Clean and Green!

Every day at Clean Air Cab, we clean a LOT of cars. Every morning and every evening the cars are inspected and cleaned before they are allowed to go out on the road again. That many dirty cars, along with maintaining a clean office, this means we use a lot of cleaning products! We try to run our company using as many eco-friendly practices as possible, and cleaning has become a significant part of company activities, so why not write about it?

CAC is a very family friendly company as well as an eco-friendly company. So when we think of cleaning, we aren't just considering the environment when trying to eliminate chemicals from our workplaces, we're thinking of our kids (who often frequent the office) too! Finding greener ways to do your cleaning is good for the Earth and your health!

The cheapest, non-toxic, natural, all-purpose cleaner you can use is simply vinegar. Yes, plain old vinegar! Vinegar isn't a new trick- plenty of mothers and grandmothers have known of its secret cleaning powers for generations- but that doesn't mean there aren't new things we can do with it! 

The biggest deterrent in using vinegar as a cleaner is it's unpleasant smell. I for one, do not want my home smelling like a pickle after I'm done cleaning it. Fortunately, it is incredibly easy to infuse vinegar  with other scents! For a lemon-scented cleaner, peel two lemons, put the rinds in a jar, pour vinegar over them and let it sit for a week. then put it into a spray bottle and clean just about anything in your home! For other scents, add drops of essential oils to spray bottles of vinegar, like lavender. Once the vinegar is infused with a scent, the "vinegar smell" will dissipate shortly after spraying it and you will only be left with the delicious scent you have infused! (Using cleaning vinegar, which is a little more concentrated, is recommended. Depending on what you are cleaning, you will want to dilute the vinegar with water as well.)

Vinegar, it seems, can be used to fix almost anything from clogged sinks to stained carpets, to chemical build-up in bathrooms! Check out my sources below for more great tips!

The scent-infused vinegar idea came from this great blog!

Check out this webpage to learn about even more of the many uses of vinegar!

                                                              

Keeping our resolutions!

Keeping in the new year's theme (January isn't over yet, I can keep this up for another week!), I thought I'd write about how to be successful in keeping our new year's resolutions! Last week I wrote about what some of Clean Air's resolutions were, so it only seems fitting to make sure we have a plan!

Fortunately, psychologists have done a lot of research on resolutions so we don't have to guess at how to keep our resolve up! So here are a few tips:

1. Make resolutions! It seems like a no-brainer but people who don't think resolutions are worthwhile only have a 4% chance of reaching goals while 46% of those who commit to resolutions reach their goals! And most of the 54% who don't keep their resolutions fall off in the first week. So if you can make it past the first week you have a fighting chance! Hopefully we've all made it past the first 3 weeks of the year.

2. Keep your goals realistic. Maybe instead of shooting for a marathon when you're an inexperienced runner, try for a 10k first. Maybe try to loose and keep off 30 pounds instead of 100. know yourself and push yourself, but don't overdo it. Reaching too far often causes people to become discouraged.

3. Start when YOU are ready, not necessarily at the first of the year! So for those of you who didn't get around to making resolutions January 1, try for February 1! Know what will work best for you.

4. Get support! Support from others is key in keeping yourself motivated and accountable. Ask a friend or relative to call you every so often to remind you of your resolution and keep you accountable. Post your resolution and your progress to Facebook or any other social media site. Those little "likes" can be just the boost you need to keep going!

5. Log your progress. Keeping record of your progress helps you to see how far you've come and makes you be accountable to something, if not someone. It also helps you to see that your goal is in sight! (I really like sticker charts. Some people may like notebooks or online planners)

6. Do one thing at a time. Do NOT make 50 resolutions! It's hard enough keeping one! You will likely get overwhelmed and quit early, accomplishing none of them. You can do two if they are related though, like loosing weight and exercising more. But trying to stick to a diet while quitting smoking may be too much to take on at a time. Tackle things one at a time and really blow your goals away!

7. Reward yourself! you're working hard, reward your progress! But make sure it's a reward within your goal. For example, don't reward yourself with a big piece of cake after sticking to your diet for a week. Maybe go out dancing or get a pedicure instead. Helpful rewards will give you the boost you need to keep going.

I got all of this awesome information from an episode of NPR's Science Friday which can be found here. (CAC's owner, Steve Lopez, and I share a love of science and innovation so anytime I can sneak some cool science in here, I will!)

Good luck with all of your goals and resolutions this year! Comment here or on our Facebook page and tell us what your new year's resolutions are and how you are doing! Maybe Clean Air Cab can be apart of helping you become a new and improved person!

New Year, New Opportunities!

With a new year comes a renewed sense of determination to make a difference and do better than in the past. That is especially true for Clean Air Cab as we look forward to giving back and making more of an impact on the community and growing as a company. 

Las year we gave $10,485 to Susan G Komen, $9,012 to Phoenix Children's Hospital, $23,543 to Mesa United Way, and a scholarship to ASU.

This year, we are hoping to beat that! 

This past year our managers, employees, and drivers have worked with the Boys and Girls Club, Helen's Hope Chest, Arizona Breast Feeding Bag Project, Phoenix Children's Hospital, raised money for families in need, volunteered with food drives, helped each other move, given free rides to friends and strangers in need, and so much more! And that's just on their own personal time!

Clean Air Cab values service and giving back because our community is only as good as the people in it. We believe we're all in this together and if we can help out, we should! 

I have personally seen CAC become a company of tight-knit people (we refer to ourselves as a "work family") who value family, education, people, and the planet!

This year we hope to continue expanding the company and our "work family," give back to the community more, and make the planet a little greener. 

Keep a look out for our new developments in social media including more contests/giveaways, a Pinterest and maybe an Instagram too! We are determined to make 2013 an even more spectacular year than the last!