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! :)

Just cleaning stuff well for me. I’ve had a couple of one off “deep cleans” and it never looks any different to my basic clean I do myself
Although everyone says my house is always nice so maybe I’m just cleaner than I think?!

Turn up and leave on time
Give as much notice as possible if you can't make it
Say if you think you've been asked to do too much and agree what can be dropped
Get the areas that you tackle spotlessly clean, don't do a quick wipe.
Be polite and reasonably cheerful
Only answer your phone for something important, and be as quick as possible
Be nice to the pets
Don't lose the key

Oh - from your earlier post - I really don't want my towels or toilet roll folding in a particular way. I don't want to pretend I'm in a hotel, just in a clean ordinary house.

I’d want them to be happy to put clothes away and tidy. I had a cleaner who wouldn’t clean the toilet. I didn’t ask her back. Cleaners who do the full amount of time are desirable and don’t finish 5 or 10 minutes early.

No ‘quick wipes’

It would annoy me that you left early.

I think it's absolutely fine to use your phone while cleaning, I couldn't care less if you was chatting to your mates the whole time as long as the house was clean

Didnt think about that, as long as earphones on, i have had music blasting without earphones.

That would be unacceptable to me

Would it be better to then on the longer weeks charge you for the extra 10 minutes? And then on the shorter weeks charge you 5/10 minutes less? Sometimes it is difficult to be exactly to the time when cleaning as I do different things each week as I have the basic clean then a few deep clean tasks on top which always vary, it can also change the time depending on how much I have to tidy before, some weeks there could be washing up to do some weeks not for example. I don’t think my clients mind, they know I am not taking the mick as I said it’s 5/10 minutes here or there and quite often I overstay by 10/15 minutes so it all levels out and if it goes over 15 minutes I message and reduce the money. Generally my clients are around anyway. One of my current cleans is having building work done so some of the house is inaccessible, I am finishing 30 mins early because of this ( I have asked if there is anything specific they would like done in the extra time they said no - I factor in deep cleaning stuff to my time normally) so I’ve been leaving each week 30 minutes less however they still keep insisting on paying me for the normal amount. I like to think we have a good relationship and they would say if they were not happy.

You need to be aware that they might be unhappy but not saying so. I would not be happy with you finishing half an hour early for weeks unless you’d specifically said to me that you were doing that for four weeks because of the building work but will do an extra 2 hours without charge when the work was finished to balance it out,

I’ve cleaned and always thought it was a bit odc to have cleaning slippers. So I used to use microfibre slippers over shoes. They are cheap so wear and wash with a fresh pair for every house. They are great for mopping with actually I use them at home now. Obviously microplastics feel like more of an issue now though so depends on how you feel about that.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Hesrisy-Washable-Mop-Slippers-Microfiber/dp/B09P4RWJCH/ref=asc_df_B09P4RWJCH?mcid=824cf532f0383e1fa558c32424d861f3&hvocijid=449919111579748748-B09P4RWJCH-&hvexpln=74&tag=googshopuk-21&linkCode=df0&hvadid=696285193871&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=449919111579748748&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=m&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=1006886&hvtargid=pla-2281435176658&psc=1&gad_source=1

Thank you for replying - you make an interesting point about not wanting grime etc to build up over time. It's defo something to consider when making a timetable for each individual client.

You mentioned about sofa cushions being karate chopped... would you expect a cleaner to hoover the entire sofa - so under the big main cushions (not just the decorative ones), turn them over etc?

Thank you for replying, it's really great to get the perspective of someone doing the cleaning!

Do you tend to suss out what needs doing each visit yourself or did you agree a checklist/schedule when you first met your clients?

That’s right, again, it’s not an every week job to pop the seat cushions off and hoover under them, but if it’s never done, that’s not ideal either.
This is in the context of a house where we have some one in for seven hours a week though, so that there’s time for all of the irregular jobs. If I was asking you to do that in three hours, you could tell me to jog on!

Re music/earphones, my cleaner uses my Google and blasts 90's dance 😆

I am usually not home.

Good communication from the first contact
Turning up on time and staying for the whole time booked
Not bringing children or their dog!
Thorough cleaning, not cutting corners
Cleaner not to smell of stale smoke or BO
Clearing surfaces to dust/polish and not dusting around what's there
Bringing "inside" footwear to change into
Using equipment I provide, not their own manky vacuum/mop
To use different sprays/fluids for different purposes

I'd think all the above were basic/simple reasonable requests, nothing special.

mine is agency but goes the extra mile…. U stacks the dishwasher, changes sheets if I’ve taken them off, makes kids beds if we’ve been in a rush and put pajamas on pillows etc. just little things that you really appreciate

Yes for me it’s a cleaner who sees what’s needed and remembers what she’s recently done.

Im not bothered if house isn’t all done each week. But I would like them to think ‘I did a deep clean of oven last week, il do the fridge this week’. Or they do other hidden stuff like down inside radiators one week, and inside a kitchen drawer another.

keeping to schedule whenever possible. We actually tried a few cleaners to help when Ds was a baby, and was flexible and said they could choose any day and any time, just wanted a fixed time. And they never came the same day or time more than once. We stopped having a cleaner as it was easier to do ourselves seeing they were so unreliable (3 different cleaners!)

Reliability. And doing a good job every time.

Clean the important stuff. I don’t want to have to ask everytime that the shower tiles get a scrub instead of dusting the top shelf. Don’t just clean the easily accessible surfaces each time, as other PP’s have mentioned, have a rota for the less regular jobs.

On that topic, don’t completely rearrange my shelves when you do dust, just lift, dust/clean, and replace, and try not to break all of my stuff. If you snap the top of a lightbulb off when cleaning it aggressively, either leave them grubby or go in gently next time.

Same with my new taps in the kitchen and bathroom - if you’re cleaning them robustly and they start to get a small wobble on them, don’t carry on each time until they’re barely functional anymore, or until your client has to ask you to stop, and don’t scrub furiously at wooden floors unless you’re certain that it won’t leave an obvious patch.

I couldn’t care less if you leave 10 mins early this time and stay 10 mins the next - if I had the time to fanny on changing the payment for £3, I probably wouldn’t need a cleaner - nor if you chat on your phone or listen to music, as long as a decent job is done each time.

Effective vetting / DBS if you are in my home and see a credit card I want to know you are not going to take it / clone it.

Insurance. In case you burn my house down or break a bone on my property.

Don't accidentally shut my cat in a kitchen cupboard.

I'd rather pay for a set job rather than a number of hours.

A discount if you want to clean at the start of the week.

No smoking in the house, I don't think this is a problem these days but as a child my mum's cleaner smoked and she used to put her used dog ends in my bedroom bin.

When I house shared we decided to ask our landlord to provide a cleaner for the communal areas and we would pay more rent.

So an option to just do one room or just a couple of rooms.

The main thing is that they should do what you ask without eye rolling etc. Ideally also to be sufficiently pro active that if they have done everything in the time they can then look at doing something extra. eg when we were away on holiday mine used the extra time to take everything out of the kitchen cupboards, clean the cupboards and put everything back.

Also - if you want to be able to chat on your phone get bluetooth ear buds or something - my housekeeper chats to her sister whilst doing the ironing but as it is hands free its just like me doing it whilst talking to DH - ie not a problem.

Actually cleaning properly, so when you finish a room check it quickly. Also doing extras now and then. Every cleaner I've had spends less and less time, which I have no issue with as long as everything is done (usually starts with 2.5hrs, then often barely 1), but what inevitable happens is they get worse and worse and start to miss things. Sadly this has happened with every cleaner I've had.