today.  Time has flown.  And TCNYC is still alive and kicking!  Hooray for that.  Thanks to all the Teamsters that have taken this trip with me in keeping home across NYC.  And thank you to all the loyal clients.  We love you.  Tell your friends!  We are here and, just like the flyer says, we want that dirt!  

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Summer Time is upon us, NYC!

Oh, the endless yet it's actually endless summer in NYC!  So hot and so fun.   Happy June, Team Clean NYC friends!   Tis the season for trips, dips and dinner parties.  Or simply quiet time at home with your folks and family.  To this lady, the summer evokes such a cheerful time in the city.  Cheerful yet good grief hot at times getting from place to place.  Frank Sinatra was more than correct- if you can make it here, you can make it anywhere!  We at Team Clean want you to get out and enjoy yourselves.  If TC hasn't seen you in more than six months we'd love to extend a "Welcome Back!" discount.  Let a Teamster scrub-a-dub whilst you hit the Rockaways!  You, our sweet clients and pals, are so very appreciated.  We may tell you that often but it's the truth.  Thank you for keeping us alive and kicking in NYC.  Thank you for telling your friends.  We have a bevy of new Teamsters on staff as well that are doing really super work.  Clean and green all the way!  Your home environment deserves conscientous cleaning.   All for now!  Shoot me a message if we can be of service.  Cheerio and don't forget sunscreen.   Sincerely, Candace Mills

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Hello, all and happy day from the end of my Wednesday!  

You remember that thought you had right before slumbering that swirled in your head with such a brilliant fever that you knew you’d remember it in the morning?  You wrote the whole blog post before entering dreamland.  I WISH I DID!  It was such a thought to share but I’m going to try my darndest at pulling it together here.  

Cleaning spaces can be such a meditation.  If you allow it to be.  It’s easy to fall into focussing on the nuances of the job.  Or the concepts.  “Am I doing this right?”  “Why did I vacuum the floor when I haven’t even dusted and now the floor is a mess?!”  Yadda yadda.  All kinds of queries spinning.  The answer to most of these is “take a deep breath and get back on track”.  You’re a star and you’ve got this.  Mindfulness will carry you through such moments.  There is a beauty to adding order and cleanliness to a space that needs it.  And taking the time to ponder a game plan that takes into consideration gravity- dust will fall!  And, even if you’ve never had an art class drawing lesson, the philosophy of “start with the larger parts then work into the details” can be applied.  After starting Team Clean I remembered a lovely old teacher telling the class this line.  And I shan’t forget it.  

After all the glorious ways we’ve found as professional cleaners to get a space up to 110% clean we must take a moment to clean up ourselves.  What could that mean?  It’s a gathering of cleaning products and tools, taking a walk about the space to make sure all those rooms are as picture perfect as possible for the client and checking over notes one last time to ensure all requests have been tended to.  A job well done is a well done job for both client and Teamster.  That’s my thought about it. Sequencing your movements to be most efficient whilst also delivering a Team Clean-style service to your client is the game.  Respecting and caring for your surroundings, even if they aren’t your surroundings.  And, when those surroundings include a client that works from home or is stressed about having a stranger in the space, we are asked to keep it as gentle and mindful as we humanly can.  It’s a rad thing, to make someone’s day easier through physically getting in there and scrubbing away, concentrating on the tasks at hand.  It’s all about being present and prepared.  Caring for the space and headspace environment in all ways. 

Think about the stress created when you or your cleaning sidekick don’t have all the products and tools on hand.  The pits for both Teamsters and client!  Being prepared shows respect to all- from the biz you’re working for to the client to yourself.  Okay- now stop thinking about that stress!  I’ll type it again- you’ve got this.  We’ve got this.  If you are one of those lovely Teamsters at Team Clean or a TC client, you are appreciated.  Deeply appreciated. 

Okay, enough of the thought digging.  Time to roast some spaghetti squash!  

love, Candace 

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Happy International Women’s Day, humans.  Loads more work ahead till equality is a construct we simply live instead of fight for.  Don’t. Stop.

Frida Kahlo to Marty McConnell by Marty McConnell leaving is not enough; you must stay gone. train your heart like a dog. change the locks even on the house he’s never visited. you lucky, lucky girl. you have an apartment just your size. a bathtub full of tea. a heart the size of Arizona, but not nearly so arid. don’t wish away your cracked past, your crooked toes, your problems are papier mache puppets you made or bought because the vendor at the market was so compelling you just had to have them. you had to have him. and you did. and now you pull down the bridge between your houses, you make him call before he visits, you take a lover for granted, you take a lover who looks at you like maybe you are magic. make the first bottle you consume in this place a relic. place it on whatever altar you fashion with a knife and five cranberries. don’t lose too much weight. stupid girls are always trying to disappear as revenge. and you are not stupid. you loved a man with more hands than a parade of beggars, and here you stand. heart like a four-poster bed. heart like a canvas. heart leaking something so strong they can smell it in the street.

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Oh, corporate marketing companies targeting women.  Sheesh!  Give me a break.  Team Clean NYC has all kinds of folks on the team.  And thank the pantheon of gods for that.  Sarah Haskins’ video is quite the hilarious.  And not funny at all because this sexism is still a thing!  Enjoy!  xoTC

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Do you guys love stuff like this as much as I do?  I do, I do. 

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What’s a new year got to do with it?

Happy new year, folks.  Must type, I love the new year.  It gives a sense of a fresh start, new beginning, clean slate, all those things that give space for a new experience.  Last year was one for the ages for me.  Dynamic and chock full with new experiences to challenge my courage and show me truest love.  Sounds woo-ey but, hey, last year was pretty intense!  I lost some really close people that I still think about quite often.  They are very much alive in my heart, no doubt.  Their memories remind me to truly realize that I am still here, alive and kicking.  Thank you, sweet friends.  Those tears are dry and I am here to live all the questions, to simply open my eyes and explore, create, honor myself in actions and honor those around me with love.  Team Clean NYC is here as well, alive and cleaning!  We truly care and are here to help kick your space into shape if you need a kickin’.  It’s time to embrace the future because THE FUTURE IS NOW!  Let’s do this new thing, dudes.  

love, Candace