Bio-One of Tulsa decontamination and biohazard cleaning services

The Official Spring Cleaning Guide

Get started on your journey to living in a home that feels comfortable and welcoming.

Here are the 5 steps to efficient cleaning:

  1. Evaluate the Situation - Find your home’s trouble spots.
  2. Set Realistic Goals - Be specific and start with baby steps so you’re motivated to keep going.
  3. Pick Your Timeline - If you create individual timelines for each task, rather than one large one for the whole home, you’re more likely to stick to them.
  4. Decide Where to Start - Remember those trouble spots? They’re an excellent place to start and provide a clear end goal.
  5. Use Different Methods to Get the Job Done - There’s a lot of different strategies for cleaning. Pick what works for you and stick with it.

Step 1: Evaluate the Situation

Some people may hang onto excess items or animals that can compromise the health and

safety of the home. It’s important to keep up on cleaning and pay close attention to your common trouble spots so your home can remain safe and healthy. Common categories that stack up easily include:

Books

Are you holding onto books you’ll never get to? Do you have stacks of books you will probably never open again?

Food Items

Do you find yourself stocking up on certain foods, even if you can’t finish them before they expire? Are your cupboards filled with ingredients you don’t use?

Paper

Do you have stacks of old documents you don’t need anymore? Can you throw them away, or create a filing system for things you don’t have a digital record of?

Shopping

Do you have items in your closet that still have the price tags attached? Do you find yourself buying and stowing things you don’t intend to use?

Animals

Do you have more animals in your home than you can care for? Sometimes people rescue animals out of compassion, but do not have the space or resources to care for all of them. If you struggle caring for your animals, you may want to evaluate your space and consider finding new homes for some of them.

Trash

Do you find yourself searching for free items left in others’ trash, or struggling to part with your garbage? Some people struggle to part with trash, whether their own or what they’ve found. However, trash can quickly create dangerous health situations by attracting pests.

Step 2: Set Realistic Goals

Once you’ve identified what you want to change, it’s easy to get carried away with lofty plans. However, if you try to do too much at once, you can get overwhelmed and give up quickly.

Step 3: Pick Your Timeline

Don’t expect to finish everything in one weekend. Remember, it’s a process!

Rather than saying you’ll finish the entire house by a certain date, give yourself smaller deadlines and plenty of space. If you’re not sure how long something will take, set a daily habit goal for yourself. You can set a timer for 5-15 minutes, returning to the same area each day until it’s finished.

Easy does it!

Decluttering your home is a marathon, not a sprint! Don’t burn yourself out at the beginning. Keep it small, steady, and consistent.

Step 4: Decide Where to Start

Sometimes the hardest part of undertaking a big project is getting started! Get the momentum going by deciding what your first step will be.

Make it easier on yourself by picking a spot you can finish quickly. Accumulating some wins will help you feel good about your progress and strengthen your motivation and confidence.

Breaking your goals down into bite-size, achievable increments is a great strategy. Rather than saying “I’ll clean the bathroom first,” focus on decluttering the top drawer.

Once that is finished, pat yourself on the back and move on to the next drawer.

Step 5: Use Different Methods to Get the Job Done

There are numerous decluttering strategies out there. Below, we’ve compiled what we found to be the most effective strategies for your use. Some will work for your personal strengths and needs, and others won’t.

Keep testing the cleaning methods listed below until you find something that resonates with YOU and helps you achieve your goals.

Try the One-Drawer-a-Day Declutter Challenge.

Each day, choose a drawer or other small space in your home and set a time for 5-15 minutes. Work on that space until your timer goes off, and then move on with your day!

Once you’ve finished a space, you can move on to the next area on your list.

The one-drawer-a-day method works especially well for people with ADHD or others who may quickly get distracted.

Ask Yourself if You’ve Used it in the Last Year

Sometimes, we hang onto things for years, thinking we’ll need them eventually. With this method, we introduce ways to track if items have been used in the last year. If not, they’re thrown out or donated.

The next time you’re decluttering, ask yourself if you’ve used an item in the last year. If not, get rid of it.

If you’re sorting clothes, it can be helpful to turn all the hangers backward at the beginning of a season. Once you’ve worn something, you can hang it up the regular way.

