Maid Brigade In the Media

We were honored to host Hope’s Door for a Friday dedicated to community building. It was a meaningful opportunity for them to share their bilingual services with our staff and to strengthen connections that help build safer homes for all.

There’s a true unsung hero for cleaning lots of things around your home, and you’re probably already using it every day: dish soap. “Dish soap is honestly one of those underrated cleaning heroes we all already have at home,” says Claudia Meneses, CEO & founder of Avanti Green Eco Cleaning.

You might think you’re great at cleaning every inch of your home, ensuring it’s spotless. But unless you’re a pro, there are probably a few areas you miss. If you want to get your home as clean as possible, you might have to expand your typical routine and include some more unexpected spots around your home. So what are you missing? Here are eight surprising things pro cleaners never miss when cleaning a home.

There’s a little thing called “nose blindness,” which happens when you grow so accustomed to a specific smell (including the way your home smells) that you stop noticing it altogether. Your guests, however, experience everything with a fresh nose—and they can pick up on even the subtle scents you have no idea are floating through the air.

In this Real Simple feature, cleaning experts—including Maid Brigade’s own Robin Murphy—explain why one often-ignored dishwasher setting can make a big difference in how clean your dishes actually get.

when it comes to deep cleaning, you might not have the right tools on hand—sometimes it takes a pro to get everything truly spotless. Here, we asked cleaning experts what areas of the home require you to do just that to get the job done right.

Baking soda is something you probably already have in your kitchen. It’s a natural, often inexpensive, pantry staple that helps baked goods rise. It can also be a key ingredient in DIY cleaning solutions, thanks to its ability to cut through grease and absorb stubborn odors. However, while baking soda might seem innocuous, it can actually damage some surfaces.

It always feels like the second you get your floors all clean and shiny, someone tracks in mud or drops a PB&J on it. (Or is that just me?) Fortunately, there are some smart, pro-recommended strategies you can use to minimize the mess and prevent set-in stains.

We asked three professional cleaners which areas of the bathroom people miss most when they clean and what cleaning products they recommend for each spot. Whether it’s your toothbrush holder or your toilet base, these overlooked areas can harbor dust, mold, bacteria, and other buildup without you even realizing. Thankfully, none of these take too much work to clean.

Before the fall festivities begin, and life gets busy with back-to-school plans, sports, and other social obligations, it’s crucial to take some time out for yourself and your home. Here are seven areas you should clean before fall begins—you’ll be glad you did!

Cleaning your home can feel stressful and overwhelming. It can also seem like it takes up your entire day. You start in the kitchen, and before you know it, three hours have passed—and you’ve only made it halfway through the house. Yikes. The good news? There are ways to avoid this and make cleaning feel like less of a marathon endeavor. We asked the pros how they tackle cleaning more efficiently.

It seems like there’s a new cleaning trend on social media every day. Whether it’s a clever decluttering hack, a fresh take on an old method, or a surprisingly effective use for a common product, it’s easy to fall down the CleanTok rabbit hole. Not every trend is worth trying. Some are ineffective, a waste of time, or even dangerous. Here are five cleaning trends that professional cleaners wish you’d stop doing.

While it’s probably not the highlight of your week, cleaning your bathroom is an essential part of home maintenance and personal hygiene. After all, it’s fair to say these are some of the dirtiest spots in most of our homes. So, it’s crucial to do things the right way. From cleaning with the wrong supplies to overlooking certain spots, here are ten common bathroom cleaning mistakes.

Spring has arrived, and it’s time to harness that energy in your own space. Who better to help inspire you than experts in interior design, cleaning, and organization? We interviewed one of each to learn exactly how they prepare their houses for spring, so you can borrow their best tips and bring that same fresh, renewed feeling indoors.

Sure, your bedding might look clean, but is it actually clean? “Even if your bedding looks clean, it’s quietly collecting things you don’t want to sleep in. So, how often should you wash your comforter, and is there any way to stretch the time between cleanings? We asked the experts.

