Thinking About Starting a Cleaning Business—What Makes a Cleaner Truly Stand Out?

[RuxpinT]

I'm thinking of starting my own cleaning business, starting off with cleaning homes. For those of you that have a regular cleaner, or have had cleaners in the past, or who have switched between different cleaners... what is it that makes somebody stand out in your opinion?

I understand things such as reliability (not cancelling, turning up on time, sticking to agreed upon time frames etc), are crucial, but what really makes a cleaner stand out to you? Are there certain things that you particularly like to see, little flourishes like folding towels in a certain way, for example? Little things that go beyond your expectations?

Any insights or advice would be greatly appreciated! :)

Wow, she does sound amazing! It must have been so nice coming home after she'd been :) It sounds as though you had her for quite a few hours per week? Or multiple hours per day?

Re laundry a bit of both - she does my laundry/ ironing and puts it away. Clothes that are left lying around she’ll fold or hang and leave on outside of wardrobe.

Re food sometimes she texts me pictures to say keep or not but I’m a bit funny about food and so would rather something be thrown out unnecessarily than have something festering in back of fridge.

I had actually never thought about the cleaner wearing outdoor shoes in the house. We always take our shoes off indoors. So what should the cleaner wear? If she wears slippers that she’s worn in other peoples houses I can’t see that would help. Pool shoes?

Yes definitely headphones is absolutely fine. I have no idea how you could clean for hours without music or podcasts etc! I was talking more about endlessly texting (with noise notifications on!) or chatting to family/kids on the phone. Yes no particular reason you can’t chat and clean with headphones in, but it’s intrusive because I WHF and not a massive house, so it feels like I have more privacy to get on with online work meetings etc (shut away in my office) if the cleaner has headphones in.
I also think if you are at work you can save the hour conversation with your teenage/mother/partner til you get home.

Notice things you haven't had specifically pointed out to you eg cobwebs, empty coffee cup on my desk etc.
Clean the fridge from time to time but don't rearrange my grocery cupboards.

I don’t mind headphones in at all and when she’s ironing I think she watches movies but we have a utility room and she irons in there so even if I’m home it’s not a problem.

she also gives me lists of things I need to buy (cleaning products, bin bags etc).

she cleans bins/ovens/silver. Once I was throwing out a dress because it needed sewing and she said she’d fix it for me. I told her not to worry so she asked if she could keep it. A few months later she showed me a picture of her daughter in law wearing it - she looked much better in it than I did! Now she sews buttons and bits for me

Oh and (not related to current cleaner who doesn't do this), leaving early sometimes is fine, you might have a good reason. But consistently leaving few minutes early but not so early that one feels able to comment is eventually annoying (five minutes this week, eight minutes next week etc, but never ever going the other way and staying a few minutes late).

Above the basics, for me, it would be a cleaner who cleans it like it’s their own house by tracking the things that have been done over time. So for example one week clean the fridge out. One week do the grout on the tiles. One week scrub skirting boards. One week do the oven etc. I have never had a cleaner that can successfully keep on top of the deep cleaning tasks over time and I think this would really set you apart. You could do this by doing the same thing for each client each week on a rolling timetable.
Good luck!

2 1/2 hours 3 times a week. We had her for over 6 years. It was so lovely coming home after she had been. In return we let her use our holiday home each year for a couple of weeks. She always left it spotless. Very sadly she was diagnosed with cancer but at stage 4 and had to give up work immediately She died about 18 months later. I've had cleaners since but no one anywhere near as good.

I think this one is a bit of a subject of debate on here as some cleaners are very adamant that they're there to clean, not tidy... but honestly the major difference between our first and second/current cleaner was that the first was VERY strict on only cleaning. If for example we left a coffee mug on the table she wouldn't wipe down the table top as we should have tidied everything in preparation for her coming round, or if we had accidentally left a pair of worn socks on the bedroom floor the floor wasn't hoovered and mopped. In the end it made me more stressed as I felt I needed to thoroughly tidy before she came - in all honesty I felt like she was adding to my load rather than alleviating it.

Our current cleaner is really flexible and was always happy to pop stuff in the dishwasher/bin/laundry basket etc. Which is not to say we took the piss but as she said herself when I apologised for any mess and thanked her, what really is the difference between moving a cup from table to dishwasher and dusting/wiping etc? She was getting paid the same either way. But yeah, I know this is a real issue for some cleaners but for me this would be a deal breaker if (God forbid) our current cleaner ever leaves!

What a treasure!!

Another here who has no problem with cleaners wearing headphones. The best cleaner we had, brought her headphones and just cracked on. Sadly she moved away.

Most PP have covered it. Sticking to times and not cutting corners over time is a big one for me.

If you ever expand into a cleaning company please monitor your cleaners - both for consistency in their cleans but also their professionalism. I've just ended our clean with our cleaning company due to quite a lot of inconsistency, professionalism and quality of cleans. I've had a cleaner who was supposed to be on a 3 hour clean leave after 35 minutes because she thought she wouldn't get caught. I had to do an emergency stock drop off and left our cleaner with the spare key just in case of emergency. She had just started our 3 hour clean. I returned 40 minutes later to an empty house. Checked out CCTV and she left after 35 minutes. Phoned the company to be told that she had finished. There have been lots of cut corners over the last few weeks too. Especially as they moved to a charge per job rather than charge per hour model. I know quite a few people who use the company that have the same problems and have also terminated their contracts over the past few weeks.

Another big issue for us has been cleaners bringing children with them whilst cleaning (again same company). Whilst I understand childcare can be a nightmare and there are emergencies, bringing your sick child to someone else's home is not on. Especially if said child has a sickness bug. Also one cleaner from our cleaning company brought her excluded teenage son with her, we run a business from home, I do not need a teenage boy larking about in my living room on his phone watching brainrot on YouTube with the sound on whilst I'm trying to take client calls in the home office.