Once that season is over, look through the closet and remove all the clothes still on backward-facing hangers—these are the pieces you wound up not using.

Check for Multiples

No matter how useful something is, having too much is unhelpful. If you have extras of something, donate them. Many organizations take extra items, and sometimes these donations are even tax-deductible.

These organizations are all good options to look into when donating extra items:

  • Animal rescues
  • Women and children’s shelters
  • Veterans association
  • At-risk youth groups
  • Churches, temples, synagogues, mosques, etc.
  • The Boys and Girls Club

Follow the OHIO rule

OHIO stands for Only Handle It Once. This method is particularly useful for mail and email. Don’t let things pile up. When you open your mail, you have three options:

  • Throw it away
  • Take action on it
  • Scan it for your records

Once you have a digital record of something, you can throw away the paper copy and know that you’ll never lose it.

Follow KonMari

Kondo’s method of decluttering involves asking yourself if different items “spark joy.” In her bestselling book, The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up, Kondo offers a unique process.

She advises going through your homes, touching each item you own, and asking yourself if it sparks joy. Often, she says, we are attached to our emotions and memories surrounding an object, and we don’t need the object itself to enjoy those emotions and memories.

Search within yourself.

While going through each individual item can feel overwhelming, as you make your way through the different spaces in your home, take an extra minute with the items that feel hard to part with.

Ask yourself if that item truly sparks joy. If you’re keeping it for any other reason (anxiety, guilt, fear), let it go.

Try Swedish Death Cleaning

One of the main premises of Swedish death cleaning is consideration for your loved ones who will need to deal with your belongings after your passing.

While it may seem morbid, in reality, choosing to downsize can lighten the burden for others in the future. Swedish death cleaning emphasizes taking your time and mindfully evaluating what you still need.

Use the 4-Box Technique

For the 4-box technique, label four different boxes with:

Keep

If you’re keeping it, put it in the keep box.

Donate

If you don’t need it but it’s still in good shape, put it in the donation box.

Trash

If you don’t need it and it isn’t in good condition to donate, put it in the trash box.

Store

If you need it in a certain season, but not this current season (think baby gear if you’re planning on having another child, seasonal decor, winter clothing, etc.), put it in the store box.

With your four boxes, move to the first space you want to declutter and put items in the appropriate box. Once you’re finished with a space, empty the boxes before you move to the next space. Put away the keep items, throw out the trash items, and so on.

Try the 21-Item Toss Challenge

For a motivating win to get your sense of accomplishment up, do a quick 21-item toss.

Grab a trash bag and walk through your house, picking up the first 21 things you see that you don’t need anymore and throwing them away. If you make this a habit, you can quickly clear out things you no longer need and make a big difference in your space.

It’s a great excuse to get up from your desk for a few minutes or fill the time during a commercial break. You can enlist your kids or partner to help too—or race to see who can toss 21 items first!

Give Stored Items an Expiration Date

If you’re saving something for a rainy day, put it on a firm deadline. Box up the items you think you’ll need someday and write an expiration date on the outside of the box.

If you haven’t gone looking for the items by that date, simply donate or throw away the box. Put a reminder in your phone or calendar so you don’t leave the box gathering dust in your garage for years.

Play the Zone

For a week-long challenge, choose 7 manageable areas you want to tackle. Each day for a week, clean one of your zones. Make sure these areas are small so you don’t get overwhelmed—you want to set yourself up to win by picking things that can be accomplished in a day!

Give it a Home… but if it Won’t Fit, Make it Quit

Sometimes we need to make a few purchases in order to organize our homes. It makes it even harder to clean things up if you’re dealing with:

  • Small, loose items
  • Piles of toys with nowhere to put them
  • Clothes you need hangers for

Finding a storage bin, new hangers, or another organizer to corral these items can make all the difference. But beware, don’t let shopping for organizational solutions become a new way to clutter up your home.

Recognize that if you are constantly buying new bookshelves or storage bins, it’s probably time to go through your items and get rid of some of them.

