March Newsletter

denverconcierg on March 20, 2018

Cleaning Products and Your Health

Did you know that simply cleaning your own home with the wrong products could be as dangerous as smoking?

It’s true, and it’s serious.

Researchers from the University of Bergen in Norway analyzed data from more than 6,200 people who used cleaning products over two decades. The participants had an average age of 34 when they enrolled in the study.

The researchers found that people who either cleaned at home or who had a job where they cleaned had a decline in their lung function that was equivalent to smoking 20 cigarettes a day.

The speculation is that the lung impairment (once isolated for people that smoked before and other variables) was directly connected to the many harmful chemicals that are frequently used in cleaning products.

While this is terrible news for people that clean their own homes (the offending products are not listed in the article, which can be found here), using Denver Concierge removes all of that risk.

All our products are 100% green and we use only microfiber cloths to clean your homes. Often we use water, vinegar and good old elbow grease to get your home clean. Beyond that, all of our products are certified green and we have to pass certification each year to maintain our credentials.

The safety of you and the people and pets in your home is the number one thing we focus on, as well as the safety of our Cleaning Associates.

Giving you a clean home at the expense of health is not something we would ever do (Hence the reason we refuse to use bleach or any other toxic substances regardless of who asks us to or how nicely they ask).

If you weren’t aware, Denver Concierge was the first Green Clean Institute certified cleaning company in Colorado . If we are in your home, you can rest assured that everything we use will assure that the air you breathe will be clean and chemical free.

Colorado Car Insurance Premiums

Has your car insurance been going up? Ours sure has.

Now we have the data behind why that his happening in our fine state.

There are several things driving significant increases in car insurance, including more people in Colorado, more distracted driving and an overall increase in crashes.

In fact, there were 77,000 more people on the roads year over year and deadly crashes increased to over 600, the most in Colorado in 10 years.

Finally, we have more hail damage than all but one state and the May 2017 hailstorm caused $1.4 billion in damage.

So, what can you do to reduce the cost of your insurance?

The folks at Car and Driver published a good list of things we can all do to make sure we don’t overpay. The full article can be found here.

Happy shopping!

Is the Flu Near You?

It has been an intense and deadly flu season in the U.S., and in Colorado.

We surpassed our record for hospitalizations in February and while the flu season is now winding down, there are also lots of other bugs out there that can affect us. That’s where the tool we found (see below) comes in handy.

Regarding the flu, good health practices include avoiding contact with people who are sick; staying at home when sick, instead of going to work; covering your nose and mouth when sneezing; washing your hands often; avoiding touching your eyes, nose and mouth.

Beyond those tips, and getting flu shot there isn’t much you can do.

However, we found a website that will tell you exactly what is going on around you, depending on where you live.

The folks at Doctors Report have created an “Illness Tracker”. By entering your zip code, you can generate a report that will show you what severity of different illnesses are close to you.

Any number of illnesses can be checked, including strep, flu, common cold, MRSA and many more. The information comes directly from doctors, and we found it to be very interesting.

We hope you agree.

Spring Home Maintenance Tips

Now that the weather is breaking and we are venturing into a mellower weather season, it’s time to tackle those things around our home.

The folks at Mr. Handyman provided a great list that includes everything from downspouts to caulking. The complete list from them can be found here, and includes a handy checklist to make things easier.

We also ran across a great and detailed piece from the folks at todayshomeowner.com and that can be found here.

Finally, and in the spirit of our Queen Bee, Angela (see Queen Bee Corner below), we found a great piece on decluttering and simplifying your life.

To learn more about the freeing experience that is simplification, the entire article is here.

Home Design Trends

Color is back!!

Thanks to our friend Marina Dagenais at Designer Premier, we learned this and other cool design trends for your home!

The days of all-white interiors are passing, and homeowners are shying away from mild colors and becoming bigger risk-takers by injecting vibrant colors, such as warm wood tones and neutrals (cream, blue, and gray), into the space to give it a warm, fresh and unique feel.

Marina published a great article on her site and the full content can be found here.

For a second opinion on what design trends are taking over in 2018, we also found a good article here, thanks to the folks at Vogue.

Monthly Award Winners

Please join me in congratulating our best performers for February 2018.

Our top Cleaning Associates for the month were Anita Solis, Maria Zapata, Aurora Dominguez, Yuritza Caldera and Fidelia Bautista.

In the Team Leader ranks, our top Team Leaders were Rosa Chavez and Natalia Olivas.

Thanks to all our team members for their hard work, and a special thanks to our award winners!

Congrats ladies!

Queen Bee Corner

by Angela

Every year when Spring approaches we start to think about the requisite Spring activities like planting, window cleaning, and my favorite, Spring Cleaning (well of course).

This year there seems to be a lot of talk about simplifying on a personal level, a kind of new Spring ritual falling somewhere between the typical Spring Clean (moving everything and then putting it back), and decluttering (getting rid of things to create a feeling of freedom).

