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Cleaning and "Time Expectations"

Another question that comes up a lot is "expectations".

I've found that a lot of people seem to think that in two hours we should be able to clean an entire house. Let me make this perfectly clear, that's not possible if you want something to actually be clean. It took you weeks, months, or years to make your mess, it takes time to clean it. Obviously, the bigger the mess, or the deeper it goes, the longer it will take. I've had a single bathroom take me a full 2 hours multiple times. Now, don't get me wrong, I am a fast worker and I don't EVER take a break when I'm cleaning, but some messes just take time and I won't stop till it's as close to perfect as possible.


That includes doing my best to completely eradicate hard water buildup and scale. If you have severe hard water build up, it will take a lot of time. It also includes cleaning walls, baseboards, cabinets, etc. This type of deep cleaning isn't fast. If you're looking for a surface clean, I AM NOT YOUR CLEANER! I find great joy in cleaning. Actually, the messier things are, the more I enjoy it because it's like a before/ and after transformation. But I don't do "surface clean". I scrub till my arms ache, I use a putty knife and razor blade glass scrapers, I use toothbrushes for the nooks and crannies and magic erasers for tough jobs. I do my best to get your space looking as close to "new" as humanly possible. I'm not going for "fastest clean".

I've had several times when the first time out I couldn't get a toilet bowl totally clean, because it takes a lot of cleaner/time/elbow grease, but I've never had one that wouldn't come clean in the end. I recently cleaned a toilet in a house that must be at least 100 years old and I think the toilet in it has to be close to that old. There was a rust mark coming from one of the water valves at the top of the toilet bowl and I really worried I might not be able to get it, but after 3 hours or letting some serious cleaner soak and some major scrubbing, it finally came off. Now, I cleaned the whole house in those same 3 hours, I just came back to the toilet every ten minutes or so, but it takes time!

If you sign up for regular cleanings, you'll find that our first time out is always our slowest cleaning job. This is in part because we're getting used to the flow of your house and trying to guess where things go, etc. But, the biggest thing that takes time is, we are making sure that everything we clean gets as deeply clean as possible. That way next week, or in two weeks, when we return, we can know that it got "deep cleaned" last week, so we can be faster this week and move on to something new. I call this getting your house "base clean" and it generally takes a few weeks. After you get everything you've asked for help with "base clean" things get much faster and more fun. I can come in and rotate what I deep clean each week, and everything stays pretty clean from there on out.

Man, that was a lot of information there. I hope that helps you!

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