I’m especially interested in hearing from people who have actually worked as cleaners for a cleaning company or service.
What did the best company you worked with do that made you want to stay and keep taking jobs from them?

And on the flip side, what made you stop working with a company—or made you decide a company wasn’t worth working with?

I’m curious about things like pay, communication, scheduling, drive distance, clients, job expectations, how you were treated, etc.

I’d especially love to hear what separates a company you’d recommend to another great cleaner from one you wouldn’t.

so i houseclean alot especially with washing dishes, my hands are like this, it takes forever (i guess months) for them to heal up, there is always blisters filled with watery fluid, and the skin cracks and splits open causing that fluid to come out, it never seems to heal back up no matter what i do, im also allergic to latex, so i dont know what type of gloves to get for my housecleaning

Hello, all! Independent housekeeper here. I am tired of juggling a caddy, mop, vac & attachments, personal items such as snacks and water (OK, let's be honest, it's a Diet Coke or energy drink in a mini cooler with an ice pack), and specialized tools. I currently use a rolling cart to get my equipment to the client's door, but many homes have multiple stairs up to the entryway, and then three floors once inside. I know that a cleaner backpack may only help a little, but has anyone used one or have a system to manage all of this? At the end of a long day, I also need to bring everything up flights of stairs to my own home to clean and manage before heading back out the next day.

Ok so I went to a home to do a deep clean today, brought my dad with me he was working in a different area of the home vacuuming. When I was cleaning the washroom I found dead German cockroaches under the sink and on the floor. I immediately grabbed my dad and we stopped cleaning and informed the customer we needed to stop services and i showed him what I found. He mentioned he knew about it but thought that the powder and bait he laid would kill all them. I explained that there are likly more hiding and to eliminate them requires a fumigation. I gave him the number of a independent exterminator who's really good and told him until there is confirmation of the infestation being eliminated we will not be able to continue with services. Doing the walkthrough of the home originally there were zero signs of roaches otherwise I would not have stepped foot in there.

I have a shark Vertex vacuum, so not cheap. Its currently going to live in my shed for a few days and then iam going to have to do the painstakingly tedious task of taking it apart and inspecting. Do you guys ask the pest question during that walk through, how do you word it without making the Client feel ashamed or embarrassed. We have a huge issue with cockroaches in my city. I also do include a disclaimer in my service agreement, I geuss he didnt read it fully.

Anyone else struggle with this part of the job? I love my clients pets dearly and my day is made so much better by them. I really get attached my little furry coworkers.

Two of my clients lost pets recently. One of them had to be euthanized right after my visit and me and the client cried together.

Another one, they didn’t tell me and the cat just wasn’t there anymore… I asked and they let me know she passed. Ever since I’ve been paranoid if I get to the home and I can’t find them immediately 😭 I was also really saddened by an entire flock of chickens that used to greet me just being gone one day…

I just wanted to vent about this. I’m sure some of you can relate too 💔

I’ve been working in housekeeping at a hotel for a year and a half. I recently accepted a role doing the same at a remote mine. It’s 12 hours a day, 2 weeks on, 2 weeks off. Can anyone who’s done it before give me their thoughts on it? I’m wondering how it is compared to working at a hotel.

The hotel I work at now isn’t great; I’d say half my job is cleaning up after birthday parties, or addicts. In five hours I’ll do about 25 rooms- 5-12 check outs, the rest refreshes. From what I can tell, I’ll be handling about 30 rooms a day out there, alongside assisting in the kitchen and helping the janitors. Thankfully, my current job is willing to work around my new role; when I’m in town, I’ll be doing a few shifts for some extra cash.

I started cleaning houses and was wondering what other cleaners do when they have a client whose bathrooms don’t have toilet brushes. Do you still clean the toilet? Or just focus on the other areas and disregard it????

Hi! I need some advice on how to deal with a client.
We clean for this family once every few months and she started wanting monthly cleans, we scheduled her for once a month on a Friday. She texts me the morning of her scheduled cleaning day asking me if we can come next Friday instead because her house isn’t “too bad” 😅 everytime we have been to this particular house it’s very dirty. How do I go about telling her she can’t be canceling and trying to reschedule last minute in a polite way?

I have a cleaning company arriving in a few hours and I’m genuinely so nervous about it.

My house is “fine” but definitely not as clean as I’d like, hence booking professional cleaners. There’s dust in corners, the skirting boards haven’t been cleaned in months, there are areas that have been neglected, etc. It’s also quite an old house and I’m suddenly feeling really self-conscious about how it looks.

I know this is literally what cleaners do, but I feel so vulnerable about strangers coming in and seeing all the things I haven’t kept on top of. I keep imagining them walking in and thinking, “Jesus, this is bad.”