Ask Yourself Mindful Questions

Getting rid of things can be a painful process, but understanding your reasons for decluttering increases your motivation. Ask yourself these 12 questions to decide if something deserves a spot in your home:

  1. Is this item something I’m currently using? 
  2. Is this something I would buy right now if I saw it in a store?
  3. Is the thought of wasting money keeping me from getting rid of this item?
  4. Is this something I love? (Does it “spark joy?”)
  5. Am I keeping this for sentimental reasons?
  6. Do I have future plans for using this item or am I saving it “just in case”?
  7. Do I have multiples of this item?
  8. When I wear this, do I feel confident?
  9. Could someone else use this more than I do?
  10. If I were moving to a new home, would I pack this and bring it with me?
  11. Is this item worth the time I spend maintaining, cleaning, and/or storing it? 
  12. Could I make money selling this item?

We want to live in clean spaces. After all, improving the cleanliness of our homes has major physical, mental, emotional, and social benefits.

Trends in organization and home decor ebb and flow, but a certain fascination with decluttering and cleaning stays consistent. The reality is that we all struggle to bridge the gap between our goals and reality—which is why cleaning and organization trends are so pervasive in pop culture. 

Celebrities have a heavy influence on our design and cleaning trends. All of the most popular decor trends— Scandi, Japandi, and the Minimalist Movement—are popular because celebrities made them that way.

Even cleaning trends like:

  • The Konmari Method
  • Swedish Death Cleaning
  • Anything on the Home Edit
  • Spring Cleaning

Are considered trends because influencers rave about how effective they are.

At the root of those trends is a deep-seated human obsession with understanding how we can reach our cleaning goals despite all the factors that prevent us from getting there.

Shifts During the Pandemic

At the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, most of the United States was under strict shelter-in-place orders. Suddenly, we were asked to conduct work, education, and family life within four walls.

Even now, while many of us have ventured out of our homes for work, school, travel, and entertainment, once again, our lives have shifted.

Lifestyle Shift

Members of the workforce may still be working remotely or adopting a hybrid schedule. Many families have decided to continue homeschooling their children.

Spending more time than ever in our homes has given many of us an increased awareness of the spaces where we live. Being home all the time may have created more challenges in keeping things tidy, but it also increased our awareness and appreciation of our homes. You probably have a clearer view into what you’d like to improve about your living space.

If increased time at home has sparked your curiosity about ways to keep it more peaceful, clean, and uncluttered, keep reading to learn more about modern design and organizational movements.

Modern Decor

Current decor trends point to a desire for clean, uncluttered spaces. Simple lines, natural colors, and a minimalistic appearance characterize the popular Scandi and Japandi-style interiors.

If you’ve been to an Ikea, you’ve been exposed to Scandi design. Short for “Scandinavian,” this trend originated in the countries of Northern Europe and focuses on combining functionality with beauty. Scandi values:

  • Minimalism 
  • Simple lines 
  • Natural light 
  • Natural colors

Scandi evokes warmth and peace without being kitschy or cluttered.

Japandi design combines simple Scandi ideals with Japanese beauty. Japandi emphasizes our relationship with the natural world and sustainability while maintaining the aesthetics that made Scandi so popular. Japandi pieces tend to be sleeker than Scandi’s rustic touches and use deeper color tones.

Both styles are grounded in minimalism and characterized by a lack of clutter, evoking peace, calm, and contentment—something we all crave, especially after spending more time than ever at home.

The Minimalism Movement

In recent years, minimalism has become the subject of:

  • Podcasts
  • Books
  • Documentaries
  • Social media campaigns

Devotees evangelize the peace they feel about letting go of extra possessions and living a simpler life. Aspiring minimalists can look to dozens of sources for guidance on how to cut down on their stuff and simplify. While minimalism is a popular buzzword right now, its roots go back centuries.

In the 1800s, transcendentalist philosophers like Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David

Thoreau wrote about the virtues of simplicity and living with less.

Throughout the 20th century, design movements focusing on simple materials and sleek lines have gone in and out of popularity. Real Simple, a magazine that is a staple in many homes, was started in 2000, and emphasizes “keeping life simple and stress free.

Truth of the matter:

The longstanding popularity of minimalist movements goes to show that we want to be in peaceful, clean homes—we just don’t always know how to get there.

