5 of the worst Father’s Day gifts.

I think with Father’s day approaching we all have a little panic of what to buy dad this year, I have had some failure and success in the past, but usually I never know what to buy and end up going with the generic “Best Dad In The World” mug… We have a cupboard full. Yes I know I'm a terrible daughter.

We have seen hundred of list of what you SHOULD buy for your dad so for a change this year at Teddle we decided we would put together a little list of some of the worst father’s day gifts around to stop all of you making some farther's day faux pas'

First up the “Kleen Stride” Perfect for the dad who hates to sweep! (Isn’t that most dad’s?) Oh yea, and they sell the snow plow attachment separately just incase you're interested…Yippee!

Second on our list

Like the smell of bacon cooking in the morning? … Us too! But would you really want your Dads car smelling of it?  We are not sure the smell of bacon makes for fresher air but this company seems to think so.

Third and Forth..

The next two "worse gifts" are for the golf loving Dads, first up something we are pretty sure isn’t allowed on the golf course never mind something we actually want to buy.. a golf club drinks dispenser. Bloody Mary's anyone?

Another golf related gift that may have you waiting a while to get in to the bathroom the “potty Putter” yes that’s right you heard us, what a load of…

Number 5...

Our final worst gift for father’s day is not particular bad it’s just down right unimaginative and almost as buying your Dad a pair of socks… Yep! The dreaded "Worlds Best Dad" tie, unless you are under the age of 15 we think you should cross this one off your list...

If this blog hasn't gave you any bright ideas on what to get your old man this Fathers Day, get him something he actually would appreciate....an easy life and more time to spend down the pub!

Book your Dad a Teddle cleaner today at www.teddle.com 

 

Get Organised! - Teddle's DIY Tips

Do you have someone in your life who constantly cleans or is way to organised for their own good? We’ll we are going to arm you with some top tips to organise your home so you can show them you can do it too!

Ok so some of the tips are a little wacky but who wants to have stacks of boring old storage boxes!? Here it goes, be prepared to get your DIY on.

Pen pots are out and cupcake tins are in... Who would have thought it? But they do actually make a quirky little desk tidy and there are some pretty ones out there that won’t make it look like you are trying to bake your paperclips.

Guardian

Ladies, most of us probably have way too many pairs of shoes and I know mine always end up strew all over the floor and when I’m running late I can never find the pair I want. This nifty little DIY solution has us covered, lengths of pipe have been cut and stuck in a pattern on a dressing room wall for the perfect shoe storage.

Pinterest 

Keys! We all have those set of keys whether they are for home or work that all look the same and we are forever getting them muddled up or fighting with the family over who’s keys are who’s. This clever idea eliminates that as well as using up those extra nail varnishes you have lying around.

Pinterest

Now, we love this one and if done properly it can look amazing! Simply take all of your old mismatched pots and jars, add some funky labels and they can be a design piece of their own as well as stylishly storing all of your store cupboard bits and bobs.

Gaurdian

This bad boy has to be one of our favourites, he can be used for a range of things and he is so simple to make. Who’d have thought cutting a slit in a tennis ball could be so productive. Give it a go and make your own helpful miniature mate!

Pinterest

Cleaning is our thing so when we saw this we couldn’t help but share it with you. In the office we hate it when we go under the sink and accidently knock over a bottle causing a crazy domino effect that takes us 10 minutes to sort out, sound familiar? This surprisingly simple but ingenious Idea could be the perfect solution. By attaching a length of plastic pipe or a curtain rail under your sink and hanging your sprays from it you will gain extra storage and a neat little storage system.

Pinterest

There you have it, our top DIY organising projects from around the web.

Which one will you be trying out?

Team up your organisational skills with a Teddle cleaner from www.teddle.com 

Do-It-Yourself Cleaning products

Here at Teddle HQ, we’d like to think we know a thing or two about cleaning and the great products to do it with. Aside from your big brands, we don’t feel we know enough about the ‘do-it-yourself’ products and which products work the best.

We love the idea of homemade products, we don’t just mean putting a piece of lemon in water to make your fridge smell nice. At Team Teddle, we Dream Clean Big! With that in mind, we decided to do our research and find out what great products you can create using normal household items and how best to utilise the products you already own.


So! Get out your best sponges, pull on those marigolds and grab your hoover, because Team Teddle are about to blow the dust out of your minds!

Don’t worry, we’ll ease you into this, starting with.. an everyday all purpose spray, because let’s face it, who doesn’t love a spray that can clean almost everything?!