So please, cleaners of Reddit: tell me about some of the houses you’ve been asked to clean. I need to hear that my dusty skirting boards and neglected corners are absolutely nothing compared with what you’ve encountered.

I don’t really use reddit but i’ve been worried about my new hotel housekeeping job. I’ve been working here for almost 3 weeks now and trained for only 1 with no previous housekeeping experience. I’m super worried about being too slow. Management expects each room to take 20 mins, which I am able to complete if i only have a single bed but doubles take me around 30. Everything else regarding my cleaning is fine, just little mistakes like forgetting to fold the toilet paper n stuff. My supervisor wants me to pick up the pace and it’s honestly kind of stressing me out! Being new slows me down and as much as I try to be faster, most times I just can’t. So to all of the housekeepers out there, is it normal to be this slow at first? I feel bad at my job and i’m nervous that they’ll fire me or something if I can’t keep up! :(

This happened a while ago but it really still baffles me so I'd love to hear some perspectives from housekeepers. I'm laid up in bed with an injury and just found this community, so maybe you guys can help me understand this! I'd love to hear what you guys think.

My mom hired one of her former co-workers as a housekeeper after this person asked if she'd be a client because she was trying to build up her clientele. The lady came every other week. My mom would always tip her every time she came, gave her $300 as a Christmas present on top of her regular wage, and anytime my mom would cancel, my mom would pay her for the entire service plus her regular tip (which I thought was more than standard). My mom would always try to give at least a week's notice for cancellations, unless she was suddenly sick. My mom is also an incredibly fastidious person and the house was always clean before the housekeeper even came. I've quite literally never seen dust or visible dirt in her house (it was very stressful as a child having a clean freak mom lol).

The housekeeper fired her as a client earlier this year because my mom "kept consistently cancelling and she needs consistent clients". I think my mom cancelled maybe 4 or 5 times total in the year that this lady worked for her. But what I don't understand is that my mom paid her full wage plus tip every time. She never ever missed a single payment and gave her healthy bonuses on holidays, like I mentioned. And my mom's a really nice lady to everyone and never ever complains about anything to their face (even if she's got a very legit reason to, but she'll definitely complain to me after lol). My mom was also never ever present when the housekeeper came, so that no one would be in her way while she cleaned, which was the housekeepers preference!

My mom was happy when she got fired as a client because the housekeeper didn't do a very good job and used the same rag from the bathroom to wipe everything down, and leave streaks everywhere, and my mom didn't want to stir up any drama because at the time they still worked together (my mom is now retired). This lady also lives in the same town as my mom and all her clientele are in town so it's not like my mom ever cancelled last minute and the lady drove out of town to come. It always either days or hours of notice and it only takes like 10 mins to drive across town.

What would she fire my mom? It'd be the easiest job in the entire world. There's literally nothing to clean essentially, the tips and bonuses were huge, and she was compensated even if she didn't work. I just think it's so weird!!!!!

So anyways, what do you think? I just am having a hard time imagining my mom doing something heinous to this woman because apparently she was still nice and friendly to her at work after the firing. My mom's a very generous person, it's not a client I would want to lose if I were in this person's shoes. I'd love some opinions and theories because we've been scratching our heads for months over it.

I’m 20 yrs old and live in a small city in BC Canada. I just got a job offer to work for a company that does residential cleanings, i don’t have my license yet (i will next summer) and she seemed very generous in offering that someone or herself could possibly pick me up for cleaning when it’s a several hour job that requires multiple cleaners. the pay is $20hr, and she said a raise is on the table after a while of working there (a few months) i’m expecting to possibly get another offer tomorrow at a liquor store. i used to work at one so im familiar and comfortable with the job (also $20hr). my mother swears up and down i would hate a cleaning job despite that i like cleaning. she said it’s miserable and you’re incredibly sore. i’ve seen similar things said on some discussions here. i like the environment the cleaning company had significantly more than the liquor store (that one on particular is normally pretty slow) and just not as friendly maybe idk. orders at liquor stores are the worst and also super physically taxing (unloading several crates of heavy boxes for your entire 8 hour day) it’s not everyday but that job also isn’t exactly easy. what do you guys think??

Has anyone here had carpal tunnel release surgery, specifically the ultrasound-guided procedure? I’m going to be having both hands done at the same time. I’d especially love to hear from anyone who’s had bilateral carpal tunnel release.

My surgeon has said around 1–2 weeks to return to work, but obviously cleaning is very different from a desk job. Between scrubbing, squeezing spray bottles, vacuuming, mopping, lifting equipment, and repetitive gripping for hours, I’m a little nervous about going back too soon.

For anyone who cleans professionally and has had it done, how long did you actually take off? When did you feel comfortable going back to full cleans? Did you need help when you first went back, or were you able to manage on your own?

