Broom Talk: Stories Straight from Your Cleaning Team

Broom Talk: Stories Straight from Your Cleaning Team

Your house cleaner or cleaning service comes to your home or business weekly, monthly, or perhaps daily, and you exchange pleasantries, but how much do you know about their work? When you were hiring a house cleaner, other than checking if they were servicing your city, did you ask about any of their experiences? Here we have some tales straight from the real-life adventures of house cleaners.

 

What Are Some Common Nuisances When it Comes to Cleaning Someone’s Home?

We first asked what the most common thing house cleaners came up against when they were cleaning a home was.

These were the top issues:

  • Logistics
  • Parking
  • Feelings

 

Managing the Timing of the Clean

Over and over, we heard that logistics was a significant issue. For example, the client had set the appointment time, and then, when the cleaning service arrived, there was no one home, and they had no way to enter the home. Alternatively, the client had mistaken the appointment time and yelled when the cleaning service could not accommodate them. Both cases resulted in lost income for the house cleaner or cleaning service, and the client rarely noticed how it affected them.

 

No Accessible Parking Space for House Cleaners

At times, the house cleaner or cleaning service would arrive and discover that there was no parking available at the home. With no way to park, the house cleaner or cleaning service could not access the home and perform the cleaning, which, once again, resulted in lost wages. Therefore, when hiring a house cleaner, people need to consider whether the house cleaner or cleaning service will be able to access the property to clean. It is disheartening to arrive for a job and be unable to complete the task.

 

Emotional Toll of Cleaning Houses

The house cleaners we spoke to said that, over time, the emotional toll began to weigh on them. Tipping was rare, so they got little positive feedback for their hard work. People appeared to take them for granted and didn’t seem to care if something they did resulted in lost wages for the house cleaner or cleaning service. Conversely, the house cleaners love their clients and will go above and beyond for them, time after time, if they are shown the barest amount of appreciation.

 

Buggin’ Out

This story was from a woman whose mother did house cleaning for almost three decades. Her house cleaning client went out and bought plastic bugs. She brought them home and would hide them around the house, behind furniture and in between couch cushions. All of this was a test to make sure that her house cleaning was being done thoroughly.

 

You Were Wearing What?

This story comes to us from a house cleaner who got to see more of her client’s love life than they wanted. Upon arriving to do the regular house cleaning, she heard a commotion above her. Looking up, the house cleaner saw her client’s lover leaping from the second-floor balcony – naked! It was more than she wanted to know about her client’s life. I think tipping became a regular occurrence after that.

 

Are We on The Same Page?

When you think about hiring a house cleaner, there are specific criteria that you want to consider:

  1. Price
  2. Quality
  3. Location

And there might be one more thing you want to consider – the ability to communicate with each other. This next story illustrates exactly why this is important. Non-native English-speaking house cleaners arrived at a client’s home for a first-time house cleaning. In a surprising twist of fate, the client, too, was a non-native English speaker.

Surprised by the house cleaners, it took a bit of gesturing back and forth before he understood why they were there. However, once the message got across, the house cleaners got to work and did a fantastic cleaning job, making his house sparkle from top to bottom. 

Unfortunately, that afternoon, the cleaning service got a call from a frustrated client asking why the house cleaners never arrived at her home for the scheduled cleaning. To the cleaning service’s surprise, the house cleaners had shown up at the wrong house – correct address, wrong town! They still wonder what that first gentleman thought when he received his free, surprise cleaning.

 

We Wish You a Clean Christmas!

This is a story related to tipping. A cleaning service had a team of house cleaners working with a client for years. The client regularly tipped the house cleaners but wanted to surprise them for the winter holidays. So, they asked the cleaning service to send them out on their regularly scheduled day and time.

Upon arriving at the home, the clients met them at the door with smiles, saying, “Happy holidays!” and then sent them home while still paying for the cleaningWhen you know you have hard-working house cleaners, it is vital to recognize and reward them for the job well done.

 

Let’s Go Diving!

This next story is more common among house cleaners and cleaning services than you might imagine. When cleaning, it sometimes happens that valuable documents are swept up and taken out with the garbage inadvertently. So, what is one to do when this happens? You’ve got it – it’s time to dive into the dumpster or garbage can to find it.

Courageous house cleaners never shy away from going headfirst into this task to retrieve whatever valuable item or document may have been discarded. There have been many funny stories of this happening, and house cleaners laughingly swap them. For example, one time, a client thought she threw out her car key, and after searching all the trash, it turned out to be in her van’s ignition!

House cleaners are people, just like everyone else, and have feelings. But, they also are experts in cleaning. If you’re ready for a clean home, call in the professionals. Pure House Cleaning offers house cleaning services in and around Seattle, Bellevue, and Kirkland to help keep your home looking and feeling its best with cleaning that fits your schedule and budget. Check out our website to discover more about our cleaning process, cleaning prices in Seattle, other coverage areas, and more.