The global pandemic, Coronavirus, is a hot topic in this day and time. People are frantically buying toilet paper, many are getting laid off or having their hours cut, social distancing has become the norm, and the future is uncertain. While all this madness is occurring, we understand if you’re stressed and can’t seem to find it in you to clean or tidy your home. That’s the last thing you want to worry about right now, right? Fortunately, there are cleaning services out there that you can count on while you work on remaining sane during this time. The question is, how can you choose the best and most trustworthy house cleaner to clean your home?
No worries, we are going to walk you through the practical steps to take in finding the best cleaner, so that you can avoid the worst from happening.
Gather Intel To Hire a Trustworthy House Cleaner
Before you can hire anyone, you need to know who to hire. This is the best way to approach gathering intel, according to Becky Cobrea of Integrity House Cleaning:
- Word of mouth: The best way to find a cleaning service that is trustworthy is through word of mouth. Ask your friends, family, or anyone you trust if they know of a good cleaning person or service that they can recommend.
- Make a list: Do your due diligence and spend some time on Google. Search for cleaning services in your area and create a list of the ones that you deem trustworthy. Don’t worry about doing a deep evaluation of these services just yet. The goal here is to have options to narrow down later on.
- Get in touch with the services on your list: While you’re making your list, be sure to write down their contact information. Reach out to each service via call, text, or email to ask for a pre-screening.
- What do customers have to say?: Not quite confident in how you feel after pre-screening your potential cleaning service? Get on the web and read what others have to say. Reviews and testimonials are the best way to get a second opinion.
Create a Plan
Now that you’ve narrowed down your options to a cleaning service that you feel you can trust, it’s time to create a plan. What you’ll need to do:
- Determine the scope of work: What do you need the cleaner to do for you? How many rooms do you want to be cleaned? What type of cleaning do you need? Have an agreement on the work to be performed. You’ll also want to include deliverables, a timeline, milestones, and possibly reports.
- Determine price: Most services will charge hourly, but it’s a good idea to discuss all residual fees so that you aren’t surprised by any numbers when you receive the bill.
- Discuss the specifics of the project: You’ll want to know how exactly the service is going to approach cleaning your home. Will there one person assigned to clean your home? What cleaning chemicals or products will they be using? Lastly, ask about quality standards. You want to be as transparent as possible.
- Determine the frequency: How often do you need the cleaner to be over?
Meet & Greet
You’ll never truly know the person or company until you meet them in person. This is your chance to make your own judgment before you commit to hiring.
- Schedule an initial interview: You can do this through a phone call or Skype, but it is best to have the interview in person.
- Have the cleaner meet your family: Get to know each other. This is also a good time to talk about each of your needs for cleaning.
- Walk them through the house and explain the specifics: You will see your house differently than the cleaner, so you need to communicate the specifics. This way, the cleaner will do things accordingly and as a result, you’ll be satisfied with the outcome.
- In case you can’t meet: Make a list of priorities for your cleaner to follow along.
Schedule
We’re sure that by now, you’ll have a specific schedule for your cleaner. However, we do want to mention a few points to consider:
- Home access: How will the cleaner enter your home? Will you be present to open the door? Will you be giving them a key? Is there a code? Also include logistics, like what to do if the alarm goes off, for instance.
- Pets: We all love our fur pals, but we wouldn’t want them to get in your cleaner’s way. Unless your pet is great with people, be sure to lock them in a kennel, a room, or have them outside while your cleaner is in your home.
Evaluate
The purpose of an evaluation is so that you and your cleaner can identify if the plan is working smoothly, and how effective your worker is performing. Here’s how you approach evaluation:
- Walkthrough: After your cleaner’s first shift/session, have a walkthrough to see if the cleaner has executed everything that was on your list.
- Give feedback: Your cleaner wants to know what they’ve done right, and what areas they can improve on. Like the fragrance that they’ve used to spray your room? Let them know that! Don’t like where they’ve placed certain items? Let them know that!
- Put it on autopilot: You might have to go through with evaluation a few times before you can feel confident in how things are running with your cleaner. At that point, things can be on autopilot with your cleaner because they know exactly what to do with your home.
Ready to Hire?
We hope you feel more assured in your decision to find a phenomenal house cleaner. The current situation with Coronavirus may lead to some stressful times in your life.
Finding a cleaner who you can trust will lift some weight off your shoulders and promote peace and clarity. After all, our minds are as tidy as the space around us!
At Integrity House Cleaning, our mission is to perform at a professional level while ensuring you a completely trustworthy, reliable, and 100% guaranteed service.
If you have any additional questions for us, don’t hesitate to reach out to us via Facebook messenger, or give us a call at (425) 359-4347. You can also check out our website Integrity House Cleaning for other inquiries.