Cleaning Trends

Because cleaning is a fact of life that occupies our minds daily, it’s natural for trends to mirror this. Certain methods and philosophies are having their heyday right now. Shows, books, and social media factor in the rising popularity of these organizational trends.

The Konmari Method

Marie Kondo revolutionized decluttering with her “spark joy” method of getting rid of any items

that don’t make you feel happy. She recommends thanking items that have served their purpose before throwing them away or donating them.

Kondo acknowledged in a recent article that with three children, she still struggles to keep her home organized. While her home is no longer pristine and tidy, she still embraces minimalism not only in physical spaces but in how she spends her time.

Swedish Death Cleaning

Margareta Magnusson

Margareta Magnusson published her book, The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning, in early 2018. Despite the initially shocking title, Swedish death cleaning, or döstädning, is a simple and considerate practice.

Swedish death cleaning is based on the idea that as you age, you should begin clearing your home of excess possessions. This helps you simplify your life and focus on what matters as you age. It also helps your loved ones by giving them fewer things to manage after your passing.

The Home Edit

The Home Edit is a company founded by Clea Shearer and Joanna Teplin. They have created:

  • Two New York Times best-selling books
  • A podcast 
  • A Netflix show 
  • A product line

The Home Edit’s main philosophy is combining form, function, and fun for a home that stays neat and organized while keeping personality as a strong feature. They are very influential in the home organization space. Their marketing and personality-infused cleaning tips give them a broad appeal. They appeal to people who want a neater, more organized space but don’t resonate with the severity of more minimalistic approaches.

The Classic: Spring Cleaning

Organizing trends come and go, but spring cleaning has been a popular seasonal ritual for centuries. Humans have always needed to be intentional about taking time to clean and organize.

Spring Cleaning Roots

The practice has roots in many religious and cultural traditions like:

  • Judaism
  • Buddhism
  • Khaneh Tekani
  • Hinduism

Judaism

In Judaism, homes are traditionally cleaned before Passover to remove any yeast products.

Buddhism

A Buddhist festival in Thailand held in April involves purification rituals, including cleaning homes and temples.

Khaneh Tekani

Khaneh Tekani, or “shaking the house,” is a Persian tradition dating back over 3,000 years. In the spring, families cleaned and decluttered their homes to prevent bad luck in the coming year.

Hinduism

Yogis practice saucha, a purity practice, in the spring. Part of this practice is creating clean, non-distracting environments for home and work.

There may also be biological reasons for our drive to clean in the spring. As we experience more sunlight, our bodies produce less melatonin, driving us to be more alert. After a long, sleepy winter, the warm weather provides an opportunity to set things in order.

If the thought of gearing up for spring cleaning has your heart pounding, you’re not alone. The extra sunlight and societal pressures create intense feelings around spring cleaning.

Society tells us we should be ashamed when we struggle to keep our homes clean, but in reality, most of us fall somewhere on the hoarding scale. There’s a reason the human race has been doing spring cleaning for thousands of years!

We’re all a work in progress. There’s no need to feel shame no matter how out of hand your home feels to you.

It’s time to end the stigma around hoarding. There’s nothing wrong with asking for help. Whether you simply need some ideas to help you get started or are looking for some hands-on assistance, we’ve got you covered.

Is having a disorganized home such a big deal? Why not let people live how they want to live?

Having a clean, comfortable home affects people in different ways:

  • Physically
  • Mentally
  • Emotionally
  • Socially

A clean environment plays a huge factor in our quality of life.

Keeping a clean, organized home is well worth all the physical, mental, emotional, and social benefits that come with it.

Physical Benefits

From sleep quality to infection control, cleanliness affects how well your body functions from day to day.

Here are a few ways keeping an orderly environment can help you physically:

  • Reduced chance of illness
  • Improved sleep
  • Reduced allergy and asthma symptoms

Reduced chance of illness

Keeping a clean home reduces the risk of illness-causing pathogens being passed to residents of the home.

Food preparation areas should be sanitary, especially after handling raw meat.

Bathroom areas should be cleaned regularly, and animal waste should be taken care of to prevent disease.