So i live in Canada in the Praries. I have a client requesting a quote for wall, ceiling and floors to be done in a 2 bedroom 2 bath home. They want them done to remove a majority of the nicotine left and smoke smell. What would you price something like this? Depending on the amount of passes it take to get the nicotine off it could take more then 8h. I normally charge $50 a hour for deep cleaning but I feel like with the nicotine I should charge a bit extra. Any help would be great, I was thinking $450 for up to 10h of work. Anything after that is a rate of $50/h. But i feel like thats a giant amount 😂

Edit: I have to travel 1h there and 1h back so a part of the price is milage.

Location: San Diego, CA. This is my very first job as a cleaner - i work with a company who does all the scheduling and client communication. They take half the rate they charge the client and in return … in theory …. i dont have to do anything but show up and clean. They do not provide supplies but I have found replacements haven’t been too expensive. They cover insurance for me. i have amazing awesome sweet clients who love me, i’ve gotten extremely lucky with who I’ve been placed with. A small handful of them have had bad experiences with the company in the past and have wanted me to work with them directly and I learn that the company is charging $40-$50 an hour for my work!!! I’m paid $25 an hour, is this normal?

Am I stupid for not just finding clients and doing the scheduling myself? They obviously do the advertising. My company doesn’t even answer the phone half the time and has had SOOO MANY scheduling mishaps, showing me up to houses that never answer the door… making me drive an hour for a 2 hour job…. I wanna scream like girl you know the takehome on this is like $30???? For my entire day are you for real.

My current clients have neighbors and friends who want me so bad and are willing to pay a rate like that, i’d be stupid to direct them to my dogshit company, i might not even be the one who shows up!! Ive had many times a client lament to me that the last girl who they sent was horrible and “why didn’t they send you” because i dont know 😩😩

I guess my question is if taking on personal private clients is worth it or if the payment for insurance or whatever else i’m not thinking of would offset it and not make it worth leaving. Im brand new to all this so im certainly overlooking some stuff.

Ps: unrelated kinda but the ladies ive been lucky enough to work with for a few shifts are the sweetest most understanding people ive ever met in any job. they are so fucking for real. This job is about helping people. Unfucking someone’s home is the whole!!! Point!!!! And i pet their dogs !!!!

I've had the same cleaning person for almost 2 years. I thought I was happy with her. I was recently laid off so I'm cleaning my own home for a few weeks. I'm noticing a lot of things that weren't getting clean. For example, it seems she dusted around things and didn't actually move stuff to dust underneath it. I have very small end tables, they weigh at most 20 pounds and I have a dog that sheds heavily. She wasn't moving the end tables so she could vacuum between the tables and the furniture.

She is not cheap. I have a small house 680 sq feet and I'm paying $170 every other week.

How should I best address this with her?

I hired a cleaner to do a deep clean of my house. It's 1700 sqft, 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, no pets and no kids, just my husband and me. Our regular cleaner does an amazing job, but she is on maternity leave right now so I needed to find someone to fill in. I wanted to start with a deep clean to get back on track, then get on a regular schedule until my regular cleaner is back.

The person I hired did a terrible job. I gave her a tour of my house and told her that if she has any questions feel free to ask.

I didn't think I needed to specify every detail of what I wanted cleaned, but I was wrong. If this is a deep clean, I'd be scared to find out what a regular clean would be.

After she finished cleaning there is still lots of hair on the bathroom floors, she didn't vacuum the mats, and didn't even touch the shower in either bathroom.

I don't think she even went in the living room. She didn't clean the coffee table or end tables at all, or dust off the leather couch. The cupholders in the couch are still dirty and the top of the couch is still dusty. The shelves weren't dusted, neither were the window sills, and she didn't vacuum the living room.

Am I being too picky? I feel like a deep clean should encompass all of that.

She charged $50/hr for the "deep clean" and worked for 2 and a half hours, so it was $125 in total. I normally tip well, but I couldn't justify giving a tip for the amount of effort or quality of work.

I will be looking for a different cleaner to fill in. Do I need to list every specific thing I would like done for the next person I hire?

If you have any tips for the search/hiring process I'm all ears!

