I Have a Dream

The house cleaning industry unfortunately has a very high turn around rate. This is a result of different factors: people looking for temporary work, the low pay, no benefits, uncertain hours, the physically demanding work taking its toll on your body. As a result, I often find myself reviewing resumes; lots and lots of resumes.

The industry would be happy to simply put a warm body into a customer’s home, but I have higher standards for the people I want to employ. In fact, my critique of one particular resume had someone comment, “you sure do have high standards for house cleaners!” 

You’re damn straight I have high standards for house cleaners! My employees are entering into homes and trusted with the customers’ possessions, memories, health, pets, etc! Whether people want to recognize it or not, cleaning a house is a very personal service. If an applicant doesn’t care enough to capitalize their name on their resume (a basic of elementary school grammar), are they going to care enough to do the best job they can do in someone’s home? Maybe, maybe not, but your resume is going to be the first impression I’m given.

I dream of being part of a house cleaning industry that values more than just a warm body to scrub a toilet. I dream of an industry where the house cleaners are valued members of the service industry and they feel like they are making a contribution to society. I dream of being part of an industry that goes beyond the assumption that even the lowest IQ among us can be handed a manual and thrown into a house. I dream of an industry that looks upon their service as a skill that requires an investment in training and constant continuing education.

And so, I’m trying to rewrite the industry standard. I’m looking for people who show me they care about the details from the first time they make contact with their resume, to their jobs in customers’ homes, to how they take care of their equipment and our office. I’m looking at my own training and asking how can I make this better. I’m looking at my employees and asking what can I do to increase their skills and make them feel like they are a part of something worthwhile and valued; that they are important.  I’m looking at profit margins in a substantially flooded marketplace and wondering what do we have to do to pay these employees justly and convince customers that the price is worth it?

Are my dreams too big?

 

 

 

Responsibility

As mentioned in a previous post, beds that are pushed up against the wall are difficult to make. The other day while cleaning a teenage boy’s room, not only was his bed pushed up against the wall, but his bed was turned around so the headboard was where most people’s feet would be. Not only did I have to try and make his bed with it pushed up against the wall, now I had to figure out if his pillows should go by the headboard or the other way around. I opted for putting the pillows at the headboard.

Frustrated by this disruption of my “groove”, I thought to myself, if he had to make this bed himself every day, I bet he’d put his bed in a more logical position. But that’s just it, he doesn’t have to make his bed; I do.

I see this a lot where we’re called in to clean because none of the kids are made responsible for the upkeep of the house, or their rooms at the very least, and poor Mom gets overwhelmed. So now Mom and Dad are shelling out hundreds of dollars a month to have their home cleaned when there are several able-bodied young adults in the home doing nothing except watching T.V., playing games, or looking at their phones.

Don’t get me wrong, these people pay my bills and for that I’m grateful, but I firmly believe when you’re made responsible for your possessions and your actions, you start to make smarter choices. If however, someone is always there to clean up your messes, what do you learn?

A friend of mine has a step-daughter in her 30’s who continually makes unwise choices that land her in various troubles. She’s definitely old enough to have learned from her mistakes and make smarter choices except, her mother always comes to the rescue.  And instead of learning, the step-daughter goes about her life as usual oblivious that she needs to make changes.

Do you want your kids to be in their 30’s and constantly having you are someone else come to the rescue or do you want your kids to learn from their mistakes and make smarter choices? Do yourself a favor, even if you have me come clean your home, give your kids responsibilities like making their bed. Little things like this will help teach them responsibility and help them to develop better decision making skills for their adult life.

Types of Houses: The Hopeless House

“With the first glimpse of the building, a sense of insufferable gloom pervaded my spirit.” Edgar Allan Poe, “The Fall of the House of Usher”

Houses have energy that you can feel. Some houses feel bright and cheery and some houses feel dark and depressing. Some houses feel calm and serene and other houses feel angry, chaotic, and stressful. I’m going to devote a part of my blog to describe the various vibes houses give off and my experiences in them. This post will talk about the houses I hate to be in the most: The hopeless houses.

I find hopeless houses share some common elements.

