Spring Cleaning, Seattle House Cleaning

It must be the time of year because this came up twice today. There was a pile of dishes in two of our regular cleaning clients houses.

It’s more common in one time cleanings that we get a pile of dishes. We don’t mind, it’s quicker just to do the dishes, as explain that you are paying a lot to have your dishes put in the dishwasher.

Actually today it was more than that. In both houses the dish washer needed to be emptied in order for it to be reloaded. In addition there were pots, and pans that needed to be done.

We want to be as cost effective for you as possible. It helps to have the kitchen sink cleared. We all take water from that sink, and rinse our rags. So the kitchen sink is a priority. The sink also needs to be clear in order to start the kitchen cleaning process.

We are happy to do the dishes, we’re happy to be anywhere, I’m just saying that there are other things that are more cost effective for you to have us do.

There are a couple of things that people do to keep pet hair from clumping around in the corners. Some have a small vacuum that the use for the furniture, and unlikely corners. Dyson makes a great hand held vacuum.

The other thing is decorative blankets thrown over furniture, in a tasteful way. We have a client who has a light decorative blanket she got from Ross folded and draped across the back of the couch. She washes it with another light blanket she has next to the window down stairs.

These are a couple of simple things. Other tricks are to use is the Swiffer, the one where you change the throw away paper cleaner head, but you could also use a rag. Another is to vacuum the main part of the house the pets use. If it’s a part of your routine, as it is for some, you can stay ahead of accumulation of pet hair.

A new client we have today did a quick vacuum to discover the carpet upstairs was completely coated with pet hair. The hair had migrated up the stairs over time, and they hadn’t noticed the accumulation.

I’ve also seen pet hair settle onto a chandelier. Over the course of time the hair had become air born and settled, like dust, onto the chains that hold the fixture in place. We thought they were cobwebs.

This is the time of year to kill mildew outside of your home. We post this every year about this time as a reminder.

The best ratio is 25% household bleach to water, but some people go up to 50%. Be careful of your clothes and shoes. Walkways, stairs, decks, even roses (use a lower amount of bleach, maybe 10%) can be cleaned. The trick is to give the bleach time to work.

It takes 30 minutes for bleach to be effective. After the 30 minutes the composition changes, but it’s a good idea to rinse. We also add some, not a lot of laundry detergent, or Natural Orange Cleaner for the wetting agent. Laundry detergent also has a sudsing action that let’s you know where you have been over a large area.

On the flat surfaces you can use a water can. For surfaces like siding, or a fence you can use a pump up garden sprayer.

You can also use a variety of brooms for scrubbing, but you should scrub on the second, or third application. You can do this over the course of the winter. It’s just now that the weather has turned cold the mildew is weaker. You can also do this on a rainy day, but try to find a time of a light sprinkle. This will also keep the bleach solution wetter longer.

You can pressure wash after you have treated the mildew a couple of times, but it’s not necessary.

Last March I posted an article about condo cleaning. The idea kept percolating until August when we started Seattle Condo Cleaning.

Our base rate up to 650 sq ft is $75 for forty five minutes, and $99 per hour for a team of three. $120 for an hour fifteen minutes, and $140 for an hour and a half.

We can also do a team of two for an hour at $75. After the first hour it’s $105 for an hour and a half.

The eye catcher is the $75 rate.

We put on two regular clients who have 500 sq ft condos who pay the $75. It works out for them and us.

We found that by charging a little more for our time, we can charge less in terms of the dollars people spend to have a service. Our company, like many others, have a minimum charge. It costs us money to put people into your home. Our minimum, until August was $90; most people with small places don’t want to spend that.

It seemed like a simple idea. We tried it, and has worked well.

House cleaning is an interesting business. Most people start out figuring that if they charge more than they can be paid working at a regular “job” they are doing well. We started that way. We had our clients we would see every other week. Our sister in law joined us, then an aunt. We grew kind of naturally with family members.

When we hired our first employees is was a disaster. No one cooperated, there were petty arguments about who will do what, and we lost clients. I joined a couple of networking groups for house cleaners to learn what to do, and we settled on an independent contracting system.

We were lucky to find another family owned cleaning business who wanted to expand. We joined forces, in a way. We all have our own clients, then share tasks with each other. The money gets pooled then distributed according to a contract. It’s actually easier than it sounds.

We compete, successfully, with National Franchises. Franchises traditionally use the employee system. In my opinion they lack the motivation that your cleaner can have with you. We also compete with independents who can under cut our pricing. We have the ability to trade off, or coordinate schedules. We offer more resources, and work in teams.