Improved sleep

People with cluttered homes are more likely to experience insomnia. It’s hard to know if it stems from increased stress levels, difficulty getting comfortable in a cluttered space, or from another cause, but cleaning up clutter should help you get a better

night’s sleep.

Reduced allergy and asthma symptoms

Allergies and asthma attacks can be triggered by dust, pet hair and dander, and mold. Keeping homes free of these triggers can improve allergy and asthma symptoms.

Mental Benefits

The state of your home can have profound effects on your mental state. A cluttered, disorganized space can stress and overwhelm us. Severely cluttered homes can also cause feelings of shame and anxiety. Here are a few ways keeping your home in order can help you function well mentally:

  • Improved focus and productivity
  • Reduced stress
  • Sense of order and control
  • Familiarity and consistency
  • Improved creativity

Improved focus and productivity

A clean, uncluttered space helps our minds stay on task without distraction. When we see more items in our line of sight, it can actually slow down our brain’s processing speed and make it more difficult to focus.

Reduced stress

When we constantly look around us and see work that needs to be done, it’s difficult to feel calm. How can we relax when we’re surrounded by chaos? Maintaining a clean, organized space will create tranquility and peace-of-mind.

Sense of order and control

Setting your home in order can be empowering! When you are able to make your space look and feel the way you want it to be, you feel a sense of accomplishment.

Familiarity and consistency

When your home is constantly in good condition, you can depend on it as a place to relax and feel at peace. Regardless of what happens outside your home, you have a refuge where you can retreat from the world.

Improved creativity

Creativity needs margin and blank space to grow. When your space is not distracting from your thought process, your brain can focus on new ideas.

Emotional Benefits

Just as tasks requiring deep thought can be difficult when our homes are chaotic, our emotions can also be hard to settle when our environment is in upheaval. Here are some emotional benefits to improving the cleanliness of your home:

  • A better mood
  • Increased mindfulness
  • Better emotional regulation

A better mood

When you’re in a clean, comfortable environment, you feel better emotionally. Many studies show a relationship between messy homes and unhappiness.

Increased mindfulness

Not only does being in a clean, restful environment contribute to being better able to focus and be mindful, the act of cleaning itself actually offers an opportunity to practice mindfulness. Being mindful of the task at hand can decrease feelings of anxiety and increase feelings of inspiration.

Better emotional regulation

Emotional regulation is the ability to respond to your emotions mindfully. This skill can help you reframe negative emotions and cope with stress. When your home is less cluttered, you are better able to attend to your emotions and find peace.

Social Benefits

Your home doesn’t only affect you—it also has an effect on the people around you. When your home is messy and disorganized, it can actually hinder your relationships. Here are some ways cleaning and organizing can benefit you socially:

  • Friends can visit
  • Family can stay with you
  • You don’t have to worry about losing your home

Friends can visit

Cleaning up can create a welcoming space for you to spend time with those you care about. When your home is messy and disorganized, it can be difficult, or even embarrassing, to host others.

You may feel embarrassed about the state of your home, or your friends may not be comfortable there due to cleanliness issues, a lack of seating due to spaces being taken up by clutter, and so on.

Family can stay with you

When your home is clean and uncluttered, there is space for family to come and stay. Even if you need to set up cots or sleeping bags to accommodate extra guests, they can still be comfortable with you. With a clean floor and stored belongings, this can become a reality.

You don’t have to worry about losing your home

In severe cases, disorganization and lack of cleanliness can lead to structural issues with your home. Appliances may fall into disrepair and become hazardous, or the home’s structure can even be compromised by the weight of your belongings.

When your things are in order, there is no danger of needing to relocate. However, when your things are in order, there is no danger of being forced to relocate. That stress is non-existent. At a certain point, a health inspector could become involved.

Keeping a Clean, Uncluttered Space Improves Your Life

Everyone can improve the state of their homes—we all struggle to keep things clean and hang on to only the possessions we really need.

However, when we take the necessary steps to tidy up and declutter, we can see benefits in many different areas of our lives: physically, mentally, emotionally, and socially.

Whether or not you’ve actually done it, spring cleaning is backed up by centuries of tradition. Many cultures bring a spring cleaning period into their yearly rhythms. For all cultures, the kickoff for spring cleaning is marked by longer days and more sun. 

