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STER-OL’s Ultimate Home Moving Guide for 2021

STER-OL’s Ultimate Home Moving Guide for 2021

by | Apr 12, 2021 | Latest

While Ontario readjusts to the third stay-at-home order, there are many residents who are taking advantage of one essential service that has only picked up momentum in the last few months: real estate. With the housing market in the province continuing its hot streak despite a new wave of COVID-19 cases, residents are being forced to ask themselves a new question: how do we prepare to safely move homes during a pandemic?

That’s why we’ve created this handy guide for vacating your current home, and getting your new one ready to move into. If you or someone you know is preparing to move, be sure to send them these tips. And even if you aren’t moving homes this spring, taking advantage of these tips will help your home feel like new.

 

Before Moving Day

Even today, moving doesn’t have to be a frustrating or chaotic experience. The important thing is to plan ahead, ensuring your move is done safely, and with care. Begin preparing for your move with some easier tasks, like updating your address of vital forms and documentation. If you’re moving during the week, try to take some time off work so you don’t have to rush. Reserve a moving company for the big day or, if you’d prefer to refrain from using a moving company, reach out to friends and family to see who would be willing to lend a hand.

Planning your packing is just as important as planning how you’re going to move it. Creating an inventory of all the items you want to bring to your new home, using a list or spreadsheet, will save much time and confusion when sorting through all your items. It will also help you determine what you don’t want to make the trip, and for those items, holding a garage sale or putting the items up for sale online will let you lighten your moving day burden, while pocketing some extra cash.

The last thing to do before you start selling and packing those items is ensure all your items are properly sterilized. Using SteraMist® to completely sterilize all your items, from furniture to electronics and even paperwork, ensures all your possessions are completely safe from any potential germs or pathogens, keeping you, your friends, and the moving crew healthy, and ensuring your new home will stay spring clean.

 

On Moving Day

After completing the steps above, when the big day finally arrives you’ll be ready to take on the challenges that lie ahead. Begin by getting an early start on the day. Begin packing your recently sterilized items and get them ready to move to your new destination. If you booked an appointment with a STER-OL Infection Specialist to sterilize your new home, have the specialist sterilize your new home before you begin moving your belongings inside. Because SteraMist® is so quick acting and environmentally safe, a complete sterilization session can be done with almost zero downtime. Once your new home is sterilized and germ-free, begin moving items in, using your inventory sheet to keep track of things as they come inside. You’re nearly ready!

 

After Moving Day

Once you tip the moving crew and thank your friends for their help, all that’s left is to get settled. While your home will look and feel fresh once everything finds its place, it’s important to set a regular cleaning routine to ensure germs and pathogens don’t build up. Using our cleaning guide for homeowners, you can be sure to keep your home feeling fresh for many years to come. That begins with a deep clean.

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3 Reasons Why SteraMist® is the Best Way to Clean Any Space

by | Jan 29, 2021 | Latest

There are a lot of cleansers out there that purport to be the best. They all look the same, list similar features, and claim to be the right tool for you to use to sterilize your home or workplace. But how do they actually perform?

Let’s look at how the competition compares to the power of SteraMist®.

1. Application Time

One of the most frequently asked questions about any decontamination solution is how long will it take to apply? It’s a fair question. Not only do clients want to know their home or workplace will be disinfected quickly for their own health and safety, but they also want to ensure the area is treated with minimal downtime or disruption to their day.

This is the first advantage of using SteraMist® to sterilize any space at home or work. Originally developed by the US Military, SteraMist® was designed to quickly neutralize dangerous pathogens like anthrax. By taking advantage of the unique cold plasma arc system, SteraMist® deploys a fine mist of very low Hydrogen Peroxide solution (iHP) to cover any surface area in seconds. 

By contrast, competing products that use liquids and sprays not only take longer to apply, but they can have difficulty reaching small, cramped, or irregular surfaces.

This is just one advantage of using SteraMist® in your home or at work.

 

2. The Sterilization Experience

As you can see from the video demonstration above, SteraMist® can be applied much faster and further than other decontamination products. But this is not the only advantage. In fact, one of the most compelling aspects of treating your home, workplace, or even vehicle with SteraMist® is its gentle touch. Approved for sale by Health Canada and 100% eco-friendly, SteraMist® safely decontaminates any surface in seconds without leaving behind any odour or residue. After having your area cleaned, it can be immediately ready for use once again.

Take another look at the competing product in the video. Notice how much liquid residue is left behind on the glass surface, requiring additional clean up. This contributes to longer downtime.

SteraMist® offers superior sterilization against dangerous pathogens without causing work stoppages, slowdowns, or delays.