The goal here is to take the time each Spring to ponder the importance of our belongings, decor, and activities; a conscious reckoning of what is truly precious to us and worth holding on to at this juncture in our lives, and what no longer charms us, and should be abandoned.

We are here to support all your cleaning needs and we wish you the best in simplifying your life.

Happy Spring!

Bee

February Newsletter 2018

denverconcierg on February 15, 2018

Living Longer and Happier

We love communicating with our clients and partners. Unfortunately, as a cleaning company, there is only so much to say about cleaning!!

We will always try and promote what we do, but honestly, it’s more important (and more fun) to connect with you on various interesting topics and we love to provide useful information.

So, this month, it’s life improvement time. For starters, we found some amazing information on how to extend our lives. Not only in terms of years but in terms of quality of life as well.

Did you know there is a simple test you can do at home to determine longevity and health? It’s called the SRT and you can learn all about it here . For the record, we can’t do this and we don’t know a ton of people who can, but we are all about trying!!

The best article we found on aging healthy and gracefully was recently published in Time Magazine . Fascinating stuff on exercise, friendships, habits and the impact of family on happiness.

The oldest recorded human lived to 122 years!! While we can’t all hope to live that long, we found lots of useful information that might help us squeeze out a few more years.

Finally, we ran across a fun site that will tell you what “biological age” you are, versus how many years you have been here. The test can be found here , and will tell you a lot about how your habits and lifestyle affect your “real age”.

Here’s to a healthy and happy year for all of you!

Where do we Eat Out?

Every now and then we find stuff that we absolutely must share with you.

The folks at medium.com did an exhaustive study of the most popular cuisines by city.

For example, Denver ranks 7th in Mexican food, and 10th in steak houses! We also come in 10th in coffee shop visits, (if you guessed Seattle as the unofficial coffee capital of the US, you were right).

You can enlarge maps down to the level of local Denver neighborhoods.

The complete article can be found here, happy reading (and eating)!

Car Thieves. In Denver?

If you are like us, we don’t think of Denver as an unsafe city. Sure, we have our share of crime, some of it violent, but in the grand scheme of things we live in a very safe place.

So, we were shocked to read that Denver has already had 633 motor vehicle thefts this year alone. We average 14 vehicles stolen PER DAY in Denver, or an average of over 425 a month.

With winter here, car theft goes up. This is primarily due to “puffing” where an owner warms his car up, only to come outside and realize it’s gone. If you are curious there are laws that cover our state and what you can do legally and that info can be found here.

Lastly, there are some things you can do to deter would-be thieves from targeting your vehicle.

This article, written by a former car thief gives great insight into how to protect one of our most valuable assets.

How’s Your Snow Driving?

We all get a chuckle thinking about the folks that have moved here and don’t know how to drive in the snow.

It’s less funny when you realize how many people have moved here from warm weather climates, and that we are all on the road together!!

Blending those ideas, we were surprised to learn that Colorado is only the 34th safest place to drive in the snow! Crazy, right?

We thought we might offer some winter driving tips (you natives might appreciate the refresher as well) so we can have a less stressful driving experience in the snow.

The Post put out a great article on how to drive in the snow, for both us veterans and the newcomers to our fine city.

Be safe out there.

Investing in Your Home

As we cruise into spring, we are focusing on prioritizing the things we might want to do to our homes.

Obviously, there are lots of things that most of us have on our “list” when it comes to our home.

Not all those items will ever “pay for themselves”. Very few things you can do in your home will provide you 100% return on what you spend at the time you sell your home.

So, what are the things that provide the best ROI (return on investment) that you can do in your home?

Believe it or not, a garage door, comes in at number one at 98% ROI. We were very surprised by the roof replacement, which checks in at only 68% ROI. Kitchen and bath projects also rank very high on project ROI and can exceed 100% if done properly.

The full article can be found here. We also found other info from the folks at HGTV, and their take on things in a bit more detail can be found here.

Monthly Award Winners

Please join me in congratulating our best performers for January 2018.

Our top Cleaning Associates for the month were Maria Zapata, Salvadora Rosales, Martha Garcia, Aurora Dominguez and Josefina Quinonez.

In the Team Leader ranks, our top Team Leaders were Perla Hernandez and Martha Anchondo.

The race for top performers for 2018 has begun. Thanks to all our team members for their hard work, and a special thanks to our award winners!

Congrats ladies!

Queen Bee Corner

by Angela

Texting our clients has turned out to have a lot of unexpected benefits. I won’t bore you with a list, but I will share that my very favorite is receiving photos of your pets.

Texting to confirm tomorrow’s clean really warrants only a yes or thumbs up gesture from the client. But one day I received a reply with a photo of the client’s extremely large pet rabbit.

How cute is that?

Then I started receiving here and there photos of other pets until I have quite a menagerie on my phone.