1. Hopeless houses are usually dark inside but not always. There are houses that allow for plenty of natural light but still have a shadow hanging over them that gives a feeling of darkness.
2. Clutter – Hopeless houses are usually very cluttered with some bordering on hoarding. Things are often out of place. For example, you might find nail polish or outside tools on the kitchen counter and piles of shoes (50 or more) on the hearth of a fireplace. Many things that are empty and should be thrown away just sit in random places. Stacks of papers collect inches of dust in whatever space is available. Miscellaneous items of clothing appear throughout. Nothing has it’s proper place. There is no sense of order
3. Dirty – Most hopeless homes are dirty. Bathrooms look as though they haven’t been cleaned in years, cobwebs hang off of everything, kitchens are full of dirty pots and pans and piles of dishes. Bags of trash are next to the overflowing trash can. Dust is thicker than you could ever imagine. And this is even after I’ve cleaned on a regular basis.
4. Falling Apart- Many of the hopeless houses I’ve encountered are in need of major repairs. Carpets are ripped and stained, walls are dirty and in need of repair. Broken blinds hang from windows. A lot of these repairs are not huge projects that take a lot of time or money, but the fact that they aren’t done speaks to the overall sense of despair and hopelessness. The people in the home have given up. The words “WHY BOTHER” come to mind.

Why bother? I often wonder why they bother to call me to clean. What work I can do in my limited capacity and time doesn’t seem to make a difference. I feel so helpless and worthless with no sense of accomplishment. Why not spend the money you pay me to make repairs or hire a professional organizer?

I leave feeling frustrated, depressed, and overall icky. I wonder if the bad energy was there before the people or did it move in with the people. A glance around the neighborhood usually provides the answer and all I want to do is get home as quickly as I can and take a sage bath to remove the lingering negativity.

I hate hopeless houses.

 

Make Your Bed!

If you want to change the world, start off by making your bed. William H. McRaven

The bedroom. The place where we go to be relieved of the day’s stresses and renewed in our body and mind through sleep. The bedroom is your sanctuary and should be regarded as such and kept with the same amount of reverence as a church or temple. And what is the focal point of a temple? The altar. And what is the altar of your bedroom? The bed.

When cleaning a bedroom, the first thing a professional house cleaner does is make the bed. No matter how dirty or cluttered your bedroom is, a freshly made bed can make it look clean. (or at least hopeful)

To start the bed making process, use a fitted sheet that fits your mattress tightly. A loose fitted sheet tends to bunch up, leaves wrinkles, and comes undone with a restless sleeper.

Next comes the flat sheet. The instructions below will show you how to achieve those crisp hospital corners that will also help keep your sheets from bunching up and coming undone during the middle of the night.

Now that you’ve laid the foundation of your bed, you can throw on your comforter or bedspread and your pillows. And this is where as a professional house cleaner I’m going to get on my soapbox.

1. Beds with one side pushed against the wall – This makes bed making difficult and the more difficult it is to make your bed, the less likely you are to make your bed. I highly discourage this! I WANT to make your bed and make it look crisp and clean, but I don’t like crawling on people’s beds to tuck sheets down the wall because I feel as though I am treading on personal territory, plus it’s very difficult to achieve a great look while messing up your sheets as I try to scoot off the bed. If your bed is pushed against the wall, please consider rearranging your room so that your bed can be accessed on both sides.
2. Duvet Covers – Duvet covers are a great concept for not having to wash your comforter all the time, but…not only do they cost almost as much as a comforter, but they are a pain in the rear to get on to a comforter and they never lay as neatly as just a comforter.
3. Bed Skirts – Another great idea in theory, but when trying to make a crisp bed, they tend to get in the way, get all “whopper-jawed”, and UGH! Not to mention the amount of dust they collect. It’s my professional recommendation to avoid these.
4. Pillows – Pillow cases do a pretty good job of keeping your pillow clean, but after a while, your pillow does get dirty and starts to smell a little funky. You may not notice it because you’ve become “nose-blind” to it, but a professional house cleaner isn’t in your home that often and trust me, your pillow stinks. PLEASE WASH YOUR PILLOWS! But if your pillow cannot be washed, please buy a new one! PLEASE!
5. More Pillows – Home decor goes through trends and the latest trend seems to be pillows GALORE! Why??!! How many pillows do you actually sleep with? How many decorative pillows do you really need? All you’re going to do is toss them on the ground before you go to bed and you’re not going to want to pick all those pillows back up. Trust me! Do you know how much time I spend trying to figure out how to put 10+ throw pillows back onto a bed in a purposeful, artistic manner? A few pillows looks cozy, too many pillows looks messy. I recommend a maximum of 4 pillows for you and your significant other’s heads and 4 throw pillows. Personally, I don’t use throw pillows because if I’m not going to sleep with it, why have it? Guess that’s the pragmatist in me, plus I don’t like doing more work than I have to.

