The 208 Cleaning Co. Holiday Gift Guide With a Clean Twist

208 Cleaning Holiday Gift Guide

If you’re like most people, then you like keeping a clean house. Most of what keeps your house clean is good old fashioned elbow grease. However, there are plenty of time and work saving tools and gadgets that can make the job much easier. If the job is easier, then you’re more motivated to do it, which means that you’ll actually do it more often and your house will stay cleaner! Everybody wins. This year, as you’re buying the typical holiday gift fare, keep in mind that most people like a clean house but might lack a little motivation to keep it that way. Here are some great gifts that you can give them to help bring the holiday cheer all year ‘round.

 

High Roller
Become a “high roller” (or at least feel like one) with these iRoller screen cleaning devices. It’s about the size of a toilet paper tube, but much more handy. Simply rub this bad boy on the smartphone, laptop, or tablet screen of your choice and it will be instantly sanitized and scrubbed free of fingerprints and oils. This day and age, everybody has at least one or two screens they are touching and using everyday and this roller can be a life saver! Say goodby to dirty and smudged screens. Makes a perfect stocking stuffer. $19.95 from Amazon.

 

Work Smarter, Not Harder
Getting the toughest grime and dirt out of your showers and sinks isn’t always about brute strength, but about leverage. This handy tool gives you both strength and leverage and will give your poor forearms a much needed break. Introducing the ultimate nuclear option in dirt fighting power: The drill brush! Simply plug these handy attachments (drill not included) to your favorite household power drill and start blasting away dirt to your heart’s content. These will help make short work of even the toughest bathroom grime while saving you much needed energy to tackle more cleaning projects in a single day. Give this gift to someone who needs a little power boost in their routine, or keep them for yourself. We won’t tell… $14.95 per each set on Amazon.

 

Wave A Magic Wand
Yes, there is a new Harry Potter movie coming out soon, but this isn’t THAT kind of magic wand. While not powered by magic per se, it is magical in what it can do for your home. The Verilux CleanWave UV-C Sanitizing Wand is just the thing for those people in your life who have a lot of surfaces that need sanitizing and not much time to do it in. This wand can keep your kitchen countertops germ and microbe free with a quick daily wave. The best part is that this is chemical and detergent free so your family can stay germ free without being exposed to more toxic chemicals and cleaners. This works great on electronics like keyboards and remote controls, and for other harder to sanitize things like baby toys and playsets. $175.00 on Amazon.

 

Give The Gift of Clean
Think of a friend or family member that you have that might be extra busy this year. Maybe they have a new kid or they got a new job and are away from the house more, or they have been sick lately. Any one of those people are probably a little behind on their house chores and might need an extra hand this holiday season. Give the gift of a clean house and peace of mind to someone you love this year! 208 Cleaning makes exactly this kind of house call so that you can rest assured that your friend or loved one is a little less stressed about their house as they start the new year. Contact us today to get a quote.

 

However you celebrate the holidays, we wish you a safe and fun holiday season and good luck with your gifts! We hope this guide can give you a little peace of mind in your shopping excursions. And as always, don’t forget to treat yourself.

When It Comes To Hiring: Start Slow. Finish Smart.

208 Cleaning Boise

There comes a time in every small business owner’s life when they must make a drastic decision: Hiring your first employee. Hiring a person to work for your company is no small undertaking. It comes with a lot of burdens and important decisions that have to be made and mountains of paperwork. But, above all, it comes with the responsibility of choosing the right person for the job who will help you and your company grow to the next level. This first hire could be the difference between making it big and closing up shop. Let’s explore some of the fundamental ideas behind how to hire the right person and what ideals are important to us at 208 Cleaning.

Hire Slowly. No Really. Take Your Time.
Say it with me: Slooowly. Hiring the right person is a lot like falling in love. You know that one date is a little quick to decide that they are “the one” but taking seven years is a little too slow. Just as in hiring, you can definitely “take things too quickly” before you really get to know a person. It’s easy to make a great first impression on your “first date” aka the job interview, but that one interaction does not a complete picture make.

Hiring slowly is all about experiencing the person in different environments and challenges and giving yourself time to subconsciously process your feelings and observations. Give yourself time to make this undoubtedly huge decision. We recommend starting with a brief phone interview. Then, if you have good vibes from that interaction, give them an “assignment” via email. The assignment could be something as simple as answering a few questions about why they want the job in the form of an essay, to something more complex like doing a mock report on an imaginary client.

Observe how quickly they get it done and how elaborately it was completed. Did they go above and beyond or did they just hand over the bare minimum? This can tell you a lot about a person right there, and we haven’t even officially interviewed them yet! After this task, if you still want to proceed with that candidate, then set up an actual in-person interview.

We’ll leave the questions up to you but here are some things to look out for:

You’re Not Hiring Someone, You’re Starting a Movement
Derek Sivers gave a powerful Ted Talk in 2010 about starting a movement. He said that being a leader definitely takes guts, but you need more than that. You need someone else to take a leap of faith of their own and decide to start following you as well. Otherwise, you’re just hanging out there all by yourself. He said, “the first follower is what turns a lone nut into a leader.” That’s exactly what’s going on here when you’re hiring your first employee for your business: You’re transforming from lone nut to leader. That first follower is going to influence and inform all the rest of the followers on how to follow you.

Pay Attention To Your Employees And Treat Them Well
Once you do hire that first one or two people, it is important to pay attention to them. Obviously, pay attention to how well they are performing their tasks and generally representing the company, but also pay attention to their tastes and music and other likes and dislikes that shape a person. One great thing to try is to switch up the typical old cash bonus program. If you know one of your employees loves country music, then it could be fun to buy them front row tickets to their next favorite artist’s concert.

Keep snacks around and give them away for free along with bottled water. This is an inexpensive way to keep morale high and to help your employees stay fed and hydrated. It’s important to stand by your employees and to trust them to do the right thing, even if you’re not around. Many studies have shown that happy employees work harder and are more loyal than employees who are paid the bare minimum and have little to no latitude in decision making. Keeping your employees happy isn’t just the right thing to do, it’s also good for business!

Best of luck with all of your hiring ventures. If you want to see our wonderful employees in action, give us a call and we can help you with all your residential and commercial cleaning needs: 208 850 0654.