And for the clients who email, please feel free to email photos! (I wouldn’t mind a new photo of Kat and also one of Fred (Owners, you know who you are).

Stay warm, hug your pets!

Bee

July Newsletter

denverconcierg on July 17, 2017

Make them Green with Envy

Each year, we invest time and money into making sure that our products and our processes are 100% environmentally friendly. This requires a constant review of everything we do to make sure that we not only clean your home the way you want it, but also that we don’t harm the planet as we do it.

We also don’t want to use anything in your homes that might be harmful to your family or your pets.

We get a lot of requests to use things like bleach (because that stuff really works) that we just cannot accept. Our commitment to the environment extends beyond the traditional sense and things like bleach can harm our employees as well.

Recently, our Green Clean certification was renewed for 2017 with the Green Clean Institute . We are very proud of this achievement as it requires a great deal of diligence to maintain. If you are curious about our certification, you can see all the details here .

We are still one of a handful of companies to invest in official certification, and we were the first in Colorado. While most companies claim to be green, we think certification is important and that it provides you peace of mind when we are in your home.

So please trust that we are using only the best products in your home for both cleaning and safety. Should you have the desire to use products of your own (we use Bona on hardwood floors when requested, for example), please check with Angela first to make sure we are in compliance. As always, thanks for your continued loyalty and your trust.

Partners We Love

That lovely lady in the photo is our friend Marina Dagenais, with Designer Premier. You may ask, what is Designer Premier?

We are glad you did.

We love Designer Premier as they take the stress out of finding the right design talent for you and your projects. They offer a complementary personalized matching service.

Selecting from a pool of accomplished interior designers, builders, and architects, Marina will recommend several options based on your specific needs, personality and style requirements.

Marina has also offered a couple of interesting design topics, including the top colors for summer and lighting design trends.

If you are considering any type of interior design changes, Marina can match you with the designer that best fits your needs.

To reach Marina, you can email her here, or call her at 303-916-9515. Mention Denver Concierge for a special offer, and happy designing!

Solar Eclipse Coming

OK we admit that we can be a bit geeky sometimes. We like the latest technology and to keep up with things that might interest our fellow geeks.

In fact, our VCR always had the correct time displayed, for those of you that know what a VCR is. It was impressive in the 80’s at least!

Our geekiness aside, on August 21st, themother of all solar eclipses is coming.

Our view from Colorado won’t be the best, but if you are an intrepid soul, you could journey a bit north and get an amazing view.

Of course, we want you to do this safely and with all the information you need, so we leaned on the folks at B & H Photo to give us the low down on how this will all work.

Everything you need to know about this amazing event can be found here.

Top of the Town 2017

One of our favorite issues of 5280 Magazine is the annual “Top of the Town” rankings of all things Denver.
The 2017 list is out, and we didn’t make it again!!!
It might be because there is not a housekeeping company in the rankings.
Hmm, maybe a petition is in order!!
Anyway, we digress. The list of the best things in Denver, as voted by its denizens, can be found here.

Denver Crime Report

There are very few worse feelings than being the victim of theft. The official word for it is larceny.
Recently, the Denver Post published a list of all the larceny that has occurred in Denver over the past year.
As you might imagine in a large city such as ours, there is quite a bit of this sort of thing going on. The good news is that year over year, larceny in Denver is down.
The bad news is that it is still taking place, and we want you to know where, or give you as much information as we can.
The full report published by the Post includes locations, time of day and everything you want to know about theft in Denver. It can be found here.

Monthly Award Winners

Please allow me to introduce our June 2017 award winners for quality and client service.
Our best Cleaning Associates for the month were Dalia Escorza, Maria Zapata, Sandra Vidales, Brenda Garcia and Gloria Gonzalez.
Our best Team Leaders for June were Natalia Olivas and Socorro Ibarra.
Thanks to all of our team members for their hard work, and a special thanks to our trend setting award winners!
Congrats ladies!

Queen Bee Corner

by Angela
I was hoping to have good news on the handyman front; i.e. a reliable guy to do good work in a timely and reasonably priced manner. I may have found someone but I will be the guinea pig. If all goes well I will pass the info on. I know a lot of clients have asked me for referrals for various around the house chores. Stay tuned!
At the risk of being repetitive, please always feel free to bring any concerns to my attention. I sometimes have calls that come in several weeks after an issue, through reluctance on the part of the client to mention it, but then obviously it is still bothersome. I am here for you!
Happy Bastille Day!
Bee

June Newsletter

denverconcierg on June 17, 2017

Summer Vacations and Dad

Summer is finally arriving! Our favorite day, the Summer solstice, is on June 20th. That is the longest day of the year, which makes us happy. We also wanted to take this opportunity to remind you all to let us know if you are going on vacation or if you are planning to be gone for an extended period this summer.

