Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with cleaning and cleaningservice

How clean is your house (or small apartment)

kmtiszen — Sun, 17 May 2009 15:36:33 -0800

Can anyone recommend a good one-time maid/cleaning service in Manhattan? I want to give my soon-to-be-for-sale apartment a VERY thorough scrub down before I start showing it to prospective buyers. I was hoping someone could recommend a maid or cleaning service that will do an excellent one-time cleaning. My place is far from a disaster, but I want it to be SPARKLING!

I know some people might not want the secret of their very excellent cleaning person to get out, so if you just want to send me a message, I won't tell a soul!

If you could include a price range, or just a ballpark figure, that would be helpful too!

Thanks!

Recommendations for a Seattle cleaning service

grouse — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 16:29:58 -0800

Looking for a service to clean my Seattle apartment. Any recommendations? General recommendations on how to pick a cleaner or service are welcome. I don't have a vacuum cleaner or a lot of cleaning equipment and chemicals yet, so a service that would bring all of these things would be best for now. But I'd also be happy with recommendations for services or cleaners where I supply the equipment and chemicals, for later on.

The only Seattle recommendation I saw in searching previous AskMes was for Dana's. Of course, I can't use them since I don't have my own equipment yet. I searched on Yelp, but didn't find many services with multiple reviews, and I'm not sure I trust a single anonymous Yelper. I've heard all about the evils of Merrie Maids, so if I go with a service it will probably be a more local one.

If you don't have specific Seattle references, feel free to chime in with general advice. I've read through some of the older general questions on this. If I go with an individual, what is a good way to check references? There is an incredible variance in prices for individuals seen on Craigslist, ranging from $13 to $30/hour, and services go up to $40. I suppose for a service I can check with the BBB.

Cleaning in New York

AnyGuelmann — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 08:11:15 -0800

Please recommend/warn me about cleaning services and independent housekeepers in New York City I need your recommendations and warnings about cleaning companies or persons you have hired before. (Manhattan here.)

Please be as specific as possible! I'm not looking to learn more about the inner workings of the housekeeping industry. I want to hire a person or company with the help of your personal review about their performance. What's the company you hired or the name of the person? Did they clean under the bed? Did they leave the shower mat in place and just cleaned around it? Did they meet your expectations or were not as thorough as you wished? How much did you pay, and was it worth it?

If you're not comfortable posting the phone number of an independent housekeeper, please e-mail it to me. Really, I want to call them.

(I have read the previous threads on housekeeping and cleaning services. I know about big cleaning companies underpaying their employees. I know they are more interested in making stuff look clean (smear furniture polish, rearrange objects) as opposed to actually cleaning everything with real products down to every corner. I know I should look for independent housekeepers because they'll get all the money I pay for the service and I can have more control over what and how things get done - they'll listen to me rather than their management's instructions on how to clean my house. I know that if I have more serious problems (stuff getting broken, lost, stolen) I'm better off dealing with an established company rather than a person. That's not really what my question is about, as I have considered all of this and I'm up for trying either kind of service. I want to know about specific companies/persons and how they performed.)

Cleaning service in Brooklyn?

chinese_fashion — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 16:53:22 -0800

Can any of you recommend a good, reliable cleaning service in Williamsburg/Brooklyn? I share an apartment with a patient, understanding, laid-back guy. He's messy, but I'm a total slob. Lately, he's been tightening up on the cleaning, spurred on by his boyfriend. And I'm having guilt about this -- but am utterly incapable of keeping up. I'm rarely home and when I am, I don't want to spend that time cleaning. I just got a large raise, and I promised to cover maid service costs ... but am not sure where to start. We both rely on our computers and cameras, and I am a little gunshy about getting my laptop jacked, etc.

Can any of you recommend either a good, reputable service that will come to Williamsburg, Brooklyn -- or an independent person? Any cost guidelines, expectations are much appreciated as well.

Thanks!

How can I help my boyfriend face his serious, long-term roach problem?

Anonymous — Mon, 10 Sep 2007 08:05:21 -0800

How can I help my boyfriend face his serious, long-term roach problem? I'm not asking how to kill roaches (which has been well covered here and elsewhere); I'm asking how to help someone get past his denial and shame about a roach problem so he can do something about it.