Here at Team Teddle, we like to think of ourselves as practicing Eco warriors (well, we try) with Alex leading the gang mop in hand, Tom looking after his bees and Jules playing her drum to the beat of mother nature.
All you'll need is:

1 spray bottle
1 bottle of vinegar

Make up a 50/50 mixture of water and vinegar in the spray bottle, then spray away to your hearts content!
Tip: For those set in stains, add a pinch of baking soda.

“Now I go cleanin' windows to earn an honest bob

For a nosy parker it's an interestin' job

Now it's a job that just suits me

A window cleaner you would be

If you can see what I can see

When I'm cleanin' windows”

And what a fab idea for window cleaning do we have for you!
You’ll need:

2 Cups of Water
3 Tablespoons of Vinegar (Isn’t that vinegar becoming useful!)
1/2 Tablespoon of liquid dish detergent
1 Newspaper

Combine into a spray bottle (newspaper not included) spray onto the glass and wipe off with a newspaper and Ta-daa!

Next up Matthew, we have a toilet bowl cleaner.
All you’ll need for this one, is:
Baking soda
White vinegar

Flush the toilet, sprinkle in the baking soda around the bowl, spray with vinegar and then scrub.Moving on to products that you may have lying around your house.CIF Cream, it can be used on anything from white shoes, oven racks to door frames!
Viakal It’s great on limescale. Just make sure you don't mix it with bleach, otherwise you'll have to leave the room for a little while.

After you’ve tried your hand at making all these great do-it-yourself products, and found more than one use for your current cleaning products, treat yourself to another great homemade product.
You’ll need:

2 wedges of lime

A handful of ice cubes
1 Glass
1 cup of tonic water
1 shot of gin

Put all the ingredients into the glass, sit back, relax and admire your handy work.


We’d loved to hear how you found these products, comment on this blog or tweet us and remember always drink responsibly!

Team Teddle x

How Clean is Your Man?

We asked some of you lovely ladies about your men and how clean they are.. and found some of the answers very surprising...

• I pretty much do all the cleaning, washing, tidying and sorting. He does all the working and sitting on his bum. Hahaha. Give him his due if I ask for help he will help me. Otherwise he's happy to sit back and watch :)

• He’s only tidy when we have guests coming for dinner! Otherwise it's down to me!

• He's so tidy, he has the basics, no posters on his walls, products on the right shelf, moans if I leave socks on the floor, Infact he says anytime I stay over it is the messiest his room will be haha

• Always does dishes before he goes to bed, rearranges the dishwasher if I load it. Cleans bathroom(s) before we have guests without being prompted.

• Enough to say he’s clean but not clean enough.

• He has a cleaner, so his house is always perfect and makes my messy university room look like a bomb has exploded.

• He doesn’t do much unless I shout at him to tidy up, usually there are just dirty socks everywhere.

So how tidy is your man? Is he a clean freak, so messy you can't see the floor or somewhere in between?

We have some excellent Male cleaner's here at Teddle, why not let them show you how its done?!

Book yours at www.teddle.com

Cleaner of The Week!

Well to say the least the last couple of weeks have been rather exciting for team Teddle. You may have noticed that we had our first bit of press! We were on the front page of Tech Crunch which was A-mazing! If you missed the article you can have a read here: http://techcrunch.com/2013/04/15/clean-money/

Now we’ve finished fundraising we can concentrate solely on our product and making it even more fabulous! What better way to celebrate than hosting...a Teddle Tea Party! Yes we gathered our cleaners into one room and force fed them cake.We chatted through new changes to Teddle which includes our new payment provider Stripe, which makes it a lot quicker for them to receive payment and has made our customers lives even easier.


We’re also really focusing on our cleaner recruitment process to keep up with the increasing demand for Spring Cleans! Keep them bookings coming! If you have a cleaner you would like to recommend to Teddle please drop us their contact details at info@teddle.com as we’d love to have them on board!

                                                        

This weeks Cleaner of The Week goes to Galya, who we’ve just learnt is a bit of a rapper in her spare time! Awesome!

1) What is the funniest thing thats ever happened to you whilst cleaning?
Once when I was cleaning windows I sprayed the windows and went to clean...and there was no glass in them! I was cleaning air!

2) Do you enjoy cleaning your own home?
Yes I like to clean my own house...but no after a party!

3) What is it like being a cleaner in London?
The biggest challenge for a cleaner in London is catching the right transport at the right time.

4) Do you ever dance to music when cleaning?
I quite often sing acapella ;)

5) Can you describe your typical day?
My typical day is waking up early, travelling to meet new people and clean for them. When I am not working I like to write lyrics and make hip hop songs.