As we have mentioned in past newsletters, the labor market in Denver is incredibly tight and consequently, we are very booked and are running an extremely tight schedule these days. Therefore, lockouts and cancellations become more painful for us, so please let us know your plans as soon as possible.

Meanwhile, enjoy summer and all that it has to offer. We have thrown some events your way (see below) to get things kicked off!!!

Finally, Happy Father’s Day to all of the dads out there. If you forgot it’s Father’s Day on Sunday the 18th, we have a last minute gift guide here .

4th of July Schedule

Independence Day falls on a Tuesday this year. Kind of a bummer as we all love a three-day weekend. Heck, maybe you can find a way to stretch it to four, so it’s better than falling on a Wednesday!

Here at Denver Concierge we want to work for you as much as we can, so we will be open and operating on Monday the 3rd.

We will be closing on the 4th so our folks can enjoy a day off with their families. If your clean day is on a Tuesday, we will not be arriving at your home on that day.

We hope you all enjoy the holiday and have included a list of the best fireworks watching spots around the Front Range here.

We will be back to work on the 5th. Happy 4th of July!!!

Denver Start of Summer Events

There is so much to do in Denver in the summer. One of our favorite events is the Cherry Creek Arts Festival, which takes place from July 1-3.

There are also many other events taking place in our city, including the Cherry Blossom Festival, Buskerfest and how could we forget Comic Con? If you see superheroes walking the street don’t be alarmed.

There are also many things to do here that are completely free, and that full list can be found here.

We hope you have a great summer and take advantage of all our city has to offer!

Denver Convention Center Upgrades

Let us start by saying we love our city. We have lots to offer and we have a great convention center. It first opened in 1990, so we agree that it can be updated.

However, the original budget for renovation of $104 million was slightly missed. The new number is $233 million!!!

The city is proposing a new taxing districtthat would primarily affect hotels and rental cars, but will also involve issuing of bonds to cover the new number.

If you are curious about the details of this project, the Denver Business Journal did a nice job, including a photo gallery. That article can be found here.

Let’s hope our personal and business budgeting goes slightly better than this one did.

Although we will agree that the updates look amazing and should propel convention business in Denver by quite a bit!

Cell Phone Interruptions

Have you ever been working diligently on something that requires your full attention only to be interrupted by a text or phone call?

Happens all the time. What we didn’t realize is the true time cost of those interruptions.

A study at the University of California, Irvine, found that “the typical office worker is interrupted or switches tasks, on average, every three minutes and five seconds.”

3 minutes and 5 seconds. That’s 185 seconds in total between one interruption and the next.

What’s more , “it takes an average of 23 minutes and 15 seconds to get back to the task.” (click above for the full detail, great stuff)

23 minutes! That’s over 7 times as long as it takes for you to be interrupted again.

After reading this study, we have gotten into the habit of leaving our phones in another room when we are facing important tasks that require our full attention, and it has helped tremendously!! We hope it helps you as well!

Monthly Award Winners

Please allow me to introduce our May 2017 award winners for quality and client service.

Our best Cleaning Associates for the month were Josefina Quinonez, Juana Luna, Fernanda Gonzalez, Maria Zapata Yazmin Mendoza.

Our best Team Leaders for May were Rosa Chavez and Socorro Gonzalez.

Thanks to all of our team members for their hard work, and a special thanks to our trend setting award winners!

Congrats ladies!

Queen Bee Corner

by Angela

Our aim at Denver Concierge, apart from cleaning better than anyone on the planet, is to simplify the process for our clients.

The operation of today’s modern appliances, light controls, door closures and plumbing fixtures are not always self- evident to our ladies.

If I receive detailed instructions via email from you then these instructions become a permanent part of your work order and whoever cleans your home will then know how things work.

It alleviates the need to explain and re-explain and also insures that things are being operated safely and correctly.

The complicated made simple helps us do a better job for you! If you have special situations please let me know and I will get it added to your work order.

You can email me here, or as always call me at the office 303-975-2808.

Queen Bee

May Newsletter

denverconcierg on May 17, 2017

Memorial Day

Memorial Day is our unofficial gateway to summer. We have had a wonderfully mild winter, and our spring has been quite pleasant as well.

Along with the coming of summer, Memorial Day is also a time for cookouts and hanging out with family. It’s also the first real three-day weekend of the year!

With all of that wonderful stuff in mind, it is also a time to say THANK YOU.

To those of you that have lost someone serving our nation, we thank you. We here at Denver Concierge value the freedoms that we have across our great country and we realize that it could not be possible without the selfless giving that people in our military offer.

We hope that you and your families get some time together and that you all stop to appreciate the sacrifices that have been made so we can enjoy our holidays freely and without restrictions.

This respectful holiday has a long history, dating back to 1868, with Logan’s General Order Number 11 . To learn more about the history of this remembrance, you can click here .

Thanks again to all of you that have served and to the families of those that have been lost serving our wonderful nation.

