My sister, Donna, who lives in another town outside our service range, just texted me with this question:
How do you prepare your house for a cleaning service?
It dawned on me that others might like to hear my answer to “how to prepare your house for a cleaner” as it could help them, especially with that first-time-in clean.
First, Clear Those Surfaces To Be Cleaned
Remove clutter from the floor area.
They (my sister’s family) are in the carpet-cleaning business, so I suggested that she prepare the house like they hope to find a client’s home when arriving to perform their services: picking up clothes, books, papers – all the extraneous “stuff” from the floors. In addition, I suggested clearing off counters as much as they felt was practical.
Gather bathroom items into a basket before the cleaning crew arrives.
Something every cleaner (a company or an individual) will appreciate is to have all toiletries, cosmetics, etc. clustered into one or two trays or baskets. The owner often enjoys the added level of organization and finds it easier to keep things from spreading all over their vanity.
Be Accessible But Not In The Way
Another way to prepare your house for a cleaning services is to show the cleaners any fragile or antique items that need special care and those that should be avoided altogether. Great-grandmother’s delicate tea service is best shown behind glass doors if at all possible.
Crate pets or remove them from the area being cleaned for their own safety and comfort.
I also mentioned that they and their dog Beau should try to stay out of the action to help the cleaning crew be most efficient and avoid potential accidents. Many services require that dogs be crated or removed to a designated ‘do not clean’ room to avoid stress on the animal or the staff.
Tips To Avoid “Booby Traps”
After I thought some more, I came up with a few more tips. If any of your fixtures or water taps are fussy (for example, hard to cut off fully or a toilet handle that has to be held down for 5 seconds to flush properly) it would be helpful for them to know that and be shown specifically upon arriving on site.
Another question I often ask of our clients is if there is anything not firmly affixed or just ‘balanced’ in place. If there is, it’s only fair to let your crew know that or remove it yourself to a safe location.
We also ask people to store their jewelry, cash or other valuables out of sight. This is more a matter of prudence than of mistrust.
I told her that many clients, especially for a one-time clean, give the crew a tour first so they can view all the rooms and areas needing to be included and then, most importantly, a walk-through at the end in case there was something the owner had noticed earlier but forgotten to mention and the crew missed it.
Communicate, Communicate, Communicate
If you are a realtor you always hear that “Location, Location, Location” are the first three rules of the market. We find that cleaning requires extensive collaboration and clear communication from both the hiring party and the cleaning service.
I remember spending a HUGE amount of time on one house’s dirty bathrooms, only to find out that the owner really didn’t care much about them but wanted the majority of effort to be made on her kitchen (which was pretty clean to begin with). Live and learn – so now I try to ask more up front and avoid unpleasant surprises for everyone.
Relax while others clean for you.
So to summarize, in order to prepare your house for a cleaning service, you will want to add a few physical tasks as well as some mental reminders to your ‘to-do’ list. Now just relax, sip your coffee and enjoy the experience of getting your house cleaned more thoroughly and in less time than it would take for you to do the same job.
If you enjoyed this article, you may enjoy our article titled “The Scope of Cleaning Services and The Cleaning Cycle.” Want to know more about what we do? Visit our Services page on our website
I really like what you said about communicating, if the service doesn’t know exactly what you want, how can they do it. If you like things to be done a certain way, then make sure the service knows that, so they will be able to do the best job possible for you. Thanks you also for the other tips, I’ll make sure to implement them next time I’m in charge of hiring someone to come clean the offices.
It’s so important to communicate with your service, so they can really know what you want out of the whole thing. If you want them to take special care of one area then you can tell them that. The better you communicate with the service, the more pleased you will end up being with the overall product. http://www.teddyclean.com.au/our-services/commercial-cleaning
Thank you – I would say that communication is one of the biggest challenges for any business, but it is so critical to let teams and homeowners know what is your “normal”, maintenance clean and to distinguish it from Deep cleaning, Model cleaning, Post-Construction cleaning, etc.! Too many folks treat cleaning like it’s a fungible commodity – there really are a lot of variables. Time is money? too true.
Making sure you do a rough cleaning and make sure that things are not too cluttered will really help the cleaning service out. It would be really hard for them to sweep of vacuum if there are clothes or other things all over the ground. I think getting a service every once in a while is really helpful, but you have to make sure you help them help you.
Thanks fir sharing great tips! Keeping your house spic and span is crucial for the better looks of your house as well as for the disease-free health of your family.
I agree that it is important to communicate when having cleaners enter your home. I think that it is always good to make sure expectations are understood by those providing service, especially when it comes to someone entering your house to clean. I have renters in my basement apartment that are to take care of their own cleaning needs, including carpet cleaning. I think it would be good to communicate that reasoning to carpet cleaners so they aren’t puzzled as to why we only want a portion of our house cleaned.
My wife and I are thinking about getting a cleaning service to get ready for a party but we want to make sure we are prepared first. I like that you suggest going over antiques and other items that need special attention. We have a lot of breakables in the house so we’ll have to review these with the cleaners first. Thanks for the tip!
Since my third child was born, I can’t seem to keep my home clean. My husband and I were talking the other day, and we decided we are going to hire a cleaning service to come take care of that for us. When we find the right service, I’ll be sure to be very clear where I want cleaned.