6)What is the biggest challenge you have had to face so far in your career?
To improve my self and to be perfect.

7) Do you like working in London? If so why?
In the beginning a cleaning job was only a job and that is all, and then I met Teddle, and now the cleaning job is also a game that I can play with great pleasure!


Book Galya and other fab cleaners at www.teddle.com

Call a Cleaner: Filthiest Homes... Part two

So we've all had that roommate that let their bread go mouldy or a partner that is a little messy, right? Well, think yourself lucky if those are the worse of their crimes because for the second instalment of our filthiest homes we have found some HUM-dingers!

WARNING! Some of the following images may case you to gag, and believe us tonight you will most definitely be doing that vacuuming you have been putting off since last weekend…
First up, and we are starting lightly here, this guy (or girl) must have been living on cigarettes and and fast food….

We think who ever lived here needed to invest in a feather duster… or maybe a pressure washer!



This bathroom has pretty much every thing you need in life, right? Including a watering can in the shape of a frog… Just incase.



We think we see a dog in this one… some where in that mess.



We definitely don't think much work was getting done on this PC.. and we hope that those bottle are just full of gone off powerade! *shudder*



..and this one… well excuse us while we're sick…



All we can say to these people is "call a cleaner!" or in fact head to Teddle and We promise you’ll find a cleaner in London within 60 seconds, from just £8 per hour!

www.teddle.com

Taking The Leap

It is almost 18 months to the day since I sat my boss down and told him I wanted to take a career break to start my own business.

I was beyond nervous. I had only been with the company a year. I had just been promoted to be a Senior Manager. I had current projects underway. I had junior staff I was in the middle of mentoring. This was not going to go well.

Eventually I summoned the courage to tell him why I had asked him to meet me for lunch. Dry mouthed, stumbling over my words, I managed to rattle off something along the lines of:

"I'm really sorry and I know you and the company have been great to me but there is something I've been meaning to tell you I've decided that I really want to try my hand at starting my own business and I'm worried that if I don't do it now that I may never get the chance but I don't want you to think that I'm ungrateful but I really need to do this…"

Looking a bit bewildered and trying to assimilate my ramblings, my boss leaned back in his chair. After what seemed like the longest silence in history, he sighed and wistfully said the infamous line:

"I had an idea once... but I never had the nerve to follow it through. Good on you"

And that was that.

Far from being disappointed or angry at my decision he was supportive.

Similar conversations followed over the coming weeks as I let friends and colleagues know of my plans. Almost universally the response was along the same lines as that of my boss. People commended my bravery, for putting my money where my mouth was, for believing in myself. They wished they had taken the plunge when they had the chance. But life had gotten in the way. Mortgages, kids, partners, promotions, it had never seemed like the right time to start something of their own.

It seems this world is full of 'Closet Entrepreneurs'. People with the desire and passion to start something of their own but who never seem to get over that initial hurdle. The hurdle of; What will people think? What will my boss say? What if it fails? What if I'm not good enough?

In my experience the answers were a lot less scary than I had imagined in my head.

What will people think?
People will think all different kind of things. Some people will be supportive, some people will think you are crazy, some people will be envious and some people will be all of the above!

What will my boss say?
If you are a good employee they are unlikely to be ecstatic to lose you. But if they really care about you and your development then they would never guilt you into staying.

What if it fails?
Yep, it might. A lot of new startups do. But there is a reason why investors favour 2nd and 3rd time entrepreneurs. Unless you have your eyes shut, even a complete failure of a business will teach you so much about yourself and running a successful company that you are bound to be better next time around.

What if I'm not good enough?
I have been out of my comfort zone and my depth since I began this journey. I'm doing everything for the first time. I make mistakes all the time. I try and learn from them and sometimes I don't even manage that! You may find that you really don't like the realties of running a business. And that's ok too. At least you can go back to being an employee without the lifelong regret about what could have been.

Don't get me wrong, that initial leap was probably the biggest I've ever had to take. It was nerve wracking and I was plagued with doubts. Here I was, giving up a highly paid city job to start a business from scratch. I didn't know when my next pay check would arrive. I didn't know anything about building a product. I didn't know anything about raising investment. I didn't know much. But it was a catch-22. If I stayed at my job I would never get the chance to learn those things.

18 months later, I know a lot about building a product and raising investment. The first pay packet took 11 months to materialise. It's a damn sight smaller than my old one but I wouldn't trade places for anything.

So tear off that band-aid. Take the leap. Don't be the person that wonders what might have been. The water's not too cold, I promise.

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