Partners We Love

When we run across someone that matches our values in term of customer service and dedication, we like to feature them here.

Our good friend Nancy Begley is just that person. She is a private banker at Fortis Private Banking in Denver.

Nancy is wonderful at taking care of clients and has a full portfolio of mortgage offerings, including interest only, jumbo mortgages and custom construction lending.

She is offering super competitive rates and encourages you to give her a call if you are in need of financing.

For your Denver banking needs, we highly recommend Nancy. She can be reached at 720-284-9484 or at [email protected].

Pop Up Park in Denver

One of the things we love about Denver is its creativity.

Called “The Square on 21st”, the city is developing an unused space near Coors Field for a “pop-up park” this Summer.

From June 15 through August 15, the space in the photo above will be transformed into a very cool spot to enjoy Denver.

The Square on 21st will be set up on 21st Street between Larimer and Lawrence streets, two blocks southeast of the baseball stadium.

It will feature food trucks, a performance stage, bike ramps and street art.

To learn more about this cool idea, click here.

Our Inclusive City

We hear a lot of chatter about the growth in Denver and we talk about it here quite often.

It’s easy to get excited about our growing city, but we were even more impressed to read about how we are doing it.

Brookings Institute studied the top growing metro areas across the country and came back with some interesting data.

It seems that Denver is one of only four metro areas that are engaged in what Brookings calls “inclusive growth”. This is measured in a number of different ways, but we are super proud to be in a city that values diversity in our growth plans.

The full article on can be found here. Way to go Denver!

Ever try a Low Carb Diet?

Yes, us too. We typically try to eliminate carbs when we go overboard and the scale comes up 5 pounds or so the wrong way!

We are constantly on the lookout for health tips and we recently ran across this article that tells us going “cold turkey” from carbs may not be the best answer.

The folks at Fitness Genes (featured here in March) published this article on how the body processes excess carbohydrates and whey they might not be the “bad guy” we thought they were.

Unfortunately we couldn’t find the section that allows unlimited doughnut consumption, so that was somewhat disappointing!!

Happy reading!

Monthly Award Winners

Please allow me to introduce our April 2017 award winners for quality and client service.

Our best Cleaning Associates for the month were Dalia Escorza, Laura Rojas, Aurora Dominguez, Josefina Quinonez and Salvador Rosales.

Our best Team Leaders for April were Natalia Olivas and Rosa Chavez.

Thanks to all of our team members for their hard work in April and a special thanks to our monthly award winners!

Congrats ladies!

Queen Bee Corner

by Angela

Denver has become a city of rapid change.

Not only noticeable by the new construction and cranes and demolition of old buildings (sadly), but we even notice it here in our little corner of the cleaning world.

We have never had so many clients moving from one house to another and yet not leaving Denver!! And many are not even moving out of their neighborhood; they simply call to have their next scheduled clean done at their new house around the corner from their old house.

This of course generates many more move out and move in cleans as we call them, and our clients have been amazingly flexible and understanding in working with us to get these jobs done in a timely manner. So thank you for inviting us along with you when you move!

Queen Bee

April Newsletter

denverconcierg on April 22, 2016

How May We Help You?

Did you know that Denver Concierge has been in business for nearly 20 years? The company started back in 1998 as a full-service concierge business. We were walking dogs, buying groceries and running errands. It was a lot of work! Back in the early 2000’s we became exclusively a housecleaning company, and our current owner, John Kitts, bought the company in 2006.

Since then, we have spent all of our time on being the best housecleaning company around and based on your feedback we feel like we are doing a good job, although we always strive for perfection.

While we love making your homes shine, many of you have requested that we offer other services. Some examples include carpet cleaning, window washing, handyman services and the like.

Our question for you today is simple. What other services could we offer inside your home that would make your life easier? We would love to hear from you. Just click on the services that make the most sense to you, then hit submit. It’s super fast and easy, just one page! The button below shall set you free. Thanks for your feedback!

Take me to the fast and easy survey!

Performing Arts Center Expansion Coming

Last month in a fairly quiet announcement, Mayor Hancock rolled out his vision for a new, revitalized performing arts complex We are fascinated by the modern look, and while the price tag has yet to be revealed, it looks magnificent!

The article on this project can be found here. If you just want to skip to the wonderful images of what this might look like, they can be found here. Certainly another exciting project in Denver!

If at First You Don’t Succeed, Fail Again

Our perception of success is typically very skewed. We all have a tendency to look at successful people as examples of success and prosperity. What we rarely see are the failures behind that success.

We found a great article on failure. Odd topic for sure, but most folks that have achieved success have done so with lots of adversity behind the scenes that we have never seen.

If you are thinking about starting your own business, or currently have one, hopefully you will find the article interesting. It can be
found here.

