Hiring a good house cleaning service means a lot if you plan to outsource this kind of activity; it should be done in case you need more time to do what you have to do (work, family, etc). I took a really important decision when I decided to do this a few years ago in San Diego. After realizing that I managed to get rid of the whole housekeeping maintenance of my shoulders and could concentrate on other more important things I had to do, my friends kindly asked me to write a small guide about how to hire professional house cleaning services and save your precious and valuable time. Back then, immediately after making this decision I had no clue how important this was, but in the long run I managed to understand that time is what matters most and when you are ready to outsource tasks like house cleaning, gardening, lawn care, etc… it’s very important that you don’t hesitate and actually do it. So, this is the main reason for this post here on my San Diego house cleaning blog. I want to publish several steps that I followed when I first hired a maid that still works around my house and does a great job. It’s not expensive to have someone help you, if you know how to do it. In fact, I was so successful in my decision that the lady (the maid – Margareta) that I’m talking about decided to quit her job and work full time here at my house, even after we moved from San Diego. Now how do you call that – family relocation with employees?
So, it won’t be very long, here are several tip for you to be aware of when hiring a house cleaning service:
The premier thing to take into consideration, like a bunch of other things which Americans do, is checking if what you are about to do is insured. You need to make sure that the actual process of cleaning your house has insurance. If it does, you have green to move forward and take care of the rest of the aspects which are also very important. So, step 1 = insurance. Make sure it exists, for the safety of your house’s belongings and for the security of the person (maid, contractor, janitor) or the whole crew that works in your house.
Next, if you have financial troubles, make sure you are hiring some regular cleaning maid and not so big fancy cleaning companies that require an additional 20% in cost just for the well known name of their brand. The thing here is that besides the cost, signing a contract with such a big cleaning agency would meant that they mind send you different janitors every day of the week. I’m not sure that most people would agree with something like this. Usually, people get attached one to another and instead of supervising the maid every time she does something you can spend several hours one day explaining what do you want from their cleaning services and that’s all. Unfortunately, with bigger cleaning companies something like this is likely to be possible, that’s why I suggest that you avoid them and try to search for your appropriate maid, that charges a regular price somewhere on craigslist.org for example.
The third thing is to check the reputation of the janitorial company/service or the maid that you are hiring. I understand that sometimes this might be difficult to do when you just moved to a town or city where you have no friends or people you know. However, you can always Google the name of their company and see what other people are saying and if they liked it or not. A good and responsible company will never let bad reviews appear and even if they do its managers are going to make everything possible for the number of good ones to dominate the number of bad ones. Do you understand what I am talking about here? So, if the company that you decided to hire has a pretty good reputation and they offer accessible services at affordable prices, it means you are good to go and may select it and hire one of their cleaning specialists for taking care of things in and outside your house. So, once more, point number three = search for reviews and testimonials on their services.
The next step when you hire a house cleanings service is to make sure that what they offer is really professionally done and if their employees are really trustworthy. Do not go for a service that lures everyone in with their cheap prices, which after all might not be that cheap. You have to be assured that you are going to be satisfied by their services, because I guess this is the most important aspect of any house cleaning contract that you’ll be signing in your life. Most of the things that are too cheap are not quit good and most good services are not that cheap. Remember this once and for all. When you see the best prices in any market you should instantly become a skeptic and think about danger and some kind of catch going on. Study their activities carefully before buying something. So, how do you really find out if a house cleaning company is trustworthy or not before hiring? Well, pretty simple. As mentioned in step three, always looking for references and recommendations when possible! Sites like Yelp, Google and Yahoo Answers can be of great help if you know how to properly use them.
The last step is to make sure that the house cleaning service that you are about to hire works with natural green products (eco friendly products for house cleaning) and that they won’t come in your house with tons of chemical based solutions which can bring various types of allergies to you and your family. This is very important if you know that someone in your family can easily be affected by strong chemicals used to wash the toilet or to clean the bathroom. Anyways, using green products is what most companies to these days so you won’t have a problem. Just mention that you prefer eco friendly solutions for cleaning your house or apartment and if they are a really serious service they will certainly find ways to take care of what you asked. Most natural green products available nowadays aren’t that expensive and cost approximately the same as old traditional chemical based one. However, using them contributes to the protection of the whole surrounding environment and the health of your family as well.
So, whenever you decide to hire a house cleaning service, make sure that you follow the above mentioned five steps if you really want to find someone you can trust, who provide quality services and who are worthy of the money that you will pay them. Does this sound fair? The maid I met when trying to find someone to help me with my house cleaning in San Diego was located using the above mentioned steps so I don’t see why you can fail if following them.
Eveline
San Diego Cleaning Blog
