Housecleaning 101

When I visit a home to find out how we can help someone with their cleaning needs, I will usually ask “how can we help you?”.  I may need to change my approach because often the response is “Well….I want my house cleaned”.  As simple and obvious as it may sound, there are actually a lot of variations of types of cleanings, types of houses, types of people and their specific needs.  For example, a single gentleman living alone, no pets, may want the very basics and with little frequency.  “Just do my floors and clean the bathrooms”.  My next visit may be someone who wants a very detailed cleaning, more often and with lots of instructions. Some may not even know what they are looking for, but just know they need HELP.  

We have to take into consideration that some people may LIKE or WANT to do certain things, like dusting their prize collection of knick knacks, figurines, glass vases or statues.  It’s important that a cleaning crew knows the specific needs and wants of each individual person we serve.  Specific instruction as to how they want a surface or room cleaned is valuable. The customer should feel confident that there will not be damage and that the surface, such as a high quality wood floor or a special type of kitchen counter is being properly cleaned and treated with care. This is their home, it’s personal.  Very few services out there are as personal as someone coming into your home, on a regular basis, being around your children, pets and touching your stuff.

Giving up a job such as house cleaning is sometimes difficult to someone who has taken pride for many years in the work they have done themselves to make their house a home.  It’s uncomfortable to admit to someone or themselves that they need a little help, unlike all the years before. With that in mind, a cleaning crew needs to be aware and place importance on the requests and desires of the customer.
So, what are the basics?  A good cleaning of the bathrooms including toilets, counters, sinks, showers, tubs, glass doors, mirrors, light fixtures and floors. In the kitchen, all the outside surfaces, counters, sinks, outside of appliances, stove top, and inside the microwave. In the living areas and bedrooms of the house, dusting of the furniture and cleaning the floors.

How about the deeper stuff? Along with all of the above, someone may want all the fans cleaned, the baseboards scrubbed, the light fixtures cleaned and shined, the cabinets oiled, the blinds cleaned, the inside of the oven and the refrigerator cleaned, the pot shelves dusted.  How about the tops of those kitchen cabinets!

Regardless of the depth and instruction of the particular job, the company that does that job needs to understand the customer, understand the instructions, genuinely care about the home they are going in to and take pride in the work they do. 

 
Wishing everyone a wonderful Summer!

Get Your Home Ready For Spring

This is the time of year that we start thinking about warmer weather.  There are things that need to be done to prepare your home for the upcoming Spring and Summer.  Spring and Fall are optimum times during the year to take care of several semiannual tasks around the house.

The outside of your home is where you will be spending much of your time as the weather continues to warm up and the leaves start to come back.  Clear gutters and downspouts of debris and leaves that have collected throughout the year.  Consider some new landscape projects, tree planting, designing the garden you’ve always wanted, adding a deck or adding rock landscape.  It’s time to start planning these projects and preparing the ground, clearing out old plants, bushes, trees and weeds to make way for your outdoor dream yard.

Don’t forget the top of your house that protects everything inside.  Inspect the roof for loose, broken or missing shingles or tiles.  You may want to have a professional roofer do an inspection so that you are confident that you are ready for the summer monsoon season.  If you have a wood burning fireplace, this is a good time to have the chimney swept and checked for excessive soot, leaves, bird nests etc.

Windows, windows, windows!  How else to enjoy the outdoors while inside than to have beautiful sparkling clean windows.  Make sure that the window cleaning includes cleaning out the tracks and cleaning the screens.  Look up high and down low. Other interior spring cleaning tasks would include cleaning the fans and light fixtures, getting up and getting all the dust off of those high pot shelves and cleaning doors and door frames. Down low would be cleaning under beds, couches and scrubbing those baseboards that collect so much dust.

Lastly, but very importantly, would be to test all of your emergency systems including fire and smoke alarms and carbon monoxide detectors.  Replace batteries and make sure all systems are clean, charged and in working order.

Hire professionals that are bonded, insured and businesses that are locally owned.  They can make sure the jobs are done correctly and safely, and you can feel good that you are contributing to the health of our Quad City area economy.

We here are Maid to Order hope you have a beautiful and clean spring!!
www.prescottmaidtoorder.com
Prescott Arizona
Prescott Valley Arizona
928-899-8518