Laundry is an unavoidable chore, and washing towels can feel like a never-ending hassle. They shouldn’t be mixed with other laundry, yet always end up taking longer to dry than lightweight items like T-shirts and activewear. But how often should you really wash them? We asked a cleaning expert and a physician to find out.

Spring cleaning season is finally here. This may mean you’ve already started going through the whole house with giant trash bags, getting rid of everything from that random receipt for a pack of gum to clothing you’ll never wear again. But we ask that you stop your throwing-out spree—at least temporarily—and read ahead.

Want to save money on everyday essentials? Stocking up on cleaning products at Costco is a smart way to cut costs while keeping your home spotless. The warehouse giant offers a vast selection of cleaning supplies, but with so many options, it can be hard to know which ones are worth buying

Everything seems to be more expensive these days, even cleaning products. And if you want to have a spotless house, you probably go through a lot of them. If you’re looking to save money, one of the best ways is to buy cleaning supplies at your local Dollar Tree. It’s also a great place to experiment with new cleaning products without worrying too much about wasting money if you don’t like them.

To find the best reusable paper towels, we tested 20 options in our lab, evaluating them on usage, material, size, and care instructions. The best seven we were left with are worthy of using on all your household messes, both big and small.

We asked cleaning pros to share their list of items you should take care to deep clean before hosting a party. Here’s what they say you shouldn’t skip for sanitary and cleanliness reasons, and to ensure your guests feel comfortable in your home.

According to Robin Murphy of Maid Brigade, it’s crucial to get to the bottom of the scent as soon as you can. “Addressing musty smells in your home is essential not only for maintaining a pleasant and healthy living space but also for the overall maintenance and longevity of your home,” she says.

Fall cleaning doesn’t have to mean a marathon session with a mop. It’s about small, smart moves that make your home feel like a refuge when you’re spending the bulk of your time there.

Maid Brigade is the name people trust in Westchester County for high-quality, eco-friendly housecleaning. The award-winning company is celebrated for its health-conscious practices, customer care, and workplace culture.

Maid Brigade is raising the standard for house cleaning in Westchester—and making it look easy. With nearly 30 years of experience, they’ve earned their reputation for meticulous results, stellar service, and a deep commitment to health and safety.

Maid Brigade is grateful to have been awarded a Best of Westchester award by Westchester Magazine.

A clean home is about more than just appearances. It’s about how it feels. It’s about walking in, breathing a little easier—literally and figuratively—and feeling at peace. And in Westchester County, where families are constantly on the go, that sense of tranquility is priceless. That’s where Maid Brigade comes in.

A clean home is your best defense against winter illnesses. Start by focusing on high-touch surfaces — disinfect doorknobs, light switches, and countertops to stop germs from spreading. Regularly vacuum with a HEPA filter to remove dust and allergens and keep indoor air fresh.

Maid Brigade is the name people trust in Westchester County for high-quality, eco-friendly housecleaning. The company is celebrated for its health-conscious practices, customer care, and award-winning workplace culture. Ranked one of Westchester’s “Best Places to Work,” Maid Brigade ensures hassle-free, top-tier service.

ChirpChirp is not like your typical cleaning service. Yes, it is a cleaning service, but with everything going digital, it offers the ease of scheduling and modifying in your hands, and it’s a subscription service, so you know exactly what you’re getting, how often, and when.

If your oven racks are looking more brown than silver, it’s probably time (or past time) to clean them, and it’s highly likely you have what you need to bring them back to life in your cabinets already. That’s right—you can scrub burnt bits, grease, and baked-on food away with the grit of baking soda.

Dust in your home is inevitable. However, in order to keep its buildup to a minimum, there are several actions that you can take that don’t require too much extra effort.

To help you find the best toilet brushes and bathroom scrubbers for your bathroom, we rigorously tested 16 options from brands like Clorox, OXO, Scrubbing Bubbles, and more in our own bathrooms. These are the five that shine above the rest.

Paper towels are not an inexpensive single-use cleaning tool, they produce a lot of waste, and are not the best choice for cleaning every surface. Made from wood pulp, the fibers can scratch delicate surfaces and leave lint behind. Here are eight things you should never clean with a paper towel, and what cleaning tool you should be using instead.

