A Smarter Clean donates services to cancer patients
The owners of Harbeson-based nontoxic cleaning service A Smarter Clean are doing what they can to help in the fight against cancer.
After Dawn Stewart found out her sister-in-law, 44-year-old Bethany Beach resident Danielle Barthelmess, was diagnosed with breast cancer late last year, she began looking for a way she could help the busy mother of three.
It wasn't until Stewart did a little research that she found Cleaning for a Reason, a national nonprofit organization that partners local cleaning services with women battling cancer. From there, Stewart got her company involved.
With two Smarter Clean house cleanings already completed through Cleaning for A Reason, Barthlemess said the extra help around the house has been a relief during her recovery from a mastectomy.
"It's awesome for me," she said. "Since I had surgery I am not allowed to lift more than 10 pounds. I couldn't bend or reach over."
Keeping the house clean without help was out of the question, and now, after a professional cleaning using nontoxic products, Barthelmess said she's confident cleanups will be easier as she heads into chemotherapy.
"From a patient's perspective, the fact that it is antimicrobial helps, because your immune system is down, and you are not being exposed to toxic products," Barthelmess said.
Stewart, who has agreed to donate company time to work with Cleaning For A Reason, says the outreach goes far beyond her own family. Cleaning services that donate time are assigned to work with two women within their service area who are coping with cancer, for a total of 16 hours of cleaning.
Stewart said she provides these services once a month, and each client prioritizes what they would like to have cleaned. Each person also chooses whether they would prefer one person cleaning for four hours, or two cleaners, reducing the time to two hours.
Stewart said her company also provides a free application of EcoSeal, a nontoxic, antimicrobial solution A Smarter Clean uses to clean and coat porous surfaces to keep them disinfected and easy to clean in the future.
"What we have kills germs on contact and keeps on killing them," Stewart said. "Bleach takes such a long sit time to work and is so dangerous."
Although Cleaning for a Reason is a national outreach, Stewart said her business is one of only three cleaning services in lower Delaware that is participating. She hopes more cleaners will join the alliance.
A Smarter Clean offers nontoxic, low-moisture carpet cleaning, dry vapor steam cleaning for furniture and carpet protection, floor sealing, sanitization and EcoSeal surface protection. Services are available for regular home cleanings, pre-sale real estate cleans, janitorial services and post-construction cleanups. Call 302-841-1063 or go to www.asmarterclean.com for more information.
For more information about Cleaning for a Reason, go to www.cleaningforareason.org.
