Hello Tucson

We realize that it has been a while since we have posted to our blog. We apologize for taking so long to get back to it, especially since the busiest months are ahead of us. We have a lot to share with you. #1: We have sent letters and newsletters telling you all about our upcoming contest: Tibe Fan Club Best Pet Ever - Not Contest. Tibe (Tiberius) belongs to Jim and Suzanne Faustlin, the owners of The Maids of Tucson. One day Tibe found the bathroom open and the toilet paper just sitting on the roll alone and unsupervised. He began to wonder how many rolls it would take to get to the center of that toilet paper! Luckily, Jim was home and was able to catch Tibe in his quest to find the secrets at the center of the toilet paper roll, and he was able to snap some pictures for us.

Through Tibe's inspiration, we are inviting all of our current customers to send us pictures of their pets at their very best (or worst, as the case may be). As we receive the pictures, they will be posted on this blog site for people to vote. The contest rules are as follows:

• Voting begins October 1st, 2011 as early as 12:00 am
• Voting closes October 31st, 2011 at 11:59 pm
• Pictures can be submitted via email to maidsoftucson@att.net or to our facebook page @ http://www.facebook.com/themaidstucson
  
• Anyone can vote -- So invite your friends and family to come and vote for you
• Because not all of our customers have access to facebook, all voting will be done on this blog page
• The winner of this contest will receive 1 free cleaning and their pet will be featured on our facebook page as our profile picture for 1 week. We will also feature our runner-up in a single post.

We are very excited about this contest and look forward to seeing how mischievous and adorable our Tucson pets are.

#2: Making Strides Against Breast Cancer : We are working towards a goal of raising $2500 this year. Last year we were just short of our $2000 goal, and we want to do better this year. We will be hosting a car wash on October 8th at our office (4425 E. Broadway Blvd.) to collect donations. All donations collected go directly to Making Strides Against Breast Cancer & The American Cancer Society. This charity means so much to us because 60% of the funds raised stay in Tucson to help our community. We have all had someone in our lives who has been affected by some form of cancer. Because of this, we are driven to help.

If you would like to help us, please visit our team page at http://main.acsevents.org/goto/maidsoftucson
to make a donation or join our team. We are very gracious to each of you for helping us. We hope to see you on October 8th for our car wash. Thank you!

#3: As you may have noticed, we are making a point of getting involved in our community. This year, for the months of July and August, we collected a portion of each clean and set it aside for donation. We chose five local charities that mean a great deal to us: Ben's Bells Project, The Southern Arizona Humane Society, The Food Bank, Habitat for Humanity, and Making Strides Against Breast Cancer. Because of our wonderful customers, we were able to donate $2,469.73 between the five charities.

#4: Our final bit of current news - On facebook, we are holding a contest for a free cleaning. You must have a facebook account in order to participate in this contest. All you need to do is 'like' our page. In the events listed, there are rules for participating in this contest. You must live within our service area (zip codes are listed on the event page) to be considered for winning. Post positive comments and 'likes' to earn entries. Each new post is a new entry. The contest closes on November 23rd and the person with the most 'likes'/comments will win the free clean. The winner will be chosen on November 28th and notified shortly after.

Thank you all for all that you do. We are proud to be serving you and we look forward to the things to come. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact our office anytime at 520-795-7977 or maidsoftucson@att.net. Thank you again from all of us at The Maids.

Cold Weather Blues

The nation seems to be in a state of shock lately. We are all experiencing colder than normal temps...many of us (especially here in Southern Arizona) are not quite used to dealing with weather below freezing. We tend to want to stay indoors when the cold weather takes over, but this may be bad for our health if the right precautions are not taken.

According to Family Voices, "One in 5 people have allergies and 20 million people have asthma; 6.3 million are children and that number is growing" (2007) http://www.ndhealth.gov/CSHS/docs/newsletter-winter-2007-family-matters.pdf. These ailments are triggered by dust, dust mites, and mold which are generally at higher levels during the winter because we seal our homes to keep the cold air out.

The best way to combat these triggers is by reduce the moisture as much as possible. Clean and change linens regularly, clean and sanitize bathrooms, vacuum using a machine with several filters (including a HEPA filter), and sanitize the areas we touch most...knobs, telephones, door jambs, and light switches.

The Maids cleans these areas as a part of the regular cleaning routine. We also mist the bathroom (toilet and shower) with a neutral disinfectant after cleaning to ensure these areas are free of germs/viruses and are sanitary. The team will also remove dirty linens and replace with clean ones, and our vacuum has a four filter system that includes a HEPA filter. Our vacuum removes 99.9% of dust and allergens from the air as the team is working, so it is basically cleaning the air as it cleans your home. All of our products are botanically derived to be safe for your home and our environment.

We thank our teams everyday for the hard work they do...and so do their customers:

"Debra and the Yellow Team did a great job cleaning our home. We appreciate their attention to detail and their high standards of cleanliness."

"We love our team, they know our house and clean it well. Reliable and thorough."

"The Maids have been cleaning our house for at least 5 years now. I am always happy with them and happy with the work they do. The are friendly and aim to please."

"I love coming home to such a beautifully cleaned home. They shine my counters and sparkle my bathrooms!"

"My team deserves a good rating because they always do a good job."

"Great job Turquoise team! We love how well you clean, the attention to detail and how great the house smells whe we get home. Thanks so much!"

"It's great to have my home cleaned regularly and consistently so I don't have to worry."

Keep up the good work, teams. We are so grateful for your attention to detail and care of your customers.

The only man who never makes a mistake is the man who never does anything.
Theodore Roosevelt

Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.
Confucius

Welcom to the New Year

I realize that it has been a bit since I posted to our blog. Luckily, the end of the year turned out to be a little on the busy side for us.

We hope that everyone is having a successful start to 2011.

We would like to start out 2011 by placing greater emphasis on the fact the The Maids is now and has always been a green house cleaning company, using green cleaning products. We would also like to tell you that we have expanded to include Sahuarita house cleaning and Green Valley house cleaning with our service area.

We have made some changes to make sure that our name is consistent in the community. If you listen to 790 KNST, you will hear Garrett Lewis giving testimonials about his experience with our service. We have also joined Yelp, which is a review site. Consumers can visit this site and post reviews about their experiences, share experiences with other posters, and communicate with the business. We are really looking forward to this proceeding well.

We would like to invite anyone with questions, to please contact us. Our website provides good information, but there is something to be said for speaking with a live person.