We’ve all been there: noticing a funky smell in our kitchen and taking out the trash in hopes that it’ll fade, yet the odor remains. Yuck. None of us wants last night’s (or last week’s) leftovers still reeking and tricking us into believing something is rotting in the bin. So, why do trash cans still smell even after taking out the trash?

If you do have a free hour or so, make the most of it by checking off some forgotten but crucial cleaning off your list. Here, two cleaning pros chime in regarding six small tasks that you may have been neglecting but will greatly improve the state of your home

Oven buildup is, unfortunately, inevitable, and the more often you cook, the more it will occur. “As food heats up, the grease, oils, and food bits can splatter or drip onto the oven walls, and over time, these bits harden and turn into tough stains,” Robin Murphy, the chief cleaning officer at Maid Brigade White Plains, says.

Dishcloths are an easy way to curb paper towel use and tackle grime. With a quick swipe and a little elbow grease, your home can transform from messy to squeaky clean. Dishcloths need to be cleaned frequently—but just how frequently?

Baking soda is a versatile, affordable household cleaner that can be helpful in many circumstances. You can use it to clean certain types of pots and pans, remove stains from clothing, clean and deodorize carpet, and even unclog a drain, just to name a few common uses.

If you’ve been wondering how to degrease your floors like a pro, you’re in luck. Here, we’ve compiled some key tips and step-by-step instructions from cleaning experts that will help you tackle this area of your home with extra skill—and say goodbye to even the most stubborn grease stains.

If you’re wondering why your home always has a scent of some sort, it may be because you’ve been partaking in some of the below daily habits without realizing just how detrimental they can be with regard to causing odor.

While having a dishwasher in your kitchen is certainly ultra convenient on a day-to-day basis, not all commonly used cooking items are meant to be cleaned this way—or at least do not belong on the dishwasher’s bottom rack.

However, many curtains sit by drafty windows or even graze the floor, causing them to collect dust and grime over time. Certain materials and styles are also more susceptible to getting dirty. So, how often should you wash your curtains? We tapped two cleaning pros for the answer—getting their insight into which types of curtains need washing and how to make the process easier.

vinyl plank flooring requires care when cleaning to make sure it truly lasts, as using the same cleaners for traditional flooring can cause it to wear. To prevent any cleaning mishaps—and keep your floors in tip-top shape—we tapped two experts for the things you should never use when cleaning vinyl floors.

For most people, the risk of anything bad happening is pretty minimal, and shrinking, fading, or changing the texture of certain fabrics is a real concern, says Robin Murphy, founder of cleaning service Maid Brigade. “When you stop and think about all the hands those clothes have passed through, the chemicals used to keep them wrinkle-free, and even the bacteria that might be lurking…

While it always feels good to clean out your cabinets and closets and dispose of unnecessary items from throughout your home, there are certain products that you cannot simply toss in the trash can. For a variety of reasons, many common household items need to be disposed of much more carefully, generally due to their chemical properties.

When it comes to cleaning supplies, it’s worth going through your collection to see which items can continue being used and which ones need a replacement since they’re worn down. We spoke with two professional cleaning experts who weigh in on these items and more. Below, they speak to best practices that will ensure your home stays as fresh and hygienic as possible.

Steam cleaning in particular is one of the most common ways people opt to refresh their mattresses. However, while it can be done, it may not always be the best option—contrary to popular belief. In general, mattresses are not designed to handle significant amounts of moisture. “Steam can penetrate deep into the layers, and if the mattress does not dry thoroughly, it can lead to mold and mildew growth,”.

Eggshells deserve a promotion in your household. With a little bit of prep to ensure they are clean and sanitized, you can put them to these following and other clever uses. If you’ve hardboiled your eggs at the proper temperature, then you should be good to go with using those eggshells, although you might want to give them a rinse anyway to remove any inner membranes.

Robin Murphy, founder of ChirpChirp Cleaning in White Plains, New York, says a salad spinner is a great alternative to filling up a sink, although she likes this method better for the drying part than the washing. “The centrifugal force is great for wringing out the excess water,” she says, noting that you should spin for 15 to 30 seconds before removing items and laying them flat to dry.