As sunlight hours increase, our bodies produce less melatonin, helping us feel more awake after months of cozy winter slowness. We also have more daylight to accomplish tasks we’ve been putting off. 

Even if spring cleaning isn’t part of your personal yearly traditions, you can start now. 

With so many blogs, books, and shows promoting organization, resources with ideas are everywhere. Keep reading to learn about our favorite spring cleaning strategies. 

Basic First Steps

Figure out what needs the most help 

Write down your plan

The most important step is knowing where to start. Take a walk around your house and decide what needs attention first. 

If you’re a list-maker, you can write down your plan of attack. (Or you can just follow the messy vibes.) Knowing your focus makes it easier to jump in and get the work done. 

You can also make a list of which days you want to accomplish certain tasks. Choosing just one room, drawer, or cupboard that you want to clean each day can make the entire process less overwhelming. The important thing is that you are moving forward!

Gather needed supplies

It’s hard to clean when you don’t have what you need. 

Gather needed supplies

Make sure any cleaning tools or chemicals you need are in an easy-to-find place. It can be helpful to have a caddy or bucket that you can bring from room to room. 

Make sure you have what you need, but don’t go overboard. It’s easy to turn a need for supplies into a shopping trip or a reason to procrastinate. 

Don’t fall into that trap! 

If you don’t have what you need to deep clean today, you don’t have to wait to get started. You can still put items away or, better yet, find items to get rid of.

Set a timer 

Most of us don’t have the time or the desire to go on a cleaning rampage. We have limited time and many responsibilities. (But if you’re a person who works well by focusing and cleaning all day, more power to you!)

For the rest of us, setting a timer can be an effective way to get your spring cleaning done, a little bit at a time. Choose an area to clean and a set amount of time (we suggest starting with just 15-20 minutes). Get your timer going and then work hard until it goes off. 

Go back to the same area each day with your same timer strategy until it’s clean. Only then is it time to move on to the next part of your home. 

Bit by bit, the mess will disappear. 

Reward yourself 

Having a clean home is its own reward, but building some kind of treat into the process always helps. Here are some ways to treat yourself: 

Reward yourself
  • Make the actual cleaning process more enjoyable by creating a cleaning playlist or listening to an audiobook. 
  • Enjoy a favorite activity once you’ve done your cleaning for the day—watching a show, going for a walk, playing a game, or going out to eat with a friend are all great motivators. 
  • Keep a favorite treat on hand. Once you’ve finished your cleaning, you get that piece of chocolate (or cup of coffee, or cookie, or large soda—whatever motivates you!). 

Just be cautious about buying yourself something as a cleaning reward. 

Often, having too much stuff is the reason our homes get out of hand in the first place. Try to find some other way to pat yourself on the back.

Take It Up a Notch

Gamify your spring cleaning

Scientific research shows that making our dreaded tasks into games can help us be more productive and motivated. There are many apps available that reward users for their accomplishments by letting them progress in a game or giving them a virtual gold star. 

You don’t need an app to gamify your spring cleaning, however. There are dozens of analog ways to make cleaning into a fun challenge. Here are a few of our favorites.

Create Your Own Cleaning Playoffs

Brackets are everywhere in the spring, and you can use them to motivate yourself even after the March Madness finals. Download a bracket and fill it out. There are a number of ways you could apply this to spring cleaning:

  • Find 16 (or 8) spaces in your home. Time yourself to see which ones you can clean the fastest. Whichever space winds up winning earns a little reward, like a new candle or picture frame. 
  • If you live with someone (or multiple someones—this is a great challenge to do with kids), divvy up the spaces that need to be cleaned. Whoever completes their tasks first or fastest wins. 

The ultimate challenge winner gets to decide where everyone goes out for dinner or a treat. 

The 4-Box Technique

Sometimes, we have so much stuff it’s hard to know where to put it or keep our spaces clean. With the 4-Box Technique, you’ll take four boxes into a room and label them: 

  1. Keep
  2. Donate
  3. Store
  4. Trash 

Go through the space and categorize all the items that don’t belong in that space (the ones that do belong can be put away immediately). 