We’ve just had to let our cleaner/company go as they were just too unreliable and inconsistent with poor communication. I appreciate life happens so if there needs to be a week missed, change of cleaner etc to communicate this as far in advance as possible. To have good communication between the company and their cleaners, answering the phone would be a start

If I could create the job spec for future cleaners; To look at objects as 3D and above/below eye line. Where does dust catch on skirting boards, grooves etc. To tell me if they have preferable cleaning products/Cloths as I’ll get them. To do their full allotted time, even if you’re finished your “typical” jobs what could you do as a one off. I had one cleaner who did my oven as she had spare time.

Being able to pay via S/O or bank transfer rather than finding the exact cash each week

Like a previous poster I had a cleaner who explained to me what would be cleaned each week and what bigger jobs would be rotated through the month. I didn’t mind the gap as I knew what was coming and the weekly tasks were the must do’s

I have had two very good cleaners - and three not so good.

I learned a lot about the first two’s families and other clients, but they often kept on working while they talked. If they had time at the end of their standard cleaning, they’d look for something else to do. They both stopped when they moved away: we kept in touch with messages in Christmas and birthday cards.

Among other things, the other three would do things which they shouldn’t but would be obvious to me, like leaving early with jobs not done when I was normally home before their finish time. One brought a friend to help her, and when I came home said she’d never done that before even though my children had been at home when she’d done it the previous week (second week of school holidays, could have been gong on longer than that without my knowing.) If she’d mentioned it in advance I would have been fine with 2 people for an hour rather than one person for two, but she didn’t.

If changing beds, pillows placed with the open ends facing away from the door. My mum was a nurse who trained in a big London hospital in the 50s and they were told to do this!

I wonder if this was because they were always single beds? I always place pillows so the open edge is towards the side of the bed closest to the pillow. In the centre the two closed edges face each other.

This is a really interesting point! Would you have minded though that some tasks (because they take longer e.g. cleaning grout or oven) meant that other, more general tasks didn't get completed that week - so for example, the oven had a really good clean, but this meant that there was less time for a decent clean of the other rooms, so they only got a hoover/surface wipe?

I defo think a rolling timetable of big tasks for each client is a really great idea, and as you say, perhaps quite unique.

I think it's fine not to stay the whole length of time if all of the tasks are complete, depends what the arrangement is. If my cleaner completes the house in 2 hours I still pay for 3, she's worked even harder and faster I am not going to penalise her for that. But if the arrangement is that the person wants 3 hours then that's fine, but I wouldn't expect the cleaner to work super fast just to do endless other things too.
My most important thing I am looking for it is someone to tidy as they go, of course I keep my house tidy but with 2 small children sometimes you walk into a room and need to do a couple mins tidying before cleaning, a bit like having your sister round to help out - she would move things around as needed not just clean around them

I love the small agency that I use. I've had 3 different cleaners for about a year each, they've all been great.

We are on a WhatsApp chat with the agency manager and the cleaner, so arrangements are easy and clear.

I think we ask quite a lot for two hours. I mainly want the floors and sanitaryware plus surfaces done. I ask for extra time for a deeper clean every now and then. Couldn't care less about headphones, crack on.

I once had a trial of a cleaner who prioritised cleaning what she thought was important, not what I wanted, and was quite sniffy about my house. I didn't ask her back.

Oh and paying by bank transfer is bliss.

I dont think any use of mobile is acceptable, unless its an emergency. Its your time and your paying for it

The big thing for me is that if I have a cleaner in twice a week, I don’t want the house to get grubby over the course of the year. So there are lots of jobs that don’t need done every week, but do need done on rotation: skirtings, light switches, windows, hoovering under couches, cleaning towel rails, dusting bookshelves, radiators, top of the fridge, wiping under bins (they’re in a drawer) etc.

It should also be the case that grime doesn’t build up around kitchen taps etc, because they only get a wipe over each week.
I couldn’t care less if the sofa cushions have been karate chopped, I want them hoovered under!

It’s great if they are prepared to fold laundry from the airer, iron etc. I always try to be respectful that they are there to clean, but occasionally when we’re rushing to get out the door, not all cereal bowls make it into the dishwasher, so a bit of give and take is important. I want a wife basically, who would do the stuff I would do if I was home!!

One who cleans under things and moves things to dust. One who cleans behind radiators and skirting boards. One that's thorough in short.

Maybe the best way to get the best out of the cleaner/homeowner relationship is to make a tick list of what's expected every week/month/quarter/season and agree it.

This one might also be controversial but if someone is coming into my home I don’t want them coming when they’re ill. I appreciate that people are reluctant to lose hours but I don’t want someone who is thick with cold streaming eyes sniffling etc in my house for three hours because then we are going to get ill too.

Attention to detail.

I am a cleaner, I just do what I see needs doing as if it was my own house. Sometimes that means changing a bed, folding some washing, sometimes it would be cleaning the fridge, popping into a dry cleaners to get bedding etc. sometimes I can finish 5-10 mins earlier but it balances out as sometimes I end up staying longer if that week I have a deeper clean to do. I also check with the client regularly and always say if there is anything specific please just say. I think my clients are happy, they all say how they appreciated and wouldn’t cope without me and I get my jobs by word of mouth only. I normally just wear socks to my cleaning jobs but there is one that has pets that I do wear my shoes as the floor can be quite hairy however it’s all hard floor (I take shoes off to do upstairs) so it is all hoovered and mopped as I go.

Even for listening to podcasts/music with headphones on?