Having an all-in-one cleaning product on hand in your home can prove extremely helpful when trying to address a wide variety of issues all at once. Many people turn to all-purpose cleaner Mr. Clean when tackling their walls, doors, bathtubs, and more, but is it a safe product to use on wooden floors?

Maid Brigade was recently named one of 914Inc. 2024 Best Places to Work. For the Murphy’s, they are as proud of their commitment to personal and professional development, satisfaction and empowerment for their roughly 25-member staff as they are of their work.

Here’s what I’ve learned after almost three decades in other people’s homes: Calm doesn’t come from a mood. It comes from systems. Not candles. Not a sudden personality change. Not waking up early and drinking green juice. The calmest homes I’ve ever been in aren’t always the fanciest.

Here’s an easy, cheap and effective way to clean your grimy shower doors —without a trip to the store. With all due respect to shower curtains, there’s just something about a glass shower door that elevates the otherwise mundane act of bathing to a spa-like experience. That blast of steam when you open the doors, the draft-free oasis when you pull the door shut behind you—sometimes you never want to leave.

As someone who often writes about cleaning and home organization, I’ll admit that I sometimes try to cut corners with my laundry. I’ve “forgotten” to fully separate dark and light clothes, and there are times I’ve packed my washer so full, it’s like I’m daring it to malfunction.

What is the secret to getting a super fluffy comforter? There’s the way to beat the game, at least when it comes to fluffing up blankets and bedding in the dryer: tennis balls. Three clean ones, to be exact.

Effective, affordable and so versatile that you can use it on practically everything in your house? Sign us up! It’s one thing to ask a trusted cleaning professional for their go-to product recommendation. But it’s another thing entirely to reach out to many cleaning professionals and hear the same answer.

Last month, Pantone announced the 2026 Color of the Year, and it sent me on a small but very real side quest. If you’re thinking, Pantone… who? — you’re not alone. Pantone is the company that makes sure when you say “chartreuse,” you don’t end up with someone else’s idea of yellowish-green.

Whether you’re using it to make a shower stall sparkle or to scrub away the stuck grime on a stove, an electric scrubber can be one of your most helpful cleaning tools. Thanks to its motorized cleaning, you’ll use less elbow grease, making the most challenging household chores much easier.

The state of my home would be very different without an electric mop. For as long as I’ve been a mom and a pet owner—that is, almost my entire adult life—time has been at a minimum and mess has been at a maximum. As a result, mopping quickly became one of my least favorite chores.

Not all tile floor cleaners are created equally. From ingredients to scent to type and application, there’s a lot to consider. Plus, not all tiles are created equally either—material matters, making the search all the more overwhelming. Your best bet is to narrow down your options and go with a pH-neutral multi-surface cleaner that can handle everything from porous stone to tough ceramic.

To keep your carpets clean, you want a vacuum that has powerful suction plus a variety of attachments to remove dirt and hair from deep within the pile, as well as from corners and tight spaces. As for how often you should vacuum, Robin Murphy, founder of ChirpChirp Residential Cleaning Services, says, “In areas with heavy foot traffic, vacuuming should be done at least twice a week…

here’s a lot to like about ceramic cookware. Its nontoxic, nonstick surface releases food so easily, and it’s compatible with multiple cooktops. Plus, from a purely aesthetic perspective, ceramic cookware sets tend to just be so beautiful, you’ll want to keep them on your stovetop even when not in use.

Your stainless steel kitchen sink probably gets treated to plenty of soap and water every time you wash your dishes, but that doesn’t mean it’s actually getting clean. And it’s especially not getting clean when you leave those dishes and pans soaking for hours. (No judgment — just saying!).

You’ve been cooking and baking up a storm, and before you know it, your oven really shows it. If you enjoy scrubbing your oven for the arm workout it offers, more power to you! But even professional cleaners would argue that there’s a much better use of your time.

For me, one of the perks of working from home has been being around my dog all day. (He’s my 75-pound furry “assistant.”) But it also comes with one big drawback: I’ve become noseblind to any pet odors. When my husband walks in at the end of the day, I’ll ask, “Does our house smell like a dog?” Most of the time, the answer is no.