The trick here is to make sure you deal with your four boxes right away. Don’t let boxes pile up in your home. 

Put the stuff you’re keeping in the right place:

  • Donations in your car
  • Things you’re storing in the garage or attic
  • The trash in the trash

The 21-Item Toss

For days when you’re overwhelmed or short on time, the 21-Item Toss is the perfect way to get a little bit of decluttering done in as little as 5 minutes. 

Grab a garbage bag—or one of the plastic grocery bags so many of us stow under the sink. Walk through your home and find 21 things to throw away. You can gamify it by timing yourself. 

Don’t think too hard—if you don’t use it or need it, out it goes!

Need more help?

If you feel like you can’t deal with your home situation on your own, Bio-One has your back. Our discreet team of compassionate, expert cleaners can help you with your home situation—no mess is too big. 

Call us today for a consultation. 


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Lives in the Atlanta area were forever altered on Tuesday, March 16, 2021 after a shooting spree at three metro Atlanta spas left eight people, including six Asian women, dead within the span of 45 minutes. 

Our hearts and sympathies are with everyone impacted by this tragedy.  

Two weeks after the tragic events in Atlanta took place, Bio-One answered the call to remediate the spa in Cherokee County. Led by Michele O'Brien and Rebecca Phillips, the Bio-One team provided a quick response and thorough decontamination. Read more in our recent blog post. 

Bio-One Cherokee County Massage Parlor Biohazard Remediation

Tragedy in Rock Hill, South Carolina

As details from the tragedy in Rock Hill, South Carolina unfold, one Bio-One team paid special tribute to the victims, first responders and other local law enforcement officials. Bio-One owners, John and Jen Symons, live in Rock Hill and experienced the police response first-hand. "It's a tight-knit community. We just can't believe it," said Jen Symons. 

Their team is currently in communication with local law enforcement, and activity supporting neighbors through this difficult time. 

COVID-19 Disinfection at Dojo

This week, we're spotlighting the Atlantic City team where they are regularly disinfecting Ganguly's Mixed Martial Arts. According to Bio-One owner, Victor Russomanno, "We are contracted with a local martial arts studio to disinfect them weekly. In addition to their in-house protocol, we use an electrostatic sprayer to ensure maximum coverage and protection, to ensure those who are training are staying safe through our efforts."

Across the United States, Bio-One teams actively disinfect local businesses, government buildings, and residents in the fight against coronavirus. Learn more about our COVID-19 disinfection process. 


Bio-One Weekly Wrap-Up Week 4 Hoarding Trauma Scene Back the Blue

Bio-One teams across the U.S. answer calls to help their communities and remediate a variety of scenes. In our new blog series, we'd like to bring you into the Bio-One world by sharing stories of the unique and important work we do for local communities.

Here is Week 5 of our Bio-One Weekly Wrap-Up. 

Chocolate Spill Makes for a Sweet Cleanup

In Scranton on March 25, Juan and Nicole Morales received a call for a "chocolate" cleanup. Assuming this was code for a sewage back-up, they rushed to scene to find a different situation entirely. Approximately 100 gallons of milk chocolate had spilled, covering asphalt outside a local business.

This is certainly the sweetest smelling job a Bio-One office has ever taken, but Nicole clarified, "That smell was nice for the first few minutes but at the end I felt sick. Good thing we had an awesome team that pushed through and got this done!" 

After scraping the chocolate with a forklift and pressure washing the area, the Bio-One team received a five-star review. Well done!  

Bio-One Milk Chocolate Spill Review
Bio-One Milk Chocolate Spill Before and After

Behind the Scenes with Citizen's Academy

Many Bio-One owners sign up for their local Citizen's Police Academy to acquaint themselves with the activities of their local police department. This week, Bio-One owner, Ginger Akemon, in Jacksonville, FL earned her Citizen's Police Academy certificate from the Clay County Sheriff's Office

"Definitely a learning process. Each County has their own, my goal is to go to each county's classes. This was 10 weeks long and over an hour drive each way, but well worth it, " said Ginger. 

Hoarding Transformation in Long Beach

In Long Beach, the Bio-One team has been working hard on several hoarding projects. These before and after pictures show the detail and expertise our teams bring to each job.