August Newsletter 2018
Labor Day & Back to SchoolSummer is rapidly leaving us, and we are heading into fall, which means school is starting as well. As a reminder, we will be closed on Monday, September 3rd in celebration of the Labor Day holiday. We will be back open for business on Tuesday the 4th. Since it’s time to get the kids ready for school as well, we wanted to provide a few handy tools to make sure you (and the kids) are ready. For those of you sending your young adults off to college this fall, congratulations. We have a number of clients that have mentioned this to us, so we thought it might be a good time to provide an “off to college” checklist, which can be found here. We also ran across a nice checklist from Good Housekeeping for normal back to school activity, and that can be found here. We hope you have all had a wonderful summer. Also, we would be remiss if we didn’t remind you all that fall in Colorado is gorgeous and looks even better through clean windows. If you haven’t tried our super green, really cool window washing yet, please give Angela a call and mention our fall special! Here’s to a great fall and go Broncos!  The End of PowerPoint?Long before we got into the housecleaning industry, some of us spent some time in corporate America. Not sure about you, but we saw our share of PowerPoint presentations. They weren’t all great, and certainly were not all effective. Then we ran across an article where Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon, has outlawed PowerPoint presentations in favor of a more creative (and effective it seems) approach. Early results of this new “narrative” methodology are promising, and the science behind how we learn and assimilate information best seems to back it up. Visit Inc. here to learn more about this revolutionary approach to presentations.  Colorado EtiquetteThose of you that have been in Colorado for a while (including the few natives that are left) can relate to all the new faces in our state. We have discussed the burgeoning population here quite a few times, and the effect it has on our city. But beyond traffic and overall congestion, we thought it might be a good time to remind everyone about Colorado “etiquette”. The nice folks at 5280 Magazinepublished a fun list in this month’s magazine about how to behave in our fine state. Everything from trail etiquette to little quirky Colorado things are covered, and the full article can be found here, and it’s pretty entertaining. So, for newcomers and long-timers alike, let’s all be kind to one another and enjoy this beautiful place we call home.  What $1M Will Buy you in DenverShort answer? Not as much as it used to. Some fun facts…..the median home price in the Denver metro area was $440k in July. Also, 2.65% of all homes in Denver are valued at $1 million or more. That is good for 10th nationwide. Home inventory dropped again, pushing prices upward in what seems like a recurring theme here. So, if you are curious or have $1 million burning a hole in your pocket, you came to the right place. The Denver Business Journal published a slide show with 46 examples of homes in the $1 million range and it’s impressive. To see those homes and what a million dollars can bring you, visit the DBJ for the full slide show.  Regrets, I’ve Had a FewWe hate regrets. In fact, most of us have likely spent most of our lives trying to not have too many. While we don’t like to look backwards too often, there are some lessons in there for sure. One of the untapped resources in our civilization is the wisdom of our older citizens. They have seen more, done more and have much to share, if asked. The folks at Medium Daily Digest did an exhaustive set of interviews with folks in their 90’s, posing the question, “what do you regret most”. The answers might surprise you, but our favorite quote from the article: “Do you wish you accomplished more?” He responded, “No, I wished I loved more.” The full article can be found here, interesting read for sure.  Monthly Award WinnersPlease join me in congratulating our best performers for July 2018. Our top Cleaning Associates for the month were Ana Solis, Josefina Quinonez, Aurora Dominguez, Jessica Rios and Juana Luna. In the Team Leader ranks, our top Team Leaders were Rosa Chavez and Natalia Olivas. Thanks to all our team members for their hard work, and a special thanks to our award winners! Congrats ladies! 
I hate to see the old buildings torn down. We should be so thankful for the hard work of the preservation societies that fight to guard our city’s history. A recent example is the makeover of Union Station. There really is nothing else like its ambiance in Denver, and the bustle is reminiscent of a much larger and more diverse city. It feels like a city within a city and the station itself is just stunning. What an incredible salute to the glory days of our railroad town. Quite a few of our clients have historic homes, which I praise. And much of the newer architecture is innovative and quite beautiful; a segue into the future of our city. Hopefully the changes will be gentle and not jarring. Supporting whatever efforts are being made to balance past and future is a step toward the gentle, so let’s get on the train! Bee |