When it comes to my 4-year-old pug, Daphne, nothing is off-limits in my home — she’s allowed to sleep in my bed, play and chew bones on my furniture, and rub her face into my rugs when she has an itch. Despite her free rein, I still try to keep my space as clean as possible, and I believe that always starts with addressing the best pet-friendly flooring.

I live in the Northeast, and I am so over winter. The good news is that I have been using all this time indoors to quickly clean and declutter my home, and now I am looking forward to it being warmer. I’ve even promised myself that I would learn to love spring cleaning this year if it meant I would be able to open a window or a door without getting frostbite!

There are plenty of reasons why you may have a buildup of soap scum, a thick layer of sludge that can appear white or dirty, and line areas that are exposed to water, in your bathroom, and not all of them have to do with your cleaning habits. According to Robin Murphy, chief nest officer of ChirpChirp Cleaning, soap scum primarily occurs due to a reaction between soap and the minerals in hard water.

For multiple weeks, my colleagues and I tested both chemical and enzyme-based shower cleaners and considered their effectiveness at removing soap scum and water stains, their scent, and whether or not I had to scrub and do a rinse. I also spoke with cleaning professionals for their recommendations and guidance on how to properly clean showers and tubs.

A good humidifier provides a range of health benefits, such as more moisturized skin, help fighting off allergens and even defense against dry lips and mouth, according to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). If you use the appliance often, then knowing how to clean your humidifier and making sure it stays in good shape is especially important for your health.

The key to keeping a clean and tidy house is to find an arsenal of go-to hacks along the way that allow you to clean smarter, not harder, and while you might think you’re already taking advantage of everything your dishwasher can do for you.

If you’ve been wondering how often you really need to be cleaning your bathroom but were too afraid to ask, we’ve got you covered. We spoke to Robin Murphy, a cleaning expert and the president at Maid Brigade in Westchester, New York, in order to better understand the cleaning frequency required in order to maintain a clean and germ-free bathroom.

In 1996, Robin Murphy was married with a child in day care and seven years into a career at Mastercard in Purchase, where she was director of franchise management. Everything was bustling along, except that she couldn’t find a cleaning service. So she did what born entrepreneurs always do: She met her own needs, quitting her job to become a Maid Brigade franchisee.

The best customer experience in home services often carries a personal touch, and there is nothing more personal than going into someone’s home to provide a service or fix a problem. That’s why the home services industry – encompassing cleaning services, plumbing, electrical, landscaping and lawn care, pest control, HVAC, home improvement, and interior design – faces a unique set of customer experience challenges.

If you dread cleaning your oven and cooktop, you’re not alone. According to research, behind cleaning toilets, the most disliked household chore of all is cleaning the inside of an oven. However, tackling the not-so-popular household chore can be done easily and in under 30 minutes, says cleaning expert and founder of residential cleaning service ChirpChirp, Robin Murphy.

The best hardwood floor cleaners are as gentle as they are hardworking, removing dirt and grime while helping to preserve the wood’s natural grain. When used with a great mop, these cleaners can quickly shine up your floors — without the need for strenuous scrubbing or heavy-duty machinery. Some spray and liquid options make it so easy, you don’t even need to worry about diluting them.

As Maid Brigade celebrates its 20th anniversary this month, owners Robin and Gary Murphy are reflecting on how their business has changed—yet stayed the same. On the one hand, it is now the only green certified cleaning company servicing Westchester, Putnam, Rockland and Fairfield Counties. On the other, the company still follows its original mission: to improve the quality of life of everyone it touches.

Winter is here, and with it comes more time indoors—and all the germs, dust, and clutter that seem to tag along. How do I keep my family healthy and my home a safe, welcoming space during the colder months? The good news? Keeping your home clean and healthy can do wonders not just for physical health but for mental well-being, too. A tidy, fresh space has a way of making everyone feel calmer and more at ease.

Maid Brigade, a cleaning service in Valhalla, is offering the community curbside hospital-grade disinfectant for anyone that needs.