r/housekeeping

My (31F) house is messy, like bad messy clutter, not a single uncovered surface, even the floor. Not quite hoarder but bad nonetheless. Bad bout of depression after a life event made me fall into not keeping house anymore.

I decided I need help with a fresh start and I am hiring a home cleaning/organizing company, two people will be here for 5.5 hours to clean and sort things, they aren’t gonna be able to finish in that time but here’s to hoping how much they get done.

So my questions to those of you who have this kind of job:

- How should I prepare? Their website says to do nothing cleaning wise to prepare of course, but what’s etiquette like?

- Should I at least clean the bathroom so they have a non-horror bathroom to use?

- What do I do while they’re here?

- Can I offer they put music on Spotify on my tv (good sound system) or is that weird?

- Is it ok to get some bottled gatorades and donuts to offer them while they’re here?

- They will have lunch here. Should I like, clean the fridge and microwave incase they wanna use it?

- And should I go looking for awkward things and getting rid of them (condom wrappers hidden behind the couch, sex toys etc) to not weird them out or is dealing with that kind of thing normal to them?

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Basically, you go in to do a general clean, but sometimes there's things like the toothbrush pots/cups/holders that look filthy, the soap dish needing cleaned, the dish that hold the toothpaste, the shaving razors etc do you get me?

Will you clean these things every time you do a general clean, or every now and again, or you don't clean at all?

In my house, I make sure it's cleaned on a weekly basis, so I tend to clean whenever I see this in a client's house. But I notice some people are quite messy, and I am not sure if this is something considered part of the general clean package.

Thoughts?

Hello, I’ve never hired a housekeeping service but I have some tasks that (for me) are very difficult. Would it be appropriate to hire for things such as cleaning all the blinds in the house, washing down the walls, cleaning all the cabinets, etc. Of course, I understand that something like this would need to be spaced out over multiple days (it took me a couple of weeks to clean all the blinds last time, for example). Is this something that a service would do?

The one I see a lot is people loading their dirty dishes into the dishwasher without rinsing it first. I have a client who eats eggs everyday. He will put his egg dishes straight to the dishwasher making the glasses smell like farts.

What kind of monster enjoys glasses that smell like farts?

EDIT: I’m surprised this blew up like it did. I had a long day and was just making a light hearted observation. It’s funny to see all the people debating whether to scrape and rinse or not. That is the true question at hand. Do your dishes how you want. You can scrape, you can rinse you can do them in the creek for all I care. Egg dishes however need to be rinsed and I will die on that hill. Next time you’re making those sunny side up eggs and all that yolk is stuck to your fork and plate rinse them for the love of dishes without an egg smell. Nothing will ruin a cup of coffee for me like taking a sip and smelling the egg still in the cup. The heat cooks that smell into your dishes. That is my rant.

Stay strong fellow housekeepers

Hi and thank you so much in advance. I have been doing this a long time, and feel pretty confident. However, I made a mistake I think. I did a walk-through, and quoted them. I did not realize how bad their walls were even though I feel like I eyed everything pretty well. You know how some cat owners will push the litter boxes against the walls, and sometime the cats will get their poo on the walls from sitting on the edge? I think that is what happened. But I'm gonna have to make a pass at it through a few visits because it's.. substantial. Normally, I try to avoid anyone with that situation (no judgment, just not for me/my scope). I should have charged more and I should have probably just declined it. But's it's also a friend of a friend and so I felt more obligated I guess for lack off a better word. I'm continually working on trying to be more stern. 1) any other housekeepers- can you make me feel a little better. Do you ever miss the mark on something even after years of experience? 2) any suggestions for getting this off the walls? Thanks in advance.

Hi!

I'm potentially buying a house soon! While I'm waiting on paperwork to be physically mailed to me, I'm trying to prep to do lists for a move. Would it be silly to hire a cleaner to do a deep clean before I even start moving in? This would be a private sale between family, so I'm not expecting them to get professional cleaners like a real estate agent might a normal seller. So, I guess, would it be overkill to hire cleaners for a pretty well kept home that's been emptied before moving my own things in?

Thanks!

Edit: Thanks for all the advice everyone!

Hey everyone. I’m new to professional house keeping and recently got hired by this couple three days a week for 4hours each day . On the first two day, I basically did a deep cleaning of the home because it was in pretty bad shape. I let them know the repairs and maintenance issues. After that, I’ve just been doing the basics and am organizing deep cleaning project here and there so I’m not deep cleaning the whole house in one go. For the first few weeks things went really smoothly. When I came in, dishes were contained to the kitchen, laundry in and/or around the laundry bins. The general mess was contained. But recently there has been a shift. For the last week or so, I’ve been finding dishes all over the apartment and the kitchen has been such a mess. They cook and leave everything there for me to sort and clean like left over food and condiments, spices etc. They aren’t even bothering to take the dishes to the kitchen. And laundry is now all over the apartment. It takes me 30-45 minutes extra minutes to consolidate the mess before I can clean the home since they expect the dishes and laundry to be washed dried folded and put away before I leave. I’ve been rushing to get everything done in a timely manner because the last time I stayed 30 minutes later than the scheduled time and I was told “extra time is not in the budget”. But they often add on requests. They started off small but have now become unmanageable.

New client enquiry looking for a cleaner one day a week, looking for 6-7h, all materials and equipment provided.
2 bedroom 2 bathroom apartment, they wanted cleaning, includes everything: changing the bed, do washing, cleaning the fridge, doors, dusting, mopping the floors, cleaning the windows, cleaning the kitchen, two bathrooms,
cleaning the glass doors and mirrors, indoors and outdoors, vacuuming indoors and outdoors on the verandah. Has two dogs

I told her my packages and what’s included and said looking forward to hearing from her. She flatly said “Do not bother, that’s a ripoff”
I didn’t even reply, I was cut from that message.

I do packages, I’m a qualified educator of 8 plus years, 3 yrs in home care and also a mum of two kids.
My packages are home care, hybrid mother’s help, housekeeping.
I have 1 other client with 3 kids and she’s fine with my housekeeping packages and rate.

For housekeeping I charge $50 but that’s the normal rate for Sydney, Australia sole traders, it’s $50 and above.

My packages are:
Home care: social support, domestic assistance, meal prep, wellbeing check-ins, transportation.

Mother’s help: light cleaning, bottle prep/sanitising, laundry, emotional support, respite for parents.

Housekeeping: general cleaning, washing laundry, sort, fold, put away, unpack dishwasher, linens, maintenance cleaning.

Where I work this department is lacking and I need more hours so I was recommended to clean the offices once a week. I’ve done residential but never offices. It’s a venue with at least 1 main office and 6 sales/small offices as well. 4 total bathrooms and probably the 2 stairwells + elevator. I want to do well as I care for the place, so any tips is great!

I hope this is the right place to past this. I’m contemplating hiring cleaners to do a deep clean of my house. I’ve been having some health issues and have “lost control” of the house. I’ve never hired cleaners before. No kids, no pets. What is reasonable to expect from a deep clean? I’ve already de-cluttered. Thank you!