 

3. Safe on Sensitive Material

This last point is crucial to understanding not only the sterilization power but the versatility of  SteraMist® in everyday spaces. Because SteraMist® doesn’t leave behind any residue, it can safely be applied to all surfaces without fear that it will harm sensitive items. This is especially good for office and commercial spaces, where paper, electronics, and other delicate materials may be scattered throughout the space. With SteraMist®, you can rest assured that these and other items will be sterilized from harmful germs and bacteria on the spot without concern for damage or degradation.

These are just a few of the many benefits of decontaminating your space with SteraMist®. To learn more click or call to get a free quote from one of our specialists today.

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How to Disinfect Your Vehicle and Keep It Germ-free This Winter

by | Jan 25, 2021 | Latest

As winter rolls on and public safety measures once again grow strict, it can be easy to fall into a routine and get complacent. Though some people may spend their days working from home and staying indoors, many must still travel to and from work, keeping essential businesses open and running to provide us with the services we all rely on every day. This includes health care providers, service professionals, and delivery drivers.

While many businesses are already taking the right precautions to keep employees safe at work and customers happy at home, there is still one other place we spend a lot of time that shouldn’t be overlooked: vehicles.

Between commuting to essential workplaces and venturing out for essential supplies, vehicles are small, cramped spaces where germs and pathogens can remain for long periods of time. What special cleaning techniques should be used to protect your passengers, your loved ones, and yourself?

Here are the 4 best ways to disinfect your vehicle and keep it germ-free this season.

 

Clean Out the Car Seats

A vehicle’s cabin can be difficult to keep spotless as time goes on, and its seats are the best example of that. In fact, seats can be a hotspot for germ activity, due to how frequently they come into contact with passengers on a regular basis. And particularly for families with young children, where coughing, sneezing, and old food crumbs are common, a vehicle’s seats can often attract pathogens.

One way to protect yourself and your passengers from this type of germ build-up is vigilance. Wiping down each seat with soap and water regularly, and cleaning out old crumbs and discarded wrappers from leftover snacks can help prevent this, contributing to a better travel environment.

Speaking of which…

Vacuum the Interior Regularly

This is a great routine that will help pick up those crumbs, along with dust and debris that may have fallen into the more difficult to reach places of your vehicle. While vacuuming itself may not disinfect or sterilize any surfaces inside your car, it can reduce the build up of germs and give your vehicle an overall cleaner environment.

Pro Tip: Keep a small, hand-held vacuum cleaner in your vehicle at all times so you’re ready to clean up a spill no matter when it happens.

Replace the Air Filters

Over time, a vehicle’s ventilation system can build up a degree of dirt, dust, and pollutants. Particularly during the winter months, having hot air blown around the vehicle by the vent system can stir up and spread germs across the cabin, increasing the risk of infection in the process. Owners can avoid this however, by ensuring the vehicle’s air filtration is replaced when required. Doing this will combat the pollution and irritants that can lead to future problems. 

Disinfect Your Vehicle with SteraMist®

Of course, while these are helpful steps you can take on a regular basis to keep your vehicle clean, the fact is every surface you come into contact with through simple daily activity can eventually be home to germs and pathogens. And with frequent, sometimes long commutes from home to work and back again, it is crucial to ensure that your vehicle is completely disinfected for the health, safety, and well-being of yourself and your passengers.

This is precisely why STER-OL opened its vehicle disinfection centre. Using the power of SteraMist®, our trained specialists are able to completely disinfect any vehicle, usually in just a few minutes, without any odour or residue left behind. This process can eliminate dangerous germs and pathogens while still being 100% eco-friendly, meaning you’ll be back on the road in a sterilized environment in no time. STER-OL’s vehicle disinfection services have even been called in to service First Responders, who depend on their vehicles not only to get across town, but to provide life-saving services across our communities.

It is crucial we protect our loved ones by safeguarding all the spaces we spend time in the most – that includes our cars.

Click below to get a free quote and see how easily you can have your vehicle disinfected with SteraMist® today.

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STER-OL Infection Control Continues to Support Ontario Residents and Businesses

by | Jan 11, 2021 | Latest

As Ontario continues to weather the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, STER-OL Infection Control continues to provide its decontamination, sterilization, and cleaning services to residents, businesses and medical facilities.

Last May, STER-OL announced it had partnered with AssessMed, a leader in independent medical examination (IME) services to singularly focus on safety solutions for frontline workers by disinfecting beyond provincial standards. The partnership was announced with a press release featured in Canadian Underwriter.