Queen Bee Corner

by Angela

We had an exciting start to Spring. A water line broke in one of our houses while the team was there and a near flood ensued. When I called to alert the client to what was happening she luckily answered immediately. I was worried I wouldn’t be able to reach her and she would have an awful surprise on arriving home at the end of the day.

Which brings me to emergency numbers. I have telephone numbers for all of our clients, and emails for most. If you have recently changed your number or have an emergency number to add please send it off in an email to me. Our team leaders always call the office when they notice anything unusual in a house which is very reassuring but we need a way to reach you!

Worst Pollen Season? Ever?

Spring is an amazing time of year in Denver. However, for those of you that suffer with allergies, we might be in for a challenge this year.

We have read a few articles on El Nino and the affect it may have on increased pollens in the air this Spring. We found a good piece on the Weather Channel
which can be found here.

The folks at newswise.com also posted some great tips on how to cope with Spring pollens. That article can be found here.

Are you Good at Math?

Some days we are and some days we aren’t! We always forget the “rule of 72” and how it works with investments, for example.

We found a great “cheat sheet” for not only investments, but measuring our habits, how to accurately tip, and our income.

Take a look here if you want to see some easy and helpful tips on remembering important calculations in our lives!

March Newsletter

denverconcierg on March 20, 2016

We’re Number One!!!

Yes, we love our home city. Evidently lots of people agree, as Denver was named the NUMBER ONE place to live by U.S. News and World Report
. We pulled a 7.8 out of 10 overall, but 9.9 on desirability! Colorado Springs sneaked in at number five, giving Colorado two spots in the top ten. They also did a wonderful job of creating a spot where cities can be viewed, evaluated and sorted. You can find out average commute sorted by zip code, the job market, housing market and pretty much anything else you wanted to know about our fine city (and others, but just so we can gloat)! Full details can be found here .

Spring Break

It is that time of year again and many of you will be taking a break either with your kids, or for your kids this spring.

Either way, we know that our kids will be off from school for some portion of time and often, that messes up your cleaning schedule.

If possible, please
let us know immediately if you are going to change your scheduled clean in any way. We are doing everything we can to control our costs, and we still haven’t figured out a way to solve our lockout problem (yes some people just aren’t home when we arrive, or don’t call to cancel…you would be amazed).

So if there are changes to your schedule this spring, please let us know so we can manage our schedule and keep that efficiency up.

In the meantime, enjoy the end of our winter and the beginning of a wonderful spring!

Denver‘s Changing Skyline

Man, things are changing fast in Denver. On top of being named the number one city to live we are growing and expanding downtown like crazy.

We see all of the construction and we wonder what it might look like in a few years.

An enterprising young man used Google
Earth to project what our city will look like with existing and soon to be approved projects going forward. The bottom line? Our skyline will look radically different pretty soon.

The link takes a while to load, but is worth the view. Data was pulled from denverinfill.com,
which is another good resource to find out what is happening with development in Denver. The skyline link can be found here.

American Express Users

It has come to our attention that our American Express billing label is incorrect. This is not an issue on our end, but one that we are attempting to resolve directly with them. Evidently AMEX charges for your cleaning services are sometimes labeled “Concert Concepts” rather than Denver Concierge.

We don’t know who “Concert Concepts” is, but we are receiving the money in our
account. So, there is no action required on your part, but we wanted you to know that we are aware of the issue and hope to have it resolved in the next week or so. Thanks for your patience and thanks to those of you that pointed this issue out to us!

The Power of Words

Yes, we love words. We write lots of them each month, and we sure say a lot of them.

The folks at Buffer
have written an exceptional piece on what words (and phrases) motivate us the most. They also list some of the ones that don’t. We found this to be a pretty impactful piece and gathered some ideas we are going to begin using immediately.

We hope you agree, the link to the article is here.

Queen Bee Corner

by Angela

I will be out of the office part of this week for a medical procedure. Jenny will be answering your calls in
my absence (she is a sweetie). If you have any schedule changes that you usually email to me, please call the office and run them by her. Any other non-urgent correspondence please go ahead and leave on my email. I will be back on email within a couple of days.

Until this occurrence I have been self- sufficient and unaware of all the wonderful home help that is out there in Denver. Our concierge partner at As You Wish, Allison Farrar, found a great dog sitter who will come three times a day and take care of the beasts. King Soopers
delivers groceries within a two-hour window and I even found a company that cleans up the yard after the dogs. And of course I have a super house cleaning company!

Bee

Our Fleet

We wanted to share a photo of our fleet, getting ready to come make your homes shine!

Our ladies are sure happy to be in our new fleet of Kia Sorentos. We hope you like the new look when you see us roll up to your home.

Special thanks again to our friends at Erlich I-25 Kia and the best GM anyone could ask for in Ron Volk. If you are in the market for a new vehicle and have been considering a Kia, please reach out to Ron and he will take excellent care of you. Mention Denver Concierge for a special offer!

You can email Ron directly here.