OK, I’m off of my soap box and back to the original point of this blog…making your bed. Once you have your fitted and flat sheets tightly secured and your comforter and pillows nicely arranged, making your bed in the morning should be as easy as taking your pillows off, pulling up your sheets and smoothing them out, pulling up your comforter and smoothing it out, and laying your pillows on top. 5-10 minutes tops! Then stand in your doorway and look how lovely a freshly made bed is. Think about how nice it will be to slip into those soft sheets and drift off into dreamland. Think about how that simple act made your room feel like the sanctuary it should be. AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH…isn’t that nice?

Now, GO MAKE YOUR BED!

Tips and Tricks: Best Time to Clean Your Bathroom

Did you know that there is a best time to clean your bathroom? YES! Professional house cleaners have been using this trick in their own homes for ages and by doing it at this exact time, you will save yourself hours of cleaning later! So when is the best time to clean your bathroom?

After you use it!

Stop with the moaning and groaning. You knew I was going to say that!

As a kid, my grandmother used to tell me “if you clean as you go, you won’t have a big clean later!” Of course my rebuttal to that was “but then you’re just cleaning all the time!” Boy how I wish I had taken her advice early on instead of waiting until I became a professional house cleaner to see the benefits of this simple and timely advice.  It would have saved  me many hours of cleaning and needless frustration.

But, sometimes you have to learn things the hard way and the hard way for me was cleaning other people’s bathrooms who let things go for weeks, months, years, and sometimes I suspect DECADES! Spending hours in a bathroom trying to remove years worth of lime scale, soap scum, hard water, and mold certainly opened my eyes to how much easier it would be to just keep up with a daily cleaning ritual of a few minutes instead of hours!

Below are the steps I’ve developed for a daily bathroom cleaning ritual that takes less then five minutes and can be used whenever you get your shower or bath. (Which I hope is daily)

• Before you get your shower, take some disinfecting wipes or a cleaning cloth with some cleaner and wipe off the surfaces of your toilet. Don’t forget to wipe down #6 which seems to collect pee from men. (I’ve yet to receive an answer as to how or why that happens) After that, squirt the inside of your toilet with some toilet cleaner or drop in an Efferdent tab or you can make your own toilet fizzies. Let that sit while you get your bath or shower. 
• After you’ve taken your shower and dried off, either use a squeegee to get the water off your glass and tiles, a daily shower cleaner (I like Method’s Daily Shower Cleaner), or take the towel you dried off with and dry all the surfaces of your shower or tub. (Come on! You used it on your CLEAN BODY! It’s not like it’s dirty and you were probably just going to put it into the laundry basket anyway!) By doing this, you will help prevent mold, soap scum, and hard water build up. By the way, soap scum is caused by the paraffin in bar soap. I’d suggest using a liquid soap to prevent this nemesis of house cleaners.
• Go back to your toilet, swish the inside with your toilet brush, and flush. Toilet done!
• After I get dressed, I brush my teeth and fix my hair which leaves toothpaste splatters and hair here and there all over my sink and counter. Keep some mirror cleaner and a cloth under your sink. After you’ve put away all your equipment and products (I keep a basket on my counter,) give your mirror, sink, fixtures, and the counter a squirt with the glass cleaner and wipe. (Honestly, I just use my hand towel since it’s right there and if done immediately, I really don’t need the cleaner)

That’s it! Seriously, that’s all there is to it and it takes less than 5 MINUTES! What’s 5 minutes when it saves you HOURS of cleaning on the weekends when you could be doing something fun. And it gives you the peace of mind knowing your bathroom is clean and guest ready every day!