“We can safely disinfect any surface area, building or vehicle with minimal downtime,” Peter Sandica, President and CEO of STER-OL Infection Control was quoted as saying at the time. “By protecting staff, business owners are directly contributing to public safety and helping to lead us further down a path of recovery. STER-OL Infection Control aims to enable these leaders and their teams to support Canadians by providing sustainable solutions.”

In the time since announcing the partnership, STER-OL has continued to uphold its commitment to workplace decontamination, residential sterilization, and overall safety. In an effort to support frontline workers, the company built a mobile PPE Disinfection Unit capable of safely reprocessing approximately 2,000 N95 masks in a single hour. This is in addition to STER-OL’s Vehicle Disinfection Centre, where emergency and passenger vehicles can be completely disinfected in just minutes.

These innovations are all powered by SteraMist®, using Binary Ionization Technology (BIT) and a very low (7.8%) Hydrogen Peroxide solution to disinfect surfaces, rooms, buildings, and even vehicles in just minutes.

To learn more about STER-OL’s partnership with AssessMed, click here to read the original press release. And be sure to click below to get a free quote to disinfect your home, workplace, or vehicle today.

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4 New Year’s Resolution Tips to Keep Your Home Clean

by | Dec 28, 2020 | Latest

Now that all the gifts have been opened, the food has been devoured, and good times have been had, there is only one more holiday that remains to be celebrated – the turning of the calendar to New Year’s Day. No doubt we all are looking forward to leaving 2020 behind and enjoying a fresh start on January 1st, when we can greet the new year with a newfound sense of optimism. 

Before we watch the ball drop though, there are a few things you can do to get yourself, your family, and your home ready for new beginnings. Here are 4 New Year’s Resolution tips you can use to keep your home clean in 2021.

1. Use Your Holiday Downtime to Declutter

This is a simple place to start. The week between Christmas Day and New Year’s Eve is often a quieter one. Most of the celebrating has happened, and folks are taking some time to themselves to relax, decompress, and set their sights on the future. Take advantage of this moment by decluttering the spaces around you. Start easy: maybe by cleaning up discarded holiday packaging or gift wrappings. Once you’ve got that momentum, use it to push through some of the bigger projects you may have been putting off all year, like cleaning out a hall closet, wiping down the kitchen, or tidying up an upstairs bathroom. We all have rooms in our home that need attention. Now is the time to revisit them.

2. Tidy Up Those Decorations

While many folks enjoy leaving holiday decorations up until the end of December and beyond, the post-Christmas break is a great time to tidy up those seasonal ornaments and find a better way to store them away until next year. If you usually stash your holiday décor out of sight (and out of mind) when not in use, like in a closet or basement, consider packing them in storage bins or boxes. This will not only keep them free of dust and dirt, but will also ensure you have more space to enjoy your home in the New Year. The same goes for garlands, wreaths, and larger items.

3. Make Tidying Up A Family Routine

Tidying up after the holidays doesn’t have to be a chore. In fact, it can be the start of a great habit. Go beyond the basics and have everyone at home pick a room and start cleaning up. For kids, that can mean starting small, like putting toys back where they belong after playing with them, or making the bed in the morning. For adults, get in the habit of regularly dusting common surfaces or washing dishes immediately after a meal rather than letting them sit until later. Getting into these habits now will help give your New Year’s resolutions a boost at home.

4. Give Your Home A Deep Clean with SteraMist®

These are all great ways to get started, but we’ve only begun to scratch the surface when it comes to keeping your home clean. It’s important to remember that true cleanliness goes much deeper. While we are all looking forward to a fresh start in the New Year, we must still remain vigilant about the reality of living with COVID-19 and other germs that could find their way into our homes. 

If you have been following your Winter 2020 Checklist, you know that staying safe this season means following recommended precautions from health officials. On Boxing Day, Ontario entered a new lockdown period, scheduled to last until January 9 in northern Ontario, and January 28 for residents of southern Ontario, in an effort to slow the spread of COVID-19. This means that everyone across the province will begin their 2021 by spending a lot more time at home.

This is exactly why you shouldn’t settle for merely tidying up this season, but protecting your home, yourself, and your loved ones with a deep clean with SteraMist®.

SteraMist® was originally developed by the US Military in the early 2000s to protect against anthrax, and has since been proven to safeguard against other dangerous germs and pathogens. By having your home professionally cleaned with SteraMist®, you can rest assured that your downtime this holiday season is spent in a space that is sterile, safe, and secure for you and your family.

Here’s how it works:

Start your New Year the right way. Click below to get a free quote and see how easy it is to deep clean your home today.

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