Happy New Year

denverconcierg on January 20, 2016

Happy New Year

Another year has passed and this is our 3rd year sending out our sometimes informative newsletter! We want to say thanks for reading and want to wish you the best for a fabulous 2016. Lots of stuff going on at Denver Concierge, including our new vehicles, roll out of health care for our employees and other changes to try and become more efficient. In short we are doing everything we can to keep our costs down without raising prices. One of our big cost issues is lockouts and access, if you want to learn more see below. We sure appreciate your business and hope that 2016 is your best year ever!

Top Secret Referral Program

January is always a good time to mention referrals. One of the things that we have learned in our 16 years in business is that we clean very differently from most companies.

We sometimes have a hard time communicating how deeply we clean (and why we cost more) to prospective clients. It usually hits them once they see our fabulous team at work in their homes, but sometimes we never get that far as it’s hard to explain what we do without seeing it first hand.

Of course we know that you realize and appreciate how we clean, and that is why your referrals are the best way for us to grow.

We have a very lucrative referral program going on right now….too good to put in the newsletter.

Please speak with Angela if you have someone that you think would appreciate what we do, and she will give you the lowdown. Thanks for all you do and for those wonderful clients many of you sent us in 2015!

Lockouts

One of our toughest dilemmas is what to do when we get locked out. Many of our competitors charge a fee for this, we do not. Not yet anyway.

Most of you offer us access to your home without restriction, and we appreciate that. We carry lots of insurance and documentation so you should always feel comfortable with us in your home, even if you can’t be there.

The worst thing is when we arrive at your home and cannot get in for some reason. We pay our teams from the moment they leave our office and it’s quite expensive to have them driving places with no home to clean.

Worse, the next client often isn’t ready for us, so it creates a bunch of problems.

We would be incredibly grateful if you would alert early us when you need to cancel your clean or if there will be some problem with access.

We understand emergencies and will always accommodate you when we can. We appreciate your help in improving our efficiency and keeping our costs down!

Snow Days

Ahh, winter…..we love you. Actually not so much. It’s great for skiing and snowboarding, but it really cramps our style (and yours) when we get a big storm.

We know how frustrating this is, as it is incredibly hard to reschedule. Think about it like an airline. We have days full of flights and when snow wipes some out, unless we have cancellations going forward there isn’t any place to put folks.

It frustrates us as much as you….so what can you do to help? Please be patient with us when it snows. If you want real time updates on whether or not we are working, you can follow us on Twitter at @bestmaidsdenver. We typically send out a tweet when we are going to be closed. We have been known to work Saturdays in special circumstances so that is sometimes a possibility as well. A good rule is that if schools are closed we are as well.

The safety of our employees is the most important thing, and even though the main streets may be plowed, side streets in Denver don’t get plowed until we get a foot of snow! Thanks, and here is to a snow free (in Denver) winter!

88 Truths about Life

Our first newsletter of 2016 wouldn’t be complete without some tidbits of self-improvement that we found interesting. The new year usually brings about reflection and planning about how we have done things, and how we might do things better. We ran across a great piece from raptitude.com on “truths” in life. We felt better after reading them and we hope you do as well! To learn more take a look here.

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Queen Bee Corner

by Angela

For the past two weeks I’ve joined the ranks (albeit temporarily; nothing serious, pulled muscle) of those who work from home, as do many of our clients. It has certainly given me a good understanding of the pluses (no drive time) and the minuses (my dogs barking). I didn’t have a visit from Denver Concierge, but I imagine that three ladies cleaning can be fairly disruptive. I will remind the teams in the next employee meeting to please keep the working client in mind as you move about the house. Be very very quiet every chance you get.

So..I will be back in the office on Monday due in large part to the expert advice given me by a client. Thank you Caylene! It worked!

Queen Bee

Happy Holidays

denverconcierg on December 20, 2015

Happy Holidays

We want to wish all of our clients, friends and partners the happiest of holiday seasons in 2015. We have had a wonderful year and want to thank all of you that helped make us successful.

We hope you have a safe, warm and connected holiday, with lots of family, friends and good cheer. We look forward to serving you again in 2016, and to another wonderful year.

Thanks again for being part of the Denver Concierge “family” and for supporting our local business.

Partners We Love

Recently we had a shower door “explode” on us. Evidently, over time tempered glass combined with pressure can come apart in a surprising fashion. Thankfully, no one was injured, but it gave us a chance to call our friends at Buonsante Glass to come out and take a look.

Not only was the shower door repaired perfectly, but they were fast, efficient and reasonably priced.

We know Andy Buonsante the owner, very well and wanted to give him a shout out in case any of you need any glass work done in your homes. You can learn more about Andy and his great locally owned business here.

You can also call Andy at 303-886-2876 or email him here. Tell him you heard about him in our newsletter and receive a special offer!