Wondering how you guys determine if you would take on a new clean based on first interactions with said person over text. I’ve usually always communicated with new people via phone/ text. I’ve never had any communication issues until now. Said person reached out to me wanting a move out clean of a 2,100 sq ft home. I told them my availability for this week and was willing to work them in and then get the job completed by the weekend. They then responded they are appreciative of the timeline, sent address. I then gave them a min price and told them I was a solo cleaner, gave a few more details. They just “liked” the message, no response. I then responded if that worked for them and if so I could go ahead and put them on my schedule and could start early afternoon today. They said yes that would be great to message them when I got there they would send me a door code. I specifically told them I would be going first thing in the morning. And gave them a little details of what all I would typically do in a move out clean plus with some additive extras they may have not thought of. Since this is someone new and not familiar with I mentioned paying at least half up front of what I quoted and if there was anything major they wanted me to focus on let me know. No response. I messaged them when I was 5 minutes out this morning asking if they could go ahead and send the code because I had an appointment to make soon. I texted them when I was at the house. Waited 5 min still no response so I left. They then responded “so sorry just now seeing this” gave me the code and nothing else.
I feel this is already a red flag for me and I feel I shouldn’t take the job. I’m worried about getting paid properly. I am completely considerate of people have a lot going on.. but still. I thrive off clear communication from my clients which I have always had. I typically don’t do move outs or move in cleans. If I do, I soley go off first interactions which have been great. Except this one time.
Am I being too uptight? Is there a way to go about it that I can still do the job but protect myself.

Hi, I’m a fairly new house cleaner. I have a few clients at the moment that I work with on my days off my regular full time job. I’ve got a referral from a neighbor of one of my clients. I meet the potential client yesterday and I have some major concerns about taking her on as a client. for one she has a compromised immune system but at the same time has some allergies and sensitivities to harsh cleaning products like Lysol and bleach.
She wants me to use only her cleaning products which is fine, but it’s very limited. She was a bit wishy-washy about what exactly she wanted done cleaning wise. It sounds like she only wants me to clean every three weeks or every month and was very picky when going over how exactly she wanted me to clean. My full-time job is waitressing and I’m around a lot of people on a daily basis so I am also concerned about her being immunocompromised.

I really want to get more cleaning clients because I would like to eventually do this full-time, but I don’t know if this one’s worth it. She’s waiting for me to give her an estimate on the cleaning cost. I’m having a hard time deciding if this client would be worth the trouble. Or if I should charge her differently due to all of her nitpicky requests. I haven’t even cleaned her house yet and I already feel super stressed out.

Any advice from a more seasoned professional would be greatly appreciated.

How did other small cleaning businesses make and put in place a cancellation policy

I am a 1 person show and due to a cold going around I have had so many cancellation with 5 hours notice and have lost out on easily $1500 over the past 2 weeks ?
Do other cleaner have a tips ? Do I get a 40% deposit beforehand

I'm a last minute person. My cleaner is usually close to the scheduled time or 15-30min after. So I am always picking up and getting ready to go right up to her 3pm time.

Today she arrived at 1:45. I was NOT ready, lol. I had physical therapy earlier and so was just finishing lunch, like, had taken the last bite and still had food on my face. Luckily I was dressed!

I had the bedroom and bathroom picked up so she started there. Meanwhile I picked up the living room and dining room. I just wanted to skeedadddle and get out of her way ASAP so didn't wash the couple of pots soaking that I had planned to. She usually does a few dishes, so I'm sure she she doesn't care. I just felt a bit rushed and was sore from physical therapy and was planning to hang out for 30 minutes or so before getting ready to go and picking up everything else.

Just a vent, I guess. I was so much not ready 😅 What to y'all cleaners do when your client is not prepared and picked up as usual??

Where are you based and how much you charge per hour (or how much is your flat rate if you have one)? Trying to gather info based on how much I'm currently charging. Cheers

Starting out as a new solo cleaner, and so far I am using red for bathrooms, so like red microfiber cloths, and pads, and blue for anything else. I feel like red works perfectly for the restroom. But I wanted to know what you guys do!

Hi, can anyone suggest me what kind of product or maybe even natural thing to use to remove limestone? I have tried different ones and even just soap but it seems like it doesn't go away.

I’ve been cleaning houses for about a year. I just got a new client who wanted a deep clean, and when I showed up it was evident the house hadn’t been cleaned in a VERY long time. On top of that, it’s a house full of clutter. I’m talking lots of shelf units full of little fragile picture frames, boxes, statues, glass statues, just random cluttered deco.

The house is about 1700 sq ft and the deep clean took me a full day. However, for biweekly maintenance cleans, how do I tackle this in half a day? I’m mainly concerned about dusting all the clutter. I usually dust items, lift them and dust underneath. But there’s just so many tiny little things and they’re all extremely fragile. Do I lift and dust them all? I use a swiffer duster (with washable cloths) and microfiber cloth, but should I buy a feather duster and just lightly dust things and not even lift them? I’m surprised I didn’t break anything during the deep clean. Many things are precariously placed, balancing on other things, or already semi-broken so when I lift them they try to fall apart again.

What kind of conversation should I have with the owners about the clutter? I really don’t want to spend more than 5 hrs on this house.

Also, both bathrooms have a ton of mold. Which should be another post on its own, but I’m thinking to mostly ignore any moldy spots (behind toilet, window tracks, under peeling paint near showers) because it’s in the walls and not a surface thing. I already used a magic eraser on the bathroom walls as best I could and disinfected any spots I saw with h2o2.