Laura Petri Geraldino é naturtal da cidade de Amparo.  Tem 32 anos, formada pela PUC-Campinas em Engenharia Civil, com especialização em Gestão Ambiental pela Unicamp. Laura trabalhou durante 4 anos numa grande empresa multinacional de consultoria ambiental, aonde gerenciou vários importantes projetos de remediação.  

Laura traz para a Clean uma vasta experiência no gerenciamento de projetos, design e implementação de sistemas de remediação e tratamento de efluentes.  O convite para integrar o time da Clean partiu de Paulo Negrão.

Laura espera intensificar a área de projetos, facilitando e organizando o trabalho da equipe de profissionais da Clean.

Bem-vinda Laura!!!

Remember to enter to win the Back To School Package. Contest Ends 12:01 AM PST August 1, 2008.

Over the last couple of months, I have been lusting after the method omop ALL FLOOR CARE KIT at Target. I find myself staring at the lovely compostable bamboo + recycled fiber packaging and drooling over the washable, microfiber mop pad. The price is only $24.99. I’m in dire need of a new mop anyway, so its not like I want to buy this one just because its pretty. (Although, it is pretty.)

See… isn’t that a nice package? Don’t you want one?

Finally, I broke down and brought one home. I’m not sure what made today the day. Maybe it was the employee in the aisle who shared the need for new batteries for her walkie talkie with me while I was lusting over the package or possibly the laundry basket full of school supplies tucked under my right arm. Whatever it was, I started to walk away from the aisle, as I have on the last several visits… but this time, I went back.

Those who do not know me well, may not know that I am a bit anal retentive in regard to cleanliness (and many other areas of life). I want my house clean, tidy and orderly. I want it now. I want it to stay that way. Did I also mention we have five kids in the house and two cats? Needless to say, my sanity just might depend on this mop kit.

Once home, I opened the package (enjoying all the funny quips on the packaging) and prepared for a fabulous floor cleaning. I do not like the floors in my house and I am counting the days (weeks, months, years) until the budget allows for flooring upgrades. Then I will have beautiful, sustainable, easy to care for flooring. Until that day arrives, I will continue to scrub in a valiant attempt to make this linoleum sparkle.

Being a firm believer in team work and teaching kids to help out, I had TeenGirl start out by sweeping the floors. Normally, I would follow the sweeping with the vacuum hose to get all the nooks and crannies that the broom misses. Today, I didn’t worry about that because I have SUPERMOP the microfiber mop pad.

Here’s what I LOVE about this system. I just squeeze the bottle of fabulous yellow liquid (non-toxic, biodegradable, good stuff) all over my floor… then I mop it up. No sinks or buckets of gunky water. No constant rinsing of the dirty, nasty mop. Here’s what I LOVE even more. That little bottle of fabulous yellow liquid… REALLY WORKS. My floors are clean and shiny. I almost even like them today. Did I mention the fabulous yellow liquid smells like GINGER LEMON? No… shame on me. It’s lovely. My suggestion to method? Name this yellow stuff… fabulous yellow liquid.

I also enjoyed being able to remove the pad, rinse it out and then use it to get the dingy corners (off the mop handle)… It worked remarkably well combined with a couple squirts of the fabulous yellow liquid.

The microfiber cloth also managed nicely to pick up any little animal hairs lurking around on the floor and leftover bits the broom hadn’t swept up.

What I’m not so sure about… maneuvering was a bit difficult, especially until the mop pad was fully saturated with liquid. Once everything was all wet, it was much easier to use. I am sure this will get easier as I grow accustomed to this system. At first, I managed to pop the handle off the base, oh about three times.

Also of minor concern, The nifty bamboo + recycled fiber COMPOSTABLE package this kit comes in is in fact compostable, but if you read the fine print, it is “compostable under industrial compost conditions. Appropriate facilities may not exist in your area.” I am wondering what will happen if I merely throw the box over the hill with my food scraps… will it break down? This is when those COMPOST WORMS would come in handy. Wait, do worms eat Bamboo paper?

The kit includes three nifty (but disposable) sweeper dusters. You know, those things Swiffer made famous? Sure, these are corn based instead of the plastic-y ones Swiffer makes. Which means I could throw them into my food scrap/compost pile and eventually they will become dirt. However, they are still disposable. Do we really need anything that is disposable? I think not. How about tossing in an extra microfiber mop pad or even a couple thinner microfiber static cloths that are washable and reusable instead? I use static cloths for dusting, window cleaning and just about anything else you can think of. Why can’t I have compostable/biodegradable one time use products you ask? Thats simple. It takes energy and resources to make stuff (like those sweeper dusters). If I use something once and throw it out (even if it goes back to dirt) I still have to replace it which means more energy and more resources used to make another one. If I can buy something that I can use several hundred times before sending on to its next life, doesn’t that make more sense?

I have been considering the fabulous yellow liquid. My initial thought was that I would use the bottle that came with the kit and then simply use the mop and pad with my own cleaner (combination of water, vinegar, castile soap, sodium carbonate, and lemon or tea tree oil.) After using this fabulous yellow liquid today, I am very tempted to continue its use. It worked GREAT. Maybe I will alternate… use my cleaner daily and use the fabulous yellow liquid for my weekly deep clean.

While at Target today, I also purchased a laundry basket for $1.99. We REALLY needed this little guy. He was cheap… and a super cute green. I carried all my purchases out in the basket. (I only went in to pick up prescriptions and left my tote in the car with my post office packages in it!)  How’s that for double duty?

today has been stressful and i just came home before class to try and get a grip. For one thing i found out the test i took saturday determines whether i can continue here or not - and i didn’t know that. Would i have studied more if i’d known? Certainly would have freaked out more. The other thing is that at the test i think i lost my driver’s license - don’t remember them giving it back to me afterwards. If i don’t have the license and will have to go thru lots to trauma to get it back. Like to say accepted this with calm but the truth is i just came home and ignored the whole thing for 3 hours by watching egyptian pyramid stuff on the history channel.

Do you get credit for not freaking out if you’re determinedly just ignoring a situation? And what’s wrong with me that i can see at least a small upside to everything? I was just thinking, ‘if i lose my job, i can do this every day…’. At least until the cable runs out!