posted July 26, 2005 11:32 PM         

A Clean House cleaning services
*Professional & Exceptional*
Home Detailing/Cleaning

Laura (***) ***-****
Danielle (***) ***-****
a_clean_house@comcast.net
~Everybody wants "A Clean House"

That's our business cards look like. The cards look much tidier. They are centered, adn the vacuum is much smaller (naturally).

posted July 27, 2005 09:56 AM         

Congrats and be blessed with lots of business!

Angela

------------------
Scorpio/Leo/Leo

posted July 27, 2005 10:15 AM         

......it cracks me up how most people I know run around and pick-up before the housekeepers come, haha

posted July 27, 2005 08:23 PM         

Noreen,
Those are my favorite clients. There are many who don't seem to care who sees how they live.... yucky

posted July 28, 2005 02:17 PM         

My hubby and I make a point to save the big mess dinners for when we know our housekeeper is coming the following morning. IS that gross? We did pay her quite well for an independent person. $120 per week & sometimes she's only here for 4-5 hours, which is about 25-30$ an hour.. in fact I spoiled this woman ROTTEN~ she nannied for us at one point when my dear daughter was a baby.

Anyway, we are in the process of trying to find someone else now. I had to fire my last one, who was with us for 6+ years. We were so attached. I'm still sad thinking about it ...

May I ask.. do you work in teams or are you independent? The reason I ask is because every service I call, they work in teams and charge $25 per person (half of which I believe goes to the agency). We tried out one 2 person team for 2 weeks in a row and decided we need to let them go because they're SUCK.. they actually left thier filthy cleaning rag on my daughters bathtoys.

posted August 03, 2005 11:00 PM         

Working for this other company... it really makes me mad. I don't make much money, and its an hourly rate... so if the extra yucky mess takes an hour to clean... I make less than 10 bucks. So... yeah. I get irked. I'll make comments under my breath about laziness and living in filth. There are certain things I absolutely REFUSE to do... such as clean up pet accidents/on purposes ( ) (or any other disgusting bodily fluids/functions), I do not tidy/organize (unless it is for a person I feel actually needs someone to perform these tasks for them.)

Basically, I refuse to do those nasty disgusting things for people they should be ashamed of asking someone else to do for them.

This standard is acceptable for the company I am currently working for, and intend on expanding on it for my own company. There are several homes the other company gladly cleans that I would personally refuse service.

If I felt a client was taking advantage of the situation and leaving bigger and bigger messes behind, I would raise their rate with each increase in mess. Business is business. Fair is fair.

(BTW~ If I had cleaners, having been a cleaner, I would never leave my home a mess for them to deal with. It just makes everything feel disorganized, and honestly... its a little disrespectful.)

Sorry that you got such a rotten clean. I can imagine how irritating that can be. Cleaners aren't cheap. I think you're paying for a service. Since you're paying for the service, it is expected the service will be better than what you would do for yourself.

Thoroughness is very important. Ask for references from clients. Stress your desire for thrououghness... be that nit picky client. If you're paying them to do it, they damn well better do it right!

posted August 05, 2005 03:01 AM         

I'm so thrilled. I just got two more new clients today. I had to call in *sick* for tomorrow. I really have to quit... but I'm nervous about the stable income thing. If I keep calling in *sick*, I'm not really going to have to worry about quitting.. hehe... she'll just fire my @ss!

Anyhoo... my business license just came in the mail today (finally!)

posted August 05, 2005 09:20 PM         

25 per hour seems incredibly high to me anyway, but I'm wondering what the cleaners actually get from that $25. Do they get half that money?

I'm considering placing want ad for a housekeeper and pay them $15 per hour cash and guarantee 10 hours per week.

I know you've lived here LS, so do you think my plan is unreasonable for So Cal, $15 per hour cash?

posted August 06, 2005 11:28 AM         

Oh... lovely*,

I also wanted to say that housekeepers are conditioned to move quickly and methodically (if trained properly). My partner and I can clean your average two story, 3 bed, 2.5 bath suburban home in about an hour and a half. That's kitchen, bathrooms, dusting... everything. We are very thorough. If we took 2 hours, we could throw in blinds and woodwork. The kitchen or master bath typically take 30-45 minutes depending on size and filth. If they're pretty clean to begin with, it takes much less time. (The kitchen and master take the longest. I like to knock them out first, then move on to the easy work.)

When all you do is clean houses all day long, you get pretty quick. The order in which you do things makes a huge difference in time.

posted August 06, 2005 02:41 PM         

when they clean the bathroom sinks, you can see the soap scum on the chrome ring around the drain. that sould be wiped down too. It's the little things that make a house feel clean. Again, our house is new and I want to keep it that way. It's not like we live in filth at all, but we do get dusty here so thats a big peave of mine.

When the sun shines through the windows you can see streaks too. They are only responsible for two sets of french doors, the rest of them, either we do or pay extra for them to do. Again, I buy special foaming glass cleaning (Sprayway) to prevent streaks from happening. So I asked them if they were using thier cleaning rags and they said yes. I told them they have to use paper towels or a clean cloth and they don't believe me because the streaks are still there this week. its like they use the same rag for everything.

Also, I specifically asked them not to use that purple fabuloso in my house (its that cheap cleaning product).. and i caught one of the women spraying the stuff on my travertine floors and wiping it away with a rag. HELLOOOO.. i showed them what to use on the floors, but they were taking short cuts. Who ever heard of a cleaning service not using mops and a bucket of water?

By the way, all of the specifics were discussed before we agreed on what i would pay them. So they knew what my expectations were.

All that being said, i just fired them this morning.