Buying more Stuff

In our over commercialized holiday season, we sometimes feel overwhelmed. Between all the ads on TV, gifts to buy, etc., we find ourselves trying to sort out what really matters.

We ran across a great piece on why we might want to buy less “stuff” and work more on creating memories that will last. We thought it made a lot of sense so we are posting it here.

It seems that the payoff for buying more stuff is pretty short, and the article helps explain why that is.

The Skinny on New Year’s Resolutions

Yes, we have fallen into the failed resolution trap well. We fully understand that gym memberships are the highest in January, as all of us want to get the new year off to a great start, and try to stick with our plans.

Making significant changes in our lives is hard, especially when it comes to breaking bad habits.

We found some great stuff on this whole idea and we thought we would share it. For a list of the most common resolutions and success rates, click here.

For the reasons behind why we usually fail at our resolutions (and some tips on how not to), check out this article.

We wish you all the best in making positive changes in 2016!

Successful Habits

Since we are kind of on the new year’s resolution and self-improvement theme, we found a couple of articles that sort of got us going.

First, what are 12 things that enormously successful people refuse to do? Well you can find out here.

We also ran across this piece on 30 challenges for 30 days. Some of these really made us stop and think. We hope it does the same for you.

The article, courtesy of Marc and Angel can be found here.

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Queen Bee Corner

by Angela

What a hectic time! With all the schedule changes, and special holiday requests, I have spoken to more clients in the past month than I have all year. As always it is my pleasure and though work related (but not always), it’s fun to touch base. I have known many of you since the very beginning of the company!

I would like to wish you and yours a continuing safe and enjoyable season and a Happy and Prosperous New Year. Cheers!

Vehicle Project Complete

Hopefully you have seen our new rides out on the road and in front of your homes. Our fleet has been completely replaced (we kept a couple of our old blue vans for nostalgia’s sake) and we couldn’t be happier.

We hope you like the new look…our ladies are much safer and much happier traveling to your homes!

The key for reducing the volatile chemical compounds when cleaning

denverconcierg on December 1, 2015

The key for reducing the volatile chemical compounds when cleaning

The key for reducing the volatile chemical compounds when cleaning
The best way to reduce the volatile chemical compounds when cleaning is to avoid cleaning with chemical compounds. This means no detergents that you can usually find in the store, nor detergents that are added to the water tank of the cleaning machine. The result may not be that satisfying as when cleaning with a powerful detergent during the big house cleaning, but let’s face it – there will be no need to leave the windows open for a long time, neither to worry about your kids or pets. Some hand-knotted carpets, rugs and other natural upholstery are also very sensitive to chemical compounds. Not to mention the effect of the chemicals onto the wooden texture of the furnishings or onto chrome parts if you pick up the wrong detergent.

The key for reducing the volatile chemical compounds is to avoid or at least to reduce the periods for deep cleaning at home, which means a more frequent cleaning so you can’t let the objects to get heavily soiled. For instance, let’s take the textile floor coverings. A great idea is to rotate rugs and carpets on a monthly basis. This yet simple trick ensures an even wear of all the areas of the carpets, which is especially important for the carpets in the living room or in the bedroom. These are the most frequently used rooms and so the foot traffic is not an exception. By rotating carpets and rugs, you expose different areas to the foot traffic and so the need for deep cleaning with professional cleaning services reduces as well. Another great idea is to flip the carpets and the rugs if they have beautiful backings. By doing so, you basically expose a whole new side of the carpet to the foot traffic and everything else like dirt, dust, indentations from heavy objects, etc. One, the textile floor coverings become longer lasting and two – you reduce the period for deep cleaning with powerful chemical compounds.

Another common way to avoid breathing volatile chemical compounds is to leave the doors and the windows in the house open so there is always a constant airflow. This is simple, but it is applicable only for the warm seasons. That’s why the end or the beginning of the summer are the best moments for deep cleaning at home even if you plan to call the professional cleaners who use big powerful machines with a myriad of cleaning solutions.

Use the vacuum cleaning machine everywhere! Whether it comes to just freshening the fluffiness of the carpets and the sofa or a weekly cleaning of all flooring – the vacuum cleaner is the fastest and yet easiest way for cleaning at home. It removes dust, food crumbs and other loose particles without the need for a treatment with chemical compounds.

Another common way is to beat gently the cushions and the carpets through the windows in order to get rid of the dust and the loose particles. Take a pick of a warm sunny and windy day for cleaning. The wind will help blow away the dirt and the dust, while the effect of wiping off dust should be the same even without using a vacuum cleaning machine.

Yet if you have to deep clean with some commercial detergents – make sure that they’re pet-friendly detergents. A simple hygiene spray should play a great role for cleaning spills of margarine and other common spots from kitchen grease. Always read the labels on the compounds and try to avoid the powerful detergents that are recommended for cleaning machines.

Find more helpful cleaning tips on carpet cleaning please click here.