This is a totally odd situation because this person is otherwise extremely capable, responsible and mature. He holds down a demanding tech job, accomplishes cool things outside his job, and is a stellar partner for me in human terms (not to mention in bed). But he seems to have some hangups that have made for a crazy long-term roach problem.

For example, while he certainly makes enough money to hire a professional cleaning person to give his kitchen and bathroom the deep cleaning they desperately need, he says he is really uncomfortable hiring someone to do what he should be doing. But he won't do it himself. He'll spend a weekend "cleaning" his place, but that doesn't mean scrubbing the kitchen countertops or sealing up the food sources -- it means arranging his large collections of tech stuff in different ways, or carefully designing and building new shelves to display said stuff, or something else unrelated to the roach problem.

As another example, when I'm there and we see the bugs around us (they have at least some presence in every room), he acknowledges them and seems really upset about them, but doesn't want to talk about practical solutions, or says something counterintuitive like "I don't know where they're coming from!" (this while we're sitting 15 feet from a kitchen where every surface of every countertop and appliance is decorated in layers of roach shit). If I say, "They're here because they can find food here," he's back into his loop of shame around cleaning and not wanting someone else to have to do it for him. And if I take any stab at, say, starting to clean out the fridge or washing the dishes myself, he asks me not to because it's seriously nasty in there (which is true) and he wants to do it himself.

The roach problem has been getting slowly, steadily worse for a long time. I feel like every attempt to discuss it rationally touches some strong sensitivity in him that so far I can't get past or understand.

I have my own (bug-free) apartment for him to come visit, which definitely isn't ideal because his place is MUCH quieter, is in a nicer area, has internet, and is an easier commute to his job. But sticking to only my place might be the only solution left for the moment, because I'm just not sleeping in his apartment any more until it gets much better. (I already sleep in his second bedroom when I'm at his place, because it has the fewest roaches of any of his rooms. Actually I was moved to ask this question because at his point, even this second bedroom has enough roaches that I can't sleep there without them occasionally crawling on me.)

I'm not sure where to go with this. I obviously need to communicate more clearly than I have. I have been consistently clear about my opinion that the roaches are in his apartment because they can find food there, and he's been consistently contrite, saying he "needs to clean," but it never happens. When he says he doesn't have time to clean, I bring up the idea of a pro cleaning person and he always says that's not something he can make someone else do. And he doesn't want me doing it (and neither do I, for a number of reasons -- not least because I don't want to be the dutiful girlfriend swooping in to clean up and make everything okay when it's this far past logic). What do you think?

Maids of the non-French variety.

jacquilynne — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 18:11:34 -0800

Recommendations for Cleaners in Toronto? Now that I'm done with the organizing, I want to have my apartment deep cleaned (wall-washing, furniture moving, serious cleaning), with the possibility of recurring service to follow (depending on how I feel about having it cleaned in the first place). My organizer recommended someone, but he was supposed to call me and he hasn't.

I've seen this previous thread but those suggestions don't work for me. I really don't like to make phone calls, so phone calls to random people where I have to convince them that I'm legitimate to get a number for someone else are totally out of the question. And in the case of the Earth Concerns, they just don't come to my area.

So does anyone have any other suggestions on people to clean my house or places to find them? I'd prefer non-agency just because it seems better to have the actual person get the money, but I'm not really all that fussy. My main criteria would be avoiding maid mills like Molly Maid and the like.

Move-out cleaning service in San Diego

moira — Mon, 06 Mar 2006 10:59:20 -0800

Can anybody recommend a house-cleaning service in San Diego? We're moving our of our rental house this month, and would like to have somebody come in and clean the place up. This would involve a lot of work: floors, walls, windows, blinds, cupboards, mirrors, bathrooms, oven and stove, everything.

Is there a service that deals specifically with cleaning move-outs? What can we expect to pay? What other considerations should I take into account?

It's important that whoever cleans our house isn't working slave-labor rates. Any reputable agencies out there?

I realize our other option is to leave the mess for our landlord to deal with, but I'm not comfortable doing that. Besides, I have no idea how much he'd charge. He's aggressive and confrontational, and we prefer to deal with him as little as possible. Cleaning the place ourselves is not a viable option at this time.