So far we haven’t lost any clients or workers who have branched out on their own. It has taken three years to get to this threshold. From now on, each person who works with us is earning more than if they were to ramp up a separate business plan.

Every year we get a dozen calls from people in a panic. I’m going to recount my standard response to help put people at ease, along with the tips that make the Holidays run smoother.

Your relatives are happy to be anywhere, and are grateful they are at some one else’s house. Decorating well can cover a multitude of sins. A nice table cloth, with stunning center piece can be found at Display, and Costume, or your local super market.

All you have to do is vacuum, and wipe obvious surfaces. Clean the toilets, and wipe the counters in the bathroom the guests will use. Declutter the kitchen. Put stuff in containers, maybe use the containers the decorations come out of. Move stuff to the garage, or closet, rent storage if you need to. Make everything as easy as possible. Don’t clean a bunch of stuff you don’t need.

Focus on where every one will sit. Try to have a flow for the time the people will be there. Clean only what you need to. If you have a concern that people will get lost make a sign for the bathroom. Don’t worry too much about the floors. Mop them to get a layer of grime off, or sweep them, but they are going to get trashed. You can have perfectly clean floors and some one will drop a glass of Coca Cola within two minutes of arrival.

These are some of the basics. We are always here to help. The important thing is that you are all together. Prepare as much as you can, clean as you go, in a few hours it will all be a happy memory.

This week I had the privilege of addressing a group of business men from Japan. They are from a company called SaniKleen in Japan. The cleaning business must be very different in Japan than here. This was a group of very dedicated business people. Even the largest cleaning companies here in the United States are run more loose than other kinds of corporate business structures.

One of the main thoughts that I had is that SaniKleen is actually franchised globally, but in Japan it is a larger corporate structure than in other countries. The market place, I imagine, because I have never been there, is probably pretty fertile. My impression is that the households, and businesses of Japan are very tidy.

They also had questions about commercial cleaning that I recognize are different from the way we do things here. Number one I had a question about hospital cleaning. Well, we do that in house by hospital staff here. A lot of commercial cleaning is done in house here, because for a larger property they pay minimum wage, and take a hit on turn over. Another thing I imagine has to do with employee loyalty in Japan, that we don’t really have here.

The experience was interesting to me because it shows the higher standard that we can have.

We usually wait until after Halloween, but Rite Aid already has the Christmas stuff out so we thought it might be time to get started.

We have eight slots per week set aside on Mondays, Tuesdays, or Wednesdays for holiday specials. We will be charging $90 per hour for a team of three, $135 for an hour, and a half.

Please make arrangements in advance for larger homes over 2400 square feet.

We’ll also be doing the smaller units up to 700 sq ft for $75.

Please allow us the privilege of taking the stress out of your Holidays by being of service to you.

There has been a big debate here in the State of Washington about whether residential house cleaners are employees or independent contractors. Our company started as a contracting company. I personally do work in my trade, whatever that might be, but the bulk of my business is referred out.

A Spring Cleaning started as a house painting company. My particular work was very specific to home renovation. Painting apartments for $225 didn’t interest me. I would refer that work out, keep $25, and be happy to have helped a customer. I was very selective in who I referred. They had to do things my way.

It seems kind of weird, but one of the things about doing things my way is that a property had to be thoroughly cleaned before I would paint it. One Real Estate agent object to paying for the cleaning, and painting. She opted to just have the place cleaned. It worked. Her motto became, “if it’s clean enough some one will buy it.”

I started contracting guys to clean places. That didn’t work well. I tried for about two years to put together a crew of women but didn’t get the residential part of the business. It was a learning curve.

We now have two family operated businesses, in addition to our own, that work with us. They have clients, we have clients, but it gives me a ready supply of workers to do my work of preparing properties for sale.

For about five years our business was by referral only. We worked in the Real Estate community, and if we started doing work for competing agents it was bad for business. There was more than enough work for the small number of people we had at the time. There was my wife, and I, my brother, and sister in law. Some times of the year were really hectic, we couldn’t have done any more.

My wife, and I began advertising in the local newspapers, and also had the listing in the phone book. As we took on new clients they in turn would refer us to others. My brother, and sister in law broke off into their own company, and still use the by referral method of marketing.

There are a couple of great things about by referral marketing. You automatically have a trust base. That is a huge factor in the cleaning business. The second is that it is self sustaining. I’m amazed that my brother in law’s phone rings about as much as ours does. That’s a testament to how well they clean, and take care of customer service.

We are also referred, but don’t solicit for the referrals. It’s a great form of marketing that’s just different from what we do.