 

Anyone Can Clean, but Not Everyone is a Good Cleaner

I am a professional house cleaner. However, you might be surprised to learn that I have a major in Anthropology and a minor in Psychology from the top university in Texas.

When people learn about my degree, the first question that is always asked is, “why Anthropology?” The short answer is because that’s what I wanted to do.

When people learn that I clean houses for a living, the next question is, “Why?! You have a degree! You’re so much better than that!”

I put a special emphasis on “that” to convey the tone that implies cleaning homes is a menial occupation reserved for those of low education and socioeconomic status, diminished mental qualities, questionable backgrounds, or unclear immigration status. American society likes to pretend that we are above the “caste system” of third world countries, that we are all equal, and no one has a higher station in society than the others, but subconsciously, that’s not true. We still rank ourselves and others by their socioeconomic status and house cleaners are on the lower rungs of the society.

Having worked in this industry for almost 2 years now, I can say that personnel selection does gravitate towards those of lower education and socioeconomic backgrounds. After all,  the average pay in the industry is not much above minimum wage, and surely even the least educated person can clean a house with minimal training, right? WRONG!

Yes, anyone can clean, but not everyone is a good cleaner. Let me give you some reasons why.

1. Physical Endurance – I’ve interviewed more candidates than I thought could ever be possible, and one of the first questions we ask them is, “do you like to clean?” 99% of the applicants respond with an enthusiastic “YES! I LOVE TO CLEAN!” And if hired, many quit after the first full day of cleaning with the realization that cleaning is very physically demanding. It takes a lot of upper body strength to scrub away layers of hard water build up. It takes a lot of lower body muscle power to haul equipment up and down stairs. Being slightly bent over for extended periods of time while wiping down counters or scrubbing tubs can be quite taxing on the lower back. Washing floors on your hands and knees can be hard on your hands, wrists, knees (even with knee pads), and again, your lower back. Combine that with the need to do things in a quick and efficient manner, it can be exhausting to even those who are already in good shape. It’s not for everyone.
2. Eye for Detail – Most people can spot the obvious stuff; the dust, the floors, ring-around-the-tub, etc. But a really good house cleaner has to be able to go beyond broad strokes and get into the details that only trained professionals or especially particular clients will notice. For example, the top of your shower curtain rod, the underneath of your shower door, that one pesky cobweb hanging underneath your lower cabinets, that grain of sugar that blends in with your granite counter top. If you can’t get as OCD as your client, then you’re probably not going to be a good house cleaner.
3. Customer Service – Like I said earlier, the cleaning industry tends to hire a warm body with that idea that even the stupidest person can learn to clean. Based on that assumption, there’s no shortage of warm bodies out there cleaning and so the market is flooded. To really stand out in this industry, you have to excel at customer service! You have to be able to engage the customer and get to know them, their likes and dislikes, their families, and even their pets. The more you get to know them, the more opportunities you have to customize your customer service and go above and beyond your standardized checklist. These people are allowing you into their homes and giving you their trust with everyone and everything under that roof. If you can’t engage with your customer, or you simply don’t care about the customer, cleaning houses is probably not the job for you.

Now that’s not to say that if you aren’t good in one, or any, of these areas that your skill cannot be developed. I thought I was a decent house cleaner, but I learned to become even better! I run on a regular basis, so I was already in decent physical shape, but I’ve become even stronger! I’m an introvert by nature and shy away from conversations for the most part, but I’ve learned how to engage customers and now find many customers like friendly acquaintances and I enjoy catching up with them when time permits. I really love my job (most days.)

And here I sit, almost 2 years into the industry, writing about my experiences along the way because I think it’s an undervalued and misunderstood industry. (even amongst the industry itself) We aren’t all just under educated, too lazy to get a “real job” people. This is a trade that requires skill, practice, and refinement. We offer a valuable service to many people for many reasons and I hope I can share a glimpse of my world with you.